Plunging Into German Records is in the Future
Last week as I posted Explaining the Minimal Postings, and discussed my ProGen 15 class; and the assignment we had on research plans and how I found conflicting evidence on my one family line. There are a few things that I need to look into and will probably have to take the plunge into German Records. Here is the basics of my research plan (I will not add the timeline I created, as it was 8 pages long).
Objective:
Find parents of Wilhelm / William Jonas b. Feb 18631 Pommeran, Germany2
He married Marie Lustgens around 18863 and died in 1915.4
Analysis:
Records show that Wilhelm was born Feb 1863 in Pommeran, Germany.
Using a timeline has helped me to determine many things on this family; they family had 14 children. You can see the information on this specific family at Surname Saturday: Jonas Update.
Conflicting Information:
Throughout many records there is conflicting information in this family. According to the
1900 US Census, William and Marie had been married for 14 years, which would have been in 1886.5 He arrived in the US in 18846 and she arrived in 1885.7 According to the little information I have on daughter Augusta, she was born in Germany (figured out from timeline), around 1883.8
In order to answer these questions, I will need to start looking through German records. FamilySearch has German records available, they are not indexed and I do not read German (yet). Obviously, I will need to do a bit of studying of German records to move forward and see what else I can find on the family.
William Jonas household, 1900 US census, Cook County, Illinois, population schedule, town of Morton Grove, enumeration district [ED] 1175, supervisors district [SD] 1, sheet 31, dwelling 515, family 517. Ancestry.com. ↩
Emma Jonas, birth certificate no. 158 (1887), State of Illinois, Board of Health, Cook County. Familysearch.org. ↩
William Jonas household, 1900 US census, Cook County, Illinois, population schedule, town of Morton Grove, enumeration district [ED] 1175, supervisors district [SD] 1, sheet 31, dwelling 515, family 517. Ancestry.com. ↩
William Jonas tombstone, St. Matthewʼs Cemetery, photographed by Terri OʼConnell, 11 March 2012. ↩
William Jonas household, 1900 US census, Cook County, Illinois, population schedule, town of Morton Grove, enumeration district [ED] 1175, supervisors district [SD] 1, sheet 31, dwelling 515, family 517. Ancestry.com. ↩
Wilhelm Jonas, U.S Naturalization Indexes, 1791-1992, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Soundex Index to Naturalization Petitions for the United States District and Circuit Courts(Ancestry.com) accessed 15 Dec 2011. ↩
William Jonas household, 1910 US Federal Census, Cook County, Illinois, population schedule, town of Morton Grove, enumeration district [ED] 59, supervisors district [SD] 1, sheet 7, dwelling 138, family 137. Ancestry.com. ↩
Augusta Freiburger tombstone, St. Luke Cemetery, photographed by Terri OʼConnell, 5 December 2011. ↩
If you know your family’s religeon, and know their village in Germany, trying searching online for their church. I was able to find an email for the church of one of my family lines, and emailed them questions. There was at least one person there who spoke English, and has provided me with much information. Also, translate.google.com has been very helpful with web sites that were in German. Best of luck to you.
Check out ‘mutual aid’ and other German social societies in their American home cities. Also, German language newspapers (which you’ll need assistance translating but should be able to search via name). These have proved helpful for the German ancestry client I’m currently working on.
Thanks for the great tips Rorey.
You are brave to undertake this search. It sounds as though you need someone who speaks not only German but “genealogical” German, who could understand the special terminology in the records. A high school or college history teacher, who speaks German, might have the right orientation to help?
The Germans hold a special place in my heart and I need to find more…they were a large family (14 children) and many of the children passed before the parents. I know that in the time frame they lived, it is not uncommon, but it still breaks my heart. Plus, I feel the NEED to really find where home was for these families.