Who Came Before You?: May 2010

Do where do you start? Well, there’s several ideas for that….

Start with the easiest line
That line could be where you have the most information. You may know the family history more or have more family to ask. With this information, you have more to go on and then can jump start. I had a cousin who had put together a book on the Martin line, so I was able to use that book as a good starting point. She actually still lived in the areas and knew more of the members so she had gotten the family information. Using her information, I had dates, names, and places, but even getting the information “first hand” wasn’t always completely accurate. Still, it was a very viable resource that helped me put together more of the lines she hadn’t ventured into as much. I now am in contact with cousins that we connect by my 5th great-grandfather!

You may not know much about any of your lines, but where your family is from, the information is easily accessible. The Montgomery County Genealogy Library has an incredible collection, especially specializing in southern research. USGenweb relies on contributions by its users, so some areas have more information available than others. LDS Libraries have locations around and you can request information be sent to those locations. Online, there is quite a bit from them. Their newer site (http://search.labs.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#p=home
), have actual abstracts and even images. For Texas researchers, death certificates are online for deaths occurring before 1977. Louisiana death certificate abstracts are available to about 1954. List of US/Canada records can be found at http://search.labs.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#p=allCollections&r=0. They are constantly adding new records for US and other countries.

Start with the line that is of most interest
Sometimes you do not know anything about a certain line and would like to know more. It may not be the easiest line, especially with little or no initial information, but it can be the most rewarding. Just watch some episodes of Who Do You Think You Are? (http://www.nbc.com/who-do-you-think-you-are/) you’ll see that firsthand. Sometimes you have to be the most patient with this and at times, put it aside, but eventually you’ll get there.

So, I’ve been researching a long time….
I’ve been searching my family lines for almost 20 years now. As I said earlier, I have one line that goes back to my 5th great-grandfather. I have other lines I go back further than that. I have some lines that I don’t go far at all. So, how do I decide what to work on? I have several family trees on ancestry.com. I also have postings on the ancestry.com and genealogy.com boards. So, there are times I receive some form a contact on someone in my database. There are times that is what gets me involved in researching a certain branch. Other times, something just hits me. But, sometimes, something just happens…..

I was watching Who Do You Think Your Are? I had put aside researching for the most part, so I decided to get onto ancestry.com (I have a subscription), and one thing led to another.

Newly added to ancestry.com was Hamburg Passenger Lists. I have on my maternal line Wolter and Busse lines that came from Germany in mid 1800’s and I have on my paternal line Kempners from Austria and Lyons from Prussia who came over mid/late 1800’s. I have info on the Wolter and Busse’s arrivals but nothing on Kempners and Lyons. In fact, all I had on the Kempners was my 2nd great-grandmother Gussie Fannie Kempner Lyons had a brother Joseph. Her death certificate didn’t give much information, so I had ordered Joseph’s and found parents were Israel Kempner and Ella Schauman. Even worse, I had no family info on her husband Max! His death certificate was filled out by his physician! I could find neither of their arrivals, so I could not find where exactly they came from, but that day was different. I found in the Hamburger Passenger list Guste Kempner from Krakau, Osterrich. Not only that, her mother Ella was with her! WOW. I now knew where she was from AND her mom came too!!!!! As for why I had trouble with the NY Passenger list? The pages were difficult to read and she wasn’t indexed as Guste.

So what next? I started trying to find out more info on Ella and also Krakau/Krakow. I eventually found an Arkansas cemetery record site which led me to the grave of Ella Kempner (http://arkansasgravestones.org/view.php?id=242365). I always knew there were many other Kempners in the Little Rock area but could never connect them. So, I contacted the submitter of the photo and information to see if she could clue me into the location of the grave as well to recheck the birth place (she had it was somewhat unreadable). She came back and confirmed that with a second look, it was Cracow, Austria (variant spelling). She also could tell me that the Jacob Kempner family was nearby.

And the search is on….I start trying to find a site containing information on Krakow, Austria. I went around and around and then googled just Krakow. Well, it’s in POLAND now, not Austria! Lesson learned, when researching European family roots, check for where the borders are now (that’s actually a true statement for US research also. You don’t only want to know where the town was located when your family lived there, but you want to know what county it is considered NOW. That is actually where you usually want to go when you are in a library or online looking by state and then by county. Older books may be under the original county, so still look both places.) So, Krakow’s in Poland, redirect google search…..BINGO! Found a Jewish Krakow Documents site. The initial page has a search engine by name and also Early Family Trees, so I go to the family trees….No Kempner but there’s KLEMPNER (http://www.ics.uci.edu/~dan/genealogy/Krakow/Families/Klempner.html). Hmmm, Ella Schauman m. Isaac Kempner. Two children are listed: Leibel Ezyk b. 1851 and Izrael b. 7 Dec 1853 (hey wait, Joseph Kempner was listed as birth 7 Dec 1851- that’s Joseph!) No Fannie, but the information from about mid 1850’s to mid 1860’s seems to more or less missing. Keep looking…Izaak had married previously, son Jakob b. 14 Nov 1844 (hey that’s Jacob of Little Rock). Izrael had a brother Abraham b. ca. 1819 and m. Szeidel Hanna Reiner (hey that’s Abraham and Sharlotte from Hot Springs and Little Rock). Izaak had another brother Josef who had a son Abba Jakob b. 1838 and Izaak Jonas b. 1843 (yep, Jacob lived in Hot Springs and Isaac in Little Rock). That left in Little Rock, Bernard Kempner who only was there in 1870 and I had been in contact some with someone that was researching him by marriage of his daughter Leah. Well, long story short, as it turns out, Bernard is Berek Klempner b. 1841, son of Izaak and his first wife (so he too his my Fannie’s brother). Actually, it was a combination of information I had from the other researcher and finding information on his daughter’s birth in Krakow that helped make the connection. As it turns out, Bernard and his wife returned to Krakow in the 1870’s. They had the one daughter and Bernard soon died there. His wife married again. We’re still trying to figure out if his other two children returned also to Krakow and then came back to the US or what (and if you want an interesting story, Leah Kempner Besser’s is quite interesting!) So, now, all of the Little Rock/Hot Springs Kempners have a connection. And, as it turned out, no wonder I was having so much trouble. I was looking for Kempners in Austria and not Klempners in Poland!!

So, I continued to wonder if there were more family members that made their way to the US, but couldn’t find anything online that helped. My recent trip to the library did! I found several volumes of abstracts from the Van Buren papers. There I found three things. Mrs. Max Lyons’ brother MH Kempner came to visit from Idaho City. I already had a Moses Henry Kempner in my Kempner research and just wondered if he might be the eldest son (from Izaak’s first marriage) Moises Hirsch. Yep! Brother Ike Kempner came to visit from Little Rock. Well, that means Leib Ezyk was one of the Ike’s in the Little Rock info. Not sure exactly what happened to him since I don’t find him in the 1900 census and as of yet, no cemetery info is posted on him. Still to search. Also, her nephew Master Ike Cohn of NYC came to visit. Now, that’s going to be fun! I know she had two older sisters from Izaak’s first marriage Ester Baya and Pessel, but I have no further information on them yet. Either could be the mother. Also, there is a good information gap that would fit a few sisters in between 1853 and 1861. Now, as for timing, it would probably have to be a sister closer to the 1853. So, I don’t know the age of Ike, if he was born in Krakow or in US, who exactly his mother is, did she come to the, did she marry in the us? Another challenge! Interesting how you can get so much from just little abstracts of newspapers…

Actually, it doesn’t stop there! There was interesting information on Max Lyons as well. His brother Rube Lyons from NY came to visit twice (at least), the family took a trip to St. Louis, Missouri, the family left Van Buren for a time to do business in Illinois, upon returning reopened the New York Store, and at one time opened a second store in Atkins.

So, I started the search. Max had a brother Reuben. He had family!!!!! I found a Reuben Lyons in Manhattan b. 1861. In 1900, he had his nephew Morris living with him. Morris was born in Missouri. In 1880, I found Louis, Anna, Abraham, Myer, Reuben, and Flora Lion in St. Louis. Also in St. Louis was David, Rosa, Jennie, Morris, and Julius. Strangely, I had this family already in my online database. Why? Well, as it turns out, my online database is usually more extensive, including family lines from marriages. David Lyons’ son Bentley Harold had married Selma or Selina Haas, whose brother Harry married Mae C Lyons (yep Max and Fannie’s daughter). So, a couple of things to prove or question. Is Myer and Max one and the same? The years of birth were off but that’s not abnormal. And you wouldn’t think Myer and Max would be the same name, but I had learned earlier from Bernard Kempner, they could be. In 1870, his son was listed as Meyer. I looked all over for Meyer/Myer Kempner, but with the recent research and reconnecting with the other researcher I found that Meyer was Max Kempner and he married and died in New York. I just did the Jewish Name variations on ancestry.com and it shows Meyer or Maharam with variations including Meyer, Max, Maks, and Marek ( I actually would then include Mark since I’ve seen Max and Mark/Marc interchanged). Also, is David Louis and Anna’s son? It would seem so since it appears Morris was living with uncle Reuben in 1900, but then again, is this the right Reuben??

More online info gets me closer. So, I’ve turned back to the paid site of ancestry.com. I do find Louis, Anna, and Abraham’s death records. Unfortunately, they do not say parentage, actual birth location, but do give burial location. I tried searching the newspaper records online with hopes of finding an obit. No luck on them. I did find Reuben’s obit, but it only lists his wife and children, no mention of siblings. Hoped to find that one returned to the homeland and had passport application, but if they did, it isn’t online yet. Then, I wandered over to somewhere new for me. Missouri Digital Heritage http://www.sos.mo.gov/mdh/ Here I found David’s death certificate that confirmed his parents as Louis and Anna, but only lists birth location as Poland. I continue on and find naturalization information for David, Abraham, Meyer, and Reuben. I can send off for $1 each for copies (and I will). Then…..I find probate records. I found Louis Lyons probate, administered by Abraham M Lyons. In the records, I see Ruby Lyons of New York City received $50 by American Express. Flora C Lyons of St. Louis received $100 for Hazel Syble Lyons. And, Max Lyons of Van Buren received $1 (I now want to find the will and figure that one out!) For some reason David wasn’t even listed (another reason I would like to see the will). Apparently in 1900, Abraham M Lyons’ executorships was revoked due to failure to settle estate (I can’t read all of the entries). So Max is more than likely Meyers. Flora it appears married a Morris S Lyons (will have to seek if there is a family relationship there).

I am now trying to find out if there are any connections to the Samuel Lyons family of Arkansas or to any other Lyon or Lyons family in St. Louis. Many there were actually from Ireland, but I’m ordering the naturalization records of those who were from Germany/Prussia/Poland.

Hoping to find where the Lyons family originated. I found one record of arrival that fits someone but if it is the correct record, the recorder was quite sloppy. The family shows an Abraham, Anna, L, Reuben, and Phillip. Some of the info matches but I think the Abraham and L info is switched and the Philip would have to be Flora. Reuben fits perfectly along with the year of arrival.

So, in the last few months, I’ve been able to go a generation back on two lines that had given me a lot of trouble. A few more pieces of the puzzle in place, now to find some more……

Who Came Before You?

Facebook Badge

Followers

Blog Archive

About Me

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Where to Start?

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Genealogy Free Sites