52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 12 Misfortune

mis·for·tune

ˌmisˈfôrCH(ə)n/

noun

1.    bad luck.

"the project was dogged by misfortune"

o    an unfortunate condition or event.

plural noun: misfortunes

"never laugh at other people's misfortunes"

synonyms:

problem, difficulty, setback, trouble, adversity, stroke of bad luck, reversal (of fortune), misadventure, mishap, blow, failure, accident, disaster, catastrophe;

The topic this week is misfortune and as the definition above indicates it can take many forms and degrees of hardship or loss. This week, I decided to explore a circumstance that occurred in the life of my grandparents.

I had heard that my grandparents lost their home in an attempt to save the business of his uncle. True?  I didn’t know. I did know that when my grandfather died in 1946 he and my grandmother were living in the home of their daughter and her family. What had happened to their beautiful home on Ridgeland Ave in Oak Park?

this house is actually 1201 N Ridgeland but it was built in 1929 and is representative of what was there at the time

When my grandfather immigrated in 1894 with his sister Dagny and brother Artur, they went to live with their deceased mother’s sister Olga and her family. The 1900 census shows 20 year old Adolph living with his brother and the Pederson family. Adolph was working as a hardware packer.[i]

By the time of the 1910 census, Adolph had married and become a father. In May of 1910, Adolph and his family were living in Tooele, Utah where he worked as a timekeeper in a smelter[ii]. It is not apparent how long the Hansens lived in Utah, but they returned to the Midwest by September of 1910 when their son was baptized in Milwaukee, WI.

By 1920, Adolph was working for his uncle Oscar Daniels in his ship-building business. In fact, Adolph is counted twice in the 1920 census, once in January in Chicago with his wife and children[iii] and once in Tampa, Fl at the home of his aunt Magna and her family. The Tampa census was not taken until February.[iv]

As time went on Adolph and later his son continued to work for the Oscar Daniels Co as the company expanded into iron work and steel construction across the country. As the company moved into iron work, Adolph may have used the knowledge of metals that he learned while working in the smelter. Mainly Adolph and his family remained in the Chicago area and bought a house in Oak Park.

That the family was doing very well for the times is indicated by the fact that their daughter attended college in the early 1930s and a private school at that.

Some time in the 1940s Adolph broke his connection with the Oscar Daniels Co. He was working for the Frank P Noy company in the early 40s as a Secretary/Treasurer.

Oscar Daniels died 14 Apr 1939 in Miami Beach, FL[v]

In 1940 Adolph filed suit in Miami against the estate of Oscar Daniels asking for $10,000 for services and money advanced to Daniels.[vi]

Did that $10,000.00 cause the loss of a family home? In 1943 Adolph and Henrietta still lived in the house on Ridgeland Ave but by the time of his death, they were living with their daughter. I will probably never know “the rest of the story” as there is nobody left to ask.

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[i] Year: 1900; Census Place: Chicago Ward 28, Cook, Illinois; Roll: 279; Page: 11B; Enumeration District: 0844; FHL microfilm: 1240279

[ii] Year: 1910; Census Place: Tooele, Tooele, Utah; Roll: T624_1609; Page: 24A; Enumeration District: 0175; FHL microfilm: 1375622

[iii] Year: 1920; Census Place: Chicago Ward 33, Cook (Chicago), Illinois; Roll: T625_353; Page: 7B; Enumeration District: 2120; Image: 479

[iv] Year: 1920; Census Place: Tampa Ward 2, Hillsborough, Florida; Roll: T625_222; Page: 7B; Enumeration District: 39

[v] https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image; Miami Herald page 15 15 Apr 1939

[vi] https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image; Miami Herald page 8 26 Apr 1940

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 11 - Luck

Genetics and Genealogy

I’ve never been especially lucky but this quest began with only one name and a lucky guess.

My son-in-law was adopted and seeking health information he so did a DNA test at 23andMe in 2012. The test did reveal some things he needed to be aware of but nothing shocking. He wasn’t really looking for family then, just the background health information so we did nothing about matches.

About the same time my son-in-law’s state of birth opened their adoption records and adoptees could order a copy of their original birth certificate. He ordered his birth certificate but when the certificate came, there was very little information on it. His birth mother’s name and age were there along with her address. For his father there was only an age.

With that information I began searching for her on ancestry.com. I entered her name and year of birth into ancestry along with the state and county where she lived.

She was too young to appear in the 1940 census and I had absolutely no idea who her parents were. Someone with her name did appear in high school yearbooks in the area. As I looked at the yearbooks, I noticed that there were two other students with the same surname in the school. Here is where the guess comes in: I decided they were her siblings! Now I had three names to research.

Since I had two sisters and a brother and women often change their names when they marry, I decided to look for the brother. Unfortunately, he was deceased and apparently never married although he had served in the military. Because he was deceased, he did appear in a family tree on ancestry.com. There was the tree showing the brother with birth and death information and two pink living icons telling me he had two living sisters. I also found the names of his parents. Now to prove that this was the right family!

Using traditional genealogy methods, I built a tree for this family with sources. When I found his mother’s obituary, I knew I was on the right track since his sisters were both mentioned with children and spouses.

In 2016, my son-in-law took a DNA test at ancestry.com and we began checking on the matches for both tests. The matches that we that responded to our requests seemed to be a high number of adoptees but I kept developing the tree anyway.

We have uploaded DNA results to ftDNA, Gedmatch, and MyHeritage in addition to the tests at ancestry.com and 23andMe. Working with the DNA matches provided by the companies involved, I can confirm that the tree I developed for my son-in-law is indeed, his correct biological line. On his maternal line there are shared matches with some third and fourth cousins and he also shares a genetic circle with those matches on his mother’s line.

One of the shared matches turned out to be a half sister on his biological father’s line. A shared match between them is actually a first cousin once removed. We now have both a paper trail and a genetic trail to my son-in-law’s heritage. His maternal tree goes back to 1793 in England and the 1830’s in Germany. There are other matches that are still to be explored as we widen the family tree.

It was really lucky I played that hunch about those three names in a high school yearbook.

Week 10 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - "The Nickel That Grew Up" *

Women shoppers at Mrs. Snyder's Candy shop
South Michigan Ave 1927
credit Pintrest

The theme for week 10 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is “ strong woman”. How do I begin to choose who to write about? I come from a long line of strong women, immigrants who ventured to a new country, widows who raised large families with grace, women who left their families to become Sisters in the Catholic Church and teach the children of others, or those who remained un-married to help other family members are the possibilities I am faced with.

My husband and his sister often reminisced about visiting their grandmother and going to a candy store where they could eat candy for free. In exploring this memory, I found that the store was owned by their great-aunt who founded the store that would become a Chicago institution.

Aurora Henrietta Hanson was the seventh child born to Oloff Hanson and Mary Hepke. She was born in Michigan City, LaPorte, Indiana 12 Mar 1876.[i] She was baptized in the Lutheran church there and shortly after her birth the family moved to Chicago, Cook, Illinois. Perhaps her father, Oloff, a fisherman, felt that the larger city would provide a better market for his daily catch.

Aurora’s mother died in 1881 due to childbirth. [ii] Her large family was left to cope with the loss. Aurora was only five at the time, but her older sister Lizbet married two years later and may have taken Aurora with her until her marriage in 1894 to William Allen Snyder.[iii]

The 1900 census shows Ora (Aurora) and William living with their daughter Edith and his parents George and Mary on Ellis Ave in Chicago where William is working as a bookkeeper.

The Atlantic, Chocolate Dipped: The Popularity of Custom Candy in 1940s Chicago

SHANNON PERICH  JAN 29, 2012 

In 1909, with only a cup of sugar and an egg white, using only five cents worth of ingredients, Ora began making candies in her kitchen to sell to the school children after school. This was necessary to support her family after her husband became too ill to work. At a friend’s suggestion she took her candies to downtown Chicago where they were much sought after.[iv]

By 1920 the Snyders were the owners of a confectionary factory according to the census and by 1925 she owned 8 stores and in 1931 she was elected the first continued woman president of Associated Retail Confectioners of the United States.[v]

Ora Snyder continued to watch her business grow and by the time of her death in 1948 she owned 16 shops, one of which was a 7-story building. In the 1960s Mrs. Snyder’s Candies and its 15 stores was purchased by Fannie Mae Candies there by ending an era.

Ora was a strong woman who found a way to support her family and created a business using her skills and determination to succeed. "I can't make all the candy in the world, so I just make the best of it." [vi]

* The Green Book Magazine, Volumes 21-22, pages 87-88,Story-Press association, 1919, from     the University of Michigan, Digitized Oct 22, 2009 Google Books

[i] Ancestry.com. U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.

[ii] Ancestry.com. Cook County, Illinois, Deaths Index, 1878-1922 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

[iii] Ancestry.com. Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index, 1871-1920 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

[iv]   The Atlantic, Chocolate Dipped: The Popularity of Custom Candy in 1940s Chicago

SHANNON PERICH  JAN 29, 2012 

[v] Ibid 

[vi] The Green Book Magazine, Volumes 21-22, pages 87-88,Story-Press association, 1919, from     the University of Michigan, Digitized Oct 22, 2009 Google Books

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 9 "Where there's a Will..."

Guardianship paper from the will of Hermann Burbach[i]

This is the guardianship paper which is part of the probate packet associated with the will of Hermann Burbach. According to Hermann’s Last Will and Testament, his wife Eva was to be his executor. 

Hermann died 12 April 1896 at the age of 44 years. He immigrated with his parents arriving from Villmar, Nassau, Hesse, Germany in 1856.[ii]  The family settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where Hermann’s father Georg worked at various jobs until Georg became a cattle drover in 1863. This was the beginning of the families connection to the meat industry.

In 1872 George became a cattle dealer while sons John and Herman held jobs unrelated to their father’s occupation. In 1874 John became a butcher while Hermann worked as a bookkeeper and they both lived with their parents at 1830 Walnut St in Milwaukee.[iii]

In 1876 Hermann had a butcher shop at 1530 Walnut where he also lived. He was working with his father Georg who lived nearby at 1830 Walnut. 1876 is also the year that Hermann married Eva Schmitz in Gesu Catholic Church in Milwaukee.[iv]

As the years passed Hermann and Eva became the parents of six children who survived infancy, and his butcher shop flourished with the addition of his brother John to the team. The family continued to remain on Walnut St over the years often seeming to trade residences. The business stayed at 1530 Walnut.

Hermann and Eva's son John tragically died by drowning in the Milwaukee River on 12 May 1893.[v] He had been rafting on the river with friends when the raft capsized, and he was trapped underwater.

Unfortunately, when Hermann died on 12 April 1896, he and John had just entered into a real estate contract with Herman Frey for the sale of property in the amount of $16,000.00 ( $465, 150.36 in current value[vi] . This sale had not yet closed and was one of the reasons for the delay in closing probate.

At the time the guardianship papers were filed, 21 April 1896, Hermann’s net worth was established as $3,500.00 ( $101,751.64 in current value[vii])

It is of note that in 1896, Hermann and Eva’s children Katie 19, George 17, Peter 13, Charles 11, and Henriette 9 were considered infants by the court and appointed a guardian ad litem.

It wasn’t until 9 July 1896 that Eva Schmitz Burbach was finally given permission to complete the real estate contract thus adding closure to Hermann’s estate.

Hermann Burbach is buried in a family plot in Calvary Cemetery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

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[i] Wisconsin, Wills and Probate Records, 1800 – 1987 for Hermann Burback, Probate Packets, 1850-1910; Author: Wisconsin. County Court (Milwaukee County); Probate Place: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Packets, No 11740-11761 Ii, 1896, datebase online, https://www.ancestry.com images 146-1560

[ii] Struck Wolf-Heino, "Die Auswanderung aus dem Herzogtum Nassau 1806-1866," passenger and immigration lists index, ancestry.com, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?f4=&f3=burbach&f11=&f9=&f14=&f15=&ti=5535 : ancestry.com 28 February 2004), immigration of Georg Burbach and family page 141; Gale Research Company.

[iii] Milwaukee City Directory (Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin:n.p., 1874), page 88; digital image, fold3.com (https://www.fold3.com/image/255348646 : online 8 March 2016).

[iv] Marriage, , Marriage Register of Gesu Church (English), Roman Catholic, Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Gesu), Wisconsin.

[v] Wisconsin Death Records 1867-1907 Wisconsin State Historical Society, FamilySearch.org, database (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XLCC-XS8 : online database 11 March 2016), John Burbach.

[vi] Historical Currency Converter https://futureboy.us/fsp/dollar.fsp?quantity=16000.00&currency=dollars&fromYear=1896 (accessed 4 Mar 2018)

[vii] ibid