Genealogy Twists and Turns

It hasn't been all that long since I began my quest to find out about my ancestors. I began my research in April 2001 after reading "Netting Your Ancestors" by Cyndi Howells. I was still fairly new to the internet, so the book was a huge help in pointing me in the right direction to begin my research.I decided to begin my search with my GERTNER and SCHNELL families. When I was attending college I took a course about researching your Family Tree. While my end results left a lot to be desired, the one smart thing I did was to keep my notes from the interview I had withmy maternal grandmother at the time I was taking the course.That meant I needed to look for websites for Ohio, in particular for the City of Piqua or the county of Miami. I found a website right away and visited the various parts of the website and all of the links provided. I found other GERTNER and SCHNELL listings and while I was not sure about the SCHNELL listings I found as my grandmother had told me her grandfather'sname was John SCHNELL and I could not find any John SCHNELLS, the GERTNER listings looked VERY interesting!All of the early GERTNER listings said that the individual had been born in New York. This was my one main clue as I knew that my great grandfather and his siblings had been born in "downstate New York". It all looked very promising, but I needed more information to confirm my suspicions.I decided that I would follow the SCHNELL information further when I found a link for an email address to the local library. THIS was by far the BEST decision I could have made! The history librarian wrote me back and told me that while she could not find anything on a John SCHNELL, she could did have information about a Mathias SCHNELL whose wife and children were the very same as my grandmother had given me. She told me that she could send me photocopies of what she had and I gladly accepted. That led me to a second cousin who very kindly gave medocument copies and reports following the family back into the 1600's!For certain that was a huge find and so early in my research at a time when I was still learning genealogy basics. And even though it is almost five years now since I began my search and I have gained considerable knowledge, I find that there is always more to learn, a new way to look at things.Never overlook an opportunity to contact a library or other resource center that may have information that will assist you in your research. Be as specific as possible in what you are looking for and provide any additional data you have that will assist in a search. Some libraries may charge a fee for this service, be sure to find out first.

What about those GERTNERS?

In my first post I told how a simple inquiry to a library helped me find a new cousin and in the process I received photos and documents, tracing the SCHNELL Family history back to the 1600's. That was most definitely VERY exciting as well as a bit overwhelming. After all, I was a newbie to genealogy research! Even so, I was not so overwhelmed that I stopped right there! I decided to concentrate my efforts on the GERTNER Family, my other Ohio connection. My starting information for the GERTNER Family was considerably less than what I had to work with on the SCHNELL line. For the SCHNELL Family I knew birthplace (of my great grandmother), names of siblings and the occupation of my great great grandfather. But for my GERTNER Family the only thing I knew was that my great grandfather's first name was Henry and that he was born "down state" in New York State. My grandmother told me she was unable to remember anything else. I learned from my mother several years later that during World War II, my grandmother and her siblings were so ashamed of their German heritage that they burned their family bible. Persumably it was the GERTNER Family Bible and that was why she was not able to give me any more information. It has made my job harder but a lot more fun! Receiving a completed genealogy (as well as any genealogy can be completed since there are always bound to be some unanswered questions no matter how hard you search) is great but takes the fun out of discovering it for yourself.The first thing I did, since I had found GERTNER information on the Ohio websites for the area known as the Miami Valley, was to locate where I could write for death certificates since the information I had found was cemetery information. The copies were incredibly cheap - only $1 for each record - and they confirmed that all three men had been born in New York State, in Fremont, Sullivan County which is indeed in "down state" New York! Additionally the names of the parents matched on two of the three records (one had "not known"), so I was relatively certain they were brothers. Their birthdates were all from the same decade as my great grandfather, so I was further encouraged that I had the right family.Now that I had a first name for Henry's father (John), I made a broader search using such resources as Family Search, Ancestry.com and Genealogy.com. I had learned about these web sites from Cyndi Howell's book. While I wasn't able to find anything at Family Search, I did find a census index listing for the 1860 US Federal Census for a John GERTNER in Fremont, New York State when I signed up for a free trial with Ancestry.com I was sure I was on the right track.My next step was to request the death certificate for my great grandfather, Henry GERTNER. As he died in Rochester, New York, I had to make the request with the county of residence, in this case Monroe County. Records are considerably more expensive to obtain in New York State and I paid $11 for his death record, but it was still worth every penny as it confirmed what I had begun to believe: The Ohio GERTNER men were Henry's brothers. This was confirmed by the same names given for the parents and also the location of birth, Fremont, New York.Once the census images came online I obtained a subscription and found the 1860 census for the John GERTNER Family. The oldest son and a daughter were listed with their parents. I was exstatic! Furthermore I learned that both parents were born in Germany, probably Bavaria, which meant that Henry and his siblings were the first generation born in the US. I also had an approximate date for John GERTNER'S marriage to his bride, Maria KENZIER. And I learned that John GERTNER was a general farmer.Since my Henry was not born until 1866, he did not appear on the 1860 census, so I was very interested in finding them in the 1870 census. Going by the supposition that they were still living in Fremont, I searched the entire roll at Ancestry.com but came up empty handed. I began to wonder if I had been incorrect, that perhaps they had moved sometime after Henry's birth to Miami County, Ohio, so I searched there as well without success. As soon as the index became available at Genealogy.com, I signed on for a trial subscription. I thought for sure I would now find them, that perhaps they were on the move in 1870 and that was why I had been unable to locate them. But I couldn't find them!Frustrated, I continued to search and happened upon a website called CousinConnect. I made a post about my GERTNER Family, hoping to make a connection to another researcher and then forgot about it.So, I turned my attention to the 1880 Federal Census and found the John GERTNER Family living in Piqua, Miami County, Ohio. Finally! Except that John was a widower! So I had a new problem: When did Maria die? Where did she die? But Henry and his siblings (two had been previously unknown to me) were all listed, all of them had been born in New York, the last birth about 1868, so at least I could determine that Maria had died after 1868 and prior to 1880.When I had obtained the death records for the Ohio GERTNERS, I also obtained the names of their wives which assisted me in further census work. I was able to locate several of the records and flesh out the lines, adding names and approximate birth dates for their children.
Then one day, about a year later, I received an email from someone who had found my query at CousinConnect! I really never thought that anything would come of my query, so you can imagine my surprise when I found the email. It turned out that an Ohio GERTNER, a new found cousin, had found my query. And while he had many of the same questions as I did, he was able to provide me with photos of both my Henry and Henry's father John!!! I was thrilled!
However I was still in need of finding the 1870 census. I needed to know where they were living - New York or Ohio and if Maria was still living at that time. Eventually Ancestry.com indexed the 1870 census and I began the search once again. Using various spellings such as GEARTNER, GERTNER and GARTNER, I still had no luck. I decided to go on the premise that they had been in Ohio in 1870 and tried a different approach. I chose the least common of the given names - in this case Henry - and searched for all Henry's born in the 1860's. I got about 250 hits - not too much to search through. About half way through the listing I found them enumerated as GARDNER! They were living one county over, in Montgomery County, Ohio. I was sure it was them as too many other facts fit - the children's names, places of birth and the occupation of John as farmer. And Maria was not there, John was already listed as a widower, so I could reduce the time period of her death from 12 years to 2 years.
My cousin was able to provide me with a death date for John GERTNER, which I also did not have and with that information I was able to write once again to the Public Library in Miami County and obtained his obituary. It was full of information: John's place of birth including the town and German State (unfortuantely I have not been able to confirm this information as of yet after an inquiry to the German archives for that region); the year John immigrated from Germany; that John initially settled in Fremont, New York and the year of his marriage to Maria. Additionally, the obituary mentioned that his move to Montgomery, Ohio was in 1868 and that approximately 10 years later he moved to Piqua, Miami county, Ohio.
Even though the obituary was only one paragraph, I learned the year of immigration for John, where he settled, when and where he married, the number of years he remained in Fremont, when he moved to Ohio, where he first settled in Ohio, and when he moved to Piqua.
So between the records I sent away for and the death date a received from my cousin for John GERTNER and his obituary, I was able to conclusively determine that I had indeed found the right GERTNER family. I was then able to continue my research by using the Federal Census records to fond out more about Henry's siblings. It would be rare to find all that you seek from one source. Using the many different sources available to us as genealogists, we can begin to put our genealogical puzzles together, one piece at a time.
Every state and county have different regulations about available records, where they are stored and the fee for such services, so be sure to look at county and state websites to determine how best to obtain the records you seek. In addition, I was again lucky in receiving the obituary from the Ohio library free of charge. Not all libraries will do this. For example the Rochester Library will do obituary look-ups, but they will charge $10 for this service.
However, there are other ways to obtain an obituary without paying for it. If you are fortunate to live in the area where your ancestors lived, you can go to your local library and search for the obituary yourself on microfilm. Or you can post a query to a message board or mailing list for the area of interest if you do not live near enough to the location in question. Maybe a cousin you didn't know about already has the obituary and your query may allow you to find eachother. You might also be able to obtain the microfilm on interlibrary loan. There are many ways to obtain the information you seek. Just remember that to be a good genealogist you need to be patient and you need to exhaust all possibilities to obtain the information you need to further your research.