I was in Switzerland last week, and one night over dinner we talked about family history. The discussion got me thinking again about Tom's family. I've tried a variety of strategies to supplement what he remembers about his grandparents, to try to track them down and the people before them. For the longest time, I couldn't find the Bewersdorfs, because we weren't spelling the name close to correctly; I finally found them in the same household in the 1900 Census with Tom's grandfather, who had married into the family. I've tried tracing back from cousins and more distant relatives, with the thought that what I can't find directly someone else may have already found.
Last week - having drawn a blank on the Schmitts once again - I started looking again at cousins. Tom's grandmother Johanna Bewersdorf had a cousin, Otto Doroff, who lived in Baltimore. (When Johanna's mother Wilhelmina died, the obituary notice in the Chicago newspapers included a sentence, "Baltimore papers please copy." That puzzled me when I first saw it; I later figured out that Wilhelmina's brothers Herman and Frederick both had lived in Baltimore.) Otto was Herman's youngest child, and in the 1920 Census, he was in Baltimore, living with his wife Edna and his in-laws, Franklin and Celestia Gladfelter. The Gladfelter name seemed familiar -- Gladfelters had emigrated around the same time as the Reins -- so I thought if I could find Franklin's ancestors I might be able to find some connection to the Gladfelters in York County, Pennsylvania, and a connection to my family tree. It took a couple of days before I had time to work on it, but on Saturday I found records for Franklin's father Cornelius who had been Iowa during the 1880s before returning to York County. Cornelius Glatfelter's great-grandfather was Casper Glattfelder, and Casper's niece Elizabeth Glattfelder married Jacob Rein, my great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, who had emigrated to the colonies in 1738. Tom's grandmother's cousin had married a woman whose great-great-great-great-great-grandfather was Felix Glattfelder, my 7th great-grandfather.
I tried to explain this by email to Tom by email, but failed miserably. When I got home I asked if he'd understood what I send him. No, he said. So I told him, leaving our the "first cousin 2 times removed part," and all he said was, "How did you figure that out?" I told him I just remembered the Gladfelter/Glattfelder name, and had thought if I could go back far enough I might be able to find a connection.
Edna and Otto married right after World War I; Edna's and my common ancestor was born in Switzerland in 1669. I told my astonished children that if we go back far enough, we're all related. And of course, this is pretty far back. I don't even know what else to say about this. How can my husband's family (they were midwesterners, from the Chicago area and from Iowa) and my family (in the southeast from since before the American Revolution) have gotten entangled in Baltimore?
There are a lot of things in life that are due to chance. Tom and I were introduced by my third Russian teacher; I met her through an ad she had placed in Creative Loafing, after my second Russian teacher left to go to the (then) Soviet Union for the summer. Of course, if I hadn't started Russian while I was at Johns Hopkins, when I was living in Baltimore ...
Never mind.
Last week - having drawn a blank on the Schmitts once again - I started looking again at cousins. Tom's grandmother Johanna Bewersdorf had a cousin, Otto Doroff, who lived in Baltimore. (When Johanna's mother Wilhelmina died, the obituary notice in the Chicago newspapers included a sentence, "Baltimore papers please copy." That puzzled me when I first saw it; I later figured out that Wilhelmina's brothers Herman and Frederick both had lived in Baltimore.) Otto was Herman's youngest child, and in the 1920 Census, he was in Baltimore, living with his wife Edna and his in-laws, Franklin and Celestia Gladfelter. The Gladfelter name seemed familiar -- Gladfelters had emigrated around the same time as the Reins -- so I thought if I could find Franklin's ancestors I might be able to find some connection to the Gladfelters in York County, Pennsylvania, and a connection to my family tree. It took a couple of days before I had time to work on it, but on Saturday I found records for Franklin's father Cornelius who had been Iowa during the 1880s before returning to York County. Cornelius Glatfelter's great-grandfather was Casper Glattfelder, and Casper's niece Elizabeth Glattfelder married Jacob Rein, my great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, who had emigrated to the colonies in 1738. Tom's grandmother's cousin had married a woman whose great-great-great-great-great-grandfather was Felix Glattfelder, my 7th great-grandfather.
I tried to explain this by email to Tom by email, but failed miserably. When I got home I asked if he'd understood what I send him. No, he said. So I told him, leaving our the "first cousin 2 times removed part," and all he said was, "How did you figure that out?" I told him I just remembered the Gladfelter/Glattfelder name, and had thought if I could go back far enough I might be able to find a connection.
Edna and Otto married right after World War I; Edna's and my common ancestor was born in Switzerland in 1669. I told my astonished children that if we go back far enough, we're all related. And of course, this is pretty far back. I don't even know what else to say about this. How can my husband's family (they were midwesterners, from the Chicago area and from Iowa) and my family (in the southeast from since before the American Revolution) have gotten entangled in Baltimore?
There are a lot of things in life that are due to chance. Tom and I were introduced by my third Russian teacher; I met her through an ad she had placed in Creative Loafing, after my second Russian teacher left to go to the (then) Soviet Union for the summer. Of course, if I hadn't started Russian while I was at Johns Hopkins, when I was living in Baltimore ...
Never mind.
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