Finding John Glen/Jan Glein's Father

As I described in my previous post, I have been researching John Glen #319928 (1864-1939), a family friend of my maternal grandparents.  I found his passenger manifest when he immigrated to New York City, but I wanted to find his parents, whose names were unknown.

First, I tried plugging in all the information that I had about him into Ancestry and FamilySearch, but I found nothing useful.  I got a lot of family trees that had been put up by descendants of his wife's family [Aganetha Heidebrecht #319927 (1882-1947)], but they had no information about his parents.  I decided to try his marriage license, death certificate, and obituary since those are common sources for parents' names.

Since he was Kleine Gemeinde, I figured that Christlicher Familienfrend, the denominational paper of the KG, would be the most likely place for an obituary.  The nearby Mennonite Library and Archive at Bethel College in North Newton, Kans., has the Christlicher Familienfreund, and it was easy to find his obituary in the July 1939 issue, the month after he died.

J. H. Reimer, “Todesberichte Johann Glen,” Christlicher Familienfreund, July 1939, p. 4, Mennonite Library and Archives, Bethel College, North Newton, Kansas.

Unfortunately, it gave no information about his parents.

From Grandma I knew that he had married on 7 May 1905, in Jansen, Nebr.  Recently I was in Fairbury, Nebr., the county seat of Jefferson County where Jansen is located.  The FamilySearch wiki for Jefferson County, Nebr., reports that the county kept marriage records from 1864, so I should be in luck.  And the county clerk indeed had his marriage record to Aganetha Heidebrecht.

Marriage license, John Glen to Agnes Heidebrecht, 7 May 1905, Jefferson County, Nebraska, Marriage Record G:272, County Clerk, Courthouse, Fairbury.

And the marriage license gave his father's name as Frank Glen but his mother's name was unknown.  This made sense because John Glen's youngest son was named Frank as well - he must have named him in honor of his father.  Even though I was a touch disappointed that it didn't give his mother's name, I was thrilled to find his father's name.

I'm sure that his father's real name was not "Frank Glen" because "John Glen" was the Americanized version of his Polish name, Jan Glein.  So his father's surname was surely "Glein."  And Franciszek is the Polish version of the name Francis or Frank, so I am sure his father's real name was Franciszek Glein.

I think it says something that he didn't know his mother's name.  Most likely his mother died when he was young.

BTW, I haven't checked the death certificate yet, but it would be interesting to see if the informant knew his mother's name, although I doubt it.

Going to the Courthouse - Other Records

There are many more minor groups of records in courthouses that can still be of great interest to genealogists.  You may not be able to find all of these in all counties, but they are all worth pursuing.

Cemetery Records.  Most courthouses have a list of cemeteries in the county, including small and private cemeteries and single burials, most commonly in the county clerk's office.  Don't miss the chance to find your ancestor's grave.

School Records.  As recently as half a century ago, counties were blanketed with rural school districts.  The county clerk may have records from these school districts, including censuses of school-age children, board meeting minutes, and even children's grades, although many have been lost or destroyed.  Was your ancestor on the school board?  You'll need to find a map of school districts for the county to figure out which school your ancestor attended.  Here is an example I found when my grandmother Elisabeth (Suderman) Fast was listed among the school-age children of Paris School District #23 in Harvey County, Kansas, in 1898.

Census of School Population, 30 July 1898, Paris School District #23, Harvey County, Kansas, Register of Deeds, Courthouse, Newton.

This school census showed that the Suderman family was still living in Kansas in the middle of 1898, even though their father had bought land in south Texas in December 1897.

Criminal and Civil Court Records.  I suspect that far more of our ancestors were involved in criminal and civil cases than we realize today.  Occasionally these records are indexed, but far more often they are unindexed and located in dusty volumes in a vault.  If there is an index, I always check it for my ancestors.  On the rare occasion that I know that they were involved in a case, I will search for it, but this is usually a hard set of documents to search.

Vital Records.  Sometimes counties kept vital records of births, marriages, and deaths before the official state-mandated recording began; so these may be the only official source for these events.  For example, I found the marriage license for my great-grandparents Heinrich F. Reimer #317342 (1856-1923) and Katharina Barkman #317343 (1856-1943), who were married on 5 February 1880.  Nebraska did not keep state marriage records until 1909, but Jefferson County started in 1864.

Marriage license of Heinrich Reimer and Catharina Barkmann, 5 February 1880, Jefferson County, Nebraska, No. 473437, County Clerk's Office, Courthouse, Fairbury.

This document gave me the date and place of their marriage, their parents, the witnesses, and the minister who performed the wedding.  And it was issued by the county a full twenty-nine years before the state required them to do so.  Writing to Lincoln would not have produced this gem.

While you are in town, make sure to visit the genealogy room at the city or county library and the local historical museum.  They may have city directories, farm directories, newspaper clippings, town and county histories, family histories, collections of local letters and diaries, photographs, and much, much more.  Go to the church where your ancestor worshiped to look at their records.  If you still have relatives, even distant cousins, in the county, connect with them as they may have valuable records and stories that need to be written down as well.

By now you should have at least a week's worth of research to do in any county where your ancestor lived.  Good luck and happy hunting!

Do You Really Need That Marriage Registration?

On 18 February 1890, my great-grandmother Aganetha (Klassen) Janzen Siemens #6465 (1848-1890) died of puerperal fever.  She left behind a grieving husband who now had to care for seven children ranging in age from newborn to twelve years.  Understandably my great-grandfather Gerhard T. Siemens #6463 (1834-1908) remarried quickly, on 13 July 1890, to a widow Maria (Peters) Rempel #7038 (1847 - 1930) in Rosenhoff, Manitoba.

The question - should I research anything about his re-marriage?  After all, this new wife was not my direct ancestor.  In fact, she's not even a collateral relative.  You do have to draw the line somewhere about what you are going to resarch, but I think this is not the place for several reasons.

First, any marriage is an important event in the life of a person.  My great-grandfather lived with Maria Peters for eighteen years before he died, so it affected him greatly that he married her.  Since my grandfather Cornelius K. Siemens was five years old when his mother died, the new wife was really the mother who raised him.  Second, it's a vital event (birth, baptism, marriage, death, burial) that I want to document for every ancestor, even if this particular marriage was not the one to which my grandfather was born.  Finally, and most importantly, there can be some critical information on the marriage registration.  So let's look at how to find the marriage registration and the details of the document.

A searchable index to Manitoba vital records, beginning in 1882, is online here.  When I searched for the marriage, this is the index entry that I found:

Gerhard Siemens and Maria Peters marriage registration index, 13 July 1890, no. 1890-001447, Vital Statistics Agency, Winnipeg, Manitoba.  Accessed online at http://vitalstats.gov.mb.ca/DetailView.php on 3 October 2016.

This gives proof of the fact of their marriage and the date.  At this point, you could be pleased with what you found and think there is no more information on the original and stop.  And sometimes you would be right.  But in this case it would be a big mistake.

For a mere 12 CAD, you can order a copy of the original, which I did.  And Saturday it showed up in my (snail) mailbox.  There were no great revelations on it, but there were some interesting facts.  First, here is the document:

Gerhard Siemens and Maria Peters marriage registration, married 13 July 1890, Rosenhoff, Manitoba, registered 4 August 1890, Vital Statistics Agency, Winnipeg, Manitoba, p. 269.

Note how much more information is on the original.  Here are some of the interesting things.

His Parents
Gerhard's parents' full names are given.  In fact, this is the only document I have found that gives his mother's maiden name, Gertruda Thiesen.   I have a church register that gives his father's wife's maiden name, but the church register doesn't say that that husband and wife are Gerhard's father or mother, so I have to use other documents to demonstrate that connection.  So this marriage registration is my only direct connection between Gerhard and his mother.

Her Parents
Maria Peters' parents were previously unknown in the Grandma database.  But here it says they are Jacob Peters and Katarina Heidebrecht.

I'm not really interested in her parents, but it might help someone else if I submit this correction to the Grandma database.

Maria Peters, #7038, Genealogical Registry and Database of Mennonite Ancestry as updated July 2016, California Mennonite Historical Society, Fresno, California.  Accessed online at http://www.grandmaonline.org/GW-asp-2/GWIndividual.asp?Ind=7038 on 3 October 2016.

No parents are listed in the screenshot above, so I submitted a correction by clicking on the button circled in red.  Of course, I searched for her parents in the database first, but I wasn't sure that I found them.  There was a Jacob Peters #53094 married to a Katharina _____ #53097 who might be her parents, but they don't have a child Maria listed in the database.  And I couldn't find that they had a child Maria in the Molotschna school records.  So I added my hunch as a note to the correction that I submitted.  Hopefully this will help some of Maria Peters' descendants someday.  (For someone who wants to pursue this family, Maria wrote a letter to the Mennonitische Rundschau that was published on 6 March 1895, in which she lists many of her relatives and either implores them for a letter or thanks them for having communicated.)

Witnesses
The two witnesses to the marriage are interesting as both are former in-laws!  Heinrich L. Friesen was the brother-in-law of Gerhard's previous wife, Aganetha Klassen.  And Jacob Rempel was the brother of Maria's previous husband.  There must not have been animosity with the in-laws since in-laws were witnesses to the marriage.  On the contrary, the in-laws likely were happy that a bereaved spouse had found a partner and someone to care for each one's children.

Minister
I have long had a question about what church Gerhard was a member of after about 1880.  He was a member of the Kleine Gemeinde to that point, but shortly after that, the KG suffered a major split where their elder and a third to a half of their members left and joined the Holdemans.  Gerhard's oldest stepson, Isaac DeVeer, did join the Holdemans, and several of his children and stepchildren joined  the Sommerfelder.  Did Gerhard leave the KG?  I haven't found any record either way until now.

But the minister who married them, Johann K. Friesen, was a KG minister according to the Grandma database (#3777), so it appears that Gerhard did not leave for the Holdemans and was still KG.

So I hope that I have demonstrated that it is worth finding the original for every marriage of your ancestors, not just the marriage between your direct ancestors.