Deaths of Two Frederick Fiegers in 1901

My first cousin twice removed, Robert Louis Jay, married Ray Fieger in Pittsburgh around 1928. (With this marriage, her name became Ray Jay. Love it!)

Ray lost her father Frederick, who was a city councilman, in January 1901. Her grandfather, who also was Frederick Fieger, died just a few months later in May 1901. Ray was only four years old.

Here are the newspaper death notices for both Fredericks:

The Pittsburgh Post, January 7, 1901
(CLICK TO VIEW IMAGE LARGER)

The Pittsburgh Post, May 2, 1901

Ray Fieger Jay was the only daughter of Frederick Fieger, who also had five sons. Ray didn't have children of her own, but she lived a long life. She died in Pittsburgh at the age of 82 on March 31, 1979.

Dig into Pennsylvania Farm Records

My husband's 3rd great-grandfather, Hamilton Stewart, was born on May 10, 1799, in McKeesport, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. I can see from census records that he spent at least 5 decades as a farmer in the nearby township of Versailles, but I want to know more than that.

To get a better picture of what Hamilton's life was like, I took a look at the agricultural census manuscripts that are available on the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission website. This is what I learned about his farm from 1850:

1850 Agricultural Census, Versailles - Hamilton Stewart Farm

• 80 improved acres of land
• 20 unimproved acres
• 4000 cash value of farm
• 5 horses
• 7 cows
• 5 other cattle
• 11 sheep
• 16 swine
• 423 value of live stock
• 188 bushels of wheat
• 200 bushels of Indian corn
• 400 bushels of oats
• 40 pounds of wool
• 260 pounds of butter
• 17 tons of hay
• 10 value of homemade manufacture
• 76 value of animals slaughtered

Agricultural census data for Pennsylvania is also available for 1880 and 1927, but Hamilton passed away before that. It would have been great to compare the 1850 data to a later decade to see if his farm grew.

If you have Pennsylvania farmers in your family tree, dig into these farm records to learn more about your ancestors.

The Kiefer Children Died Too Young

My 3rd great-aunt, Philippina Klein, married Peter Kiefer in Pittsburgh on January 30, 1889. By 1910, they had 8 children but only 4 were living. Even the four children who would become adults died before the age of 50. Sadly, the parents had to see six of their children buried before they died themselves in 1927 and 1936.

St. Peter's Cemetery, Mt. Oliver area of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
(Reprinted with permission from Roseanne Kocinski-Fowler)

Here are the Kiefer children:

1. Clement James Kiefer (1890-1938) - Clement left behind wife Ethel and daughters Dorothy and Ruth when he died at the age of 47 of coronary disease and chronic nephritis;
2. Marcella Kiefer (1891-1896) - Marcella was only 5 years old when she died of burns; she was an unknown cousin until I found the newspaper article below;
3. Alfred William Kiefer (1893-1920) - Alfred was 27 when he died at his parents' home of pulmonary edema;
4. Loretta B. Kiefer (1895-1922) - Loretta was only married to Louis Schanck for a year or two when she died at the age of 26 of cardiac exhaustion and edema of the lungs;
5. Paul Peter Kiefer (1903-1945) - Paul was the last surviving sibling and died in Pittsburgh at the age of 41 of malignant hypertension; he left behind his wife Cecilia and children, Paul and Loretta;
6. Unknown Kiefer - died by 1900 census;
7. Unknown Kiefer - died by 1900 census;
8. Unknown Kiefer - died by 1910 census

The Pittsburgh Post, November 24, 1896

I've submitted a research request to the Diocese of Pittsburgh to find information about the three unknown young children who passed away. I hate having nameless entries in my family tree since I feel they deserve to be acknowledged and remembered. 

The Kiefer family lived on Arlington Avenue in the Lower St. Clair area of Pittsburgh, and Peter's obituary says that his funeral mass was held at St. Henry's Church. The wonderful volunteer researchers should be able to take that information to find the family starting with the 1889 marriage and trace them forward, even if they switched parishes at any point. I included information about each of the 8 children with the hope they can identify the names I'm missing.

I'll post an update when I receive the report.

Related Posts:

• Include All Information in Research Requests
• Family Immigration: Peter Klein in 1854

Find French Birth Records

My 2nd great-grandparents, Ignace "Charles" and Caroline Wey Huber, were born in France, were married in France, and had their first child in France. As I indicated in an earlier post (see link at the end), they left this son in France for several years while they built a life in the United States.

The French archives are absolutely wonderful since many birth, marriage, and death records have been scanned and are available online for free. They aren't searchable but, as long as you know the town, you can browse the images to find key records for your family members. Finding my uncle Alphonse Huber's birth record in the large Paris archives took a lot of patience, but it was worth it.

Birth record for Alphonse Antoine Huber, Paris, France, March 16, 1864
(CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO VIEW LARGER)

I wish I could read French, but I was able to understand a few things:

• Alphonse's middle name was Antoine, which was his paternal grandfather's name;
• His father, Ignace Hubert [sic], was a tailleur or tailor; and  
• His mother, Caroline Wey, was a couturière or dressmaker.

I also used the Bas-Rhin archives to locate Ignace's birth record in Artolsheim and Caroline's in Dambach-la-Ville. If my research was successful without knowing the language, then others looking for their French ancestors definitely can do it, too.

If you can read French and see any other important details in the birth record above, I would love to hear from you!

Related Posts:  

• Immigration: Leaving Children Behind
• The Huber Brothers of Akron & Pittsburgh

Fire Captain John B. Lucot

John B. Lucot was named after his French grandfather who came to the U.S. in the 1840s and settled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The younger John was most likely born in Temperanceville, now the West End of Pittsburgh, since he was living there in 1870 at the age of two with his parents, Albert and Minnie.

John was first employed as an iron worker but, by the age of 23, he was appointed as a Pittsburgh fire fighter. A year later, he married a Minnie of his own, Philomena Stella Cain. Within 10 years, they had a household full of children: five girls.

But a few days before his youngest daughter's first birthday, on May 17, 1904, Minnie died of pneumonia. John most likely moved back in with his parents so they could help raise his girls because that's where he was in the 1910 census. In 1911, he married his second wife, my great-great aunt Frances Echement, at St. Mary of the Mount Church. They had three boys together: Albert John, Arthur Ambrose, and Richard J. Lucot.

In between his marriages, John B. Lucot was promoted to fire captain and assigned to Company No. 35 in the 40th Ward of Pittsburgh. It appears that he moved to at least one other fire company in the city after that, and then retired in 1933 after 41 years of service.

John and Frances are buried in St. Martin's Cemetery, along with their son Al:

St. Martin's Cemetery, West End section of Pittsburgh, Allegheny, Pennsylvania
(Photo taken by the author)

Related Post:  Firemen Switch from Horses to Motor Vehicles 100 Years Ago

Ads for Missing Relatives

Missing person ads were placed in newspapers by relatives when they were trying to locate a family member. When you see one of these ads, you can't help but wonder if they ever got the information they hoped for.

Here is one placed in a Pennsylvania newspaper by Sarah Bliss Whiteway of Devon, England, who was searching for her brother, William Bliss, in the United States:

The Wilkes-Barre Record, January 19, 1909

This next ad was looking for a traveling salesman from Pittsburgh, John Franklin Llewellyn, who disappeared four years earlier. There are two family trees on Ancestry.com that have no additional information about him after 1900, so it's possible he was was never found.

Harrisburg Daily Independent, March 17, 1906

Michael Kundratouch disappeared on a Sunday in 1921, and the ad below was placed in the newspaper on Friday of that same week. I found his Pennsylvania death certificate on Ancestry.com, so at least his family found out what happened, although it was not good news. The death record for "Mike Kundratouich" indicates that he was a coal miner from Russia, and it looks like his body was found on March 16, 1922, since that's the date the deputy coroner viewed the body. Cause of death was "Drowned, probably accidental, found in Monongahela river at Coal Bluff."

The Daily Republican (Monongahela, Pennsylvania), December 9, 1921

Related Post:  Sadly, Research Doesn't Find All Answers

Great Documentary: Packed in a Trunk

"Here's to being seen"

There's a wonderful HBO documentary that you just have to watch. It's called Packed in a Trunk: The Lost Art of Edith Lake Wilkinson and is the story of a little-known artist and the discovery of her artwork in an attic in Wheeling, West Virginia. It began airing on July 20th, but I just saw it yesterday and thought is was fantastic. If you have access to HBO On Demand, please take time to watch it.

As summarized on the website dedicated to Edith:

"Packed in a Trunk: The Lost Art of Edith Lake Wilkinson is a documentary film that will celebrate the long-buried talent of the painter Edith Lake Wilkinson who was part of the Provincetown art scene in the early 20th century and produced an astounding body of work. In 1924 she was committed to an asylum -- perhaps with the help of the family lawyer who was busily siphoning off her funds. The lawyer had also objected to Edith’s 'close and constant contact' with her companion Fannie. Once she was put away, Edith’s work and all her worldly possessions were packed into trunks and shipped off to a relative in West Virginia where they sat in an attic collecting dust for the next 40 years. Edith was never heard from again. 

Edith’s great-niece, Jane Anderson (Emmy-winning Writer & Director) grew up surrounded by Edith’s paintings thanks to her mother who had gone poking through that dusty attic and rescued Edith’s work. ... Packed in a Trunk will follow Jane in her efforts to find the answers to the mystery of Edith’s buried life, as well as her goal to return Edith’s work back to Provincetown."

There are some historical records, a few photos, a scene where her great-niece walks the cemetery in search of Edith's grave, lots of art, and ultimately a result not unlike our efforts with genealogy: this woman's story is uncovered and now she will not be forgotten. 

As it says in this line on the website, "Here’s to being seen."

Harry G. Vance, Horseman...and Mortician?

Harry Grant Vance built a career around horses, and he was born and died in Washington County, Pennsylvania. So when I found a Harry G. Vance in the 1910 census, who was in Carnegie, Allegheny County, working as an undertaker, I was convinced that it was a different man.

Harry was born on May 10, 1868, to John and Mary Jane Shipley Vance in Smith Township, Pennsylvania. At the age of 24, he married Melissa Guthrie at her father's residence in the city of Washington, Pennsylvania. Melissa's father, Robert Guthrie, was my husband's 2nd great-grandfather.

Harry and Melissa had five children, many of whom appear to have been well-educated. Daughters Mary and Gladys were teachers and son Carl was a pharmacist who operated his own drug store. Harry surrounded himself with horses. In 1900, he was a "livery man." By 1912, he was a horse dealer, a profession that continued for 20 years. Here's an ad from 1907 when he was part of Vance & Hood:

The Daily Notes (Canonsburg, Pennsylvania), February 26, 1907

But where was he in 1910? I couldn't find him in Washington County. A search on Ancestry.com kept pointing me to Carnegie, Pennsylvania. The names of the wife and four children matched, but I was still skeptical. This H.G. Vance was a funeral director and even had an ad in the city directory:

R.L. Polk & Co.'s Carnegie Directory, 1910-1911

It turns out that it was the same man, and searching newspapers helped me confirm this fact. I found the following blurb in The Daily Notes from Canonsburg, Pennsylvania in 1909:  "Harry G. Vance is moving to Carnegie, where he has purchased the Steele undertaking establishment. Mr. Vance was for a number of years engaged in the livery business in Canonsburg."

Harry's time as a mortician was also mentioned in his 1950 obituary: "He engaged in the livery and undertaking business in Canonsburg for several years as an associate of the late William H. McNary. He also engaged in the same business in Carnegie for a number of years."

Partial Obituary:  The Daily Notes (Canonsburg,
Pennsylvania), January 17, 1950

It appears that his time as an undertaker in Carnegie didn't last long. Three years after his move was announced in the newspaper, the Carnegie city directory showed him working as a horse dealer.

Harry Grant Vance died in Washington Hospital on January 16, 1950, at the age of 82. I'm sure he loved horses to the very end.