There's More than the Ship's Manifest!

Saturday I attended the 35th annual conference of the DuPage County [IL] Genealogical Society titled “Genealogical Building Blocks”. Among the excellent speakers was John Philip Colletta and especially helpful to me was his last session, “Discovering the Real Stories of Your Immigrant Ancestors”.

Why was it so helpful to me? Because he reminded me of some research I had planned to do some time ago but never got around to. Even though I have Charles & Salome on the ship’s manifest for the SS Ernst Moritz Arndt on 20 March 1873, I wanted to find the newspaper account of the ship’s arrival. (And there was John Colletta showing similar accounts for his ancestors! What a great reminder to get home and search!)

My first opportunity came yesterday, Sunday, and after several failed attempts (trial and error is usually how I find the right keywords to get what I’m looking for from most any search engine: Google, Bing, Ask; it matters not.) At last, I was looking at some articles from the New York Times Archives for March 1873 through http://spiderbites.nytimes.com/free_1873/articles_1873_03_00000.html. This comes in two parts and, of course, I had more searching to do on the site. This time after looking through the titles of the articles several times I was able to use my FIND option to locate only the specific titles I thought to be most promising.

After a relatively short time (way shorter than looking through reels of microfilm) I found the ship’s arrival but also noticed there was a section for ships being cleared.

That brought to mind something else from Mr. Cottetta’s talk, the fact the steerage passengers were being detained on the ships for a week before entering the post due to the fear of the spread of cholera. Further searching revealed the “Ernst” being cleared on 29 March 1873. That would be the date that this young couple first set foot on American soil.

Of course, as with so many genealogical finds I have some new questions to be answered since finding this information.

For instance, the manifest read that the ship came from Stettin, Germany. However, the arrival information shows it first stopping in London and LeHavre, then Stettin. There were very few cabin passengers but two were from England; Other than 6 English steerage passengers, all the rest (all steerage) were from France. Would those Alsatians be inclined to leave through a German or through a French port? There’s always more work to do.

The Blaw/Blue Chalice

The Chalice

This silver cup has been passed down from father to son in the Dutch Blue family since the 1600’s.

It was crafted by silversmith Jurian Blanck, New York City

The major Dutch BLUE family descends from a couple associated with the Dutch West India Company, Frederick Janss and Grietje Janss. They are believed to have originated in the northern part of The Netherlands and appear in the records of the Dutch Reformed Church in Recife, Brazil, in the year 1646. By 1651 they were in

New Amsterdam, where Frederick Janss received a grant of land. Their son, Jan Frederickse (John, son of Frederick) took on the surname BLAUW after the British took over the colony. Many of Jan’s descendants migrated to New Jersey, then westward to Pennsylvania, New York, and Virginia (West Virginia). From these locations they spread throughout the United States and Canada.

From "The Chalice" Newsletter of the National Blue Family Association, Volume 28, No. 1, Winter 2010

52 Weeks Genealogy #7 Google Maps

Keeping in line with my project I decided to use google mapes to take a look at the village (today) where Charles Ruch and Salome Siegler were born and raised. The display below is the normal view but I also looked at the satellite view. Looking at the village that way showed to beauty of the surrounding area as well as the beauty of the village itself.

I don't have an address for either family and, I'm sure, the village has changed significantly since the 1870s but it's nice to be able to "visit" without leaving home:)

Project Update and a Working Day

I have lots of genealogy work planned for the day. I realized last night that I need to straighten up a number of placenames in my Family Tree Maker program in order to make good use of the maps feature. For some reason I seem to have often entered descriptions in the location field for a number of facts. Oh, well, making the corrections will surely teach me a lesson.

Before I start on that though, I wanted to report that I received that article on Alsatian law I ordered through InterLibrary Loan. I thought it would cost $15 but there was no charge. Yea for that!!! I do love libraries!!

Unfortunately, most of the article discussed the time period after 1919 when France regained control of Alsace/Lorraine from Germany. (The article was written in 1927 so the writer was unaware of the future German takeover of WWI.) I was hoping for more information of the time period following the Franco/Prussian war. That said I still learned a couple of little tidbits that I may be able to use as I write the story and writing the story is the purpose this project.

The time to drawing very near to my "putting pen to paper", or more accurately "putting fingers to keyboard", to tell the story of Charles and Salome (Siegler) Ruch.

Miller Family Bible

Here are a few pages from one of my most appreciated family treasures:

Alsace Naming Convention

A question has bothered me for some time now: Why did the first few children of Salome and Charles Ruch not use their first (given) throughout their lives. Eva Salome was know as Salome until later in life, Caroline Magdalena was know as Lena, Louise Julie and Lisette Emma were Julia and Emma all their lives. In fact no one in the living family had ever heard the names Louise and Lisette in reference to these twins. I can understand the occasional person preferring his/her middle name but this just seems to be a trend.

Well, last night as I was perusing the internet looking for more information about life in Alsace during from the 1850s to the 1880s, I came across the following message which answers my question.

http://www.pantel-web.de/bw_mirror/text/t46.txt

Von: fpbstra@club-internet.fr (Francis BUSSER)
Datum: 10.07.98, 01:11:49
Betreff: MIDDLE names

Dear all american researchers,

Please forget all you know about first, last and middle names if you handle with our Alsacian, Swiss, German or French names. This is a strictly american concept and make no sense here.

We all have here a 'family name' (French : 'nom de famille', German :'Familienname') corresponding with your 'surname' or 'last name'. But don't use this vocable, as the place of the 'family name' is not always the last.

We have also one or several given names and the order in which they are listed in the official documents has nothing to do with the usage we make from. We speak from 'prénoms' (French) or 'Vornamen' (German).
Given names is an acceptable translation, but don't speak from first or middle names. In the list of our given names, we (or our family) choose one as a 'call name' (French : 'prénom usuel', German : 'Rufname'). His
place in the birth certificate is variable. Not seldom we don't use the same 'call name' in our occupation and in our family.

So my wife is known as 'Claude' in her occupation and as 'Marie-Claude' in a part of the family. Her father was 'Antoine' in his family and 'François' outside.

Better : here in Alsace, we use also orally the 'Hofname' ('farm name') in place of the family name. One of my parent was known as the 'MAPSe Franz' altough his name was 'Franz HEINRICH', but his mothers farm name was 'MAPS'. Sometimes you can find documents with confusion between farm name and family name.

The order in which given name and family name are used depend on the context and on the social situation.

In French, a 'Pierre François Michel Antoine CHARRON' can sign his will as 'Michel CHARRON', but he sign a request to an administration as 'CHARRON Michel' and perhaps his wife call him 'François' and not
'Michel'.

In German, 'Peter Franz Michel Anton WAGNER' is known by everybody as the 'WAGNER Michel'. If cultivated he sign in the French manner 'Michel WAGNER', but generally his signature is 'WAGNER Michel'. His wife call him perhaps 'Peter' or 'Anton' and not 'Michel'.

In very pious catholic families, you can find all the children with 'Marie' and 'Joseph' (or 'Maria' and 'Josef' in German) in the list of her christian names. In one of my families I find 'Maria Josef Karl Anton' called 'Karl', 'Maria Josef Anna' called 'Anna', 'Maria Josef Anna Luisa' called 'Luisa' or 'Lüwiss', 'Maria Josef Emil Anton' called 'Emil', 'Maria Anna Josef' called 'Maria', 'Maria Josef Doris Eva' called 'Doris' or 'Butzi' and 'Maria Josef Anton' called 'Anton' or 'Dony'.

As you see, it is better to forget all you know about first, last and middle names if you handle with our Alsacian, Swiss, German or French names. And if you don't like to increase the confusion, don't never
translate the christian names or the geographical names.

Good nightmares !
Francis Busser (in Alsacian, 'de Busser Franzl') in Strasbourg (Alsace)

Thanks for Francis I’ll look at all the relatives in Alsace with fresh eyes!!

Alsatian Folk Dress

Found at Southern Illinois University website - http://www.siue.edu/COSTUMES/PLATE95DX.HTML