Nicholas Buer has been my brickwall since I learned of his existence. He is my immigrant ancestors, coming from France sometime before 1858. Unfortunately, he died in 1970. Between those years, not much was known about him. Not even the death date. I wrote about this in a previous blog post.
Read The Elusive Nicholas Buer here
This past year, I have finally learned some more about Nicholas Buer and have talked with a family member who gave me some special items. The first piece of information that came to me, came from the most unlikely place: My Aunt Patty's binder. Let me explain.
Years ago, Aunt Patty acquired a ton of family history information from a relative, all on flash drives. She then took the time to print out all the information, organize it, and place it in binders. Information not only goes back many generations but is also up-to-date with descendant information. The information in these binders also has the source from which the information was acquired. I have been working to digitize these binders so the information is preserved. During this process, I just happen to come across a page with information about the Buer Family.
What's strange about this is my Buer family is on my mom's side. Aunt Patty is on my dad's side. So to find information about the Buer family in this binder was not expected. Although, there is a connection. Nicholas Buer married Sophia Spitz, who was the daughter of Florentz Spitz and Caroline Ohl. They also had another child, Caroline Spitz, who married Andreas Fuchs. So that is why the Buer family was mentioned. Sophia and Caroline were sisters.
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| Page from Aunt Patty's Binder |
As you can see, it states that Nicholas Buer was bitten by his own rabid dog and died of rabies. Oh, how painful that must have been! And such a tragedy. Unfortunately, there is no death date given, but only the year. Before I had narrowed it down to around 1870-1874. This information was based on the 1870 census and the fact she was married to George Kochner sometime after that. So we know he died sometime after the 1870 census was conducted in August.
After finding this information, I was renewed with a sense of ambition to track down any possible new information that could have been up online. Since the pandemic had shut down most libraries and historical societies at the time I found this page, that's all I was left with was online research. I rechecked Ancestry and Family Search. And would you believe, I actually found some more information!
First, on Ancestry, I found that the Missouri, Wills and Probate Records, 1766-1988 had been updated, but not transcribed. So I checked for Nicholas Buer's name in the index for the year 1870. Bingo!
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| Missouri, Wills and Probate Records, 1766-1988 Probate Records, 1822-1933; Index, 1869-1945; Author: Missouri. Probate Court (Jefferson County); Probate Place: Jefferson, Missouri Ancestry.com Buer Nicholas Est |
After this, I checked Family Search for more records. Sometimes there are databases available on Family Search that are not available on Ancestry. The database I found was another probate records database dated from 1750-1988. I checked the index for the years 1869-1945 and found him listed again.
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| Missouri Probate Records, 1750-1988 Image 9 of 408 is the index FamilySearch.org Buer Nicholas |
As you can see, there were many pages associated with his estate, so I went through and downloaded each page to review. The probate records state Nicholas Buer died Intestate (no will). The date of the record is 7 Sept 1870. So he died before this date. His wife, Sophia Buer, was made administratrix (Administrator) of his estate until 17 April 1871 when George Kochner, her 2nd husband, was made Administrator of the Estate. Most of the papers were updates to the case as it was necessary. Nicholas Buer's items and real estate had to be sold in order to pay the debts left behind after his death.
As a long shot, I decided to check the mortality schedule for 1870. Mortality Schedules were taken for the years of the censuses. If someone had passed the year of the census, they were recorded on these schedules. Regrettably, I wouldn't find Nicholas on this schedule as it was taken in June of 1870 and Nicholas appears to have passed sometime between August and September of 1870. August from when the actual 1870 Census was conducted and September from the date of the probate record. It was worth checking through.
"My Dad, Francis Buer, states George [Kochner] was an alcoholic and when he died Sophia took over his work building wagons (the steel parts). She was up to see my dad in South Dakota when he was born in 1919 - rode the train by herself. She 'wanted to see that little boy.' Nicholas and Sophia met on the ship from France I am told. Sophia is my Dad's grandmother. "
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| Nicholas Bour (Buer) Image from: Kathryn Rabe |
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| Nicholas Charles Bour (Buer) & Edward Bour (Buer) Sons of Nicholas & Sophia Buer Image from: Kathryn Rabe |
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| Francis Buer (Grandson of Nicholas & Sophia) Grandma & Grandpa (possibly Nicholas Charles Buer & wife Susanna) Image from: Kathryn Rabe |
Obviously, this is not the end of my research on Nicholas Buer. I still have more places to look that are not online. More people to contact. We are not even close to exhausting all resources yet. But every little piece of information found is another key to unlocking more. And I'm excited to keep opening up more doors to see what's behind them.
You've got quite a lot done this year! How wonderful that you were given those super-organized binders, with sources. Wishing you another year of genealogy breakthroughs!
ReplyDeleteThank you Marian! I hope next year is even better for sure. Wishing you a new year of great finds and breaking down brickwalls. And of course pouring over the 1950 census haha! Merry Christmas!
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