Saturday, November 22, 2014

Migration of the Quaker families out of the south and into the non-slave states of Ohio and Indian

An e-mail came across the Quaker mail list this past week.  I did not want to lose the information that was shared.  So this is a quick post to look at later.

This is the narrative of a Journey to Indiana in 1815 written by a Quaker family who made the journey from Tick Creek, Chatham Co., NC to Orange Co., Indiana....

http://freepages.family.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mygermanfamilies/Journey.html

The information was sent by Ann Newsom of Columbus, Ohio

This account has very detailed information about where the group stops.  It would be fun to draw a map at some point.

Sunday, October 26, 2014

John Salmons of Cumberland County and Rowland neighbors

I just bought a book from Craig at the Virginia Genealogical Society's fall event called Southam Parish Land Processioning 1747-1784 Goochland, Cumberland, and Powhatan Counties, Virginia by Ann K. Blomquist.

And sure enough, there is John Salmon mentioned in the same neighborhood with the Rowland family:  (on page 14 of her book)

"we have processoined the lands and marked the lines except John Salmon, Rachel Farris, Nicholas Davies, Benjamin Harrison, John Blevins, John Rowland, Michael Rowland, Benjamin Dumas, Stephen Hughes"

This is not a book to be read lightly.....this is a book to be studied.  I will be adding maps and thoughts to this blog post as I study the 6 references to John and 1 to William Salmons....along with Rowland.

And very interesting there are also references to Phelps in relationship to Harris in this book.  I don't know whether I'll do those separately or if I will add them in here and change the title of the blog post to the name of the book.  You can always get back to this post however with today's date.

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Thomas Hawkins of Old Rappahannock County and friends and relatives

Back in 2012, Steve Riggan and I were exchanging information about Thomas Hawkins of Old Rappahannock County and the Thornton and Catlett family.  I don't think that I wrote a blog post at the time, but I was reviewing what I know and wanted to put some ideas down to mull and ponder.

The blog post that I wrote last year about Hawkins/Catlett/Rowzee connections is ( I should have reread it a bit before starting on this....I think that I repeat some of the information here):

http://marshamoses.blogspot.com/2013/01/hawkinsrowzeecatlett-connections.html

Here is a URL for a transcription for the will of Elizabeth Underwood Taylor Slaughter Catlett Butler.
http://www.combs-families.org/combs/assoc/u-butler.htm

in which she names Thomas Hawkins as a cousin.  However, we all know that Cousin was a bit of a loose term in those days....still it certainly indicates close connection of some sort whether it be an actual relative or not.  This site does not claim to know who the parents of Elizabeth were.  Although it seems that Elizabeth's mother, Margaret,  had marriages to: Underwood,  Upton,  Lucas after  Elizabeth's father was out of her life.  Elizabeth names Edward Rowsee as brother, so perhaps Margaret was first married to a Rowsee?  I just looked on the Northern Neck mail list archives and Kathleen Much explains these connections as:

Her "brother Edward ROWZEE" was her husband John CATLETT's half-brother.
"Cousin Captain Thomas HAWKINS" would have been her husband's cousin on the
mother's side (John CATLETT's mother was Sarah HAWKINS).

Elizabeth married next Col. John CATLETT:
05 Jun 1663-4 (Rappa. Co VA Records 1656-64, p. 326) Mrs. Margaret UPTON als LUCAS to "Francis SLAUGHTER, Junr., Son and heir unto my Son in Law Francis SLAUGHTER, deceased," one cow & increase… if Francis SLAUGHTER, Junr. dies bef 21 years, then to be disposed by "my Daughter Elizabeth CATLETT his lawful Mother… s/Margt [ML] LUCAS. Wits/Allex. FLEMING, John DANDY. (Underwood, Fothergill & Sparacio).  (From the above URL)

Thomas Lucas names his son-in-law as John Catlett in his will dated 14 Oct, 1669.  So it looks to me that it is very likely that Elizabeth Underwood Taylor Slaughter Catlett Butler may certainly have been Thomas Lucas' daughter. ... or perhaps he considers John Catlett to be his son-in-law because Thomas Lucas is married to Margaret who is the mother of Elizabeth.  Either way, their is a strong connection between the Catlett/Hawkins/Lucas family here.

my Beloved husbandAmory BUTLER, Sole Executor and Guardian to my Children and my cousinCaptain Thos. HAWKINS my brother, Edward ROWSEE and Mr. Daniel GAINES, overseers of this my will… provided that if my Executor do not Educate & keep them well that then Mr. Daniel GAINES shall have Guardianship of my Children my sd Executor allowing him a sufficient maintenance for their well being and education according as my Overseers and Executor shll agree and if they do not what the Court shall determine for the same and if Mr. GAINES shall dye my desire is that my Cousin HAWKINS do take the Children 

And in the same time frame as I was chatting with another Hawkins researcher,  I became aware of another family interconnection with this group:  Moseley.  This researcher descends from William Moseley who married Hannah Hawkins.  (I have filed his contact information with keyword Moseley)  It seems that two of Thomas Hawkins' children intermarried with the Moseley family.  Hannah Hawkins married William Moseley while her brother, John Hawkins, married Elizabeth Moseley.  (other researchers tell me that the Moseley siblings were both the children of William and Martha (Brasseur) Moseley also, as per a book "Moseley-Shelp Family" by Shiela Shelp Moseley 1995.


I found quite a bit of information about the Hawkins/Rowzee/Catlett family at the following URL:

http://gedcom.surnames.com/burgess_jim/np234.htm

This information includes research that takes Sarah Hawkins and Catlett back a generation or two in Great Britain before three of her children came to these shores.  It also mentions a book written by researchers in the early 1900's about the Catlett family.

OK....I have just a couple more thoughts before I throw up my hands as I usually do on all of these early Hawkins families.  One is that I have heard from a researcher who believes that his family descends from the Thomas of Old Rappahanock County through Thomas' grandson, Thomas, (son of John) who is said to have married Ann Covington.  This man believes that his ?-gr-grandfather was Young Hawkins---a son of Thomas and Ann Covington Hawkins.  If my memory is right, Young is found in Bedford County, Virginia.   This researcher has relatives who are male and carry the Hawkins surname.  I need to follow up on making sure research is OK and get a DNA participant to participate.

Second thought is the Butler connection.  Is it just coincidence that there is a Butler connection between two of the early Hawkins lines that I look at?  The couple from whom many of our DNA group #1 descend:  John and Elizabeth (Butler?) Hawkins who died in what was probably a epidemic in Richmond County, Virginia c. 1716 leaving orphans in the care of Richard and James Butler.  Even if Elizabeth was not actually a Butler, there is a clear close connection between this Hawkins family and the Butler family)

 John Hawkins’s will in Richmond County wills and Inventories 1709-1717 p. 235  names now wife Elizabeth Hawkins, sons William, John and Benjamin.  Asks Richard Butler and James Butler to take 6 children.  If Henry Wood, husband of Sarah Willis Wood Hudson Tuberville) will take William and teach him trade of plasterer.  Asks Richard Butler to take son John, and daughter Sarah, and daughter Elizabeth.  Asks James Butler to take son Benjamin and son James and taht they live with him until they reach 20 years.  Asks John Suttle, his freedman, to complete the crop.  will proved March 7, 1715.  he names friend Isaac Arnold executor and the will was witnessed by Isaac Arnold, Rebecca Butler and John Suttle.  Richmond County Court Minutes 1711-1715 p. 485 at a court of May 1715 John Davis has suit against Isaac Arnold, ex. of John Hawkins for 700 pounds of tobacco to be paid out of the estate of the deceased.

My notes indicate that at the time of their death, Elizabeth and John Hawkins were living in Hanover Parish, Richmond County which later became King George County after their death.


Do I know where Thomas Hawkins/Rowzee/Catlett families were living in the timer period in which I am looking at them?  Yes.

Fred Duncan has helped me explore the idea that these families were in an area around Occupatia Creek

On 20 Sep 1698 Rachel and sons John and Samuel, and son-in-law Edward Martin purchased adjoining plantations from John Hawkins, only son and heir of Thomas Hawkins of Occupacia. This information is filed in mailbox labelled Fred Duncan in my mail program.

Associated with Occupatia Creek were the lands of Richard Lawson, James Gaynes, Peter Johnson, Wm. Lowry, Geo. Morris, Wm. Moseley, Peter Rucker,  John Weir, Thos. Hawkins, Richard Coleman, Ralph Rowzee, Augustine Smith, Farmer, John Warren (Warring, now spelt Waring), John Pyne (Payne), Robert Payne, Geo. Eaton, John Gillett, John Phillips, John Watson, Phillip Rowsey, John Johnson, George Pley, Henry Berry, William Gray, Henry Tandy, Alex. Newman, Valentine Allen, Cornelius Nowell, and Hugh Owen.
( I looked in old e-mails and this was also from Fred Duncan)

The below is taken from a slide show that I use for my own information.  It shows corroborates Fred Duncan's information that these families were living near Occupatia Creek in this time period.  

Occupatia Creek
Amazing photo of the mouth of Occupatia Creek found at:

http://us.geoview.info/occupacia_creek_and_the_rappahannock_river,60267950p



I found helpful information at:  http://www.steppfamily.com/abeland.html

I found the map that was on the site that has link just above on the American Memory site Library of Congress (Jed Hotchkiss collection)  http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/map_item.pl

Map of part of Essex, King and Queen, and King William Counties / made under the direction of Capt. A.H. Campbell, Chief Topographical Dep't ; traced from a map now in progress ; approved April 21st 1863 by Abert [sic] H. Campbell, Cap. T.Eng. & Chief Top. Dep. D.N.Va. ; copy certified Oct. 22nd 1863 Eng. Office 2nd. Corps, Jed Hotchkiss, Capt. & top. eng.

Unfortunately this map does not take the creek out to the Rappahannock River.  However, it does give me the feeling that I am on the right track.  



Below is a map that shows the distance between the two areas that these two Hawkins lines were living....Hawkins/Rowsey/Catlett c. 1660 would have lived near where the Red marker is on the below map.....John and Elizabeth Hawkins who are ancestors of many of the Hawkins DNA project group #1 at the time of their death c. 1716 would have been just north west of this area in what is now King George County.  A time difference of 50 + years....one or two generations.....



.  Just to refresh my memory here is what King George County looks like now:


Is there a relationship between these two groups?  Lots of research to be done.



In 2017 I am reading Dorothy Wulfeck's book:  Hawkins in Virginia, North Carolina and Kentucky.  I am going to copy her paragraph here from:

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89062867205;view=1up;seq=33




Sunday, October 5, 2014

Arnold Family connections with Hawkins families in Virginia in 1700's and 1800's

I have spent some time this weekend looking at transcriptions of documents and some actual documents for several of the Hawkins family groups that I research in Virginia in the 1700's and 1800's.  While working on the John and Mary Long Hawkins family, I found the following map:

http://www.usgwarchives.org/special/tafq/tafq1.htm

I love this map because it shows to me how easy it would be for families to be neighbors while living in the three separate counties of Spotsylvania, Louisa, and Hanover.  These are three counties that I know much less about as I have gathered much more information about the Northern Neck, Orange, Culpeper, and Louisa Counites.

But in the back of my mind I was also thinking that I know a bit about this Arnold family!  Hmmmmm what do I know?

So here is an accounting of the occurrences of interaction between Hawkins and Arnold that I have gathered over the years:

For my own proven Hawkins family I have an event in 1813 in Orange County in which the Zion Baptist Church is formed:

About three and one half miles south of Orange in the home of Brother Hawkins, with James Arnold, Roger Mallory, Nicolas Bickers, Joseph Atkins (clerk), James Perry (deacon), Killie Hoard, Benjamin Hawkins, Hamlet Sanford, John Rogers (deacon), William Bell, William Mallory, William Hancock, William Embry, Coleman Marshall (deacon), Henry Perry, John Churchill Gordon (pastor), and Thomas Hawkins, seventeen in all.

Thomas Hawkins is my 3-hr-grandfather and Brother Hawkins is his uncle, Benjamin.  Who is this James Arnold?  I have very little information about him.

And


Isaac Arnold was a witness for John and Elizabeth Butler (?) Hawkins’s will:  Is this the same Arnold family?

1. John Hawkins. John died in Mar 1716 in Hanover Par., Richmond Co., VA.

John Hawkins married Elizabeth Butler, and they are the parents of Benjamin Hawkins who m. Sarah Willis per Newman Hall.  See Hall mss. dated 9 JAN 1991 for family group sheet.  Hall's note reads "Will of John Hoakins, Hanover parish, dated 16 JAN 1715/16 recorded 7 March 1715/16 Richmond Co., VA Wills and Inventories 1709-1717 p. 235, Abst. "now wife Elizabeth being at this time very sick and weak:  if she dies, freeman John Suttle, Jr., which now liveth with me to remain and live on the plantation whereon my family now livith: sons William, John, Benjamin and James; daughters Sarah and Elizabeth.   Richard and James Butler to care for six children but in case Henry Wood doth think fit to take son William, I desire he may have him, providing the said Henry will learn him the trade and calling of a plasterer; Richard Butler to take son John and daughters Sarah and Elizabeth; James Butler to take sons Benjamin and James until age 20.  Executor, friend Isaac Arnold, witnesses Isaac Arnold, Rebecca Butler and John Suttle. Inventory recorded 4 July 1716.  (Book and page not cited)

bef 10 Apr 1703 John married Elizabeth Butler, daughter of Peter Butler & Rebecca.

They had the following children:
          2            i.          William (-1776)
          3           ii.          John
          4          iii.          Benjamin (~1708-~1784)
          5          iv.          James
          6           v.          Sarah (-1826)
          7          vi.          Elizabeth

Is this the same Arnold family?  John and Elizabeth are proven ancestors of many of my father's DNA matches and possibly my own ancestors....just don't know yet.  OK...gotta quit for today....


Saturday, October 4, 2014

John and Mary Long Hawkins line

I heard from a researcher this week who believes that she descends from Elizabeth Hawkins who is the daughter of the couple I refer to as John and Mary Long Hawkins.  I have to start this post with the fact that I am fairly sure that Mary did not have maiden name Long.  Definitely Elizabeth who married Nicholas Hawkins before 1750 when she is named in her father's will did have maiden name of Long:

Will of John Long.  Will Book B. St. George’s Parish.  d. Jan 31 1750.  proved July 7 1752.  Wit. Philip Vincent Vass, Thomas Merry.  Ex.  Wife Elizabeth Long.  Leg. wife, Elizabeth, grandson, John Hawkins, daughter Elizabeth Hawkins, granddaughter, Elizabeth Hawkins.  (page 117)

But I have never found anything to indicate that Mary who was wife of John Hawkins had parents with surname Long.  And certainly she is not the daughter of John and Elizabeth Long who both left wills and did not name a daughter Mary Hawkins.  However, there are a LOT of John Hawkins' in early Virginia and researchers have identified this man with wife Mary Long for so many years that it is just easy to continue doing so.

In chatting with my new buddy, I began pulling out information about the John and Mary Long Hawkins family.  As I was saying above, my new buddy believes that she descends from the daughter of John and Mary Long Hawkins, Elizabeth, who married George Smith aka Noblett.  

I have many, many transcribed documents from this family line as well as gathering already transcribed documents that involve family members of this group.    Too many to begin to list.  However, I spent the evening last night looking at some of them.  Every time I start on one of the Hawkins families in early Virginia, I throw up my hands at some point as I just can not seem to sort then all out.  However, I wanted to jot down a few thoughts that are on my mind after all of my reading,

First of all, I have another blog post that deals with Spotsylvania County which is where the John and Mary Long family lived.  It can be found at:

http://marshamoses.blogspot.com/2014/10/john-and-mary-long-hawkins-line.html

Read that before moving to the below.

Another blog post written by me includes the following information:    This family seems to be found in Spotsylvania County in 1740 when John died.  Other researchers have told me that John migrated to these shores sometime between 1705 and 1720 and settled first in St. Anne's Parish in Essex County, Virginia.  He bought land in Spotsylvania County from Thomas and Larkin Chew 1723-1725.  He is said to have moved to Virginia with his brother, Philemon Hawkins.  This  idea is reinforced by the fact that he named a son Philemon.  Others say that both John and Philemon and their families lived first near Todd's Bridge over the Matapony River in what was then King and Queen County. ......

So the first question is I know very little about Spotsylvania County.  The URL above takes me to information about when it was formed and what it looked like in 1721.  But What did it look like in the time period in which the John and Mary Long family lived there?  And why did some of them move to Hanover County in the late 1700's?



I chose the below map from the list of images for Spotsylvania County because it represents to me the fact that one could live in any of the three counties:  Louisa, Hanover, and Spotsylvania and have a neighbor in an adjoining county.  This map can be found at:
http://www.usgwarchives.org/special/tafq/tafq3.htm




Hmmmmmm.....gonna take a break and look at the Arnold family in Spotsylvania/Louisa/Orange counties....new post dated Oct 5, 2014.

Monday, September 22, 2014

Feist Family


Ludwig Feist has been such a huge help to John Schweickart and to me in getting started with the original records found on the internet for the area in which John's and my mutual Schweickart ancestors lived in the early to mid 1800's and before,  I wanted to think if there was anything that I could do in return to help Ludwig with his own research.

Ludwig's Feist family are found in the Alsace Lorraine area of what is now France as early as 1729. The family lived-in Kaidenbourg, Siegen in what is now France, but has been part of Germany in some periods of history.  I am guessing that the district is Wissembourg which is the same district as that for Lembach where my own ancestors lived in this same time period

Ludwig's part of the family moved to Russia 1808 when they disappear from the records in Kaidenbourg.  They remain in Russian until they disappear from the records c. 1892 and perhaps a bit later.

 His comment:

The Feist family members from whom I descend immigrated to russia in 1808.  I had uncles and cousins who then immigrated to the US and Canada as early as the 1880's.  My direct line began in the US with my grandpa and his brothers who moved to these shores in 1903.  They were soon followed by his parents and his sisters in 1905.

Ludwig has other lines of grandparents who also lived in the area who are connected to his surname of Feist that he finds in records as early as the 1650's.  Those surnames are:

Flick
Wolff
Griesbach
Hauser
Walter
Schneider
Bartle
Barthle
Seiler



And this is very fun from Ludwig:

My grandfather married a Lauinger girl who was also from Russia her family was in the area of Wintzenbach from 1730-1808 also left kin behind into 1892+ who continued to live in the Alsace Lorraine area that is now in France.  Through her line I am a cousin of Lawrence Welk.


Ludwig's own family moved from the Kaidenbourg area to Russia in ,,,,date.....and then on to American shores in......

One of the puzzles that Ludwig has not yet solved is involves relatives of his ancestors who moved directly from Kaidenbourg to the United States.  Because his own ancestors had moved to Russia 50 years before, they may not have even known of the existence  of these Feist relatives .......fill in 
Here is a puzzle that Ludwig is working on at this time:

The year is 1869 in the month of April

Marguerithe and Catharine Feist (sisters and 3rd cousins 3 times removed from me) left Kaidenbourg, France boarded the SS Hammonia and disappeared into New York.  I found their passenger manifest on family search I am attaching an image of the page I found them on #'s 521 and 522.   The Behm, Schnepf and Thomas names near theirs are also from Kaidenbourg area, may have been their travel companions.

Marguerithe was born 22 jul 1845 her sister Catherine was born 18 nov 1849. They were unmarried at time of their arrival in New York in 1869.

Just a note I do have some Feist kin in the College point, NY area about the same time they are from the members of my family that went to russia. I do not think they knew of the French side as their ancestors had left france some 50 years earlier.  They may show up in your searches as well.

I poked around on ancestry just a bit for Ludwig and found a Maggie Feist in the household of George and Katie Fritz.  Could this be the two young ladies on the boat?  Do the ages work?  Could George Fritz also have been on the boat?


Friday, September 19, 2014

Marriage of Barbara Schweickart and George Hornberger

I had planned to put a copy of the marriage certificate of this couple in this spot over the weekend.  Ludwig has told me that it will be found in the records of Obersteinbach in the Alsace Lorraine region of France.  For a map see the post from earlier this week.  (just scroll down)  I wanted a place to put the following image  of the Protestant Church in Obersteinbach which is the most likely place for the wedding to have taken place  However I haven't done that research yet.  I do know from Ludwig that my gr-grandfather, Fred Hornberger,  was born in this town from records that can be found on-line.  So even if this is not the place of the wedding, it is probably where the family attended church.  Fred remained a faithful attendee at the Lutheran church in Ironton, Ohio.  It is said that he walked to church every Sunday when he was in his 90's.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Obersteinbach_evangelische_Kirche.JPG

However, Found the entire document to be quite difficult to read.  So instead I am going to put portions of the document in the below with my comments interspersed.  If you want to see the entire document, scroll down to the next post and follow the directions to look at the marriage book for Obersteinbach for 1863.

This is found on the far left margin and serves to be the title to help find the right document.  Now the document itself:



City Hall of Obersteinbach .....District of Wissenbourg....
Ludwig tells me that the date is 2nd Feb  I can read the 1863 with the help of Google Translate.
I did not try to read the hour.
Act of Marriage celebrated publicly in the house of Georges Hornberger.  I can not read the age of Georges Hornberger

Here is Ludwig's translation:


Marie d Obersteinbach Arrondisement of Wissembourg
the 2nd of february 1863 7 o'clock pm

Georges Hornberger 35 yrs old born in Obersteinbach 28 jun 1827
profession Journalier (day laborer) living in Obersteinbach
legitimate child of deceased Frederic Hornberger age and profession not stated,  domicile Obersteinbach died 21 mar 1852 and deceased Anne Marie Weissgerber age and profession not stated domicile Obersteinbach died 5 jan 1848.

Barbe Schweickart 31 yrs old born in Lembach 14 feb 1831
profession neant (none) living in Lembach
legitimate child of deceased Frederick Schweickart age and profession not stated,  domicile Lembach died 18 jan 1858 and Dorothee Koehlhoeffer 60 yrs old no profession living in Lembach present and consenting to the marriage.

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Intention of marriage document for Barbara Schweickart who married George Hornberger

While I was working on the blog post about Barbara Schweickart Hornberger Unger, I did a bit of googling.  Some of what I found is included in blog post dated September 6, 2014.  But the story that I am going to tell in this blog post is so much fun that it deserves a blog post of its own!  John Schweickart had included a church obit for his ancestor, Frederick Schweickart in John's book about his Schweickart family.  In this obituary it says that Frederick Schweickart was born Dec 13 1832 in Lembach, Canton Weissembourg.....Frederick is the proven brother of my ancestress, Barbara Schweickart Hornberger Unger.

So my googling was to figure out just exactly where Lembach was located.  As I stated in the Sept 6 post, I found a thread on the Alsace Lorraine roots web mail list archives explaining just what I needed.  When I subscribed to the mail list and wrote to the researchers who had been chatting about Lembach back in 1999, I received wonderful help.  But the absolutely most wonderful information came from Ludwig Feist.  Ludwig has been using primary documents for his research that can be found on-line for the area in which Lembach is found.   Ludwig has been so generous with his time in helping me to obtain documents that I never expected to find without hiring a German/French professional or making a trip to the area myself.

Here are Ludwig's instructions to find the documents for oneself:

to get to records
check the box at bottom of above page
takes you to a page with white box above the alphabet
choose L and Lembach from page that pops up
with 1830's timefraame being area you are interested check boxes at right  are
Births
Marriages
Deaths
Choose one and hit reserche below alphabet
page through till you find year of records you wish to view
most years have an index on first or last pages
Center area of page with alphabet is check box to explore decennial indexes which are basicly 10 year indexes of records on right.

And below is the first very important document that Ludwig sent to me:  I think that I understand this correctly.  This is NOT a marriage certificate for George Hornberger and Barbara Schweickart.  This is an intention of marriage between the two people.  It was required that each file such a document in their own town.  Ludwig has explained to me that the couple actually married in George's place of residence and that the marriage document is there.



Ludwig tells me that this certificate comes from the 1863 Lembach Marriage Acts Book and his explanation is as follows:

I believe she is your Barbara due to attached image which comes from 1863 Lembach marriage acts book. Under french law up to 1870's bride and groom were required to register their intent to marry with their towns records office.

Barbe born 1831 to Frederic Schweickart  (deceased at time of record) and Dorothee Koehlhoffer registered her intent to marry Georges Hornberger of Obersteinbach, Bas-Rhin, France.

[Ludwig explained: on the line where it mentions her father he is denoted as Feu (deceased)
her mother was alive living in Lembach and consented to the marriage from details after her name.]
The actual marriage occurred 2 Feb 1863 in Obersteinbach

Georges Hornberger and Barbe also had a child named Frederic born Aug 22 1865 in Obersteinbach.

So where is Obersteinbach?  




Note that it is a wide place in the road and that it is not far from Lembach  Also note how close it is to the German/France border.  There are some wonderful photos of the town on the internet.  I chose one.  Hopefully one of these days I can put photos of my own on this site.



And I can't stop for the night without putting a hint for a place to stay when I visit


 and


Monday, September 15, 2014

Trip to Alsace Lorraine in 1997--Hornberger

I went down to the basement to bring up my photo album from the trip that Jack and I made to Germany and France in 1997.  The album makes me happy just to look at!  This was the trip on which we purchased our cuckoo clock at the Hous der 1000 Clocks Factory Outlet.....It was probably the most touristy shop in the Black Forest.  But my notes say that I recommend it because the saleswoman was great and made the purchase very simple.  I remember that we bought our particular clock VERY quickly as we told her about how much we wanted to spend and just what we wanted our clock to do....and voila!  Clock was bought.  I need to get my clock repaired.  I think that I will do some research to see if there is somewhere to take it in Columbus or Cinn.....The kids are all big enough to not do the kind of yanking on the long lines that almost all of them did at one time or another until I just removed them for fear of their pulling the clock off the wall.  It is so sad that I didn't get it working for these little children.

I am going to add some photos in this spot from the album.  But for this morning I am just moving the next post down so that Fred Hornberger's naturalization record can be viewed without the side information bleeding through.

Right after our Cuckoo Clock purchase we came across by chance the town of Hornberg.  This town is right in the middle of the lumber area of Germany near Strasburg.

OH,,,Phooey.....my scanner just quite working.....Let's see if this is enough to move the post down....I'll add maps from Google instead and get around to editing this another time.  Hornberg, Germany is on this map marked with an orange marker.
From Hornberg we drove to Strasbourg, France.  See below map to see how close we were to Lembach if only I had done more research before the trip:


Ok....all I am going to do on this post until I either get my scanner working or purchase another scanner

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Fred Hornberger's Naturalization

Charlotte and I compared notes on our family folklore.  Charlotte's family folklore says that Fred Hornberger came to the United States alone.  I had always assumed that Fred and his sister, Lena, came with their mother (Barbara Schweickart Hornberger Unger) and their step-father (George Unger).  We know from the Naturalization papers of George that he said that he was German and that he had left from port of Havre and arrived in New York, 15 July 1880.  I will put a copy of his Naturalization papers on this site.  However, I have temporarily lost the USB drive on which I copied them.  So I either need to make another trip to Ironton or find the USB drive

However, here is a copy of the Naturalization of Fred Hornberger:


I believe the date to have been 2 September 1886.  He says that he came to the US about the date of July 1880.  OK....that truly makes me think that he was traveling with his mother and step-father!  It would not have made sense for them to have arrived the same month via different ships.

Frederick Hornberger was born in 1865, so he would have been 21 at the time of his Naturalization.  I do not know why the document says Naturalization of minor....I would have thought that he was an adult at this time.  Perhaps he had started the process before he turned 21 in July of that year.

Saturday, September 6, 2014

Barbara Schweikart Hornberger Unger

I had a very exciting day today!  If only genealogy was always this easy.  I had left my zip drive at the Briggs library when Charlotte and I visited.  So I wanted to visit again.  And I knew that I wanted to find at least one more piece to the puzzle.  I walked in and asked for a bit of help.  After listening to me, the librarian walked to the shelf and found two Lawrence County history books that had information about the Schweickart family.  But the HUGE find was two volumes written by John Schweickart about his family that included Fred Schweickart.  My gut feeling is that this is indeed my family, too.

Next I looked for an obit for my 2-gr-grandmother, Barbara Schweickart Hornberger Unger.  There was nothing in the index file which was disappointing.  BUT when I pulled out the microfilm for The Ironton Register I found it!  The Register was a weekly paper in that time period.  There was a obit for Mrs. George Unger in the Thursday, March 16 issue.  And the obit not only called her Mrs. George Unger, but it named her son, Fred Hornberger and mentioned that she left two brothers to mourn her:  Fred Schweickart "of this city" and Lewis Schweickart of Cincinatti.  Exactly what I had hoped to find!  I have  checked the census on ancestry and there is only ONE Fred Schweickart in Ironton, Ohio in the 1900 census and one Lewis Schweickart of Cinn in the 1900 census.  By 1910, there is no Fred Schweickart in Ironton in the census.  This is not a surprise.  My information from others tells me that her brother died the year after she did:  in 1906.

I have now e-mailed John Schweickart to see if it is possible to buy his book.  There is no doubt in my mind that his Schweickart family is also my Schweickart family!  Hurrah!

Here is my transcription of the above:  Mrs. George Unger a well known and highly respected citizen of the South Side passed away Monday morning....with pneumonia.  Mrs. Unger lived on Walnut near Seventh up to a week ago had been at the home of her son, Fred Hornberger, where she was receiving attention.  The deceased was 71 years of age and leaves a husband, one son, Fred Hornberger, two brothers, Fred Schweickart of this city and Lewis Schweikart of Cincinatti and several grandchildren to mourn her loss.  The Funeral service took place Wednesday afternoon.....Lutheran Church....Interment at Woodland Cemetery.

Charlotte and I had found the graves of Barbara and her husband, George, on our last trip to Ironton at the Woodland Cemetery.





Interesting to note that Barbara was 11 years older than George Unger.  Also interesting to see that when Barbara died George's last name was spelled Ungerer.  But the stones are side by side and there is no doubt in my mind that they are husband and wife.

One more piece of evidence that this connection is correct:  The death certificate for Fred Hornberger says that his mother's maiden name is Barbara Schweickart.  The information is given by Fred's daughter, Emma Hornberger.  Emma is very likely to have known her grandmother and to have given correct information.  She lived with her father until his death.



I am adding information to this post a week later.  I was able to get in touch with A. John Schweickart at his e-mail address:  ajschweickart@comcast.net

John is wonderful to work with and shared his information about the Schweickart family.  He had never before been aware of the fact that his ancestor, Fred Schweickart, had a sister Barbara.  There is no way that he could have tripped over this obit that spells out the relationship without having read every Ironton paper for many years.

One of the most interesting pieces of information in John's work is the inclusion of a Church obit for Frederick Schweickart.  The Obituary was dated July22, 1906 and must have been printed by the Emanuel M.E. Church when N.R. Bornemann was pastor.  I have a copy of this in my filed information from John.  The first paragraph says:  Mr. Frederick Schweickart was born Dec. 13, 1832 in Lembach, Canton Weissembourg near Alsace Lorraine, which at the time was French Territory.  He was baptized when only four days old and in 1847 by confirmation was admitted to the Holy sacrament of the Lord's Supper under Reverent Noeffner, then the Pastor at that place.  Barbara is not mentioned in his obituary which is not a surprise as she had died the year before.  His brother Lewis of Cincinnatti is mentioned without naming wife or children.  

Here are my thoughts about the above:
1) Barbara was born c. 1831 and Fred was born c. 1832.  Barbara's birth date is taken from her tomb stone.  John is a very thorough researcher and probably has very good supporting evidence for the date of 1832 which is where I obtained that date of birth for Fred.  So it is quite likely that I can assume all of the above that would have applied for a female in that time period in that geographical region.  It is likely that the family did not move in a two year period in which their were two births in the family.  So I conclude it likely that Barbara was born in the same location and was also baptized soon after her birth in the same church. 

Of course, the first thing I do is Google the place of birth and I found in the archives of the Alsace Lorraine mail list:

Lembach is in the département du Bas-Rhin, France (northern
Alsace), in the arrondissement and canton of Wissembourg, about
11 km west-southwest of Wissembourg. In 1807 it had a
mixed population of Catholics, Lutherans, Jews, Anabaptists
and Calvinists. 

And from Wikipedia:

Lembach lies in the Sauer valley, surrounded by the woods and sandstone cliffs of the Palatinate Forest-North Vosges Biosphere Reserve. It is positioned on the local road RD3 which connects Wissembourg, fifteen kilometres (nine miles) to the east with the north western tip of the département, and the road to Bitche. The German frontier is approximately six kilometres (four miles) to the north, but motorists wishing to visit Germany would be well advised to use a less direct route.
At the heart of the Lembach is a Protestant church from 1750 (but incorporating a tower from the late Medieval period) as well as a nineteenth-century Catholic church.
The commune, which embraces an extensive land area, much of it uninhabitable due to the topography, also includes the small village of Mattstall and the hamlet of Pfaffenbronn.


And here is a picture of Lembach taken from Wikipedia as well:


There is a great photo and information about the Lutheran church in Lembach that is most likely the place where both Fred and Barbara were baptized:


This URL takes the reader to a home page maintained by Joan Young.  Joan has been very helpful in giving me a feeling for the area.

Go to blog post dated September 16, 2014 for a continuation of this story.  I will add a URL at a later date.