Week 5: Branching Out

 Week 5: Branching Out

The theme for Week 5 and for February (for those of you doing the 12 Ancestors in 12 Months version) is "Branching Out." Have you branched out your research into looking at your collateral relatives? Made any good discoveries in records beyond the usual census and vital records? Or maybe you've discovered an ancestor who branched out in his or her education or occupation. Be creative!

    When I hear the phrase "Branching Out", I think of going wide in my tree. Brothers, Sisters, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, etc. There have been a few times where branching out had been necessary to further my research. Many are only interested in tracing lines back through their generational lineage. But by only doing that, you are missing half the story. 
    Without going wide, or branching out, I wouldn't have confirmed my Helfrich Connection and traced the Hilke family back. I have written a few blog posts about this and even recorded an Auntie Jen's Two Cents video about it. 

Helfrich

Maggie Helfrich

    For my Helfrich Connection, I had to figure out how my 3rd Great-Grandma, Maggie Helfrich, was connected to Jacob Helfrich's family. She married him in Tennessee and moved to St. Louis. There were a few Helfrich families that she could have been connected to, so I had to trace some siblings and their children of a couple Jacob Helfrichs to see if there was a possible connection. 

Read How I Made The Helfrich Connection

    As you can see, if I wouldn't have branched out like I did and researched these people, I wouldn't have found the family. It took me researching all the listings in the City Directories and tracing them to narrow it down. But it was worth it.

Hilke

Edward Otto Hilke & Children

    The Hilke family was a tricky line to trace. It first started with Edward Otto Hilke, Mark's Great-Grandfather. He went by the name Otto mostly, which is where the confusion came in. There was another Otto Hilke around the same age in St. Louis at the time. This led me to research both Otto Hilke's. I finally figured out which line was Mark's, but upon further investigation, I learned that the other Otto Hilke was a cousin! But more about that in a minute.
    Once I found the correct parents for Mark's Great-Grandfather, I was ready to research back more. Problem. I couldn't go back any further. I couldn't find where they came from and when. Since I learned about the other Otto Hilke, I decided to go wide with my research to see if I can learn more from the siblings. OH and boy did I learn more. A lot more!

Read about Connecting the Hilke Family

    As you can see, there were A LOT of Hilkes to find and connect. Each source gave one more clue about the connections. And once I made all the connections, I finally figured out where the family came from and when they came to the United States. 

Auntie Jen's Two Cents - Go Wide!

    As I said above, I also did an Auntie Jen's Two Cents video about this topic. It's a discussion that has been had many times in the genealogy community. Why should I go wide with my research? The truth is, it depends on what you are trying to learn about your family. Not every generation needs to go wide. But definitely don't rule it out, especially if you are having troubles going back another generation. The more sources you get, the better. 

    Have you branched out on your tree? What have you been able to learn by branching out? 

This blog post is part of the #52Ancestors Challenge arranged by Amy Johnson Crow. If you would like to join up, click here.

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?

Shocking Find Friday - Oma was ADOPTED! 🍂

     You never know what shocking information you are going to find when you start researching your family. I should be accustomed to this by now when it comes to my mom's side of the family. It has been one surprise after another. First, my great grandparents left the state to get married in secret because they got pregnant out of wedlock. Then my 2nd great-grandma was married many times in different states. My Great-grandpa Ilg was a scoundrel. And then my 3rd great-grandma has lied many times about her life to hide some past things. You've seen me mention her in many blog posts: Maggie Helfrich aka Maggie Molten, aka Mary Dennis, aka Maggie Dennis... should I go on?
    She has been my brickwall ancestor since I began research in 2012. While I do have quite a bit of a paper trail in St. Louis, Missouri for her life. it's her life in Tennessee that has been a big mystery. For years, I've been pouring over records and possible leads trying to track down information on Maggie and her family. I've slowly gathered information from different repositories to start piecing together her life.
    Recently I came across some record sets on FamilySearch.org that include the areas Maggie lived in. I started with Jackson County and found some great information. But it's when I started looking in Davidson County that I got the surprise of a lifetime. If you have read other posts of mine, you will know that I learned that Maggie had no natural-born children at the time of her divorce from her first husband. The only child she had was Oma who she said was not her natural-born daughter. This led me to believe that Logan had a child out of wedlock with another woman. I never expected to find what I did.

See Image Below:

Source: County Court minutes, 1783-1929, Minutes, v. V 1885-1886
FamilySearch.org

    So my assumption was wrong! Oma is not biologically related to EITHER parent. They both adopted her when she was just about 10 months old from the Bedford County Asylum in Tennessee. I NEVER saw that coming. What's really amazing is they list Oma's original last name! Her last name was Collins! I might be able to find something on this. How exciting! And the truth is, I don't believe ANYONE in the family ever knew this. Probably not even Oma since she was just an infant. Everyone assumed Maggie was her birth mother.  
    Now while this didn't give me any more information about Maggie per se, but it did give me a lead on where to look for Oma's birth parents. I have joined a Facebook group for Bedford County, Tennessee in hopes of finding more information about the area and getting some more leads. Time to start a new research plan! 

Oma Mae Dennis

Maggie Helfrich - My Brickwall Ancestor

      We all have the one ancestor that no matter what research you try to do, what rabbit holes you dig, and what lies you try to dispel, they continue to hide behind that proverbial brick wall. While I have done extensive research on my 3rd great-grandma, I can not get past her to go back any further. Her life in St. Louis, Missouri was easy to track. I have a ton of sources and documents that add to her life in Missouri. But when it comes to her life in Tennessee, that's where things get fuzzy and complicated. So the purpose of this post is to lay out for you the information I have on Maggie Helfrich, the sources that back it up, and the questions I have still yet to find answers to. Let's dig in!

Birth

     Margaret Mary Molten was born supposedly on 15 June 1863 in Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee. Why do I say supposedly? Well, some sources contradict this information. Let's start with what we have that backs this information up.

1. Family Date Book - This book was given to me by my grandma Ruth Wheeler, great-granddaughter to Maggie Helfrich. The information contained in this book was written by at least two people: Pauline Ilg and Margaret (Honey) Ilg. Honey is the granddaughter of Maggie Helfrich and the mother of my grandma, Ruth Wheeler. Honey was raised by Maggie Helfrich for most of her life, so she was pretty close to her. That would make the information written by her in the book credible. Unfortunately, the credibility of Honey would be called into questions later when it was found out she lied about the year she got married to her husband to cover up the fact she got pregnant out of wedlock. But for now, we take the information written in this book about Maggie Helfrich as it is written. The birth information in this book is written as "Born 16 June 1863 in Tennessee". 
   
   
   
2. Missouri Death Certificate - Missouri Digital Heritage has been a great resource for me when it comes to researching my family. I found Maggie Helfrich's death certificate and downloaded it. The birth written on this death certificate is the same as listed above: 15 June 1863 in Nashville, Tennessee. The informant on this death certificate is Ruth Kelley, the second granddaughter of Maggie Helfrich who was also raised by her. I have not found anything to question the credibility of Ruth Kelly, so her word can be taken truthfully.
   
   
   
3. Cemetery Headstone - Maggie Helfrich is buried in St. Trinity Cemetery in Affton, Missouri. Ruth Kelley was the executor of her will and in charge of making the arrangements of everything. The headstone that is placed has a birth date of 15 June 1863. I have created a Find a Grave memorial based on this information. You can see it here: Maggie Helfrich Find a Grave Memorial
   
   
   
4. Census Records 1900-1940 for the state of Missouri - All census records back up the year within a couple years on either side. It is unclear who for sure was giving the information for each census.
5. Obituary - Her obituary lists her age of 79 at the time of her death. That puts the birth year being 1863. The obituary would have been put together probably by Ruth Kelley as part of making the final arrangements. This obituary was found in my Grandma Ruth Wheeler's datebook. It was published in the St. Louis Post Dispatch.
   
   
   

     As you can see, I have quite a few sources to back up this information. But the one thing they have in common is they are all sources from St. Louis, Missouri. It's when I trace back to Tennessee that the birthdate comes into question. I will get to those sources in just a minute. Let's continue with what we know.

Marriages

     Most of the information I started with came from the Family Datebook I mentioned above. It provided me with the names of her two husbands: Logan Dennis and Joseph Helfrich. Unfortunately, no marriage dates were listed. The book states:

"Married Logan Dennis had 1 child Oma. Came to St. Louis Oct. 19, 1890 married Jacob Helfrich who was killed."

     Finding the marriage information for either of these marriages was a challenge. Since the 1890 US Federal Census was destroyed in a fire, the next census available was the 1900 US Federal Census. By then, Maggie was listed as a widow. I also found City Directories for St. Louis, Missouri starting in 1899 that lists Maggie as the widow of Jacob Helfrich. Besides these sources, I had nothing connecting Maggie to Jacob. I did follow a paper trail of sources to finally determine Maggie's connection to the Helfrich family. Read the blog post here: My Helfrich Connection. As you read in that post, I did track down the marriage information for Maggie thanks to a fellow GAA member. Here is the post talking about that connection: Found it! - Maggie & Jacob Helfrich Marriage. The big surprise with this was the fact they were married in Tennessee. So I closed out doing research in Missouri and transferred my focus to Tennessee.

Tennessee Sources

     As you read in the post about Maggie and Jacob's marriage record, I also found a newspaper article mentioning the divorce of Maggie and Logan. These articles list Maggie by her middle name of Mary. Since I knew that she married both Logan Dennis and Jacob Helfrich, I knew this had to be her. Research in Tennessee has not been easy. Unfortunately, fires have destroyed many records over the years, so things are scarce at best. I was able to find an 1880 US Federal Census record mentioning Logan and Maggie early on in my research but questioned whether or not this was the correct couple or not based on the incorrect age of the Maggie listed. According to this census, Maggie was 24 so that would have put her birth around 1856. That's a seven-year difference. But further research has since made me believe this is the correct couple and Maggie lied about her age later on in life.
     The 1880 census has them living in Jackson County, Tennessee. So that means research needed to be done in that county for sure to track down this couple. After performing searches online for Jackson County, Tennessee records, I came across a website that has transcribed records from the Chancery County in Jackson County, Tennessee. A quick search of the page brought about this transcribed record:

"[NEW] DENNIS, MARY M. vs. DENNIS, LOGAN H. et al Circut 1873
BILL OF COMPLAINT: Mary Maynes [or Magnes] Dennis against
John Dennis, William E. Smith, & John Whitiker, all Jackson Co. except Logan Dennis of parts unknown.

Married 30 October 1872 in Jackson Co. Morning of the day therafter defendant abandoned her. Lists personal property, including crops growing on land of John Dennis, William E. Smith, & John Whitiker. 29 Nov 1872 M. M. [X] Dennis

ANSWER: Defendant does not recall marriage ceremony. Was so drunk he didn't remember. Never courted complainant, never promised to marry her. He is not a drunkard but sometimes imbibes too freely. On the day of said marriage, defendant had gone to Cookeville to hear Andrew Johnson speak. Before he returned, drank more of the ardent than he should have. Started for his home in the Free State, got as far as the home of David Case in Black Springs. Complainant was living there at Case's at the time. Respondent was drunk to imbecility. Was told they bedded together, has no recollection. Awoke, found himself in bed with Mary Magnus [?Maynes] Martin Dennis. Complainant told him there was no sexual intercourse. Crawled out of bed as quietly as possible, got his mare and left.
ANSWER: William E. Smith, says he does not believe marriage is valid."

     Now, this is interesting! This is only a transcript. So the misspelling of Mary's last name is understandable. I have not been able to review the original record as of yet. *See update below. When I located this information, I did question if this was the correct Logan and Maggie Dennis or not. So I tried to perform more searches of the area to see if there were any other Logan and Maggie Dennis' in the area. I have not yet found any, so given that, this must be them. But the age still threw me off. If I was to go by Maggie's age from the sources above, she would only be 9 years old. Yeah, not happening. But if I were to go by the age from the 1880 census, she would have been 16. That makes more sense. Let's go on from here and see what else we can find.

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*UPDATE 10/20/2020: With a recommendation from Melanie McComb from American Ancestors, I did some more searching on FamilySearch.org for some documents relating to Jackson County, Tennessee. I was finally able to locate the actual Chancery Court records for the transcript above. I've learned the transcript is only a summary of what all the court records actually say. I am currently, as of 10/20/20, transcribing each page of the file so as to hopefully find more clues. I also found Circut Court records for the divorce.

     Here are some interesting facts I have currently found from these documents:

• The summarized transcription given above states that Mary M. Dennis was living with David Case. Upon further examination of the actual court document, it is possible the last name may be "Cose". Another option may be Cox. There are misspellings in these documents so it could be what the writer of this document thought they heard.
• There are more details listed in these documents pertaining to the "property" that is mentioned. It's not land, it's items
• Mary M. Dennis has another name associated with her in these documents, but can not determine if it is supposed to be Maggie, Magus, Magnus, or maybe something else. It is unclear if they are referring to a middle name or maiden name. This is written a couple of times, but can not determine what the name is. Again, this may be based on what the writer heard.
• In the documents, Mary M. Dennis claimed to be living in Jackson County for MORE than two years. That could potentially put her in the county around the 1870 US Federal Census. Can not find her though.
• By the last document in the circuit court records, it was found that Maggie and Logan were living together (Jan 1874) and the suit was dropped.

Sources
Here are the sources for the court records

• Court Transcripts of the county, chancery and circuit courts, 1839-1915
• Cunningham, S - Dewitt, A. (C Divorces)
• Image: 1294-1317
• Court Minutes, 1872-1893 - Indexes
• Minutes, v. A-B, 1872-1876 (v. A)
• Images: 9, 98, 130, 131, 238

     After learning some of this information, I searched the 1870 US Federal Census for clues. In District 1 for Jackson County, Tennessee, I found the defendants named in the Divorce suit all living next to each other: William Dennis, Henderson Young, William E Smith, & John Dennis. The interesting thing is, Logan Dennis is listed nowhere on this census. The records state that these people listed are the ones holding the property. I also looked for anyone in the Gainesboro area with the last name of "Case/Cose/Cox". I did find a few leads, but nothing concrete without more research. I feel this is going to be a way for me to break through this brick wall.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     Thanks to the newspaper article I found mentioning Maggie's divorce from Logan and this transcript from the Chancery Court, I decided to reach out to the Metro Archives at the Nashville Public Library to ask for some guidance. I had a marriage date of 30 October 1872 and a divorce time frame of April 1890 for the divorce. Unfortunately, a marriage record for Logan and Maggie was never found, BUT they found the divorce decree! I shared my exciting find here: The Search for Maggie Molten Continues: Huge Shock!

     The decree listed the marriage date, which matches the Chancery Court record, and the name of Mary being used first, which matches the newspaper articles. Unfortunately, the divorce decree doesn't mention the age of Maggie, so I can't compare the birth years. Although, as you read in the blog post, I received a huge surprise. Turns out Maggie is not related to my family by blood. She is not the biological mother of my 2nd Great-Grandma, Oma. From my understanding, no one in my family knew about this. So with that secret looming, it makes me question Maggie's character as far as truthfulness goes. I don't judge Maggie or blame her for keeping certain secrets. She lived during a different time period that was really difficult for women. Unfortunately, though, it makes it hard to trace her life.

     One last record I have that mentions Logan and Maggie comes from a court case that they both just happen to be mentioned in that took place in Jackson County, Tennessee. There was a Bill of Complaint of G.B. Braswell against Pollie Braswell in 1889 that drags Logan and Maggie into the middle.

". . he and the defendant Pollie Brazzill were intermarried in Jackson Co. TN on the 1st of March 1864. He states that he is a poor man and has been for years afflicted with disease of the lungs, which affliction came upon him shortly after his marriage. . . . [Polly] has been guilty of divers lewd acts of adultery with one Berry Coomer . . . She has left the county and gone to Nashville TN to live with one Logan Dumis, whose wife Mag Dumis, formerly Mag Moton, is a woman of lewd character . . . He asks for divorce. -bp. G. B. Brasel (his mark)"

     This is a transcription that was found on a blog at first, then found in the Chancery Court files. (*Note: This is not my transcription, this is what was posted online. I have since reviewed the original documents. See below.) Maggie is accused of being a woman of "Lewd Character" which I find hard to believe based on what I know of her. Now, Logan is a man of lewd character, fathering a child with another woman that Maggie chose to raise as her own. He was very abusive to her as claimed in the divorce decree. It wasn't long after this court case that Maggie filed for divorce. Then she married Jacob Helfrich and moved to St. Louis. 

*UPDATE 8/19/23
    I found the complete divorce file for the couple listed above (Brazil, Brazel, Braswell). It's interesting that this divorce decree started back in Jackson County in 1868, four years before Maggie and Logan married. But there were some interesting details in the pages that have shed some new light on my research. 

Brazil, Pollie vs Brazil, Green B., et al 1868

• There is a John Whitaker and William Whitaker mentioned (same as the court cases above for Maggie and Logan)
• John Whitaker is Pollie's brother
• Image #494 has a list of names of people that were summoned to court including some "Dennis" family members. Wonder how they knew this couple?
• A name listed in the suit was "Lovell"
•  This got my attention because Logan worked with a Capt. Lovell in Nashville on the ship, Matt F. Allen
• In the suit, Lovell worked on a ship called I.N. Phillips back in 1868

    That last piece of information was very intriguing. The court records for the divorce in Nashville mentioned Logan's occupation as a shipmate. Doing a newspaper search for Logan's name brought up a couple of clippings about some steamer excursions that mention Logan. When I first found these, I wasn't sure if this was him, but after finding the divorce decree and city directories, this confirmed his occupation as a shipmate.
    The newspaper clippings talk about the ships running on the Upper Cumberland River, which travels from Nashville to a few places in Tennessee, including Gainesboro. This must have been how Logan got into being a shipmate. And since he worked with Capt. Lovell later in Nashville, he must have met him back in 1868 when the scandal between Pollie and her husband developed.
    In the divorce suit, the only document that had a different date was the one where Pollie was supposedly living with Logan and Maggie in 1889. This further confirms she knew Logan back in Gainesboro, especially since his parents were called as character witnesses for Pollie. 

Adoption
    As I mentioned above, Maggie and Logan's daughter, my 2nd Great-Grandma Oma, was adopted. I originally thought Logan fathered a child out of wedlock, based on the wording of the original divorce decree. But I have since found the adoption file of Oma. County Court Minutes, 1783-1929; Minutes v. V, 1885-1886
    This file really shed some light on Oma's adoption but also created more questions. According to the minutes, Maggie and Logan got Oma when she was about 2-3 months old from the Bedford County Asylum. It was noted that her parents were allegedly deceased and no family had come to claim her. When she was 10 months old, they petitioned the court to adopt her. It was granted, and her name was changed from Oma Mae Collins to Oma Mae Dennis.
    So neither Maggie nor Logan were blood-related to Oma. So to find Oma's bloodline, I will have to use DNA research. That will have to come later. But this just further complicates tracking down Maggie's line. DNA won't help with that.

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Now What?

     I've been researching Maggie Helfrich since I began genealogy research in 2012. It has taken me this long just to get this far. I have not been able to get any further back than Maggie. Her death certificate mentions a mother by the name of Betsy McDaniel but no father. I have tried searching for a Betsy McDaniel to no avail. So here are the questions I have yet to answer:

• Was Betsy Married to a man with the last name of Molten? Where did the last name Molten come from? Where is Betsy McDaniel?
• UPDATED 10/20/2020-When Maggie got married in 1872 she was living at David Case/Cose residence in Black Spring. Why was she living there? What is her relationship to this family?
• Where is the Case/Cose family?
• Where is the town of Black Springs?
• What is Maggie's correct birth year? Why did she change it?
• NEW-Where is Maggie in 1870? Gainesboro? Black Spring? Nashville?

     Maybe one day, I will find the answers to these questions. Obviously, a DNA test won't help lead me to these answers as Maggie is not related to us by blood. I am hoping one day to travel to Nashville, Tennessee to do some research. I have reached out to Jackson County, Tennessee for any help and they have no other records mentioning Maggie.

     It is worth noting that Maggie was illiterate. She could not read or write. So the spelling of her last name could be different than what I have. In the datebook, it is spelled Molten, but I have found spellings ranging from Moulten to Molton. In one court case, it was Magnus or Maynes and the other court case was Morton. It's possible Maggie never knew how to spell her last name. We can only go with how it was pronounced. Which makes it really hard.

     I don't know if I will ever find the answers to these questions, but I am for sure not going to give up until all avenues are exhausted. The Reasonably Exhaustive Research will continue. Any help is appreciated.

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 16: Out of Place

     What an obscure prompt. Out of Place. I had to think about this one cause at first thought, I couldn't come up with anything or anyone that was out of place. At least not that I could comfortably put under that "definition". Hence why my post is a little delayed this week. Well that and we have had quite a lot of unexpected unfortunates happen. So I took some time to read through some blog posts about how they interpreted the prompt. One post talked about two women who "died out of place". Then it hit me! Where my Grandma Maggie Helfrich is buried, there are two unknown (well unknown to me) people buried with her. Talk about being out of place!
     When I first visited Grandma Helfrich's grave back in 2013, I was informed that two other people were buried there with her. Joseph Helfrich and Pearl Pinnell. Two names I had never heard of, although I assumed Joseph was her husband or brother in law or something. I was still new to genealogy research (started in 2012) and just dismissed the information. I was more excited I found Grandma Helfrich's grave! (I know, all the genealogists reading this are yelling at me, "How could you not have researched!" I was a newbie ok lol! I had not yet been bit by the addiction bug. Now I'm paying for it) Since then, I have researched more and more about the Helfrich family, so hopefully it should be easier to determine who Joseph Helfrich is at least.
     So here I am, about six years later and FINALLY researching this mystery. Who are these unknown people that are buried with Grandma Helfrich? I contacted the cemetery office at Trinity Lutheran Cemetery for information on her lot. I was so thankful, the caretaker was available and happily made a copy of the "Lot Owner" paper. Maggie Helfrich was the owner, for sure. The lot was all paid for. The first to be buried was Joseph Helfrich. According to the card, he was 25 when he died and was buried February 3, 1905. Next to be buried was Pearl Pinnell. She was just 14 days old. Even though she is listed as buried there, she has no grave number. The caretaker told me, she might just be buried at the head or feet of whomever was buried there. She was buried October 12, 1917. Then finally Maggie was buried there when she died on January 31, 1943. She was buried three days later on February 3rd.

     OK let's try to sort this out. We will start with the baby, Pearl. Missouri has their death certificates online for the years of 1910-1968 (and up), so that's a good place to start. Took a little bit of searching, but I did end up finding her death certificate. Her last name was spelled PENNELL, not Pinnell. Her full name was Pearl Thelma Pennell. (A blessing to have a full name with just being an infant; lots of babies go unnamed) She was the infant daughter of Thomas & Pearl Pennell nee Harris. So who are these people, and why was their infant daughter buried in Grandma Helfrich's lot? Well one thing did catch my eye on Pearl's death certificate: The address listed for her and the address listed for the informant. It lists 8229 Michigan Ave. That's Grandma Helfrich's address. From the stories I was told, she ran a boarding house to bring in money. So it's possible, this family was living at her boarding house in 1917, when the wife gave birth prematurely. Maggie must have offered to have their infant daughter buried in her lot, so they would have a place for her. Now whether the family was connected in any way shape or form, I have not yet found. I will keep looking, but for now, this makes sense.

     Now for Joseph Helfrich. As I stated before I thought that might have been her husband. But after doing research on the Helfrich for six years, I have proven this was not the case. Ok so brother? Not by what I have proven as of yet. I created a whole tree of Helfrichs when I was trying to trace Maggie's husband and no Joseph fits that age. So a nephew? Can't prove that either yet. At the moment, I am completely lost. He just does not fit in anywhere. This is going to be one of those mysteries that can't be solved in just a few days. It's going to take visiting the St. Louis Library Headquarters to go through their newspapers to find any death mentions. Then going through city directories. Then process of elimination of all the Joseph Helfrichs I have in my tree.
     What? No! I'm not grinning! I don't know what you are talking about. I'm not excited about the prospect of solving a mystery! I'm not looking forward to the endless hours of looking through records to find just the right one! I'm not..... shut up.... Ok put on some coffee. It's going to be a long night.

To be Continued....

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 2: Challenge

     This week for 52 Ancestors in 52 weeks, the topic was "Challenge". Of course the first ancestor that pops up when I think of that word is my 3rd great grandma, Maggie Molten Dennis Helfrich. Everything about researching her life has been a challenge. She is still my brick wall that I may not ever solve. But I am sure going to try. I've written a few posts about her already, so I am going to post the links here for you to read about why she has been a challenge. I'm coming for you Grandma Helfrich!

Margaret Mary Molten
B: 15 June 1860
Nashville, Davidson, Tennessee

D: 31 Jan 1943
Affton, St. Louis, Missouri

Buried: 3 Feb 1943
St. Trinity Cemetery
Affton, St. Louis, Missouri

Blog Posts Relating to Maggie Molten:

My Helfrich Connection

Found it! Maggie & Jacob's Marriage Record

Strong Women Run In My Family

The Search For Maggie Molten Continues...

The Search is not over....

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!