Clues to Great-Grandma's Birth Town

How can a woman born in 1876 be such a mystery? I don't know the parents of my great-grandmother, Alice Laubersheimer Huber (other than the names passed down in family stories). I don't know for sure where she was born. But there are some clues.

Google Map of Strasbourg,
Gerstheim, & Mulhouse in France

A birth certificate for one of her daughters says that Alice was born in "Strassburg, Alssaice-Lorraine." A birth record for her half-sister indicates that Anna Laubersheimer Milliken was born in Mulhouse, Haut-Rhin, France. In between those towns (see the map), a birth record for an uncle, Frederick Waldschmidt, shows that he was born in Gerstheim, Bas-Rhin, France.

Unfortunately, I haven't found the birth of my great-grandmother in any of those towns. A search of the online records in both the Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin archives came up empty. There was no Alice and no other Laubersheimers (other than Anna).

The records for other family members often give you clues to information about your direct ancestors. But many times more digging is required.

Related Posts:

• Find French Birth Records
• Family Clues in Birth Certificates
• Lost Sisters
• Is Frederick Waldschmidt My Uncle?

Immigrant Ancestors and the Elusive Town of Origin

I have 17 direct ancestors who were immigrants in the United States. The earliest arrival appears to be my Rüttger branch in 1846, which is very different from those of you whose families have been in the U.S. since colonial times! My immigrant ancestors include great-grandparents (4), 2nd great-grandparents (7), and 3rd great-grandparents (6). Most of my immigrant ancestors (12) came from Germany, three from Canada (though two were born in the U.K.), and two from France.

I have A LOT to learn about them, with the most important unknown being that often elusive town of origin. The only towns that I'm sure of are Artolshiem and Dambach-la-Ville in France, Pirmasens and Miesenheim in Germany, and Seneca Township in Ontario, Canada. That's not good. I have 10 direct ancestors where my research is stuck in the U.S. unless I determine the German towns where these ancestors used to live.

From the 1890 U.S. Passport Application for my 
2nd great-grandfather who arrived in the U.S. on 1 May 1854

Online trees from sites like Geneanet.org, index-only records on FamilySearch, and sibling church records have given me a place to start, but there's more work to do before concluding that these are definitely the towns. These places in Germany include Bettingen, Großkarlbach (2), Lambsheim, and Wiesbach (2). And then there are the 4 German ancestors who have given me zero clues pointing to where they came from. Sigh.

A recent birthday gift has given me renewed inspiration to continue the search for these towns. I've just read a few chapters of James Beidler's Trace Your German Roots Online, which was released at the end of April, but it's pushed me to revisit these immigrant ancestors. I'll definitely post any progress I make.

If you have any success stories about locating the towns of your German immigrant ancestors, please share them with me!

Lost Sisters

I have a great-grandmother on each side of my family who is somewhat of a mystery. Kunigunda Boser Stenglein arrived in the U.S. with her husband in 1891, and Alice Laubersheimer Huber arrived in 1899. I still haven't identified the parents for either woman.

In both cases, I was hoping that a sister connection would lead me to the information I was missing. Research siblings to learn more about their parents, right? In theory that should work, but it turns out that the sisters are lost in the records somewhere.

Kunigunda had a sister, Kathryn, who arrived in the U.S. eight years later and appeared in the 1900 census as a member of Kunigunda's household in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Because I can't find her after that, I'm assuming she got married...but I haven't located a marriage record. She could have died before the next census, but I haven't found a death record. Kathryn Boser might be spelled numerous ways, which could be a reason I'm not finding her in vital and census records.

Alice arrived in the U.S. with two women, Bertha & Marie, whom I'm assuming were her sisters. They were close in age, had the same surname, and all were going to meet an uncle in Pittsburgh. While Alice was in the 1900 census as a servant in a physician's household, I haven't found any signs of her sisters yet. Did they marry, or die, or even return to Germany?

These sisters of my two great-grandmothers are lost for the moment, but I'm sure they will be found. Until then, the search continues for them as well as their parents. Do you have any similar stories of unknown parents and vanishing siblings?

Stuttgart Beer Festival

If you have ancestors who lived in Stuttgart, Germany, at any time since 1818, they most likely attended the annual Stuttgart Beer Festival, or Cannstatter Volksfest. This year's event ends on October 11 after almost three weeks of festivities.

My family tree doesn't have a connection to Stuttgart (other than it's the name of the ship that brought my German great-grandmother Susanna Truar to America in 1885), but my husband loves Oktoberfest and beer...and I love that it's a historical event that's been held for almost 200 years.

Stuttgart is the largest city and state capital of Baden-Württemberg. The Cannstatter Volksfest is considered the second largest beer festival in the world, after Munich's Oktoberfest. King Wilhelm I and Queen Katharina created the festival in 1818 to celebrate the harvest, two years after Europe's worst famine of the 19th century. Abnormal weather, including snow in the summer, led to extreme food shortages. Thousands of Germans left their homes to escape the famine, going to North America or Russia. After surviving such suffering, the country definitely had something to celebrate.

The Cannstatter Volksfest started as a one-day event for the locals and has grown to attract about 4 million visitors every year from many different countries. While beer, food, rides and special events may attract people today, it's an event based on tradition. Plus, it's interesting to think that someone in your family tree may have been at the festival during his or her lifetime.

Do you have any German ancestors who lived in Stuttgart?

Include All Information in Research Requests

Often due to distance or limited access to records, we must request research help from others. For example, you may choose to hire a professional genealogist to find information for you. Or, as is the case with the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, you may not be allowed to search through the archives yourself. You may have to fill out a form, and then volunteers will do their best to dig through the records in search of the information you need.

In both instances, it's absolutely critical to provide as much information as you can so that the chances of success are greatly increased.  A thoughtful genealogy query is just as important as other steps in the research process such as determining your objective and identifying key sources of information.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I learned from church marriage records the names of my 4th great-grandparents. Church records are an invaluable resource in genealogy research, since they often provide parent names and the town where an ancestor lived before coming to the U.S. By providing all of the information I knew, a wonderful volunteer found the answers I needed.

My research goal was to learn: 1) where my 3rd great-grandparents, Peter & Barbara Steimer Klein, lived in Germany, and 2) the names of their parents. I knew that they were Catholic and hoped that church records would have the answers. For the archive volunteers to find what I needed, it was important that I provide clues as to which parish they may have belonged.

I knew when and where their first child was born (which helps narrow the range of their marriage year) and that the family later lived in the South Side neighborhood of Pittsburgh. If I would have stopped with that information when I filled out the research request form, I would have learned only half of the answers. The research report showed that Peter & Barbara did in fact get married at St. Michael's on the South Side of Pittsburgh, and it provided the names of their parents. So my 4th great-grandparents are Peter Klein & Eva Dani and Clemens Steimer & Barbara Eid.

However, on the research form, I also provided information about Barbara's brothers. My hope was that, if her marriage record couldn't be located or if it wasn't detailed, the brothers' records might be more helpful. Bingo! Barbara's brother, Jacob, was married in McKeesport, and his church marriage record confirmed that their parents were Clemens & Barbara Eid Steimer. But it also showed that Jacob was born in Wiesbach, Germany. Therefore, I now know where some of my ancestors were living during at least one key event of their lives.

Even if you think a detail is unimportant, it's definitely better to include too much information than not enough. It may make a huge difference in discovering more about your ancestors.

Related Posts:

• Family Immigration: Peter Klein in 1854
• Gather Clues from Geneanet

Family Marriage: Wedding at St. Stephanus, Lambsheim, Germany

On this day in 1838, my 3rd great-grandparents were married in St. Stephanus Catholic Church in Lambsheim, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.

Courtesy of Wikipedia: St. Stephanus in Lambsheim, Germany

John Rüttger was 40 years old and Elisabeth Carolina Armbrust was 27 when they exchanged their vows in the church pictured above. As far as I can tell, they became the parents of two daughters and two sons. Eight years after their wedding, the family boarded a ship and headed to their new life in America. My 2nd great-grandmother, Anna Mary Rüttger, was only four years old.

Unfortunately, I haven't found any records for the family after their arrival until the marriage of 15-year-old Anna Mary in Pittsburgh in 1858. No Rüttgers are mentioned as witnesses at that wedding, and I haven't found any matching Rüttgers in the Pittsburgh city directories.

My search for John & Elisabeth Rüttger continues, but I pause today to remember them and their wedding day.

Family Immigration: Peter Klein in 1854

On this day in 1854, my German 3rd great-grandfather, Peter Klein, arrived in the United States. He was traveling with the woman he would later marry, Barbara Steimer, and her two brothers, John & Andrew. All of them would eventually make their way to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The couple raised seven children, including a steelworker, a grocer, and a Sister of St. Francis. Peter first made a living as a coal miner and later as an engineer for the Freedom Oil Company. He eventually owned a dozen lots in the Lower St. Clair area of Pittsburgh, and lived in the house shown here at 2900 Arlington Avenue (courtesy of Google Maps).

Probate records show that Peter died at the age of 67 on April 14, 1892, presumably from injuries received on the job six months earlier from a boiler explosion in Freedom, Beaver County. The Pittsburgh Dispatch reported that he "was standing in front of the boiler when it exploded and was blown to an adjoining field, a distance of 80 feet."

I still have a lot to learn about Peter & Barbara Klein. I don't know the names of their parents and have no idea where in Germany they lived before coming to America. My genealogy research continues...