A cousin!
Occasionally, The Legal Genealogist simply feels snakebit.
Part of it comes from having southern ancestors.
My entire maternal side comes from south of the Mason-Dixon line.
You know, that part of the country where people lived far enough away from courthouses that much of what they did in their lives never got recorded in the first place…
Or where — it seems at times — every courthouse burned on a regular basis…
Or where the few records that ever were created and did name our people were in that courthouse when it burned.
The part of the country where, as Elizabeth Shown Mills puts it, any record that appears to directly name your ancestor turns out in the end to prove that there was another man of the same name in the same county at the same time.1
Ah yes the joys of southern ancestors.
Sigh…
So every so often I will do what we all do as genealogists — turn my attention to a branch that’s just a little less challenging, at least for a time.
Like my father’s side of the family.
Yeah, right.
My German-born father’s side.
Where the records, assuming you can find them, aren’t in English and aren’t even in a script that resembles any script you’ve ever learned to read, assuming you could read German in the first place.
Now my grandmother’s side isn’t too terribly bad. She was born in Bremen, and not only are there some neat records available from Bremen (like the civil registration records starting as far back as 1811,2 and church records as far back as the late 16th century3) but there is also a terrific website for Bremen research called Die Maus — the website of the Bremen Genealogical Society.4
But my grandfather’s side?
That’s a whole ‘nother story.
He was born in Bad Köstritz, in an area of Germany called Reuss jüngere Linie, a principality in what is today the modern German state of Thüringen and I spent a thoroughly depressing few minutes yesterday reading the FamilySearch Wiki page on Reuss j.L.5
A few minutes because — sigh — there is essentially nothing available on Reuss j.L.
Under “Featured Content,” the Wiki page reads: “(Add text and/or an image here).”
Under “Jurisdictions,” the Wiki page reads: “(Add text and/or an image here).”
And under “Did you know?,” the only entry is for research problems and strategies, the first of which is for finding the fathers of children born out of wedlock. Like my great grandfather who lived in Reuss.6 And we’ve already tried all of those… without success.
Even in the catalog there is — let’s see here — one book on emigrants before the first of my family members emigrated,7 and some reference works on the nobility,8 and not much else.
Sigh.
See what I mean? You have to feel just a little snakebit.
So why is the snake you see here smiling so broadly?
Because, every so often, you wake up and you find a comment posted on your blog:
Mein Name ist Moni und mein Urgroßvater war Paul Franke aus Gera *18.05.1884, seine Eltern waren Friedrich Gustav Franke und Emma Ida Graumüller *18.07.1853 in Bad Köstritz.
Deine Webseite hat mir sehr viel Freude bereitet. Ich wusste nicht das ein Teil der Familie Graumüller nach Amerika ausgewandert ist. Ja wie Du schon schreibst ist es nicht leicht an Daten aus dem Ostteil Deutschlands zu kommen.
Ich wünsche Dir weiterhin viel Erfolg.9
And for those of you who don’t read German:
My name is Moni and my great grandfather was Paul Franke born in Gera 18.05.1884, his parents were Friedrich Gustav Franke and Emma Ida Graumüller born 18.07.1853 in Bad Köstritz.
Your website has given me a lot of joy. I didn’t know that a part of the Graumüller family emigrated to America. Yes, as you write, it is not easy to get data from the eastern part of Germany.
I wish you much continued success.
Hot damn!
I have a new cousin!
Moni’s 2nd great grandmother, baptized Ida Emma Graumüller on 31 July 1853, is the oldest child of my second great grandparents, Johann Christoph Graumüller and Augusta Wilhelmina Zimmerman.10
And she is the older sister of my great grandmother Emma Louisa Graumüller, born 27 October 1855.11
Which makes Moni, if my analysis is right, my third cousin once removed!
Hot damn.
I wonder if she wants to do a DNA test…
SOURCES
- Elizabeth Shown Mills, comment on Facebook status of the author, some time in the last few weeks, even though I can’t find the darned post right now… Note: My cousin Paula found it, so let’s correct the citation: Elizabeth Shown Mills, comment on Facebook status of the author, 15 November 2014. ↩
- See FamilySearch, catalog search, Germany, Bremen, Bremen – Civil registration, FamilySearch.org (https://familysearch.org/ : accessed 28 Nov 2014). ↩
- See FamilySearch, catalog search, Germany, Bremen, Bremen – Church records, FamilySearch.org (https://familysearch.org/ : accessed 28 Nov 2014). ↩
- See Judy G. Russell, “Bremen’s Maus,” The Legal Genealogist, posted 14 July 2012 (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : accessed 28 Nov 2014). ↩
- FamilySearch Research Wiki (https://www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/), “Thuringia – Reuss jüngere Linie – Fürstentum (principality),” rev. 25 Jan 2014. ↩
- See Judy G. Russell, “Friedrike, how COULD you?,” The Legal Genealogist, posted 7 January 2012 (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : accessed 28 Nov 2014). ↩
- Frank Reinhold, Auswanderer aus Reuß jüngerer Linie (Reuß-Gera) von 1849-1882 (Kleve : Arbeitsgemeinschaft für mitteldeutsche Familienforschung, 2006). ↩
- My family name translates as “goatherd.” Nobility, we are not. ↩
- Moni S., comment posted 29 Nov 2014 to “Losing a child,” The Legal Genealogist, posted 14 December 2013 (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : accessed 28 Nov 2014). ↩
- Ida’s baptism was the first of the family events recorded in the Bad Köstritz church records after the May 1852 marriage of her parents. For the marriage, see Kirchenbuch Bad Köstritz, Trauregister Seite 434 Nr. 11 aus 1852, Marriage Record of Johann Christoph Graumüller and Auguste Wilhemina Zimmermann (digital image of record in possession of JG Russell). For the baptism, see Kirchenbuch Bad Köstritz, Taufregister Seite 57 Nr. 35 aus 1853, Baptismal Record of Ida Emma Graumüller (digital image of entry in the possession of JG Russell). ↩
- See Kirchenbuch Bad Köstritz, Taufregister Seite 110 Nr. 52 aus 1855, Baptismal Record of Emma Louise Graumüller (digital image of entry in the possession of JG Russell). ↩
I feel very snake bite since so much of my father’s side is from the Carolinas and Alabama. They may forever remain a mystery.
Don’t lose hope, Sue. My mother’s family is all over that same area — the Carolinas, Alabama (and every other southern state except Florida), and bit by bit the layers are being peeled back. Thank heavens for DNA, which is really helping…
Congratulations! You’ve given me hope that perhaps someday a cousin will contact me through the blog post I wrote about my ancestor who was born ‘out of wedlock’ in England.
Good luck, Liz! Blogs sure can be powerful cousin bait — even if the cousins speak another language!
Congratulations on your new cousin! And I feel your pain in regard to missing records. It’s enough (to borrow a phrase from “1776”) to depress a hyena!
“Enough to depress a hyena”! Love it!
That is WAY cool!!!!
My burned-courthouse frustration is Ohio’s Licking County one… it burned multiple times.. 🙁
I know the “burned more than once” pain. Two critical counties for me: Cherokee County, NC (burned 1865, 1895, 1926); and Cherokee County, AL (1882, 1895). Sigh…
I also have Licking County burned records! I did find a small part of the estate refiled after 1876 but it wasn’t much. It does at least give an idea of the time for the widow’s death. You always want more…
Congratulations on finding a cousin.
I recently found I have German ancestors on my father’s side. I have not started the search in Germany yet. It looks like I may have a steep learning curve a head of me.
A course in German research goes a long way towards smoothing out that learning curve, Michael! I took Warren Bittner’s course at SLIG.
Sometimes it turns out you have to throw a little money at the problem. Last year, I hired genealogist Christian Andreas Hoske, who is located in Thuringen, to do church record research for me in Thuringen. He was able to trace back one line several generations. His web site is http://christian-hoske.de/home-genealogist-c-a-hoske-in-germany/ and his email address is c.a-ahnenforschung@arcor.de.
Thanks for the info, Dru!
Read every email from the blog, been many years since I tried to read Deutsche. Stationed over there from 1960 to 1963. Actually could recall some of it but was nice that you had the translation Judy…Hot Damn!
My German is still pretty basic, Stan, but good enough for this!
Wunderbar! I am flirting with the German border as I have a few lines in Alsace. I still read German pretty well which helps for the records between 1872 and 1918 that are written in German and not in French anymore for that period. But German written in the Gothic alphabet….I cannot read it, especially in cursive, so I feel your pain!
Viel Gluck!
Thanks — I’ll need all the luck I can get!
Judy you have showed us yet again to never give up, as something (record-wise) or someone (living or dead) will turn up, and give you new leads. Congrats on the new cousin. And hooray for cousin bait! 😉
We’re all pretty darned stubborn, and we Germans more than most! Thanks!
LOL, love the first footnote!!
It was too true…
Love your blog! I had to laugh as I replaced your locations with my Irish townlands. ” the Wiki page reads: “(Add text and/or an image here).” – I see that phrase in my sleep! So happy for your success. Good luck with her DNA.
Don’t you love it? The places we need information on the most… sigh…
The FamilySearch Wiki Governance Council hopes to convince FamilySearch to develop the German section in the near future. Hope it works!
That’d be verrrrrry nice.
So it’s been two days – has Moni spit in a tube yet? ;-). Congratulations!
She’s in Germany and my German is lousy. Gimme time!! 🙂
How wonderful to find a cousin! I had luck that way in Westphalia. However, just wanted to say not to give up. Your town of Bad Köstritz is smack in between where I have Thusius ancestors in Eisenberg and Gera. No, I haven’t found any Graümuller. I am fortunate to have a research buddy who is German and has helped with my research when I’ve gotten stuck. However, we ran across Heiko Kertscher while doing research at the Eisenberg Lutheran church archive who will do look-ups (for a price) at churches in the area. That was 4 or 5 years ago but he still has his web site. He took photos of the records and sent pdfs. His web site is http://www.family-history.de. It is supposed to have an English button but it doesn’t seem to do much. Might be helpful or not… Was just very interested to find someone else with ancestors in this area.
How neat! This encourages me to begin blogging more regularly in 2015. 🙂 I hope she’ll share some DNA!
Glad to hear you’ll be writing more!
I also have some relatives from Alabama (Russell County). My GGG Grandfather was Col. Gilbert C. Russell for whom Russell Co., AL was named. A gold and ivory brooch that has a hand painted picture of Col. Russell on the face was handed down through the family to me. Are we related?
I look forward to attending the seminar that you are presenting on Feb 25, 2015 in The Villages, FL.
Russell is a married name for me, Ben, and my husband’s grandfather was Italian and anglicized the family name, so nope, no relation I’m afraid.
Too bad. See you on Feb. 25th.
See you then, even if we’re not cousins! 🙂