SENTIMENTAL SUNDAY

 

This is my great grandmother Maria Anna Johanna Korbach Bartels.   From the picture of her as a young woman it says it was taken in Jena, Germany.

I know virtually nothing about her or her family.   The second picture is of her gravestone.  It says Maria Bartels geb Korbach.   I can not read the dates, and I wonder exactly where it is located.   Is the person in front of her my great grandfather?

I tried to enlarge the picture but it was a Polaroid photo, I think perhaps my grandmother, Anna Bartels Schridde took it or one of her relatives to send to Anna.   I remember she was alive during my life time.  I am thinking that perhaps she died in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s.

BACK TO THE THRILL OF THE SEARCH

 

At last Saturdays meeting, John Colletta talked about using many sources to identify your people.  Or what you think could possibly be your people.

I am back to the Bowser/Bauser side of the family.  I had searched a few months to find grand mother Mary Stephens Sperl parents.   First I found Robert Stephens, her father.   I found him by visiting UNION DALE CEMETERY because Chuck said his father went there to decorate "A civil War Soldiers Grave”     That Civil War Soldier proved to be Chucks great grandfather and Mary's father.

This led me to the 1900 Allegheny City census and I found Robert and the children along with his wife Olive.  Robert was 25 years older than Olive.   After brain storming and help from Aunt Edna, who is 85, I found her buried in Salem OH.   She had remarried, her name is now Olive Rauhut.

  On Olives death certificate it listed her father as “Jacob”   I have had a futile search for Jacob and Olive Bowser.   Until listening to John Colletta lecture.   Back to re-read my papers, I know I should have done that.   What I missed was Olives mothers name which was Mary…..   He said to search under siblings etc.    My etc proved to be mother Mary and Olive and I have a viable candidate in Kittanning in Armstrong County PA.   Which is up the Allegheny River from the city of Pittsburgh, where Robert and Olive lived.

Olive was born in 1874 and in the 1880 census they are living with the father Felix and quite a few children.    Off to check the Civil War records and what do I find but an enlistment in the 139th Regiment  Pennsylvania Infantry, and listed is Jacob F Bowser and this regiment has enlistees from Kittanning and Pittsburgh.

My theory is this is a likely candidate for my Jacob Bowser.   I have contacted the Armstrong Genealogical Society and a short trip is due to search through those records,    Good thing is it is only a 30 minute drive.

What amazes me is that ALL of the people I search for in the USA are in Western PA.   They never moved far.

THRILLER THURSDAY, MY GRANDFATHER

 

Willie Schridde, 39, Meets Death In Home Near Kennywood Park As Bolt Streaks Down Chimney.

A freak electrical storm, accompanied by a heavy downpour of rain, struck the district early today, Lightning Killed a Mifflin Township man, but did small damage to house and other structures.

Willie Schridde, 39 of 339 Vista View Street, Mifflin Township, near Kennywood Par, a German Veteran of the World War, was killed shortly before 6 a. m. today when struck by lightening which came down the chimney of his home.

His wife Anna, 36, and daughter Gerda, 13, who were unharmed by the bold which killed the father, ran to the second floor of their bungalow home to find Schridde’s clothing afire.  The wife extinguished the blaze and called Dr R L Botkin, of 27 South Second Street, Duquesne, who pronounced Mr. Schridde dead.

Mr. Schridde was a millwright at the Duquesne Works of the Carnegie Illinois Steel Corporation was remodeling into a two story dwelling the little home which he built by himself three years earlier.

Schridde came to this country ten years ago after serving in the German Army during the war.   His wife said he had undergone 17 operations for wounds received in the war but was in good health in recent years.

He had risen early today to shut the windows in the attic when he was killed while walking past a fireplace, his wife said.

GOOD NEWS

 

In the course of two days Emily has received calls for interviews.   All I can say is it is a good thing she has a Subaru……..

More on them after the fact……..Her Karma is  good this week………..

TOMBSTONE TUESDAY

 

This is one of the other side of the stone that was featured last Tuesday.   This is the father of the children Johann Sperl, Anton F Sperl, and Margaretha Sperl.

Anton was born in Rosshaupt, Bohemia according to the records of the Diocese of Pittsburgh.  

He died from Typhoid Fever a few weeks after grandfather John C Sperl Was born in 1899. 

SATURDAYS MEETING

 

It was great, John P Colletta is extremely knowledgeable and he can weave a story.    The information he presented  was extremely helpful for me because being relatively new in researching.   The searching he suggested made a lot of sense and somehow I wondered why did I not do this kind of search routinely?

I will have to go back and re-evaluate the way I have been looking for relatives.   I think the big thing is to do what he suggested (immigration and ships, census and the local records, study maps (did  not think of that personally) and the courthouse.)

Another treat was the lunch.   We had pasta and lettuce salad, chicken, ham, green beans, carrots and roasted red skinned potatoes and pie for dessert.

Has written a  recent book, ONLY A FEW BONES which he spoke of how it took years to research and all the documents he need to write the story.   I would have purchased it but it was sold out.

I will go back to next years meeting.

TOMORROWS MEETING

 

I am relatively new to Genealogy meetings.  I have attended two local meetings.  One was on German research and writing given by JOHN HUMPHREY  It was a two day course on German research and handwriting.   This was sponsored by the  WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY  It gave me a lot of information and the handwriting section on the old German Scripts was excellent.

Tomorrow the meeting is featuring JOHN P COLLETTA PHD.  This is an all day conference hosted by Tarentum Genealogical Society and in association with the Armstrong County Historical Society and the Oakmont Genealogical Study Group.

The four topics are  Passenger Arrival Records, How to Prepare for Successful Research in European Records, Breaking Through Those Brick Walls, and Discovering Your Ancestors’ World thru Maps and Gazetteers.

I am really looking forward to this education meeting; it is an all day affair and only twenty minutes from my home.  

Perhaps after I retire I can attend the weekly meeting that I read about and a lot of Bloggers attend.