The Elusive Nicholas Buer (Update)

     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.

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!

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.

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.

    The most exciting piece of information I found through all this was the cause of death. That really was a shocking find. Looking through the probate records informed me that Notices were placed in the Jefferson County Record (a newspaper for Jefferson County, Missouri) for anyone who had any dealings with Nicholas Buer to contact Sophia Buer for the matters to be settled. It's possible more articles were shared about Nicholas Buer regarding his death. Unfortunately, this newspaper is not available online. It's only available at the Jefferson County Library headquarters, which was closed due to covid. And unless things have changed since I last visited, the newspapers are not indexed. So I will have to page through each newspaper looking for information. So that is on my To-Do list once I am able to get back to the library.
    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. 

    This was not all that I had acquired this past year. I was in contact with a long-lost relative on the Buer side through Ancestry.com. The descendant of Francis Buer, who was the grandson of Nicholas & Sophia Buer, shared with me some information.

"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. "

    But the most exciting things were yet to come. Another descendant of the Buer Family commented on some of my stuff on Ancestry and it led me to something wonderful. PHOTOS! Actual photos of Nicholas Buer and his family. I was overjoyed to find these. So thank you to Kathryn Rabe for providing me with these wonderful treasures.

Nicholas Bour (Buer)
Image from: Kathryn Rabe

Nicholas Charles Bour (Buer) & Edward Bour (Buer)
Sons of Nicholas & Sophia Buer
Image from: Kathryn Rabe

Francis Buer (Grandson of Nicholas & Sophia)
Grandma & Grandpa (possibly Nicholas Charles Buer & wife Susanna)
Image from: Kathryn Rabe

    This is why I tell people to never give up. New information is being added all the time to online trees and databases are being updated as well. Just because you can't find something right this second, it doesn't mean all hope is lost. It just means that someone hasn't opened up a binder or a box or a truck yet that might have photos you've been looking for. Or it means records that were once stored in a basement somewhere just haven't been digitized and uploaded. Give it time. 
    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. 

Keep checking back for more updates!

Brick walls - We all have them

     Brick walls, we all have them. That stubborn, well built, solid brick wall that we just can not break through. We throw sticks, rocks, dynamite, whatever we can get our hands on, but just like with the big, bad wolf, we can not blow that darn thing down. It's frustrating. It's annoying. It's maddening. It makes us throw our hands up in anger and walk away. But, then all of a sudden, a crack appears and we have hope. It's not as permanent as we would like it to believe. So we do our best to chip it away, piece by piece. It may take months or years before we finally see through it, but we make progress.
     I know you are probably asking, "Why are we talking about masonry?" LoL! Because this brick wall I am referring to is our genealogy research. Those illusive ancestors that we just can not get past. I know you have a few of them. I have a few of them. They have literally put up a road block in our research, and we can not walk forward any further. How does this happen? Could be records were destroyed. Could be our ancestor lied about some information. Could be we are looking in the wrong area. Whatever the reason is, it is maddening! Sadly, some mysteries will never be solved. As hard as we try and as much we throw at our brick wall, it may never come down. But that is not always the case. There may be a key out there that just unlocks a hidden door in that brick wall. We must not give up. We must continue our work. We must do a reasonably exhaustive search to eliminate all possible avenues. Don't give up. Keep pushing forward.
     I'd like to share with you some of my brick walls from my tree. Some have been solved, others have not. Some just have a few missing bricks. But I want to share this to encourage you to not give up. With the advances in DNA and records being digitized every day, you may still break through. So here are a few of my brick walls.

Joseph Melchoir Ilg & Margaret Buer's marriage

This was my first brick wall I encountered when I started doing genealogy research back in 2012. I was told Joseph and Margaret were married July 23, 1919. I had this information written in the family datebook along with other pieces of info backing this up. Well you can imagine my surprise, when I found them both in the 1920 census, but they were both still single and living with their own families. I had known they had went to Detroit, Michigan at some point because my grandma was born there. I looked everywhere in St. Louis for their marriage record, but no luck. Then finally with the help from another genealogist, they located the marriage record in Detroit. That makes sense. But what did NOT make sense was the date. The marriage record stated they were married July 23, 1920 - not 1919. Uh oh... that means they were pregnant when they got married since my grandma was born September 9, 1920. So they went away to Detroit to get married and hide the truth. I mean, they never would have expected years down the line, their marriage record would be put online and their great grand daughter would just happen to come across it. Sorry Great grandma and grandpa, but the truth has come out. Oh and they went to great lengths to hide it too. So as you can see this brick wall is solved. The reason it was a brick wall to begin with was they had lied and purposely recorded the date wrong.

Jacob Helfrich & Family
My 3rd great Grandma Maggie Molten had two husbands in her life. One being Jacob Helfrich, her second husband. This information was written in the family date book. Sadly, there was not a lot of details about Jacob Helfrich.

I had no birth date, marriage date, parents, residence, nothing. So tracing him and connecting him to his family was going to be difficult. For four years I was stumped, not knowing how to proceed. He had been killed in an accident according to the date book and he was not buried with Grandma Maggie. Maggie was listed in St. Louis in the 1900 census as being a widow. The last census I had for Maggie before that was the 1880 census where she was still married to her first husband. So that doesn't help. I checked City Directories but found no help there. Then one day, I was looking more closely at Joseph and Margaret Ilg's marriage record (the same couple mentioned above) and one of the witnesses was an Emil Helfrich. Hey, there is a connection! Finally my first tangible piece of evidence that there is a Helfrich attached to my family. So I decided to trace Emil to see where he led. I documented this trail in another blog post: My Helfrich Connection. Long story short, through this marriage record and tracing his line, I was able to reasonably deduct which Helfrich family I was connected to. That brick wall was finally solved.

Nicholas Buer
Ah... the elusive Nicholas Buer. One of my biggest brick walls. I've had this wall since I started my research in 2012. What I did have was very little. I had no birth date nor death date. I had estimates based on Census records. Little by little over the years I have chipped away a few bricks from his wall, but not much. I have not done a completely exhaustive search on him yet. This will take me going to some libraries and historical societies in Jefferson County, Missouri. Maybe one day, I will break through and find him. I know he came from France, but no clue where in France. I can't even begin to trace back there yet until I find everything I can in the US. One day.... I have hope, one day....

Maggie Molten
My biggest and longest brick wall (next to Nicholas Buer), my 3rd great grandma, Maggie Molten. Like Nicholas, I haven't been able to trace her back any farther. But what makes it even more frustrating is she was born in the US. It's not like she came from another

country. She was born in Nashville, Tennessee. And what also makes it frustrating is the fact information was purposefully hidden or lied about. Are you kidding me? How am I supposed to trace you if you aren't going to give me the truth? Well, I've had to glean each record I came across for any hints or leads to help me trace her. Slowly (and painfully) I've been pulling the bricks down, one by one. I still can't find her parents, but I've been filling in gaps from her life, trying to make sense of things. One day, grandma. I will trace you. I've wrote a few blog posts about my journey trying to trace her. Check them out here:
Found it! The Marriage Record for Jacob & Maggie
The Search for Maggie Molten continues...

As you can see, some brick walls have come crumbling down while others still stand tall. Maybe weakened somewhat, but still standing. I'm not giving up. I have hope. One day I will be able to blow these suckers up!

Share some of your own brick walls below. Have you broken them down? Are they being stubborn and not falling? What techniques have you used? I'd love to hear about them.

The Elusive Nicholas Buer

UPDATED! See below--|

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Ever since I began my research on the Buer family, Nicholas C Buer has been my brick wall. I haven't been able to find much on his life, although I have not gone to the county he lived in to research. Most of my research, as of this date, has been limited to Ancestry.com. So what follows is what I currently know. Hopefully I will be able to post an update with more information once I find out more.

I have been able to trace him back to his marriage to Sophia Spitz on 23 May 1858. The record has his name recorded as "Nicholas Boner" and her name as "Sophia Spetes". They were married in Jefferson County by Robert Hunt, a Justice of the Peace. From there, I have them in the 1860 and 1870 Census. The 1860 Census has their last name being "Pour". After a recent conversation with a possible relative, she told me that they used to spell the last name "Buer" as "Bour", so that possibly backs that up. The 1870 Census has them recorded with the last name of Nicholas, instead of Buer. From these records, I know he was born around 1824 in France and he was a blacksmith. Until recently, I had his death range that spanned from 1870-1874. This information was based on his wife, Sophia, getting married to a George Kochner. Now, based on the probate record that was recently made available on Ancestry.com, I know he passed away before 7 Sept 1870 in Jefferson County. (That was the date on the Probate record) That helped narrow it down. So as you can see, my knowledge of his life is limited.

Read the update on the Elusive Nicholas Buer here!