Undocumented Family Trees - Seefried Ancestors

 In this post from August 2019, I talked about the transcription of the marriage record I found for my 2x-great-grandparents, Andreas Dunzinger and Anna Ziegelmuller. A few months later, I was able to obtain an image of the church book record. You can see that the transcription was an accurate representation of what was written in the record. It lists Anna's surname as Ziegelmilch and her parents as Paul Ziegelmilch and Victoria Seefried.

A Look Back at 2019 and a Look Ahead to 2020

2020 is well underway. I hope you and I have a great year with lots of walls tumbling down. With the new year, it's always good to look back at the previous year and remember things we discovered, things we learned and things we can improve on.

In 2019, my biggest genealogical achievement was the discovery of the marriage record of the parents of my great-grandmother, Elizabeth Dunzinger. I already knew her father's name and his marriage record gave me her mother's name, along with her mother's parents' names, which were a complete mystery to me. This discovery gave me my great-great-grandmother, Anna Ziegelmueller and her parents Paul Ziegelmueller and Victoria Seefried.

What Constitutes Proof? - Revisited

You may recall my post from 2014 titled What Constitutes Proof. This post has proven to be one of my most popular articles, even years later. In it, I described what I knew about my great-grandmother and what I discovered about what I believed was her family in the 1855 New York state census. There was no proof discovered but I had a lot of circumstantial evidence.

Following the Genealogical Proof Standard, I didn't believe I proved that Elizabeth Dunzinger's parents were Andrew and Fanny Dunzenger, found in New York City, along with Mary A. Dunzenger, who would be her sister, Victoria Seidlenar, who would be her grandmother and Adam Pacoke, who would be her uncle. I only had the one piece of evidence, along with an Andreas Dunzinger, of approximately the right age to be this Andrew, being born in Wemding, Bavaria, which is the town the newspaper article stated the families were from. I did, however, believe it was her family. I just didn't prove it.Given recent genealogical discoveries, I thought it was time to revisit the evidence and come to a solid conclusion. So, here is what I know about my great-grandmother, Elizabeth Dunzinger Panther, listed in the approximate order of when I discovered the evidence.

Dunzinger Marriage Record Found Along with Great-Great-Grandmother's Name

I finally found the marriage record for my great-great-grandparents. FindMyPast has the collection called New York Roman Catholic Parish Marriages and another called New York Roman Catholic Parish Baptisms. I searched for Dunzinger and the very first record that came up was the marriage record for my great-great-grandparents, Andreas and Anna Ziegelmuller Dunzinger in 1847. Previously, the only information we had about Andreas' wife was the 1855 New York State Census, which listed her as Fanny. It also listed a Victoria whose last name was transcribed as Seidlenar.

Cracks Beginning to Appear in the Fanny Dunzinger Brick Wall

Using the Family Tree DNA results of a second cousin of mine, I have sniffed out a clue that could lead us to the maiden name of Fanny, the wife of Andreas/Andrew Dunzinger. In previous posts, I discussed the 1855 New York State Census showing the family of Andrew Dunzinger and his wife Fanny. Here is the image again:

2013 - Most Popular Posts of the Blog's First Year

I'm trying to come up with a good subject for my next blog post but nothing is inspiring me, so... I'll give you the most popular posts on my blog this year.

The most popular post this year, narrowly beating the second place entry is "What Constitutes Proof?" This post is a rundown of everything I know about Elizabeth "Lizzie" Juliana Dunzinger, my great-grandmother. I've found quite a bit of circumstantial evidence pointing to Andreas/Andrew and Fanny Dunzinger of New York and Wemding Bavaria to make me believe they are her parents. I'm hoping to find concrete proof of this. It got quite a few of the visits due to it being mentioned in the Genealogy Guys and the Genealogy Gems podcasts.

Coming in second is my post titled "Who Finds Who?" It tells the story of the discovery of my great-great-great-grandfather's grave and it's near discovery by my cousin's son, who had literally tripped over it but still didn't find it. As another one of my cousins described it, "unbelievable, awesome, spooky and hilarious all rolled in to one!"

Coming in at a solid third was the report of my initial discovery of Elizabeth Dunzinger, "Elizabeth Dunzinger Possibly Found", describing how I found her and what I found, along with follow-ups on some research in Wemding.

Have a subject you think will make a good blog post? Do you have a research question you'd like an answer to? A research technique to let people know about? A branch of our shared family tree you'd like posted? Drop me a message!

--Matt

What Constitutes Proof?

Lizzie Dunzinger as a young lady.

An updated article has been posted here.

As anyone who has been aware of my genealogy research knows, my big mystery is my great-grandmother, Elizabeth Dunzinger. I've put a lot of time and effort into finding her, as you'll see in the evidence collected below.

I am going to list all the documentation we have on Lizzie (as she was known most of her life). I'm interested in your opinion. Does all this together consistute proof that we've found her parents? If not, where do we go from here to prove it? Please comment below or email me your thoughts. Thank you!

The family story passed down through the years says that Lizzie was born in New York in either 1854 or 1856. Her grandparents brought her to Burlington, Des Moines County, Iowa to live with relatives after her parents died when she was about three years old.

In this list, I will talk about only facts about the documentation and facts about what we know, not my beliefs on what is true.

More Information on the Dunzinger Family

I found out more details of the Dunzinger family in and around Wemding, Bavaria, Germany. This does not yet confirm that we've found Elizabeth Dunzinger's ancestors but it does confirm that the Andrew Dunzinger family found in the 1855 New York census does connect to the Dunzinger family in Wemding. What we need to track down now is the marriage and death records for Andrew and Fanny Dunzinger found in the 1855 New York census. If we can confim that they died in the late 1850s, that will, to me at least, prove beyond a reasonable doubt that we've found our Elizabeth Dunzinger's family. I'm sure there is more information than what I'm showing here but I've asked them to hold off the research due to the cost (more than I expected) and the fact that we haven't confirmed that this is the correct Dunzinger family. I'm pretty confident but I'd rather not have more research expense without knowing this for sure. I'm hoping to find a way to do the research myself but as far as I know, these documents have not been digitized or microfilmed.

Here are the details of what we now know:
Andrew Dunzinger, found in the 1855 New York census in Ward 20, 2nd Enumeration District, age 32, with a daughter, Elizabeth, 1 year old. Here's the entire family entry:

Andrew Dunzenger - M - 32 - born in Germany
Fanny Dunzenger - F - wife - 27 - born in Germany
Margret Dunzenger - F - child - 4 - born in New York
Elizabeth Dunzenger - F - child - 1 - born in New York
Victoria Sualemar - F - 68 - mother - born in Germany
Adam Pacoke - M - 16 - brother - born in Germany

At 32 years old, we can estimate his birth year to be 1822-1824 and the census specifies he was born in Germany and immigrated 9 years prior, in about 1846. It lists his occupation as a "paper stainer".
A paper stainer is typically someone who paints or dyes paper, typically to be used for wallpaper.

In the records of Wemding, currently stored in Eichstatt, we have the marriage of Andreas Dunzinger (a widower and tinctor [a dyer], son of the deceased Georg Andreas Dunzinger, a merchant, and his wife Cäcilia Riß) and Maria Francisca Leinfelder, born October 18, 1797,
Witness: Jacob Leinfelder, miller at Haagenmühl and his wife Maria Francisca Zamet.

They had 9 children including Andreas, born February 12, 1822. Their other childrens' names were Rupert, Joseph (died at 9 months old), Joseph, Catharina de Sienna, Cacilia (died at 5 years old), Francisca, Cacilia, Emmeram (died at 1 year, 8 months old).

The elder Andreas Dunzinger's first marriage was to Maria Josepha Lettenbauer, born 06.05.1792, daughter of Michael Lettenbauer mayor and innkeeper and his deceased wife Marianna Koch. They had three children, Maria Anna Juliana, Maria Anna and Joseph. His first wife died at the age of 38. His second wife, the mother of Andreas, also died at 38 years of age and he married a third time, to Marianna Strauss, daughter of the decesased Johann Strauss a citizen in Anhauserhof and his deceased wife Marianna Ottinger.

One baptismal entry says the father is owner of “Wildbad” in Wemding. Wildbad is a part of Wemding; today a hotel.

Georg Andreas Dunzinger (this would be Elizabeth's great-grandfather) married twice. First to Maria Barbara, daughter of the deceased Joseph Kreislmayer senator/councilman and his deceased wife Catharina. Next to Maria Cäcilia, daughter of the deceased Johann Riß innkeeper from Blindheim and his deceased wife Maria Anna. Maria Cäcilia would be Elizabeth's great-grandmother.

George Andreas Dunzinger was the son of Franz Xaver Dunzinger, cerearius Wörthae (= cerearius = chandler; Wörthae = Donauwörth?) and senator/councilman, and his wife Maria Anna.

We also have information about Joseph Dunzinger's marriage and descendants. This is the brother of the Andreas Dunzinger that moved to New York and likely the ancestor of most of the Dunzingers still living in the area. As for the mother and brother listed, we have to assume they are the mother and brother of Fanny Dunzinger. We have not yet figured out who she is and if she is also from Wemding. Their marriage record in New York will likely provide more information as there is no marriage record for the younger Andreas Dunzinger in Wemding. Also, the researcher could not find a connection between the Dunzinger family and the Ziegelmueller and Wagner families in Wemding so I'm working under the assumption they are releated to Fanny and that she is also from Wemding.

--Matt
Lessons learned: Never give up looking for that elusive ancestors. Never lose contact information for those who've helped you in the past. Find out the cost of what research is going to cost before authorizing the research.

Elizabeth Dunzinger Possibly Found

I was planning on posting about the mystery of my great-grandmother, Elizabeth Dunzinger Panther. That plan changed this morning! I may have found her!

I first need to state that this information is not yet confirmed to be "our" Elizabeth Dunzinger, but the timeframe and location are correct. I MAY have found Elizabeth Dunzinger's family in New York.

What we know for sure up to this point is that she appeared in the 1870 census in Des Moines County, Iowa, living in the Charles Wagner household in Burlington. She was listed as 17 years old, a servent in the boarding house Mr. Wagner ran. We later figured out that this was the Valley Street Boarding House located at 413 and 415 Valley Street in Burlington, Iowa.

A second cousin of mine showed me a newspaper article that her grandmother had noted that it spoke about relatives of Grandma Panther, meaning Lizzie Dunzinger. The people the article talked about were from Wemding, Bavaria, Germany.

We have found Dunzinger families in Wemding. We just haven't been able to connect her to these families.

I just received the most recent newsletter from Family Search, which touted that new collections are added each week. The email contained a link to their online collection. I browsed down the list and found the 1855 New York State Census and did a search. A search for Dunzinger returned this family in New York City, New York County, Ward 20, Enumeration District 2:

Andrew Dunzenger - M - 32 - born in Germany
Fanny Dunzenger - F - wife - 27 - born in Germany
Mary A. Dunzenger - F - child - 4 - born in New York
Elizabeth Dunzenger - F - child - 1 - born in New York <----- This could be her!
Victoria Sualemar - F - 68 - mother - born in Germany
Adam Pacoke - M - 16 - brother - born in Germany

Our information said she was born in either 1854 or 1856. If she was born in 1854, the age would be correct in this census. I believe the next step would be to find Andrew and Fanny's marriage and/or immigration record, and, to confirm family stories, to see if they died in the next few years.

It's possible our most frustrating brick wall may finally be crumbling!

--Matt
edited 01 June 2013 - changed sister name from Margret to Mary A.