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.