An Ancestor I Admire
52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
I don't know all the details of her life, but I choose Lydia Anna Carr Caylor Burrell Baxter for this one. She is my great-great-grandmother. My mom's dad's dad's mother.
She was born on October 15, 1845, in Jefferson, Pennsylvania, United States, to Ebenezer Ira Carr and Juliette Barnett.
She was married three times and had six children. Her first husband, David Caylor, died. She had a son, David, with him. Her second husband was William Burrell. They had five children William, Walter, Bertha, Blanche and Lulu. William apparently abandoned the family by 1885, when Lulu was a baby. Lydia filed for divorce in 1894 and married John Baxter in 1895.
In the 1885 Iowa state census, Lydia is listed with her children and four other individuals. I'm guessing she was hosting boarders in order to support her family. She is listed as a widow, but William was still alive.
The four individuals are John Baxter (whom she later married), Fred and Minne Hagnon, and Dora Backard. Baxter was born in Canada and the Hagnons and Backard were born in Germany.
By 1894, Lydia's family had moved to northwestern Iowa. Her children William and Blanche both died of consumption. She filed for and was granted a divorce from William Burrell. She married John Baxter the following year and William married two or three more times.
Lydia's son David Caylor also died before her, on May 21, 1912.
I'm not being as precise as I could like because I have records stored on a computer I can't get to start up and I'm not able to find the records online that I know I have found before.
Anyway, my admiration is for the hardships she endured, losing two husbands (death and abandonment/divorce) and three children. Yet, she kept going.
52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 2
The Wikitree 52 Ancestors challenge continues with week 2 theme of Generations.
I have figured out how to add my photos to Wikitree profiles and to the challenge pages. Because not everyone in the photo below had a Wikitree profile, I had to add a couple: Heinrich Muhs and Johanna Cornilsen Muhs. They were the parents of Frieda Muhs Korn, who was the mother of Florence Korn Burrell, who was the mother of Janice Burrell Snyder, who was my mom.
(Side note: I don't use mother's maiden name as a security hint.)
52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 1
I'm coming to this slightly late, but hope it still counts. The Wikitree 52 Ancestors challenge begins here.
This is a photo of my mom, Janice Burrell Snyder, as a baby. I'm guessing she was about a year old in this photo, which would make it 1939.
The Case of the Missing Sister
Augusta Hermanie Meyn Burrell was my great-grandmother. I am descended from her son, Arthur Burrell, who married Florence Korn. My mother was their oldest daughter. (No, I don't use mother's maiden name for passwords or login information.)
But there is a family story that she had a sister who disappeared under mysterious circumstances. And each branch of the family has a different version.
I was told that the sister would spend the night with the childless neighbors and one night they packed up and left, taking her with them. Another branch of the family heard that she was abducted by gypsies.
But the latest version is that she was adopted out. This came after one cousin was contacted by an adoptee who is a cousin match on MyHeritage.com.
Here's what I can document:
Herman (Augusta's father) and Katie, Johan and Carl all died of diphtheria in late 1879. In the 1880 census, Anna (her mother) has two daughters, Bertha and Augusta. What happened to Bertha? I have no clue.
Also, Anna Meyn's obit says she was survived by four children. One was Augusta. She was living with her son (Heinrich Sohl, from her first marriage) at the time of her death.
There is also a marriage record for an Anna Sohl, who I think is her daughter from her first marriage.
At any rate, that's 3. So I don't know if Bertha is counted, or if there was another child. There were other people named Meyn in that part of Iowa at that time, but they could be related in other ways (maybe Herman had siblings or cousins there), or not related at all.
Herman died Dec. 7, 1879. Katie died Dec. 9, 1879. The notice in the paper lists those two, then says he left behind a widow and four children. Johann died Dec. 17, 1879 (so he was still alive when that newspaper was printed). Bertha and Augusta were alive in 1880, so Johann, Bertha and Augusta would be 3 of the four surviving children. I don't know if the paper would count Anna's children from her first marriage in Herman's death notice (especially since it appears there were at least 2 of them).
My to-do list:
- Try to determine how many children Anna had with Peter Sohl and with Herman Meyn.
- Try to find Herman and Anna's family on a ship's passenger list, and see who traveled with them. Carl was born on the ship when they crossed (1871). But hopefully, Anna's children by her marriage to Peter Sohl would have traveled with her and would be listed.
- Try to determine which of Anna's children survived her in 1910 (sure about Heinrich Sohl and Augusta Meyn Burrell, not sure about Anna Sohl Kruger, and there was one more child, which may or may not be Bertha Meyn).
- Try to determine what happened to Bertha Meyn.
Franklin Francis Lutz
A hint on FamilySearch.org about an obituary for Cleva Florene Lutz Burrell led me in roundabout ways to this gem about her father. I downloaded the PDF, but here is the transcription.History of Fort Dodge and Webster County Iowa
Volume II
Chicago
The Pioneer Publishing Company
1913
http://iagenweb.org/webster/history-ft-dodge/historyoffortdod02prat.pdf
PDF pages 179-180
Francis Franklin Lutz
Francis F. Lutz follows the trade of tiling in Duncombe, Iowa, and also conducts a pool hall in that city. His career has come to final success after a long period of vicissitudes and the prosperity which he has attained in a credit to his native sagacity and industry. He was born in New York city, December 25, 1858, and was left an orphan when only four years of age, being too young to remember even the names of his parents. He was put in the Soldiers' Home in his native city and after a short time was adopted by George Gilmore, of Brownstown, Illinois, who for five years reared and educated his charge. At the end of that time Mr. Lutz was taken from his guardian by the Illinois courts on account of the latter's cruelty. He then entered the home of Frank Steinhowe, a farmer and brewer of Vandalia, Illinois, and here he remained for fourteen years. He was seized with yellow fever and was ordered to another climate, going eventually to the Black hills of South Dakota. Here he learned ditching and when he had fully recovered his health went to Clinton, Illinois, where he resided for eight years, following railroading the greater portion of the time. Subsequently in 1895, he came to Duncombe, where he worked at his trade of tiling, in which he has been successful in all for twenty-five years. In the last year he had laid eight hundred rods of tile upon the farms around Duncombe and expects to continue this business after the harvest of 1912. In 1905 he opened a pool hall in the city in which he resides and this he has since conducted successfully.
On January 10, 1886, Mr. Lutz was united in marriage to Miss Anna G. Brown, a daughter of Miles and Mary Etta Brown, natives of Harristown, Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Lutz became the parents of fifteen children, olf whom the following are deceased, Roy, Minnie Belle, Walter E., Lily and Lincoln. Those who survive are, Arthur, Mary, Earl, Printhia, Bea, Libby, Anna Rose, Miles, Robert and Franklin.
In his political views Mr. Lutz is republican and has served as marshal of Duncombe for five years. He belongs to the Methodist church, and is a member of the local lodge of Modern Woodmen of America. He has a comfortable home in the city where he has resided for seventeen years, gaining the respect and esteem of his friends by reason of a life which has been made successful through his own efforts and by reason of straightforward principles which have been retained through unusual hardships.
New Family Search collection
Family Search has released Iowa, Death Records, 1921-1940, index and images of death records from the State Historical Society of Iowa. As the description says, the images are included. It's a short time frame, however. But I looked up the two people I knew off-hand who died in that time period: Lydia Carr Caylor Burrell Baxter (my great-great-grandmother) and her third husband, John Baxter. I found them both and downloaded the images of their death certificates and also attached them to my family tree. I try to always download images because I have found that sometimes the images may not be available later. And attaching them to the family tree is a good way to source information. It's always good to be able to point to a document to say "this is where I got the information." And the death certificates are interesting. Lydia died of lobar pneumonia with myocarditis as a secondary factor. John died of uremic coma with nephritic pneumonia as a secondary factor.
I'll be checking for more relatives in this database.
Don’t fence me in
I called Dad for Father's Day and ended up talking to Michele for 30 minutes of the 35-minute call because Dad can't hear well. I mentioned that Mary Greeley Medical Center is trying to get people who were born there, together on Aug. 7 for an attempt at a world record. I was born there because Dad was attending Iowa State University.
A view of Pammel Court, married housing area in Ames.
Anna Sohl
While doing research last week, I came across marriage information for Anna M. Sohl and John J. Kruger. I think that Anna Sohl is the daughter of Peter Sohl and Anna Rush - the same Anna Rush who married Herman Meyn.
The marriage information gives us this:
Groom: John J. Kruger
Parents: Christian Kruger, None (?) Lorhalt (It looks like None and is indexed that way. Maybe pronounced Nona?).
Born in Germany (Holland was written in and crossed out), white, farmer, lived in Sioux County, Iowa.
Affadavit given by Henry Sohl.
Age: 24 or 34 (I'm not sure - it's kind of scribbly).
Bride: Anna M. Sohl
Parents: Peter Sohl, Anna Rush
Born in Germany, white, lived in Sioux County, Iowa.
Age 24
Married at bridegroom's residents on 9 Sep. 1888. Witnesses were Henry Sohl and John Rohder.
Married by M. (or N.) Baetke, minister
License date: 12 Jul 1888
License returned: 20 Sept. 1888
When Herman Meyn died in 1879, the newspaper notice stated he was survived by four children. When Anna Meyn died in 1910, the newspaper notice stated she was survived by four children. But right after Herman died (7 Dec 1879), their son Johann died (17 Dec 1879), so he would be one of Herman's surviving children but not one of Anna's.
Anna was married to Peter Sohl before her marriage to Herman Meyn (according to her obituary). At the time she died, she had been living with her son Heinrich Sohl. It's quite possible that she had another child with Peter Sohl, and that could be this Anna Sohl.
In the previous blog post, Diphtheria, I talk about the deaths of Herman and three kids: Katharina, Carl and Johann. The names of all of Herman's and Anna's children, and Peter's and Anna's children are still not all known.
Diptheria
In November and December of 1879, there was a diphtheria epidemic in Sioux County, Iowa. Below is the U.S. Federal Census Mortality Schedule for Sioux County.
Four members of the Herman Meyn family died in a brief period: Herman, Katie, Carl (Charles in the document) and Johan (John in the document).
The gravestone lists the dates of death of Herman and their three children who died of diptheria, and Anna, who died in 1910.
A newspaper notice (above) mentions that Herman Meyn died of diphtheria, and he was the second member of his family to die from that disease.
The newspaper notice below only listed Herman and Katie. Third column from left, near the bottom. Under Sheridan (something that looks like Glab) Box. The notice states that he left a widow and four children. Johann died after Herman, so that leaves three.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church records all four funerals at the top of this page:
In the 1880 census, Anna Meyn is listed as a housekeeper with daughters Agusta, age 2, and Bertha, age 4.
In 1900, Anna lived with her daughter Augusta and her family:
Anna never remarried. Her obituary on Dec. 3, 1910, states she was living with a son, Heinrich Sohl (this would be from her first marriage), and she was survived by four children. Heinrich Sohl, Augusta Meyn Burrell and possibly Bertha Meyn would be three. I don't know who the fourth child was. The 1880 census is the only mention I have of Bertha Meyn, so I'm not sure if she was one of the surviving children. (Obit is at the top of the fifth column from the left, under Death Toll for a Week.)
Since the newspaper notice about Herman's death states he left a widow and four children, but Johann died after Herman, that left three. Anna's obit states she had four surviving children. I'm guessing that her son Heinrich (from her first marriage) was not one of the four mentioned by Herman's notice.
This is not all that I have on this family, but I'm not clear on everything yet. Who is the other child of Herman and Anna Meyn? What happened to Bertha Meyn? Did Anna have any other children by her first marriage?
Thinking this over again, I remembered that Katie and Johann died after Herman. They may have been two of the four listed as surviving him (even though not by much). That would indicate that two of Anna's surviving children were from her first marriage.
There is also a family story of Augusta's sister (unknown if it was Bertha or another sister) being abducted by neighbors or gypsies.
Henry J. Korn
I found a new tidbit on Ancestry today. The obituary for Henry J. Korn (my great-grandfather), who died in October 1962.
It lists survivors: his wife, Frieda, children Florence Burrell and Arthur Korn, his mother Anna Dengg, eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
That would be me.
Three of his grandchildren have died: Janice (my mom), Diane and Nancy, all children of Florence. As far as I know, Arthur's children are still living, so I won't mention them by name.
It's always exciting to find these items, even if there is no new information. But it really makes a connection when you see yourself mentioned, however obliquely.
Source information:
Ancestry.com. Historical Newspapers, Birth, Marriage, & Death Announcements, 1851-2003 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006.
The Chicago Tribune. Chicago, IL, USA: The Chicago Tribune, 1850-1985.
