1950 Census - Who Have You Found?

     Everyone is all abuzz over the release of the 1950 US Federal Census. Many of us were up late waiting for the midnight release. I joined Amy Johnson Crow for a release party on YouTube. We were visiting with friends and preparing for the moment the Census was released on the National Archives website. When it finally hit, we all scattered and went searching. Almost like an Easter Egg hunt. You can watch the video below.

Mom, Dad, and Their Parents

    That first night, I only planned on looking up my parents since I had to get up early the next morning for a doctor's appointment. Mom's family, I was able to find them right away thanks to the Enumeration District. I knew where they were living when the census came through so that helped a great deal. 

1950 US Fed Census
Missouri, Gravois - 95-279
National Archives
Wheeler Family

    Mom has given me the information that she was told. She was only a month old when the census came through. Later that year they moved to another location, but that was after the census came through. I wrote about them in previous posts here:

Using Photos to Help Find Addresses

Who Do You Hope To Find?

    Now, Dad's family was more tricky. They were moving around a lot during this time, so there were a couple of places they could have been, and I only had addresses for two of them. While Dad was still alive, he had told me about the places they lived. He had an impeccable memory. The first two places were in Kirkwood that my grandpa built. I had addresses for them and looked them up right away. Nope, they weren't there. Next came the places I DIDN'T have addresses for. Only some details.
    Dad told me after Kirkwood they lived temporarily in Arnold. First at a Gas Station that my Papa was trying to acquire and then at Bridge Inn that doubled as a cafe and Inn. Dad said Papa ran the business while Grandma was the cook for the cafe. Dad said they lived either above the cafe or in one of the buildings on the property. But he couldn't remember where the Bridge Inn was exactly located. I had planned on taking him for a drive around the area to see if that would spark some memory, but he had passed away before I could do that.
    Unfortunately, the deal fell through at Bridge Inn for some reason, dad couldn't remember why, although he was just a kid. Now at this point they were homeless. They ended up moving to their clubhouse on the Meramec River near Eureka. That was yet another location they would have been living when the Census came through. And this was also another location I had no address for. So this was going to be tricky.

    Like I said, I tried Kirkwood first but they weren't there. So the next part was searching in Arnold which was in Jefferson County. I had no address or location of where to look, so I was going to have to rely on the preliminary index that was created from the National Archives. Oh, and am I glad they had that. I did a search in Jefferson County for my Papa's name and it came up. I couldn't believe it! Based on the information given, my Papa was a Cafe Operator and Grandma was a cook. Just like my dad told me. So this must have been for the Bridge Inn. I have now been pouring over maps to try to find the exact location of where the Bridge Inn was located. I know I will be working with my Aunt on this, who was also alive at this time and on the census. So you know I will be writing more about this later.

1950 US Fed Census
Missouri, Rock Township - 50-34
National Archives
Fuchs Family

Great-Grandparents

    I had three sets of Great-Grandparents and one Great-Grandma to look up in this census. Not to mention my husband's family, which we will discuss later.

• Nellie Fuchs
• Robert & Louise Strawhun
• James Benjamin & Pearl Wheeler
• Joseph & Margaret Ilg

    I had addresses listed from all of them, but only one set was questionable. Nellie along with Robert & Louise lived at the same address in Kirkwood for years before and after the 1950 Census so that was an easy find. Joseph & Margaret were living at their location with their daughter (My grandma) before she married my grandpa, and according to records were still living at this address after 1950. But while I had the address, the street couldn't be located on the Census map, so it was a little tricky tracking down that information. But there were right where they were supposed to be.
    The only set I have not found is James Benjamin & Pearl. I had a couple of addresses for them based on sources I had, but they were not living at those addresses; other people were living there. I did a search for them, but St. Louis is a huge area, so that didn't narrow anything down. I know at some point, James Benjamin was put into a nursing home, but don't know when. So they are going to have to wait until the index is more complete.

1950 US Fed Census
Missouri, Kirkwood - 95-75
National Archives
Fuchs Family

1950 US Fed Census
Missouri, Kirkwood - 95-84
National Archives
Strawhun Family

1950 US Fed Census
Missouri, St. Louis - 95-315A
National Archives
Ilg Family

Other Family Members

    Not only did I have Great-Grandparents, I had some 2nd Great-Grandparents to find on my Maternal Grandmother's line. Oma Mae Caldwell and her ex-husband, Edward Buer. Oma lived in her mother's old house, so she was easy to find. But Edward and his new wife, Alice were a little more difficult to track down. Their address was just outside of town limits, so it was hit or miss for the Enumeration District. But they were located.

1950 US Fed Census
Missouri, St. Louis - 96-791
National Archives
Caldwell Family

1950 US Fed Census
Illinois, Will County - 99-112
National Archives
Buer Family

    One family I still have not found in the census is my 2nd Great Aunt, Ruth Kelley and her husband James Howard. I knew this was going to be my most difficult couple. James Howard Kelley worked as an architect, at least that's what I was told, and he traveled around a lot. He lived in Missouri, Illinois, Washington and even Alaska. Mom told me she remembered him sending her a little Eskimo doll from their when she was little. It was also rumored that he helped design the Seattle Space Needle. Since they moved a lot, it is unknown where they were living in 1950 when the census came through. So they will have to wait until the indexes are complete then hopefully I will be able to track them down.

Mark's Family

    Not only did I look up my own family, but I also looked up my hubby's family. I'm the one who has done the research on his family so why wouldn't I? I found both his parents and grandparents easily at the addresses I had for them. This is the first year for both of our parents to be on the census. It was neat to see what Mark's grandfather did for a living.

1950 US Fed Census
Missouri, St. Louis - 96-1494
National Archives
Rickards Family

1950 US Fed Census
Missouri, Kirkwood - 95-362
National Archives
Swope Family

    Moving back another generation, one set of Great-Grandparents had lived in the same location and were easy to locate, but the other two were a little tricky. Rev. Hudson Taylor & Sadie McGrew lived in Breckenridge, Missouri, but I had no address for them. Breckenridge was a small town with only two Enumeration Districts and, luckily, they were on the first district. Found them fairly quickly. Rev. McGrew was retired at this point and they were enjoying time with each other and visiting family. Thanks to the census I learned they lived on Maple. Sadly, Rev. McGrew passed away later that year.

1950 US Fed Census
Missouri, Breckenridge - 13-1
National Archives
McGrew Family

    The only other Great-Grandparent that was living at this time was Mary Alice Swope. She lived on a farm in rural Clinton County, Missouri. She was a little difficult to track down. Their family lived on the farm for many generations & later, her children lived nearby as well. Mary Swope's husband passed away in 1935, but she still lived on their farm in 1940 with two of her daughters, Ethel & Irene. They were right next to one of her sons, James, and his family.
    Now for the 1950 census, they were not next to each other. It probably has to do with the enumerators and which farms they visited in the order they did. Enumeration District lines appeared to be the same as in 1940 so that had nothing to do with it. Whatever the case, thanks to maps, I was able to locate where they should be on the 1950 Census. I explained this in more depth in another blog post: Maps of Clinton County - How Galen & Pearl Met. This time on the census, Irene was the head of the household and her mother, Mary, and sister, Ethel, lived with her. But their brother, James, was not listed in this Enumeration District. Is it possible they moved? Unsure at this time. It will require a bit more research. I do know we will be making another trip up to Clinton County maybe this summer. The good news is I found them on the census.

1950 US Fed Census
Missouri, Lafayette - 25-13
National Archives
Swope Family

   Spreading wide now in Mark's family tree, two ancestors I was excited to find were Ruth & Scottie Rickards. Ruth moved to Iowa from Illinois sometime in the 1920s and after their father died, Scottie moved in with her. Scottie has been a curious ancestor for a while. I wrote about him in a blog post for the 52 Ancestors Challenge: Week 4 - Curious. As you read in the post, there was a lot unknown about him. I've been putting together some information about him as I learn it. The most recent I wrote about in two Friday Finds posts. Westminster College and Update on Scottie Rickards.
    So I was looking forward to seeing the 1950 Census to try to get an idea of when his condition started. I found their address in a 1950 City Directory, so finding them wasn't hard. But I got my answer by looking at the census. Scottie was listed as Unable to Work. So whatever happened, it happened before he moved and sometime after college. Interesting. Another piece of the puzzle is found.

1950 US Fed Census
Iowa, Des Moines - 102-29
National Archives
Rickards Family

    The last ancestor I wanted to find on Mark's side is a living 1st cousin, once removed. I've been in contact with her and her family for a few years now. I got their address directly from her, so I knew it was correct. But finding the Enumeration District was tough. I had to go through a couple of different maps to find it. Read about it here: What If I Can't Find a Street? But I did find the Enumeration District and I did find the ancestor. 

1950 US Fed Census
Texas, Houston/South Side - 101-5
National Archives
Rickards Family

    These are not all the people I looked up in the 1950 census, but the main ones. I did look up ancestors for friends and just for personal fun. Having the Enumeration Districts beforehand really did help locate our ancestors in the 1950 Census. There were only a few times I had to use the preliminary index on the National Archives site. And I am grateful for it as I wouldn't have found my Dad without it. Now that I have found the census pages, it's time to analyze them more closely for clues and information.

    I will also be helping index the census as time goes on. You can help index now on the National Archives site and you can help on Ancestry & Family Search but only on the states they currently have available. I put in for a notification when Missouri is ready to be indexed. 

Who Have You Found??

1950 Census - Who Do You Hope To Find?

Who do you hope to find in the 1950 Census? A question asked frequently among the genealogy community. I don't know about you, but I have a list of people I am hoping to find. Some will answer some questions, others are just people I want to find.

There are a couple of family members that could be somewhat troublesome to find until the index gets released. Mostly because they moved around quite a bit. I have a few possible leads, but they may not pan out.

One specific lead that could be helpful is Pictures. My Grandma and Dad had a lot of pictures in their collection. I've been going through them for years dividing them up by year, location, family, etc. These pictures give clues about where my family could have been living during specific times of their lives. And based on these pictures, I can narrow down that location to hopefully find the Enumeration District Map so I can locate them on the 1950 Census.

Here are some pictures of family members I hope to find on the 1950 Census

Ilg, Buer, Cash, Kelley Family 
July 1955
Carmel, Indiana?

    This photo was taken in July 1955 possibly in Carmel, Indiana. Great grand Aunt Ruth and her husband, Howard are going to be a little difficult to locate for the 1950 Census because they moved around quite a bit for his job. He was an architect. I have found them in St. Louis, Missouri;  Joliet, Illinois; Dallas, Texas; and Carmel, Indiana, where they retired to eventually. My mom told me stories about visiting them in Indiana. This photo is one of those times family visited Aunt Ruth and Uncle Howard. Starting in the back row from left to right, there is Oma Mae Caldwell (2nd Great-grandma), Robert Edward Cash (son of Herbert & Alyce), Howard James Kelley (Great-Grand Uncle), Joseph Melchoir Ilg (Great-grandpa), and Herbert Arthur Cash (Husband of Alyce). In the front row from left to right, we have Margaret "Honey" Ilg (Great-grandma), Ruth Helen Kelley (Great-Grand Aunt), Edward Elmer Buer (2nd Great-grandpa), and Alyce(daughter of Edward & second wife, not pictured).

    Edward Buer (2nd Great-grandpa) was married to Oma before they divorced in 1913. He then married Alice Boyer (unknown maiden name). Alice is not pictured with family because she died in December 1950. But she will be on the 1950 Census. When Alice died, they were living in Joliet, Illinois according to the 1950 City Directory. So that's where they will be found in the 1950 Census. I do know that after Alice died, Edward moved in with Aunt Ruth and Uncle Howard. He died in 1967 in Carmel, Indiana. So in this photo, he was more than likely living with them. 

    Mom said she remembers Uncle Howard Kelley traveling to so many places for his work. Seattle, Texas, Illinois, and even Alaska. Mom remembers receiving a souvenir from him when she was little; a little Eskimo doll. So it's possible Aunt Ruth and Uncle Howard may be living somewhere completely different by the 1950 Census. He supposedly even traveled to different countries. Oh boy... But one thing we do know is they were in Carmel, Indiana by 1955. We hope... See how much information you can glean from one picture?

    This picture was taken sometime in the '50s. This is my Grandma Ruth Wheeler, Uncle Jerry Valdes, Uncle Les Wheeler, Mom Maggie Wheeler, and Uncle Howard Wheeler. Mom was born in 1950. I might have some photos from when my mom was little, but I haven't gone through all my grandma's photos yet. This picture was more than likely taken in High Ridge, Missouri at their house.

    This is where mom's memory comes into play. Mom said they moved to High Ridge when she was about six months old. She was born in March so that would mean they moved around September. The Census was taken in April. So mom would have been born for the Census. What's helpful is I have Mom's birth certificate and it has their address listed. That will help me find them in the 1950 Census. Everyone in this photo, except for Uncle Howard (who was born in 1951), will be on that census. 

More Photos to come!

Week 3: Favorite Photo

Week 2: Favorite Photo
Week 2's theme is "Favorite Photo." If you've done the 52 Ancestors challenge before, you might recognize this theme. Yes, it's a repeat -- but it's too good not to do it again! Tell the story of a favorite photo: who is in it, where and when it was taken, and why it was taken. What was the event? 

    In my research, I have come across many photos of family members. Some from my own parents' and grandparents' collections, some from long-lost family members I have found on Ancestry. My digital photo collection has grown so much, I had to get another external hard drive to hold everything.
    I love photos. I have always loved photos since I was a kid. Looking through my parents' photo albums always felt like storytime. As I got older, I started taking photos all the time. As much as I could. I wanted to tell my own stories through pictures. In High School, I started hanging my pictures on the walls of my bedroom. Not in the conventional way. I started stapling each photo to the wall. I'd trim what was needed and start piecing them together like a puzzle. Soon all four walls were covered and I had to go up to the ceiling. You can ask some of my friends. They still remember all the photos on my walls.
    Photos are what got me into research to begin with. My grandma gave me boxes of photos to go through since she knew I loved photos. It was like new stories had been opened up to me. I was in heaven. But with all the photos I have gone through and collected through the years, there is one I always come back to. See the photo below.

Five Generations
St. Louis, Missouri
abt 1938
From my Grandma's collection

    The moment I found this photo, I fell in love with it. It was just a small photo, about 3 inches tall. It is a five-generation photograph of my mom's side of the family. Starting with Grandma Maggie Helfrich (seated), then Grandma Oma Mae Buer (center back), Grandma Maggie "Honey" Ilg (back right) Grandma Ruth Wheeler (back left), and Uncle Jerry Valdes (baby held by Grandma Helfrich).
    To see a rare five-generation photograph brought so much joy to my life. It's not something you see every day. Most people don't live long enough for something like this, and/or they don't start having kids that young. Oma was 18 when she had Honey, Honey was 17 when she had Ruth, and Ruth was 17 when Jerry was born. Grandma Helfrich died in 1943. The circumstances were perfect.
    I printed this photo out for my grandma so she could have a copy in the nursing home with her. I also put some photos in an album for her to look at. I got some more stories out of her and she helped identify some photos. I still love looking through all the photos my grandma gave me. I am still in the process of digitizing everything. And now I have my dad's photos as well. After everything I have gone through, this is still my favorite photo.
    My grandma (Ruth Wheeler) passed away in 2015 and I miss her every day. I never got to meet Honey, Oma, or Grandma Helfrich. My Uncle Jerry is still around today and I do hope to sit down with him soon to look through photos. 

What's your favorite photo?

Week 2: Favorite Find

Week 2: Favorite Find
Week 2's theme is "Favorite Find." This could be a discovery that you made from breaking down a brick wall or something that just made you smile. (Like on my ancestor's Civil War pension application when it asked, "Is there an official record of your marriage?" and he answered, "No, it's recorded at the courthouse." Sometimes, you just have to laugh.)

    Through the years, I have had a few "Favorite Finds" while doing genealogy research. From locating some headstones of relatives to finding a particular ancestor in census records or finding the truth about a particular event. I've found records no one knew existed, pictures of ancestors that I never thought I would see. Ok to be honest, I get excited about every little piece I find. So for me to narrow it down to one favorite is not so easy. 
    I think the best thing for me to do is to give three of my "Favorite Finds". They are in no particular order and are in no way better than any other finds I have come across, but they are ones that do pop up when I think of some of my favorite finds.

1. Marriage Record of Great-Grandma & Great-Grandpa Ilg

    This is one of the first big "finds" that came across when I started doing research. When I inherited my Grandma Wheeler's photos, there was also a datebook included. This datebook was a treasure trove of information: Birth dates, death dates, marriages, arrival dates, original villages, etc. I was thrilled with this information. It's what I used to build my first family tree.

 
    After I started filling in the tree and getting hints, I started looking at the census records. But I hit a discrepancy. According to the datebook, my Great-Grandpa Joseph Ilg and Great-Grandma Margaret Buer were married on July 24, 1919, in Detroit, Michigan. But I found 1920 census records for both of them showing that they were NOT married, living with their own families, and still in St. Louis. I was confused. It took me a while, but thanks to the help of another researcher, they found the Marriage Register for Detroit, Michigan. The register stated that they were married on July 23 but in the year 1920; not 1919. Oops!

    I thought about it for a minute and then it all fell together. My grandma was born September 9, 1920; two months after they were married. Big oops! So that's why they went to Detroit. To hide the mistake. They eventually returned to St. Louis about a year after my grandma was born. And from then on, they told everyone they were married in 1919. Even celebrated their anniversaries with that year. It was that discovery that made me double-check and find sources to back up that datebook.
    My grandma was still living when I found this information out, but I didn't want to stress her out with this information. Word was she didn't have a good relationship with her mom growing up. Plus grandma was showing signs of dementia, so I just felt this was the best decision. I wish I could say that this was the ONLY discovery I made about this side of my family, but nope! 

2. Oma Mae Dennis was Adopted

    Oma Mae Dennis is my 2nd Great-Grandma, the daughter of Maggie Molten and Logan Dennis. This information was also in my grandma's datebook. Logan was Maggie's first husband. After they divorced, Maggie and Oma moved to St. Louis from Tennessee. I have had quite a bit of trouble finding information on Maggie and Oma in Tennessee. Ever since I began researching in 2012, Maggie has been my brickwall.

    Over the years, I have contacted many repositories trying to find information about Maggie and her marriage to Logan. I kept coming up with discrepancies. Little by little I started finding court records and newspaper articles. But the biggest surprise came when I found the final divorce decree for Maggie and Logan. In the decree, it mentions that Maggie wanted custody of their daughter Oma, who was NOT her natural-born daughter. It completely blew me out of the water! No one in the family knew this piece of information. Oma may not have known either. 

Read more about this discovery here

    I still had questions regarding this information. Such as where did Oma come from? Was she Logan's natural-born daughter? Then recently I finally got my answers. Searching through court records on FamilySearch.org (that wasn't transcribed) I found the adoption record for Oma! Both Logan and Maggie adopted her together in Tennessee from the Bedford County Asylum. Oma was only a few months old, and would you believe, they actually mentioned her original name: Oma Mae Collins.

Watch me talk about this discovery

    I am still reeling from this find. I still have more research to do, but I am excited to find this. I haven't found the Bedford County Asylum yet but I found some leads. This is where a DNA test might come in handy. Before, I didn't consider it because it wouldn't help me track down Maggie's parents since we are not blood-related to her. I will just keep plugging away at this. That brickwall will fall piece by piece.

Read more about the datebook discrepancies here

    These are just two discrepancies I've found in my grandma's datebook. There appear to be two authors of that book. One was my 2nd Great-grandma Pauline Ilg, who wrote everything in German. Then someone translated that to English and continued writing more. That person appears to be Margaret Ilg, but this is unconfirmed. 

3. Joseph Henry Rickards Only Man to Arrest Jesse James

    Oh yes, this was quite an exciting find. Joseph Henry Rickards is Mark's 2nd Great-Grandfather. We had learned from some family that he was the Sheriff in Liberty, Missouri, where he lived for a time. We took a trip out there in 2014 for our anniversary. 

Watch my first few Genealogy Research Trips

    It was exciting to learn that Joseph was Sheriff during the time of the big bank robbery in Liberty, Missouri that was supposedly done by the James Gang, resulting in the death of a local man. We toured the bank, which is now a museum, and were delighted to see a picture of Joseph in the museum. 

Joseph Henry Rickards
Picture in the Museum

    After doing some research in the newspapers, I found some stories mentioning an incident with Joseph and Jesse James that occurred sometime before the bank robbery. Apparently, to make a point, Joseph arrested Jesse and some others and put them in jail for one night. 
    Why is this a huge thing? Because the stories that get circulated state that Jesse James had NEVER been arrested, but that's not the case. I have found a few books written about Jesse James that include this event. There was also an interview with the local judge who "set the record straight". 

Cincinnati Enquirer
1902
Newspapers.com

   This information actually got me interviewed by Scott Fisher from Extreme Genes for his radio show. The interview is at the top of my blog on the right-hand side. I also brought this to the attention of a local historian in Clay County. He originally thought it was just lore, but I submitted all the proof I had found and he was shocked. Every time I share information about the research I've done on the family, I always include this story.

    So these are just a few of my favorite finds from the research I've done through the years. Like I said before, really every new find is my favorite. I'm always so excited to learn more, whether it is about my family or someone else's. I feel like a detective trying to track down the truth. There is always something more to find. 

What are some of YOUR favorite finds?

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!

Week 39: Map It Out

     Do you have a family that moved around a lot? Have you ever wondered how close in proximity your family lines lived to each other? Are you trying to locate what possible church they would have attended? These are questions I have asked myself when it came to my family. And the only way to answer them was to "Map It Out". That is this week's prompt for the 52 Ancestors Challenge.
     My family's roots are deep in St. Louis. I've traced the majority of the lines back to the time they immigrated. On my mom's side of the family, we have the Ilg Family, Buer Family, and the Helfrich Family. They all lived in the same area of St. Louis, the Carondelet area, from around the 1890s-1945. Some of them moved quite a bit but still remained in the Carondelet area. When I started documenting the addresses for all the families, I started noticing familiar names. So I started comparing the addresses on the maps and lo and behold, they were all within a few streets of each other for years. For some of them, I was having a hard time locating records, so I wanted to look at the churches they went to. Thanks to the advice from my Aunt Patty Fuchs, she told me if I knew their religion, look for the closest church to their residence that was the same religion. That led me to St. Boniface Catholic Church. Even though the church is closed, the St. Louis County Library headquarters had many records from them. I was able to find baptismal records, birth records, death records, and marriage records.
     As you can see from my examples, mapping out the addresses helped me answer the questions at the beginning of this post and many more. I learned a lot more about my family than I ever knew before. I even took the time to drive the area that they used to live in. Most of it has been redeveloped over the years, but there were some that were still original.
     I still wanted to take a map and plot the different addresses all together so I could actually visualize all the different residences along with places of employment, churches, and other important addresses. It was during this time, I came across a video put out by Family History Fanatics featuring Melissa Finley from Boundless Genealogy. She explained how you could use Google Maps to place points on the map to represent the different addresses. See the videos below:



Thanks to Melissa, I was able to create my own map. This was exactly what I was looking for. Now I have a visual to go with my research. Even though the area has changed, I was able to look at old maps to pinpoint the exact location. After going through all the addresses I had, verifying through census records and city directories along with other sources, I created my own map. It's not done yet, but here is the work in progress.

So have you taken the steps to map out your family's residences?

Week 18: Road Trip

     For this prompt, I decided to share a video I had already made with the topic of "Road Trip". It is actually inspiring a new YouTube series for me. It is currently in the works. I am hoping to have it released next month and will hopefully be releasing a new video once a month. Will have to see how things go. This series will take more time than my Auntie Jen's Two Cents. Which is what series this video is from. If you haven't yet, please head over to my YouTube Channel and subscribe so you don't miss any new videos when they become available.

So here is this week's prompt of "Road Trip" brought to you by Auntie Jen's Two Cents:

New YouTube Series coming soon!! 

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.

Week 9: At the Courthouse

     So I haven't written a blog post for the last two prompts. Week 7 was about love, so I shared the blog post I had already written about when my hubby and I got married. Week 8 was about Family Photos. As important as Family Photos are to me, my mind was just on other things this past week. I've been working on researching my 2nd Great Grandma Pauline Ilg, and I hope to have a blog post about her in the next few weeks for her upcoming birthday.
     This week's prompt is called "At the Courthouse." I have to admit, courthouses are somewhat intimidating to me. Anywhere official like that is intimidating. The last time I visited an actual courthouse for research was back in 2015. I had written a journal entry about that experience, so I decided I would just type that up and share it. So here is my last experience "At the Courthouse":

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October 8, 2015

     It has been a good couple of days for research. I will attempt to explain it all clearly without jumping around. I get excited and lose focus on what I'm writing about. First, I finally made a trip downtown to the civil courts building to get probate records and divorce records. I was so nervous because parking downtown is not easy. Luckily, I found a spot diagonally from the building. 

     First stop was the 3rd floor for divorce records. The lady told me I didn't have to come down, that I could have called. I told her I did and was told I had to come in. Well, now I know. She took down the information and told me I will receive notification in the mail whether they find something or not. She also told me they weren't going to charge me. BONUS! So they are looking up divorce info on Grandpa Les Wheeler and his first wife, Ruth Pirtel; Grandma Ruth Ilg and her first husband, Joseph Valdes; Aunt Ruth Buer and her first husband, Joseph Mrazek; and Oma Mae Dennis and her first husband, Edward Buer. Hopefully I will have some information in hand in a couple of days.

     Second stop was the 10th floor: Probate Records. I spoke with Jeanie; a real nice lady who is also a genealogist. So she was extra helpful. She got me the probate records of Pauline Ilg, Leona Ilg, Edward J. Buer, and Maggie Helfrich. The only one who didn't have a will was Edward J. Buer. The probate record I was really looking forward to looking at was Maggie Helfrich. I was hoping there would be some listing that could lead me to the Helfrich family or back to Tennessee. Sadly, no. Jacob Helfrich wasn't even listed. As of right now, two things stood out. One: where her signature should be, it had an 'X' and written by it was, "Her Mark." It confirmed what I found in the census records. She could not read or write. Even my daughter was like, "That's so sad." Two: where it listed who got everything, her daughter, named Oma Caldwell, (new married name) was listed as receiving only one dollar ($1.00). I asked Jeanie about this and she explained in order to keep family from contesting the will for not receiving anything, they would only give them $1.00. Oma had practically abandoned her daughters, so Maggie raised them. Honey and Auntie got everything. Honey is Maggie Ilg and Auntie is Ruth Kelley. I didn't get copies of every document, but got what seemed important. I don't see much else that is noteworthy at the moment, but will continue to look over everything.

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     There was more to that entry, but that was all that had to do with my courthouse visit. A few days after this entry, I received two envelopes in the mail with information about the divorce records I was looking for. They could not find anything on Joseph Valdes and Ruth Ilg, nor could they find anything on Joseph Mrazek and Ruth Buer. But they did find information on Les Wheeler and Ruth Pirtel as well as Edward Buer and Oma Mae Dennis. That was exciting to go through. It really answered a few more questions. 

     It wouldn't be until the next year that I locate the divorce record for Ruth Ilg and Joseph Valdes. That record was at the St. Louis County Court house. I had been looking at the city. Believe it or not, St. Louis is divided up into two parts: St. Louis City and St. Louis County. And then in the county it is divided up into smaller towns. So depending on where your ancestor lived, the records you are looking for might either be in the City Courts or County Courts. At the end of this blog will be a few website links explaining the split and what people call "The Great Divorce". 

     While this was a few years ago, it is still my most successful visit to a courthouse that I can remember. Traveling downtown these days isn't always feasible for me, although I do need to plan another trip at some point. I made sure to keep all the notes I took about visiting the courthouse so I would remember what I need to do for next time, so my visit is just as smooth. 

The Great Divorce

https://mohistory.org/blog/the-great-divorce

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/aug-how-the-great-divorce-of-st-louis-city-and/article_3e93fa29-7d01-570d-94f2-31eca08a9378.html

https://www.slcl.org/content/1876-st-louis-city-county-split-and-its-effect-research

Family Date Book: Not a Reliable Source?!

I know what you are thinking. "You can't get more accurate than a family date book that has dates recorded by the family themselves. Recorded by the ones whom the dates apply to. People don't record their own records incorrectly!" Or do they? Well let me tell you what I've learned.

I've told the story about how my Grandma Ruth Wheeler gave me boxes of photos back in 2012. Along with those photos, she had a Family Date Book that had been passed down since the early 1900s. I thought I had hit a gold mine! Birth dates, Death dates, Marriages, Parents, Children, Immigration, etc. So much information! This was also the start of my obsession with family research. I took the book, photographed each page, then put it away. It was already falling apart and I didn't want to destroy this treasure. It is now packed away with some other special photos. Once I had the photos uploaded to my computer, I poured over them. Reading each page over and over again. Some pages were written in German. Others in English. I started with entering the English information into a family tree. See the photos below for copies.

Over time I started collecting documents to back up this information. I'm deducing from the information that the two authors were my 2nd Great Grandma, Pauline Ilg nee Kimmerle and my Great grandma Margaret "Honey" Ilg nee Buer. The information written in German I believe was written by Pauline as she was from Germany. Then I believe it was translated later and rewritten by Honey. If it wouldn't have been for Pauline documenting the births and deaths of her children, I wouldn't have found the documents supporting this information. And honesty, at the time when I found this, I didn't think I needed any other supporting documentation. I had the same thoughts as I wrote at the beginning of this entry. You can't get more accurate than this. Who am I to question this? They were present at these events, so to me that dictates this is true. I mean why would they lie? Boy was I in for a surprise.

The first crack in my foundation was the marriage between Joseph Ilg and Margaret "Honey" Buer (One of my authors). Their marriage date was listed in the book as July 23, 1919 and the location being Detroit, Michigan. See Photo. I also had other photos from anniversaries, with years and milestones written on them. Everything I got from my family backed up this information. 

Left: Page from date book listing their marriage information

Right: Family celebrating Joseph & Honey's 25th Wedding Anniversary

(Year written on back of photo)

After I added the information into my family tree, I started getting hints about documents linked to my family. The first thing that conflicted with my information was the 1920 census. Joseph and Honey were both listed, but listed separately and single in St. Louis, Missouri. Joseph lived with his mom and brother, and Honey was listed as living with her grandma, Maggie Helfrich. At this point, I am still new to all this, so I didn't know what to make of it. They were supposed to already be married and in Detroit, Michigan. Their child, my grandma's birthdate was September 9, 1920 and she was born in Detroit, Michigan. By this information, they should be there. What the heck?!

1920 US Federal Census for Margaret "Honey" Buer

1920 US Federal Census for Joseph Ilg

 So I decided I needed some help. I had joined a group called GAA (Genealogy Addicts Anonymous) in hopes of learning more. I posted my query to them, asking if anyone could find a marriage record for them. Within minutes, a gentleman found their marriage record. GREAT! He told me it was at FamilySearch.org. The location was definitely Detroit, Michigan, but he said the date I had listed was wrong. The date of the marriage record was July 23, 1920. Wait, what? 1920? Not 1919? What the.... OH!!! They got pregnant out of wedlock! They got married after Honey turned 17, and had my grandma just two months later. That's why they went to Detroit, Michigan. To hide the truth of what happened. 

What a crazy find. I do not know how many people knew this fact, if any. I do not even know if my grandma knew the truth about her parents. So the incorrect data that was recorded, was done purposefully. Great... OK that's just one thing... Doesn't mean the whole book is wrong does it? Doesn't mean there is something else wrong. Well...

The second crack in my foundation came just recently. I wrote about it in another blog post. I have had a hard time tracing my 2nd and 3rd great grandmas and their lives, mainly in Tennessee. In the family date book, it lists the birthdate of my 2nd great grandma Oma, born to Logan and Maggie Dennis. It also mentions Maggie's birthdate. Then it talks about Maggie and Oma leaving Tennessee, and coming to St. Louis, in Oct 1890, and marrying Jacob Helfrich. That's it. No marriage date for Logan and Maggie or even for Jacob and Maggie. This has been my brick wall since I started my research. Since I've written blog posts about this, I won't go deep into it. The big surprise came when I found the divorce record for Maggie and Logan. It mentions Maggie's "adopted child" with the same age as Oma. It also states Maggie does not have any child of her own. What?? So that means my 3rd great grandma is not related to us by blood. So once again, the family date book is wrong. It states Logan and Maggie had 1 child Oma. Not true. See the three photos below.

Both are pages from the family date book that state Maggie had 1 child, Oma, with Logan

Maggie's divorce record from Logan stating she has no child of her own.

Those were the two huge discrepancies in my family date book. Those were enough for me to call into question all the data that was written in English. As stated before, I believe it was written by Honey. To be fair, the last discrepancy, Honey may not have known about. So she may have written it thinking it was true. But that also means, anything my family has said and passed down, may not be true. I am having to look at all this in a whole new light. My mom has confirmed her side of the family was big on hiding the truth. So I have to be more skeptical when information is given to me by others on that side of the family, unless they have some documentation to back it up. 

I did find a few more errors when it was translated from the German to the English. They did not include the names of the villages the family came from. Only the general area. I had to go back to the German pages to find the names.

Left: The pages written in German that actually list the villages they came from

Right: The watered down English translation omitting the villages

As you can see, just because you have a family date book that includes all the information you could ever want, it still needs to be verified by documentation. This is information is written by a fallible human being. Mistakes can be made, information transcribed wrong, or purposefully misleading. Don't be discouraged.  The Genealogical Proof Standard has been extremely helpful in my research. It teaches you how to reconcile information that does not match and how to determine how much you should trust the source. If you haven't gotten a copy, I recommend you picking one up today. Don't give up if you have run into a snag. Just go over all your sources and determine if the information you received was reliable. Whether from another Ancestry member or a direct Family member, it could be wrong. So always live by the phrase: PROVE IT!