Before I Forget

Today Ancestry.com/ uploaded a new database for people fluent in German. The original docs are held in the Staatsarchiv Stadt in Germany. 

          Hannover, Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1621–1879
          http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=61007

The "about" states: This collection consists of Lutheran church records for the years 1621 to 1879 from the Elbe-Weser Triangle in Lower Saxony, Germany. Included in this collection are records of baptism, confirmation, marriage, and burial. Further reading indicates the collection includes the state of Niedersachsen. Hmmm, several in my family recorded birthplaces of "Sachsen" which could mean the town (there were several), or the county/province/state of Sachsen, which is also known as Saxony. Yes, THOSE Saxons of Monty Python fame. 

It is yet another tool in my search for my paternal 2nd great-grandmother Hannah. She allegedly was born about 1824 in Hamburg, Deutschland. Germany wasn't yet a country, but was made up of several states. Assuming her family was Lutheran, I ran several variations of my surnames through this new Lutheran database. A few returns of similar surnames, but none with given names near my Wisers or Wostas:

Zilch. I tried other variations with wild cards. Another time I may be inspired to continue. Perhaps another cousin might find something remotely similar to a Hannah or a "Johanna" born about 1824 or Wiser sons born in 1844, 1845 and 1852? German researchers have told me four names were common among many citizens. Databases often ask for only two.

As a guide, I offer this brief timeline of Hannah taken from census, land and marriage records:

     1853 - April 19 --  Hannah Wosta marries Samuel Leeper. (Wosta may be Woste)

     1860 - U.S. Census, Hannah Leeper. age 36, birthplace: Germany. Other household members showing name, age and birthplace are: (see also four census images below)

• Louis Wiser     16   Germany
• Lemuel Wiser  15  Germany (my great granddad!)
• Barney Wiser  15  Germany
• Sam Leeper     5   Texas

      My paternal second great-grandmother Hannah allegedly immigrated from Hamburg. Or Bremen. Both were popular seaports in what later became Germany. The first documented proof I have of her existence is an 1853 marriage to Sam Leeper in Galveston, Texas. On their marriage certificate the surname "Wosta" is handwritten. What appears to be WOSTA, that is. What spelling do YOU see? From a previous blog post, here is Hannah and Sam Leeper's marriage certificate:
http://treepig.posthaven.com/1853-marriage-of-hannah-wosta-to-samuel-leeper 

      Because it is an unusual name, I wonder if Hannah might have:

(1)  Been unaware of the correct spelling due to illiteracy;

(2)  Spoken a language that was not understood by the clerk who prepared the marriage certificate;

(3)  Been subject to clerical error. The clerk might have written phonetically what she heard the young bride say. Or what her older husband SAID was his new wife's maiden name.

      So many possibilities. Accompanying Hannah were her four young sons, whose names appear on census, guardianship and land records as WISER. (Yes, and Weiser, too. But predominantly spelled WIser) I therefore assume that the 29 year old Hannah told the Galveston court clerk her MAIDEN name--not her legal married name of Wiser. That was a custom--but not always a requirement in various jurisdictions. After all, I've no proof she was married to a Herr Wiser. Assumptions are not proof, Dear Reader. 

      WITH THAT IN MIND: Familysearch.org/ recently updated their New Orleans Passenger Lists. Attached are a few WOSTE immigrants who came to America at a time my Hannah might have arrived. You see, I've yet to find an immigration record for Hannah and her Wiser boys. These young Woste passengers require further study, as they might give clues to a family my Hannah once belonged. Might my Hannah have had family in America before she crossed the Atlantic with young children? New Orleans and Galveston were busy ports of entry for Europeans. From WHERE did you come, Hannah?

          FIRST: On Fold3, a popular military site, I found some records of family who had fought for the Confederacy. Attached are two images George Freeman Hurley's military file. My mother's great-grandfather, G. F. Hurley, of Company K, 34th North Carolina Regiment, was captured April 2, 1865 in Virginia and sent to a prison in New York Harbor. After swearing an oath of allegiance to the United States, he was released from Hart's Island on June 17, 1865. Researchers are happy to learn physical descriptions of ancestors, as shown here on the second page of my red-headed ancestor's record:

HART's ISLAND: In 1865, as the Civil War was ending, the Federal government used the Island as a prison camp for Confederate soldiers. Hart Island was a prisoner of war camp for four months in 1865. 3,413 captured Confederate soldiers were housed. 235 died. Their remains were relocated to Cypress Hills Cemetery, Brooklyn in 1941. It was the final prison established by the Union...and  it quickly evolved into the city's most horrible site. Located in Long Island Sound about twenty miles north of the city and just a few miles south of David's Island, Hart Island wasn't even used until April 1865, the month the Civil War came to an end. Within three weeks of its opening, 3,413 POWs are crammed into the post's tiny enclosed area Hart does not become completely cleared of prisoners until July. Within the four months of its operation, nearly 7 percent of all the camp's POWs died, mostly from illnesses brought with them, such as chronic diarrhea and pneumonia.

Green beef shoes? 2d Lt. T. D. Lattimore wrote:  "During this winter, which was so rigorous, even to those in comfort, many of the soldiers, for want of shoes for their frost-bitten feet, covered their feet with green beef hides."  From The Histories Of The Several Regiments And Battalions From North Carolina, In The Great War 1861-'65, wonderfully shared online at URL:  https://archive.org/details/01300611.3315.emory.edu


          SECOND:  My 2nd Great-Grandfather Welk Wilhelm saw many battles with and a few captures by the Union Army. This image shows Welcome "took the oath" so as to save his hide from having to spend further time in some hellish POW camp. Soldiers who signed the oath were then released, and very often rejoined their regiments to continue the fight elsewhere. I have no idea if this is his actual signature. If so, it is yet another variation of what I believe to be his legal name: William Welcome Wilhelm. Cousins might want to see the 18 images from Welk's military file that I shared back in April 2014. (Type the name  Wilhelm in this blog's Search menu on the left). May I also suggest you google the Battle of Vicksburg and its siege? Nasty business, that. 

Newspapers.com/ has Liberty County, Texas newspapers going back to the 1880s. My paternal grandfather, Elton, was born in that small southeast Texas community in 1896. I was happy today to find brief mention of him and his older siblings in a July 24, 1908 edition of The Liberty Vindicator. He would have been 12, and the sister whom he left home to visit for a week was Nora Jones and her husband Edward.

I don't find Nora and Ed in the 1910 census yet, but in 1920 they are living in Norman, Oklahoma. So I don't know what town young "Master Elton" spent his vacation. But clearly his older sister Nina had a "pleasant" visit there, too.

And brother Rufus was under the weather. Do you suppose Rufus Wiser, teenager, wasn't happy to see the news of his illness in the paper? I wouldn't have liked seeing my health condition trumpeted. (Ask me about my great-aunt's goiter making the paper once, good grief!). 

Rufus' good health returned by the time the Fairchilds offered their home to guests for an evening of "charming hospitality." This page follows the one above--both on page 2 of The Vindicator:

The full page is below if you have a hankering to read about kidney trouble, theological difficulties and the Man Zan Pile remedy for er, well, you know. If you have trouble viewing it, right-click to save to your device for enlargement.

My day job involves scouring records. My favorite hobby also has me searching and occasionally finding records. I especially like finding a new database of marriage records.

http://familysearch.org/ is uploading thousands of records each week with the help of volunteers who both scan, upload and occasionally transcribe to prepare indexes. Best of all, Familysearch is a FREE site. It recently partnered with Ancestry.com (an awesome but NOT free site) on some projects. 

Index = One of my favorite words. Without an index one must pore through page after page looking for a keyword. FamilySearch doesn't always have indexes (yet) for their many databases. Luckily there is an index for California County Marriages - 1850 to 1952, which is where I've spent the last 90 minutes.

Here are a few copies of marriage licenses of my "kin" that I was thrilled to find.

My family has lost Louis. No known stories exist as to where Louis settled, if he married or when he died. The many researchers--both experienced and hobbyists, have found little on the eldest son of Hannah Wosta Wiser Leeper. First, let me tell a little of what's known.

1. The 1860 Fed. Census in Chambers County, Texas has a 16 year old "Louis Wiser" living with his mother, Hannah Leeper, two younger Wiser brothers, and his five year old half-brother, Sam Leeper. He is a German immigrant, and Chambers County is in southeast Texas near Galveston. (Click on the two census photos to enlarge)

2. A Louis Wiser next appears in nearby Harris County, in a marriage to Susan Davis on August 8, 1867. Source: Texas, Marriages, 1837-1973. No ages or hometowns are listed. Again, I do not know if this is MY Louis. Nor do I find ANYTHING else about this couple in any Texas census or any other census. I did find an African-American Susan Wiser in an 1896 Dallas City Directory listed as a "laundress." Censuses elsewhere (New York, Illinois, New Jersey, Louisiana) have Louis and/or Lewis Wiser/Weisers, but they are of different ages or birthplaces and appear to have been married to spouses other than a Susan. There is even a Confederate soldier from Alabama named Louis Wiser. No age or further info is given on him at Fold3's database. Wiser researchers have wondered if perhaps Louis had died while serving in the Civil War. There was a hint among now-deceased Wiser "kin" that Hannah Wiser's elusive husband (the father to the four boys from Saxony) was possibly a sailor on one of the many ships carrying European immigrants to America. If so, perhaps Louis followed his father's occupation?

3. Texas historians have a journal called STIRPES that is now online at the Portal To Texas History website. A wonderful database! I found this from a March 1984 edition of Stirpes with a transcription of male voter registrations from 1867 Chambers County, Texas:

Please note the young gentleman numbered as 197 (see first column on left), a Louis Wiser, native of Germany, "naturalized" in Texas in 1859 claims to have been a resident of Chambers County for 13 years. Arithmetic tells me he entered Texas about 1854, which year is about the time Wiser family stories indicate our Hannah immigrated from Hamburg. Or Hannover (depending upon which census you read). 

And yes, I read every other page in this Stirpes and found no mention of any other Wiser, Wysor, or Weisers. None. Had the other brothers all moved elsewhere (Liberty County?)?  Hannah, a female, was unable to vote so her name would not have appeared. She was a landowner, thanks to her husband, Sam Leeper, who was given hundreds of acres of land for his service during the battles of Bexar and San Jacinto. 

But that's another story. I will update this Louis Wiser search when I figure out where to access naturalization records--if any, for 1859. Thanks for stopping by!

UPDATE 14 Dec 2020: 

A Louis Wiser appears on line 22 of this 1870 U.S. Federal census page from Chicago Ward 9, Cook County, Illinois. It doesn't say much, but I'm not finding many Louis Wisers in this census who were 26 year-old immigrants with THAT spelling. 

[Holler at me if you can't read the image well]



 

When you search for someone and can't find them, it feels like you're running up against a brick wall. Genealogists frequently speak of their "brick wall ancestors." Hannah Wosta is one of mine. And the man with whom she had her four boys. The elusive Herr Wiser. Many a fine researcher before me has looked high and low for proof of this father to the four Wiser sons who left Sachsen (now called Germany) for Galveston, Texas in the early 1850s. But more on the boys later.

I'd like to introduce the FIRST proof found of Hannah's existence. Do you read something other than WOSTA as her last name? See on the left-hand side where it is written again: "Wosta?" Try googling "wosta" and see all that pops up. This is NOT a common surname.

See this certified copy of an actual marriage certificate obtained from Galveston County Clerk on January 12,1990 by researcher Doris Weiser Jarvis, showing the Leeper/Wosta marriage on April 19, 1853. Partial transcription:

“The State of Texas, County of Galveston. To any regular ordained Minister of the Gospel, Judge of the District Court, Judge of the County Court, or Justice of the Peace. I hereby authorize any one of you to celebrate the rites of matrimony between Samuel Leeper and Hannah Wosta and due return of your proceedings hereon to me, at my Office, make within Sixty Days, as the law directs.” Signed by county clerk, and certified by F.B Whiting, Justice of the Peace. Marriage celebrated on 19th day of April A.D. 1853. Record Book No. B, pg. 87, numbered 214."

Thank you for popping by to read this blog.

My Aunt Gwen died recently just short of her 84th birthday. Besides her husband, she leaves a sister, two daughters, four grandchildren, and several great-grand kids. The world is somehow dimmer without Aunt Gwen.