Wednesday, January 13, 2021

The Will of Leonard Ziegelmüller

In posts found here and here, I discussed discovering the name of the mother of my great-grandmother, Elizabeth Dunzinger Panther. It ends up the surname had been in front of us for a decade or more but we had no idea that it was her last name. My second cousin has provided me with an additional piece of evidence that, had we known to look for it earlier, could have cut decades off of this search. It is the last will and testament of Leonard Ziegelmüller. In order to take advantage of this, I would have had to recognize that the last name in the headline of the newspaper article was definitely connected to her rather than believing another family the article discussed, which she was found living with in the 1870 US Federal Census, was her family. In the end, rather than providing us the breakthrough, it serves as additional evidence that what we have discovered is correct.

Wednesday, January 6, 2021

Reasons for Aloys Panther's Move to America

 My great-grandfather, Aloys Panther, and his wife Monica Hanle Panther, along with their oldest son, came to America from Baden in 1872. Why? I had speculated that the end of the Austro-Prussian War, the death of his brother and the death of two of his sons may have convinced him to try a for a new start in a new land. I believe his brother may have paid a return visit to his home town to convince him to follow him back to America.