Mormon Redress Petitions and Harvey Olmstead

A few days ago, I talked about my 4th-great-grandfather, Harvey Olmstead, who was an early member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Joining the church sometime in the first few years of its organization in the 1830's, he suffered many of the persecutions of those early saints.

When Governor Boggs of Missouri issued the Extermination Order, allowing any Mormons in the state to be shot on sight, no questions asked, the Saints had just a few days to leave Missouri (and the United States). While Joseph Smith was imprisoned in Liberty, Missouri, he asked all of the 12.000 - 15,000 refuges to petition for redress. His instructions are recorded in the 126th section of the Doctrine & Covenants:

1. And again, we would suggest for your consideration the propriety of all the saints gathering up a knowledge of all the facts, and sufferings and abuses put upon them by the people of this State;
2. And also of all the property and amount of damages which they have sustained, both of character and personal injuries, as well as real property;
3.  And also the names of all persons that have had a hand in their oppressions, as far as they can get hold of them and find them out.
4. And perhaps a committee can be appointed to find out these things, and to take statements and affidavits; and also to gather up the libelous publications that are afloat;
5. And all that are in the magazines, and in the encyclopedias, and all the libelous histories that are published, and are writing, and by whom, and present the whole concatenation of diabolical rascality and nefarious and murderous impositions that have been practiced upon this people—
6. That we may not only publish to all the world, but present them to the heads of government in all their dark and hellish hue, as the last effort which is enjoined on us by our Heavenly Father, before we can fully and completely claim that promise which shall call him forth from his hiding place; and also that the whole nation may be left without excuse before he can send forth the power of his mighty arm.

About 800 people did this. Although no redress was ever given by the government, these petitions have been gathered and published in the book, Mormon Redress Petitions. Harvey has two petitions in this book.

The first was issued on May 13th 1839: (spelling is as in the original)

An account That I Hervy omsted have against the state of Missouri in Consequence of Mobocracy first the expences and time for moveing from Illinois to Jackson County State of Missouri: $50.00
For improvements in Jackson County Made on Congress Land: $25.00
Lost 2 hundred Bushels of Corn at 25 cent pr Bushel: $50.00
To fodder of 2 acres: $10.00
To Ten bushels of Potatoes at 25 cets pr Bushel: $2.50
To one Calf: $3.00
To 32 acres of Deeded Land at 5 Dollars pr acre: $160.00
To Expences of Crossing the River into Clay county: $2.50
To Time taken to hunt a house and fencing it and moveing into it in Clay County: $16.00
Expences of moveing from Clay to Ray County Mo: $3.50
Expences of moveing from Ray to Davis Co makeing 5 trips Takeing 20 days at 3 1/2 Dollars pr Day $70.00
To improvement & Claim on Congress land in Davis Co: $250.00
To Six hundred Bushels of Corn at 25 cents pr Bushel: $150.00
To 15 bushel of potatoes at 50 cents pr Bushel: $7.50
To 8 hundred Bundles of fodder at $1.25 cents per Hundred: $10.00
To seven Tons of hay at 3 Dollars pr ton: $21.00
To three Calves take from me out of the field worth: $11.00
Two ploughs taken out of the field worth: $12.00
one horse: $40.00
Eight head of hogs worth eight Dollars a piece: $64.00
thirteen shoats worth 2 Dollars a piece: $26.00
Building a house in Diahman worth: $30.00
2 axes 1 Bedsted grubbing hoe and three hoes worth: $9.00
2 Sheep worth 4 Dollars a piece: $8.00
Moveing from Davis to Caldwel County: $7.00
Expence of Building a house in Caldwell County: $20.00
Expence of Moveing from caldwel County to the state of Illinois and the time it took to move: $97.50
Subtotal: $1254.50
To 4 acres of wheat at 10 Dollars pr acre: $40.00
Total: $ 1,296.50

I Shall not attempt to put any amount on my sufferings as it is out of my power to Describe my feelings and I am inadequate to the task but will Just Relate that I was one with my family that was Drove from Jackson County in the time that the Mob Broke out against the people of god there and myself wife & Children were driven out in the Cold winter from out homes & possessions into Clay County where we had to hunt a Covering to keep us from the blasts of winter again we were Driven with out Children from Davis County out of the State of Missouri and in consequence of So long an exposure to the inclement weather it proved Almost to intolerable a burthen to be borne but after a long and serious fit of sickness in the State of Illinois She through the Mercy of god I hope will Recover but our sufferings we cannot Relate in full therefore I shall leave it with your honorable Body to Determene what I Should have or whether I Should have any thing or not. 

The second was an individual affidavit signed in 1840:

I doe here by testify that I emigrated to Jackson Co and State of Missouri in the year 1832 and in 1833 a mob arose and I saw them throw down a two story brick building ocupyed as a private dwelling below and a printing office above and they broke the press Scatterd the type and paper and they tared and fethered Bishop Patridge and they took me prisner and kept after this they met in council and resolved to put us out of the County (peaceably if we can, forceable if we must) they took one prisner and the next morning a company headed by a Baptist Priest came to my house and warnd me to leave the county which I we did.

whil in clay co we wan threatend if we did not leave there, and they agread to let us have Caldwell Co I moved from there to David Co in 1838 made a claim and intended to enter when it came in market but a mob arose and I was compeld to move to Adam Ondi Ahman and soon after my house was burnt my plows taken my stock distroyed soon after I was cald away on buisnes, and when I returned I found an armed soldiery encamped in the Town under the command of Gen. Wilson and non was allowd to pass out without a pass from him, and then they must be escorted out and ten days was given for all to move out of the county in and we was only permitted to stay till spring and then to leave the State at the perril of our lived which we did Signed this 4 day of Jan A D 1840.

What a wonderful addition to our family history! These two statements give us a lot of insight about the life and times of these saints. There is no record of the death of Harvey's wife, Hannah Mingus Olmstead, but she probably died somewhere in the Winter Quarters, Iowa area.

If you have surfed into my blog, and want to know if one of your ancestors are in the Mormon Redress Petitions book, leave a comment below with the name and I will look it up for you.

Back to the Fields

I have done some historical research on George Field, who was born in Pensacola, Florida in 1778 but moved at some point to New Brunswick, Canada. You may remember that the book "Pioneers of Aroostook Maine" said:

  The Field Family was one of the oldest in Aroostook, Me. George Field was born in Pensacola FL in 1778. His father died when he was young and after his mother remarried they moved to New Brunswick

Why would the family have moved all the way to New Brunswick? It probably had to do with the Spanish siege of Pensacola, which began on March 9 of 1781.

According to history.com:

After successfully capturing British positions in Louisiana and Mississippi, Spanish General Bernardo de Galvez, commander of the Spanish forces in North America, turns his attention to the British-occupied city of Pensacola, Florida, on this day in 1781. General Galvez and a Spanish naval force of more than 40 ships and 3,500 men landed at Santa Rosa Island and begin a two-month siege of British occupying forces that becomes known as the Battle of Pensacola... On the morning of May 8, 1781, the 18-year British occupation of Pensacola, Florida, ended with a British surrender. The British lost 105 men; the Spanish lost 78. An additional 198 Spaniards were wounded. Spain took 1,113 prisoners and sent 300 Britons to Georgia on the promise that they would not reenter the British military.

At the end of the Revolutionary war, the new Americans were upset  that Florida had not fought with them, so did not invite the state to join the new Union. Many loyal Britons (and probably the Field family) left the area for what is now Canada, a much more welcoming area for Loyalists. Florida did not become a territory of the United States until 1821.

We are getting pretty far back in history now. How can we push our lines back further? One help is the Daughters of the American Revolution. Founded on October 11, 1890, one of their purposes was to "perpetuate the memory and spirit of the men and women who achieved American Independence." Many women at that time undertook genealogy to prove that they were descendants of these valiant fighters. If we can link into one of their lines, we can push our genealogy back to the 1700's.

After doing a little more research, then going to the DAR Genealogical site, we find Zebedee Snell:

 

The red icon on his entry says that they have a list of his decendents, starting with:

 

My records show that Ruevilla Reynolds, the wife of George Oscar Field, is the granddaughter of Siemon Reynolds and Mary Snell. Someone has applied to DAR membership under the National Number 268145, along with supporting documentation. For a small fee, I can purchase copies of this documentation. If you find someone on the census that was old enough to fight for our freedom in the 1770's, check to see if their name is in the DAR database. Or, search for just the last name and see if you can find their father.

I have several Revolutionary War veterans in my line, which has helped me in my research.

Harvey Olmstead

The Olmstead family is a little more difficult to research because of the spelling of the last name. Many of the early Olmstead's were not literate, so we find the name spelled "Almstead", "Olmsted", "Omsted" and other variations.

Many critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the "Mormons") say that the church hides its early history. That is not true -- we have preserved our history and find it easily available. Here are some recorded stories about Harvey Olmstead.

I can't find a picture of Harvey Olmstead, but do have a picture of his grandson, Harvey Olmstead Heath. Harvey's daughter, Abigail, was the only one of his children to go to Utah.

For more on Abigail, and the story of how Abigail came to Utah, visit the Popp Family History page and search for "Olmstead."

Childhood

As a young boy, he was held prisoner by the British Army:

 In a history about Abigail Olmstead Holden, which was written by her grand-daughter, Harriet Heath Gates, she wrote:
“Abigail Olmstead was born in Ohio, near Lake Erie, February 25, 1818.  She was a daughter of Harvey and Margaret Olmstead, the same Harvey Olmstead that was captured by the British Army during the Revolutionary War, and held prisoner for 7 years, after which he escaped.”

Another version by Teri Popp: 
"It is told he and another boy, just meer boys, were taken prisoners, the British were afraid they would carry news back to the army, so they kept them a long time and then they escaped."

Baptism for the dead

He is recorded as being the first person in this dispensation to be a proxy for the baptism for the dead:

Source: Reminiscent account of Simon Baker, Journal History, LDS Archives Baptism for the Dead Introduced I was present at a discourse that the prophet Joseph delivered on baptism for the dead 15 August 1840.1 He read the greater part of the 15th chapter of Corinthians and remarked that the Gospel of Jesus Christ brought glad tidings of great joy, and then remarked that he saw a widow in that congregation that had a son who died without being baptized, and this widow in reading the sayings of Jesus "except a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven," and that not one jot nor tittle of the Savior's words should pass away, but all should be fulfilled. He then said that this widow should have glad tidings in that thing. He also Said the apostle was talking to a people who understood baptism for the dead, for it was practiced among them. He went on to say that people could now act for their friends who had departed this life, and that the plan of salvation was calculated to save all who were willing to obey the requirements of the law of God. He went on and made a very beautiful discourse. Notes 1. The occasion of this discourse was the funeral of Seymour Brunson, a prominent member of the Church in Nauvoo. The introduction of the doctrine of ordinance work for the dead changed the face of Mormonism and while it was slow in building, became the foundation of one of the major efforts of the Church. It is possible that Joseph Smith was preparing the ground for this in his sermon of 8Apr40. Joseph Smith announced that a temple should be built in the following conference of the Church (see 3Oct40(2)). After the temple announcement, the following day he preached again on the subject of baptism for the dead (see 4Oct40). Two women who were present at the discourse left statements at the "History Office, Great Salt Lake City, Nov. 29th, one-half past 10 o'clock a.m." Jane Neymon states that Joseph preached Seymour Brunson's funeral sermon and then first introduced the subject of baptism of the dead, and said to the people, "I have laid the subject of baptism for the dead before you. You may receive or reject it as you choose," Sept. 13th (Aug. 15th) she then went and was baptized for her son Cyrus Livingston Neymon by Harvey Olmstead. Joseph on hearing of it at table in the evening, asked what he said, on his telling what the ceremony was it proved that father Olmstead had it right Vienna Jaques witnessed the same by riding into the river on horseback to get close so as to hear what the ceremony would be. [Statement in "Addresses" Joseph Smith Collection, Box 4 folder 4, LDS Archives.] (Harvey Olmstead was a neighbor to Joseph Smith, and is mentioned in the information above.)

Mormon Redress Petition

Harvey also recorded his testimony in a Mormon Redress Petition. I read it many years ago, and have recently ordered a copy of an out-of-print book which contains these petitions. When I receive the book, I will post his testimony on this blog.

What is a Redress Petition? The story begins in on October 27, 1838 when Governor Lilburn Boggs issued Missouri Executive Order 44, also known as the Extermination Order. The order was issued in the aftermath of the Battle of Crooked River, a clash between Latter Day Saints and a unit of the Missouri State Guard in northern Ray County, Missouri, during the 1838 Mormon War. Claiming that Latter Day Saints had committed open and avowed defiance of the law and had made war upon the people of Missouri, Governor Boggs directed that "the Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the State if necessary for the public peace—their outrages are beyond all description". The militia and other state authorities—General John B. Clark, among them—used the executive order to expel the Latter Day Saints from their lands in the state following their capitulation, which in turn led the Latter Day Saint migrate to Illinois.

Brigham Young asked all of the people who lost property to petition the federal government for redress. Nothing ever came of these petitions, but they were gathered and published in October of 1992. 

James Henry Olmstead

My great-great grandfather was James Henry Olmstead. How can I find more information about him than what we already did?

Have I already said how much I love findagrave.com? So many people have contributed to this site. I found a story about James Olmstead on his findagrave page:

James H. Olmstead, a substantial farmer residing in section 19, Taylor Township, came to Harrison County, in the spring of 1872, and settled in Clay Township, where he rented farm until the autumn of 1873, then he bought eighty acres of land in Clay Township, which he tilled for three years, then sold and rented in Cincinnati Township until the spring of 1881, at which date he removed to Butler County, Kan., bought a farm and remained until August of that year. He then sold and returned to Harrison County, Iowa, and lived on a rented farm until the spring of 1887. At this date he went to No-Man's-Land, south of Kansas, but only remained two months, when he retraced his steps to Harrison County, again he rented land that year, and the following spring bought the farm he now occupies.

Mr. Olmstead was born in Wisconsin, August 16, 1849. He is the son of Joshua and Mary (Walker) Olmstead, the father being a native of Illinois, while the mother was born in Indiana. The father was a miller by trade. In 1850 our subject with his parents removed to Allamakee County, Iowa, and in 1856 to Dodge County, Minn. At that date Minnesota had not yet been admitted into the Union, and there were but three families living in Dodge County. They remained there until the spring of 1866, when they started over land for California going by the way of the Neosha Valley, Kans., and being so captivated with that section of the West, our subject's father bought land in Lyons County, Kan., and died in Butler County, Kan., in 1875. Our subject remained at home with is parents until twenty-one years of age, and then took a homestead in Butler County, Kan., remaining there until the spring of 1872, when he came to Harrison County, Iowa.

He was married in Lyons County, Kan., in 1869, to Miss Ellen Wilson, by whom two sons have been born, William and Robert. Ellen (Wilson) Olmstead, died in Butler County, Kan., and for his second wife our subject married Miss Ella M. Parker, the daughter of David and Emily (Stark) Parker. The date of our subject's marriage was August 1, 1874, they being united in Harrison County, Iowa. By this marriage six children have been born – Minnie M., Harvey, Emma A. (deceased), Oran F., Herman L. and Erle A.

Ella M. (Parker) Olmstead, was born in Ohio, October 2, 1853. Her father was born in Canada, her mother in New York State. They removed to Harrison County, Iowa, in June 1863. Mr. and Mrs. Olmstead are members of the Christian Church, and politically he affiliates with the Republican party.
 

Until I found this, I had no idea that he was married before being married to Ella Parker. My grandmother talked about "the uncles" who watched over her, but never knew that these uncles may have included William and Robert. More research to do...

If you think your family history is complete ("My <mother|aunt|great-uncle> has done it for years") you are probably wrong. I have been doing family history for 45 years or so, but still make new findings frequently.

What do we know about his father, Joshua? His findagrave link doesn't tell us a lot. His gravestone doesn't tell us much, either:

We do find him in the 1870 Census in Kansas, along with his children who were still living at home:

A little searching on familysearch.com shows us Joshua and Mary's marriage record:

What is so special about this marriage date and place? They were married in Nauvoo, Illinois! From this, we find that Joshua and Mary were early members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

It will take some more work to find mention of Joshua and Mary in Nauvoo, but we do know that Joshua's father, Harvey Olmstead, was called by Joseph Smith to be a high councilor in the Adam-Omni-Ahman Stake:

Linking into an early Mormon line is going to make things easier -- many of these people did their genealogy and recorded their lines, thus giving us a head start on things. The Olmstead line has been traced back to the 1300's.

Next -- Harvey Olmstead and his ancestors.

Minnie May Olmstead and Ella May Parker

Minnie May Olmstead was born in Iowa in 1875, and died in Bruno, Minnesota in 1916. Minnesota? What was she doing in Minnesota?

My mother comes to the rescue here. As I have stated before, it is so important to get these family stories down on paper (or blog) before they disappear. Oral history adds greatly to the historical records, making these people more than just names and numbers.

When Minnie was small, she contracted rheumatic fever, a disease that is nearly unknown today because of antibiotics. If a throat infection is not treated, the bacteria can enter other parts of the body and create serious problems. In Minnie's case, it led to rheumatic heart disease -- damage to the heart valves.

Despite these problems, Minnie led a full life -- giving birth to 8 children, including identical twins. Even after she was widowed in 1907, she continued caring for her children and others.

In the winter of 1915-1916, a cousin of Minnie's was living in Bruno, Minnesota, and was having difficulty with a pregnancy. Minnie chose to go and help her. The winter was too much for her heart, and she died there.  Her body was buried near her beloved husband in Nebraska.

 

 Although Minnie died young, her mother lived to be 92. My mother wrote Ella May Parker Olmstead, her great-grandmother, on a regular basis throughout her childhood and teenage years. 

Ella was born in Ohio, but moved to Iowa before 1874. She and her family came by covered wagon, and one of the wagon wheels was a fixture in the front yard where she kept flowers planted. Ella met and married James Olmstead in Iowa; they were married just over 62 years when he passed away in 1936.

Ella loved her family. In her later years, she was able to hold her first great-great-grandchild:

 Ella's Father, Timothy H Parker Jr., wrote his own story:

1883 History of Franklin & Cerro Gordo Counties CHAPTER XI REMINISCENCES OF PIONEERS. By Timothy H. Parker I left Wabash township, Jay Co., Ind., Sept., 10, 1855, with two teams, to come to Iowa. We were five weeks getting ten miles west of Dubuque. It got very cold and as I had no claim picked out in Cerro Gordo county, the place toward which I was making, I concluded to leave my family and go ahead alone to find a location. So I rented a house, got my family comfortably domiciled and came to Mason City, purchasing the farm on which I now live. I then returned to my family, and in the following April started to my land in Cerro Gordo county. When I got to the Shell Rock river, the ice was running and we couldn't cross with the wagons, so I got Enoch Wiltfong to help swim the horses over and take the family, beds, stoves, etc., across, giving him one dollar for his trouble. After paying Wiltfong I had thirty cents left to begin the summer. The next winter I went to Cedar Rapids and hauled a load of mill irons for George Brentner, receiving for the job seventy dollars, with which I bought stuff that was called flour, at five dollars per hundred. We had bad luck with the first two crops of corn we planted, as the early frosts killed both, and we had almost nothing to feed our cattle. We had six cows, however, that we had brought with us, and these helped us weather the storm all right. One day, in 1856, we were visited by an Indian squaw, who wanted to trade us her papoose for a bushel of potatoes, because the little thing was sick, and she didn't want to take care of it; but we didn't care about dealing in that kind of goods, and so didn't make a trade. When we first came to Cerro Gordo we didn't have very good religious privileges, and it was very seldom that we got the benefit of hearing a good sermon. I remember the first Sabbath I spent in this county. I went to Mason City, to see if there was any meeting; all I found was a Sunday school, and there was but little satisfaction in that, as there wasn't a man to open the school by prayer.

How wonderful to have this little piece of family history -- a story written by my third-great-grandfather! The Olmstead family has some interesting history, too. I will talk about that next.

More on the Field family

Herchel Field was the son of George Oscar Field and Reuvilla A. Reynolds. George was born in 1841, so we will find him on the census as an adult, but maybe not as a child.

The United States started taking censuses in 1790, and have done one every 10 years since. The first several censuses are not very useful for genealogical research.

The 1790 through 1810 censuses gave the name of the head of each household, then a count of the free white males at least 16 years of age (to assess the country's industrial and military potential), free white males under 16 years of age, free white females, all other free persons (reported by sex and color), and slaves. The 1820 through 1840 censuses  added a count of children in each category, as well as some other basic facts, such as the number who were foreign born.

The 1850 census was a landmark in family history research. This was the first census where there was an attempt to collect information about every member of every household, including women, children, and slaves, and place of birth. No relationships to the head of household were included.

Let's see if we can find George on the 1850 census...and we can!

This is difficult to read, but we find George living in Aroostook, Maine, living with his father, mother, and 7 siblings. We see that his father was born in New Brunswick and his mother was born in England, but all of the children are born in Maine.

Where is Aroostook, Maine? Google Maps shows us that Aroostook is as far north as you can get on the east coast of the United States. Presque Isle is very near the border of New Brunswick, so it would not be unusual for a family to claim citizenship in either England or the United States, depending on which side of the river they were standing when asked.

A book published in 2006 described the early Field family in Maine. George's grandfather, also George, was an early settler here. From "Pioneer Homes of Washburn Maine":

The Field Family was one of the oldest in Aroostook, Me. George Field was born in Pensacola FL in 1778. His father died when he was young and after his mother remarried they moved to New Brunswick. In 1824 George and his wife Mary (Piles) Fields 1783 came to Aroostook with William Piles(Georges brother in law). Their land was disputed between England(Canada) and the United States. George suffered greatly from the dispute and his travails was documented by Charles Davies who interviewed George in 1828. In it George told a sad tale of his livestock and possessions repeatedly taken by the government in Canada to pay debts that George did not believe he owed. His illiteracy did not help and he was forced to move his family to Houlton ME where he could not lose any more. By 1840 they are back in Caribou ME. His presence there is an example of how false the belief that Ivory Hardison was the first American in that township.

This wonderful book is out of print; I can't even find it at thriftbooks.com. But, it gives us some real good information about the early Field family.

Still more questions with no answers. How did the orginal Fields end up in Florida?  History tells us that in 1763, the Spanish left Pensacola as a result of the Treaty of Ghent, which gave Florida to the British. Shortly after, 350 men were sent to accept the transfer of Florida to Britian. Perhaps George Fields (born in 1778) was the son of one of these sailors. I wonder if records are available as to the names of these people.

Tomorrow -- let's look at Lois's mother, Minnie May Olmstead, and her ancestry.

Herschel Field

One more note about Herman Carstens. After talking to my mother, I learned a little more. After high school, Lois enrolled in nursing school. She got sick and was unable to finish. A man was advertising for a housekeeper, so she answered the ad and took the job. This was Herman Carstens, who she later married. The marriage didn't last long -- years later, when Karl died and she had to apply for Social Security survivor's benefits, she had to show her divorce papers from that marriage, and couldn't even remember the man's name. Social Security was able to get them. Maybe someday I will see if I can get copies -- just to add another piece to the puzzle of her life.

Lois' father, and my great-grandfather, was Herschel Weston Field. When I started my travels through my family history journey, I knew nothing more than his name. My grandmother also told me that his father's name was George, who was the son of a William, who was the son of a George. Although we can't always trust oral history, my grandmother was a wonderful historian and I had no reason to doubt this. In fact, the records show that she was absolutely correct.

When I first started looking for Herschel Field, I had the advantage of his first name: Herschel is not a common first name. The 1880's census had been indexed at that time, and I looked through the index on microfilm until I found a Herschel Field -- in Maine! The father's name is George, as I suspected. Maine is not where I expected to find him. Today, selecting the "Person" view in FamilySearch and clicking on the FamilySearch.org search link would do in a few minutes what I spent hours doing back then.

The last name is recorded as "Fields". We see this often in the records, as the "s" comes and goes at the end of the name. Herschel's name is recorded as "Hurchel". This is not uncommon; each census is only as accurate as the person giving the information, the person recording the information, and the person extracting the information. When searching for records, try variations of the names if you are not finding what you want.

Notice that "Villa" is listed as "consumptive". She had tuberculosis and died just a few months after this census entry. Herschel also died of TB at a very young age.

Let's find Herschel in the 1900 census (since the 1890 is not available). Now, we find the name is overwritten and extracted as "Herrel". He also does not know where his parents were born.

It is also interesting that their first three children were born in February: 11 Feb 1897, 8 Feb 1899, and 5 Feb 1900. Three girls almost exactly 3 years apart. How difficult that must have been for a young woman (she was only 21 when Millie was born) at that period of time.

 How did Herschel end up in Iowa after having been born in Maine? His father died in 1891, when Herschel was 16. Did a relative take him in? Or did he just start wandering, looking for a home? In any case, he ended up in Modale, Iowa, where he met Minnie Mae Olmstead and planted roots.

Lois Katherine Field, part 3

After yesterday's post, I spent a little more time investigating Herman Carstens. Although I still don't know how my grandmother met him or why she married him, I do know more about Herman. He was born in Germany and came to the United States in 1911, when he was about 20 years old. He settled in South Dakota where he farmed his entire life. After marrying Lois Field at the age of 33, he married again in 1938 to a woman who was over 20 years younger than himself. He lived to the ripe old age of 98, as did his wife, Mildred. I also found a few of his relatives on FamilySearch:

So, how did Lois end up in Montana? Several years ago, I asked my mother this same question.

She said that Lois was divorced (a scandal in those days) and saw an ad in the newspaper asking for someone to marry. This wasn't unusual in the mid 1880's to the early 1900's -- there just weren't enough women in Montana to go around, so men would advertise for wives. Lois wrote to Karl, and he sent her a round-trip ticket by train from South Dakota to Montana. It was a three-day trip on a coal-burning train; Lois was very upset about the smoke that often filled the travel car. (She hated dirt and fumes -- later in her life, she kept towels rolled up against the wall where cigarette smoke would come from the apartment below her.)

When Lois arrived in Montana, Karl met her at the station. He told her that she didn't have to marry him just because she had come (he was a very considerate person), but she said that while they were there she might as well do it. He then dropped her off at home and went back to work; she cried for hours wondering what she had done. (I believe my mother still has the return ticket for the trip.)

Lois and Karl were happy together, and loved each other very much. Here is a picture of her holding her first child, my mother:

Lois never went back to Iowa again. Although she wrote her family on a regular basis, she never saw any of her siblings again in her life:

Millie May Field, Bertha Lora Field, Florence R. Field, Lois Katherine Field, and Otis James Field in Modale Iowa circa 1920. Florence died in an automobile accident; the other four all lived into their late 70's or more. 

Tomorrow...more about Lois's ancestors.

Lois Katherine Field, part 2

We learned quite a bit about Lois's early life yesterday. We can fill in some other gaps by visiting www.findagrave.com

I have mentioned FindAGrave in an earlier post. Over 132 million gravestone records are available in their database. Many of these records have been indexed by volunteers; other volunteers have taken pictures of gravestones, and family members often edit the record to show related graves.

Let's start out with Lois's grave, which I entered into FindAGrave when it was a fairly new website.

I enter what I know about Lois. You don't need a lot of information, although if your ancestor has a common name you will want some filtering information, such as death year and state:

Look what I find:

Clicking on this link, I see a lot about her. This site was created by Donald Miller, a volunteer who loves family history. The family links and pictures were most likely added by Jan Shoemaker, one of my mother's cousins. The baby in the top picture is Steven Olson.

Notice that the birthdate for Otis Field is wrong on this page. Otis and Orson were identical twins. According to Lois, one nice fall day the kids were all outside playing while their mother was embroidering on the front porch. The kids were sliding down the cellar door when Orson fell off. He went to bed with a stomach ache and died three days later. He probably had some kind of internal bleeding, but the family was very poor and far from a hospital.

Clicking on the other links on this page will bring you to pictures and stories about the other people in Lois's family, including a picture of her father's grave.

So, she was born Lois Field and died Lois Vetter. So, where does Carstens come in?

I tried searching for a marriage record in FamilySearch, and couldn't find one for Lois Field and a Carstens. I tried again using Ancestry. After trying some different searches, I found this:

 

Of course, this leads to questions that can never be answered. Who was Herman Carstens?  Mitchell, South Dakota is over 200 miles from Modale, Iowa. How did they meet? My mother said that Lois was divorced. The marriage couldn't have lasted long -- Lois and Karl were married in March of 1926, less than a year later. Because divorce records are not digitized in most states, it would be expensive to ask for these records just to satisfy my curiosity. 

I did find the obituary for Herman's second wife: http://www.mitchellrepublic.com/content/mildred-carstens-0, as well as Herman's grave: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=114369446&ref=acom.

More about Lois tomorrow....

Lois Katherine Field

My maternal grandmother was Lois Katherine Field. Since she lived until I was in my 30's, I heard a lot of oral history from her. Oral history can be a great held in doing family history research, but comes with a warning: just because someone says something is true, does not mean it is. Memories fade or become confused; the person may be reporting someone else's memory ("My daddy always said...") and may not be borne out in a review of historical records.

Lois Katherine Field was born on October 27, 1901 in Modale, Iowa, the fourth of eight children. Her father, Herschel Weston Field, died in 1907, leaving her mother, Minnie May Olmstead, to raise five children alone.

A note about photos: in the late 1800's and into the 1900's, many people had professional photos taken for marriages. A lot of these photos are still hanging around. If you have any, please scan them and attach them to your ancestors in FamilySearch so that everyone can enjoy these pieces of history!

Let's see what we can find about Lois from the census. We first find her listed in the 1910 census:

By this point, Minnie is widowed. She has given birth to 8 children, only 5 of whom are living. She works at home as a washerwoman. Her children are all in school, something that was important in their family. All of the children graduated from high school.

Things were not looking so good in 1920. Minnie was dead by now, and four of the children were living in the same house in Modale (Otis is listed on the next page of the census as a sister.) Bertha and Millie were working as telephone operators, a pretty easy job in those days. 

According to Lois, she was very depressed when her mother died in 1916. She tried to commit suicide by drowning herself in the Missouri River (Modale is an abbreviation for Missouri Dale). She walked in up to her neck but couldn't do it. Thank goodness, or I wouldn't be here to write this blog!

In 1930, Lois is married to Karl Vetter and has two small children. Karl is listed as a shoemaker in a shoeshop. 

The house where they lived is still standing today:

As is the building where Karl had his shoeshop:

Now, new questions: Lois is from Iowa, and married Karl in Montana. When she married Karl, her last name was Carstens. Why? How did she meet and marry Karl? Stay tuned...a lot more information about this family will be coming up.

Remember -- just because this blog is about my family, doesn't mean that YOU can't find the same information about your family. As I said before, my family was not wealthy or famous, yet I have been able to fill in a lot of family history information from publicly available records.

If you are reading this blog and have questions about doing your own research, please leave a comment. ANYONE can trace their family tree; most Americans can trace back four generations without ever having to leave their computer.

Karl Edward Vetter, Part 2

I wanted to use a second post to talk more about my grandfather.

My mother wrote me a note after my last entry. This is what she had to say about her father:

[Karl Vetter] only had formal education through the fourth grade.  Boys had to spend a lot of their time working on the ranch.  My dad educated himself.  He was a very intelligent person.  We always had lots of books at home.  He studied books on  a lot of subjects, and read a lot from the Bible. He had memorized a lot of scriptures.

Let me add here that my mother also loved reading. When we were growing up, she read to us nearly every evening -- not just kids' books, but adult books from the bookmobile that stopped near our home once or twice a month.

His handwriting was very nice for a man.  The last letter I got from my sister refers to how smart my dad was.  Elsie asked me if I remembered when we were kids and some neighbor kids were running around loose and daddy noticed the “tracks” on their skin from mites and ringworm.  He made up a solution of Vaseline and sulfur.  Mama was so scared the neighbors would make trouble, but they never did, they didn’t even care their kids were smeared all over with the yellow stuff.  According to the literature from the Mayo Clinic that is the only home remedy that works. 

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My grandfather never talked much about his childhood. But we can guess some things about it.

Karl Vetter was born and raised on a cattle ranch. But, his ancestors were shoemakers. He learned the shoemaking trade from his great-uncle, who first convinced the family to move from Ohio to Montana.

He was raised in the Madison Valley, Montana. As you come north out of Yellowstone, you enter this valley. It is absolutely beautiful!

I was wandering in the Seattle Public Library's genealogical section one day, when I found a book titled "History of Madison County". Since my grandfather was born in Madison County, Montana, I grabbed the book and looked to see if there was any information about the Vetter family. I found the following entries:

JOHN G. VETTER was born in Wurtenberg, Germany, December 22, 1833. He came to America with his family in 1857. He built his first business in Pacific City, Missouri, where his property was estimated to be worth over half a million dollars when the Civil War wiped him out. He was a shoemaker by trade and invested the $3000 he was able to salvage in an ox-drawn freight wagon and supplies to take to the Idaho Mines. He had the leather goods needed to start his shoe shop and much general equipment. He had medical supplies and when the doctor for the wagon train did not have what he needed to take care of an emergency, he supplied what was needed. The doctor was so impressed he told John his medical kit had the best possible selection of drugs to carry West.

Mr. Vetter arrived in Virginia City and started his shoe shop in 1863. He was the first of his family to move to Montana, and it was twenty years before his nephews and nieces started to follow him. Except for a brief unsuccessful marriage to the wide of Dr. Lev Daems, he lived alone. He was a Mason, having joined the order in Pacific City, Missouri in 1858. He was elected to membership in Virginia City Lodge No. 1, April 14, 1866. 

 

Mr. Vetter's Virginia City shoe shop was prosperous. He had as many as fourteen shoemakers working for him. he was proud that when Acting Territorial Governor Thomas Francis Meagher disappeared at Fort Benton he was wearing a pair of boots from his shop that had not been paid for. He like to tell about the shoes his shop made for the hurdy-gurdy girls. He personally set the 25 cent coins in the heels so that they would ring properly when the girls danced. 

 

When Helena became more prosperous than Virginia City, he moved. The Helena shop was replaced three times because of fires, but each new building was larger. 

 

History says that in 1877 Doctors Armistead H. Mitchell and C.F. Mussigbrod made a contract with the Territory to take custody of insane persons. Oral tradition in the Vetter family said that Doctors Mussigbrod and Scanland asked John Vetter to be their partner in this venture, but he did not like the project. He loaned them the money to build their hospital, and started to work for them when his investment was in danger. His load was paid, and he continued to work there until Warm Springs became a State institution in 1912. 

 

Ernest Vetter, a nephew of John, came to stay with him while he was at Warm Springs. Ernest had just left his home in Ohio and worked with him during the winter of 1899. Young Ernest was depressed by the hospital but was impressed with the way his Uncle John's quiet strength calmed the patients. He was enormously strong with very long arms, and rather than use a straight jacket, he picked up patients bodily and carried them to their quarters, or quieted them. 

 

When John developed an incurable throat cancer which he had diagnosed at Rochester, he lived in the Jack Creek home of his nephew and niece, John and Mary Vetter. He died in 1913 and was buried in the Virginia City Cemetery. 

 

CHARLES VETTER was the second of his family to come to Montana. His uncle, John G. Vetter, had arrived in 1863. Charles bought a ranch on Jack Creek from Mr. Walsh in 1888. About 1900 he sold to his brother, John, and purchased the Horace Bull ranch on Jack Creek bench, then he moved to the Lowe Ranch, which later became part of the Granger Ranches. He sold the Lowe Ranch in 1905 and moved his family to Canada. His wife died during the first winter in Canada. His daughter Nell brought he younger sister, Loula, back to the Madison Valley where she was adopted by her aunt, Minnie Vetter Paugh. Charles died in British Columbia. His children were: Omar, who married Elizabeth Daems; Olive, who married Harry Baker; Nellie, who married Steve McGuire; Carl, who married Hattie Smith Keller; Justina, who married Russell McLees; Bert, who married Josephine Daems; and Loula, who married Robert Wilson. 

 

Minnie Vetter and her sister Mary came West by train to Bozeman in 1888 to join their brother Charles. He had a job for them at the mining camp of Red Bluff. One sister worked in the Tanner home and the other worked at the hotel which is the stone building at the Montana Experimental Farm at Red Bluff. The girls worked there for almost a year until Mary cut her hand seriously. When she recovered both girls worked in the home of Myron D. Jeffers. Minnie later cared for Mrs. George Watts when Jack was born. In 1891, Minnie married Erastus Paugh and Mary soon started keeping house for her brother John. 

 

John Vetter worked for L.S. Briggs when he came to Madison Valley. The Briggs ranch was north of the present channel, Dude Ranch. John kept this position until he had saved $1000. Mary, his sister, was often in the Briggs home where she delivered one of the children while Mr. Briggs was trying to locate the doctor. 

 

Ernest and Florence came after their father married a widow with family of her own. Ernest spent his first winter in Montana with his Uncle John at Warm Springs, as an attendant at the hospital. In summer, he took his brother JohnÕs job herding sheep for L.S. Briggs. He saved enough money in two years to buy the Erastus Paugh homestead in 1901, and his sister Florence became his housekeeper. IN 1903, he had 200 head of cattle and he bought 150 head of range horses from L.S. Briggs in 1904.

 

Florence married Jefferson R. Allenburg ÒJeffÓ in 1911 and move to the Clarence Jeffers Ranch which he managed until Austin Jeffers took it over when discharged from the Army after World War I. Jeff was from Carthage, Missouri, and came to Montana early enough to have had his first job working for William Ennis. The Madison climate made him so hungry that he was embarrassed to satisfy himself at the table and bought extra food at the store. He was a tall robust man. He worked for the VF Ranch and took up a homestead in the Varney area. Jeff was a relative of Mrs. Dan Thornton whose ranch was on Cedar Creek. After Jeff died in 1926, Florence made her home in Jeffers. 

 

Before World War I, John Vetter sold his ranch on Jack Creek to his brother Ernest who had married Josephine Daems. John moved to Bozeman with his sister Mary in 1917. He bought a lot on the corner of Wallace and Mendenhall where he had a gasoline station. He also acquired a ranch near Belgrade. John died of influenza in 1919. Mary died in 1934. They are both buried in the Bozeman cemetery. 

 

Ernest Vetter ran his ranch as a hay and cattle operation. He kept a hired man on the ranch he bought from John and usually had one at his main ranch. In 1929, he sold his land and livestock to Wetmore Hodges, which became the Jumping Horse Ranch. At the time when he sold, he had 1260 acres of land, 600 cattle, and 80 head of horses. 

 

Ernest retired to Ennis where he and his family ran a tourist court and the Ennis Cafe. When his wife "Josie" died in 1948 he retired to his daughter's home in Butte where he was joined by his sister Florence. He died in 1959, and Florence in 1959. Both the Vetters and the Allenburgs are buried in the Madison Valley Cemetery

.

Ernest had one daughter, Buena Belle, who married Dale Koelzer and lives at West Yellowstone. The children of Josie and Bert Vetter were raised in Ernest's home. Ernest W. "Tim" lives in Seattle, and Berta is deceased.

 

Next: How did a Montana rancher meet and marry a beautiful young woman from Iowa?

Karl Vetter

My maternal grandfather was Karl Edward Vetter, born 7 March 1892 and died 9 December 1960. Because I was 8 years old when he passed away, I knew some things about him. A family group sheet he completed helped me start my family history journey.

What can I discover about him with today's search capabilities?

World War I Registration

In 1917, nearly every adult male in America was required to complete a draft registration card. These cards are now available in images online through FamilySearch. Here is what we know about Karl:

 He worked on a ranch -- not surprising, since he was raised on one. He was single, medium build, with light brown eyes and dark brown hair. He suffered from asthma -- which eventually led to his death at age 68. It appears that he filled out his registration card himself in a clear handwriting, so he must have been educated.

Census records

A little about census records. The United States has performed a census every 10 years since 1790. Some censuses are more useful in family history research than others. The 1880 Census was the first one to list ALL children by name. When Social Security was establish n 1945, the retirement age was set at 65 since you simply had to find your name on the 1880 census to prove you were 65 or above.

Census records are only as accurate as the person who gave the information, the person who recorded the information, and the person who digitized the information. If you can't find your ancestor with an immediate search (all census records through the 1940 census are now available online), try a variation of the name.

The first census that will show Karl is the 1900 census. We find him with his family, but with his name spelled "Carl":

The 1900 census also gives us information that earlier censuses did not. Charles and Harriet Vetter have been married for 18 years, so about 1882. Since both were born in Ohio, and their first three children were also born in Ohio, I am going to search Ohio for a marriage certificate.

We also have the month and year of birth for each family member. Previous censuses just gave the age at last birthday, so you never quite knew what year a person was born.

Harriet gave birth to 7 children, only 6 of which are still living. The children seem to be one to two years apart in age -- the child probably was between Nellie and Justina, so it is hard to say whether the child died in Ohio or Montana.

It would be nice to look at the 1890 census and see whether the family lived in Ohio or Montana at that time, but we can't. The 1890 census records were damaged in a fire in 1921. Although only 15% to 25% of the records were damaged, Congress authorized the destruction of the remaining records in the mid 1930's.

What else does the census tell us about Karl? In 1910, he was living with his uncle, John G. Vetter, and his aunt (John's sister), Mary C. Vetter. He is living next door to another uncle, Ernest F Vetter, and another aunt (Ernest's sister), Florence M. Vetter. All of these people are listed as farmers, although they actually owned a large ranch, now known as the Jumping Horse Ranch.

I love this picture of Karl. He looks like he is ready to take on the world!

Despite his asthma, Karl enlisted in the Navy for the Great War. On his way out of San Francisco, he sent a postcard to a lady-friend:

Karl lived in Montana the first half of his life. Tomorrow, we will meet Lois Katherine Field and see how she came to Montana. In 1932, he packed up his family with the intent of moving to Bakersfield, California, where his asthma would be better. The family never made it south of Seattle, and he died in Everett, Washington in 1960. Even in this picture, taken a year or two before his death, you sill see that handsome and hard-working man:

Family History Websites

Many, many, family history and genealogy websites are available on the Internet. Some are free; others vary in cost from inexpensive to very expensive. If you choose to join one or more of these sites, make sure that it will meet your needs before you spend a lot of money.

www.familysearch.com is a great place to start. I have shown you some examples of the site in this blog, and will continue to use this as my main family history site. FamilySearch is free to all -- it always has been and will always continue to be free. No obligation. No unwanted advertising. FamilySearch is provided by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (www.lds.org, www.mormons.org).

One of the first large databases available online is Ancestry.com. Established in 1996, it quickly became a "go-to" site for genealogy enthusiasts. The first time I sat down at ancestry.com, I found my maternal grandmother's line back to the Mayflower. I was so thrilled that I immediately paid for a year's subscription, and remained a paid subscriber until recently. I now get a free membership :)

Ancestry and FamilySearch have some shared information, and some different information. The two search engines are also different. I don't know enough about search engine technology to explain, but often a search will fail on one site while being successful on the other. Using the two sites together give you the best source of information. I record all of my finds in FamilySearch, however, because I like the family tree interface better on that site.

Several months ago, Ancestry and FamilySearch became partners, meaning that they will be sharing their databases. If you are a member of the LDS Church, you can become a free basic member of Ancestry. See https://familysearch.org/partneraccess for more information.


www.findmypast.com has a lot of newspaper records and vital records that are searchable. A quick search for "Karl Vetter" finds his marriage record: http://search.findmypast.com/record?id=r_650820078%2f1. Using the newspaper record search, I found this tidbit:

Why was my grandmother listed as "Lois Carstens" instead of "Lois Field"?  Why was my grandmother, a life-long resident of Iowa, listed as "From Mitchell, SD"? How did they meet? Genealogy often raises two questions for every one answered. More on this tomorrow. At least we now know that they were married in Havre, not Helena, because Karl was "managing the Larson Show hospital." Later research will show that shoe making was a family trade for the Vetters.


If you have Washington State ancestry, check out http://www.digitalarchives.wa.gov/Home. Many Washington State records are available for free here. A quick search through marriage records found this (http://www.digitalarchives.wa.gov/Record/View/05B47F47936C5FC1A6CF5FE0B80B4431).
This is my sister's marriage license. It contains my father's signature as a witness. I also notice that the license was not filed for six months -- does that mean they weren't legally married? :) It also shows that Donna and Laif will celebrate their 43rd anniversary tomorrow. Happy anniversary!

Tomorrow: More about Karl Vetter and Lois Field.

Leonard Otte and Mary Gordon Simmons

I knew that my grandfather, Leonard Otte, was born in New Jersey, and my grandmother, Mary Gordon Simmons, was born in Iowa. With research that I have already described, I found that they were married in Tacoma, Washington in 1902. But, how did they meet? What possessed them to move to a barely-civilized area (Washington only became a state in 1889)?

There are many types of records available on the Internet besides US Census. Some of these records are found on sites besides FamilySearch. Some records are only available in libraries and dusty archives, but these are slowly being indexed and entered into FamilySearch.

A note about indexing: Indexing is fairly easy to do, especially if you are fluent in cursive writing. You can find instructions here: https://familysearch.org/indexing/. This week, FamilySearch has an indexing challenge: https://familysearch.org/blog/en/week-thousand-volunteers-fuel-find-world/. Join with us in making more records available for searching.

Let's first see what we can find out about Leonard Otte through FamilySearch.

When I search for him on Family Search, the first record that appears is the 1910 census. But, wait! He is in neither Tacoma nor New Jersey: He and Mary are in Toppenish, on the east side of the Cascade Mountains. He and Mary have been married for 7 years, and have just one child, Richard, who is 7. Leonard is listed as a "house carpenter," which is no surprise -- the Ottes have been carpenters of some type or another for many centuries.

While living in Yakima, I found some city directories for Toppenish in a local archive. Here, Leonard was listed as a "rancher." I asked my father about this, and he recalled a story told him by his mother. Leonard wanted to do something different with his life, and bought an apple orchard in Toppenish, probably in 1907 (http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=10400). After a couple of years working the orchard, the irrigation line broke above their fledgling crop and washed all of the trees down the hill. They returned to Tacoma just in time for their next child, Horace Taylor Otte, to be born June 18, 1910.

We still have not discovered how Leonard and Mary met, although we do have an inkling of their lives.

I visited the Tacoma Genealogical Library and found Tacoma City Directories for many years. The 1902 directory listed Leonard Otte as a boarder in the home of Robert and Nellie Jamieson. Nellie Simmons, a widow, married Robert Jamieson on 18 Feb 1899. I just found my great-grandmother whose maiden name, "Gordon" has been passed down as a middle name through the generations since (my grandmother, her daughter, and my sister all have "Gordon" as their middle name. When I gave the middle name to my son, my sister thanked me).

So, how did Nellie end up in Tacoma? This took a lot more research. Family history is not easy.

I found Nellie Simmons in the 1880 Census with her husband, John Simmons. They were in Kansas, apparently because Nellie's brother lived there. What happened to John?

In the early 2000's, a lot of genealogical databases began to show up on line. I became involved with one -- the Rootsbweb cemetery project -- at that time. It was through this project (now part of ancestry.com) that I found John Simmons' grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=23817028&ref=acom

Tacoma City Directories showed me that John's widow, Nellie, moved to Tacoma where another brother, Franklin Gordon, lived. She soon met and married Robert Jamieson, and had a son, but died when the son was just a few years old.

We now know how Mary found her way to Tacoma, but how about Leonard? The most likely reason was the "Fire of 1902" in Paterson, NJ. http://www.patersonhistory.com/events/fire1902.html. This fire put 300 trolley car carpenters out of work. Leonard most likely took the first train out of town to Tacoma, where he would build rail cars. He needed a place to stay, and a coworker -- Robert Jamieson -- offered him a room. Robert lived with his wife, his baby son, and his stepdaughter, Mabel. Leonard fell in love with Mabel's identical twin sister, Mary, who actually did not live at home at the time.

This research wasn't done in a few hours or even a few days. But, we finally have a glimpse of Leonard and Mary's lives, how they met and married, and where they lived during the short time they had together.

I wish I had some pictures to post of Leonard and Mary, but have yet to discover any. Today, we take pictures of our children every minute of their lives; in the early 1900's, photography was only available to people with much more money than these families had.

Next: I will post a generic description of awesome databases that I have used to research my family.

Lenard (Leonard) Otte

I knew nearly nothing about my grandfather when I began this journey. I knew he died in a tragic accident near Tacoma, Washington when my father was a baby -- late 1917 or early 1918. I knew his name, and that he was born in New Jersey. I knew the name OTTE was Dutch.

I spent many years researching the old-fashioned way -- lots of letters and legwork. I got a copy of his death certificate from the State of Washington. I found a small obituary in a Tacoma paper. And I scrolled through miles of the 1880 census from Patterson, New Jersey, hoping to find him as a baby. Nothing worked.

I didn't even know where my grandparents were married -- she was from Iowa, and somehow they ended up in Tacoma. My father thought they were married in Montana. One day, while in a Pierce County archive office, I stumbled on their marriage license. Here is the first clue to my great-grandfather's name: Richard Otte. Wow! The same as my uncle and my brother. Both went by the nickname "Dick". I searched again through the census, and found nothing.

One day, I was going through a microfilm containing city directories from Patterson. When I viewed the last city directory on the microfilm, I hit gold! Two men with the last name of Otte were sharing a room -- and one was Dirk Otte! Suddenly it all made sense to me: in America, people thought his name was Dick and assumed his name was Richard. Now, let's search for a Dirk Otte, instead.

By this time, the census was available on computer. I used a Soundex search. Since the family pronounces the name with a short "o" and silent "e" (ott), maybe they spelled the name wrong on the census.

Boy was it spelled wrong! I found the family here:

A four-letter last name, and only two letters were correct. The father was recorded as Richard, and it included Leonard and Cornelius, and uncle my father had once met. Finally I had a lot of information!

But, I still felt the first name was Dirk, not Richard. Let me use FamilySearch and see. 

I went to the Records tab and searched for Dirk Otte who lived in New Jersey from about 1860 to 1920. 

The first entry I found was the 1885 New Jersey census, with a listing of "Derrick Otte." I am feeling confident that Dirk was the first name.

Where else can I search? Let's try www.findagrave.com. This site has improved greatly since the first time I used it. It now has 132 million grave records, with more being added each day. Volunteers will "adopt" a cemetery and place pictures of the graves, along with related information when known.

Although I found Dirk listed as "Richard" in FindAGrave, I have been to the cemetery and know that he is buried as Dirk.

I also have a picture of Dirk and Lena (Helena), my great-grandparents. 

Tomorrow: Using public records to piece together the life story of Leonard and Mary Otte.