Newspaper Account of an Orphan Train

After learning about my grandfather's first cousin, Christian Müller, being sent to Nebraska on board an "orphan train" of the Children's Aid Society in 1902, I've been trying to learn more about it. I have so far found just one article in the "Red Cloud Chief" newspaper of Red Cloud, Nebraska. I found the articles below on the University of Nebraska website "Nebraska Newspapers". Here is the article found in the Friday, September 12, 1902 issue of this newspaper:

Two Techniques to Break Down Brick Walls

Everyone wants to know how they can break down their genealogical brick walls. Who doesn't? No matter where you are in your research, you have brick walls. The more ancestors you know about, the more brick walls you have! Say you want to know who the parents of a great-grandparent is. How can you possibly track them down if you don't know where to start? Here, I'll provide a couple of examples of how to do track them down. In one example, I'll show where some of the information was sitting right in front of me but I didn't know it. It was only after a bit of luck with a marriage record being digitized that I learned the truth. In the other example, I'll show the steps I took to eventually find the truth.

Mapping My Ancestral Origins

I know Ancestry has the "DNA Story", which maps the movement of your DNA through history, but to me it's pretty broad and general. I wanted to get a better visualization of where my ancestors originated, all in one or two images. I started thinking of where each branch of the family was from and I realized there were only two general areas of origin for my ancestors and really only a handful of specific areas. I wondered if a couple of maps could illustrate their origins. This makes a great challenge! Map all of your ancestral branches to the location you have as their origins.

Theory About My yDNA Origins

I had a yDNA 37 marker test done with Family Tree DNA back in 2013 hoping to find a connection to my Miller family in Germany. Unfortunately, I only ended up with one match and that was a very distant match with a completely different surname from Spain. My yDNA haplogroup turned out to be J-M172, having nothing to do with any German haplogroup where my yDNA line is from. Family Tree DNA says of the origins of this haplogroup:

"...northern Middle East, west of the Zagros Mountains in Iran, to the Mediterranean Sea. It later spread throughout central Asia and south into India. J-M172 is tightly associated with the expansion of agriculture, which began about 10,000 years ago. As with other populations with Mediterranean ancestry, this lineage is found at substantial frequencies within Jewish populations.  J2 is also one of the main Haplogroups found among Arab populations."

The Handwritten Will of Benedict Bixenmann

After receiving a copy of the Bixenman Family History books written by Sister Catherine Seemann around 2005, I took a trip to the town my great-great-grandfather, Benedict Bixenmann, took his family to in 1869, Wien, Chariton County, Missouri. I was able to obtain a copy of the St. Mary of the Angels church history book and had a visit with a distant cousin, which turned into an impromptu family reunion when a few other distant cousins joined our table at the restaurant.

Memorial Day - WWII Draft Registration Cards

MyHeritage.com and Fold3 are currently offering free access to military records through Memorial Day, May 27, 2019. Definitely go see if you can find military records for the soldiers and sailors in your family tree! I did a quick search on Fold3 and found the World War II draft registration cards for a lot of my Panther relations. These are full color scans, front and back, of the original cards my relatives filled out, including notes written on them later. These include those of typical military service and draft age, along with the "Old Man" draft registrations of those who were born between 1887 and 1897. Here are a few I found.

Old New York City Photos

I was listening to old Extreme Genes podcasts from 2015 recently and in one episode, Fischer interviewed the man responsible for putting together the web sites https://www.oldsf.org and https://www.oldnyc.org. I have no connection to San Francisco, so oldsf.org did not interest me but oldnyc.org definitely got my attention. This is a collection of old photographs from as far back as the beginnings of photography to as recent as the year 2000. The majority of the photos are from the 1920-1930 range. The photos are mapped out according to their location on a map of New York City.

Iowa Birth Certificates 1921-1942

Family Search updated their collection of Iowa birth certificates for the years 1921-1942. When I saw that, I definitely had to see what I could find. I found a large number of Menke birth certificates but since they are more distantly related to me, I'll skip posting them here, relying only on my closer relations. First up is my father's first cousin, Bernard Hellrung. His mother was my great-grandfather, Thomas Doran's daughter.

 

More Diaries Scanned

During my latest trip to Iowa, I was able to scan in every page of three of my grandmother, Elizabeth Menke Panther's diaries. This is my mother's mother. These were from the years 1968, 1973 and 1977. Now that I'm home, I working on getting the pdfs created with these scans turned into jpg files and cropping them down to the individual pages. While cropping them, I'm scanning them for important events. I know I'm not catching all of them this time through. I'll look through them more thoroughly once I get them organized. Still, a couple of very important events leaped out at me from 1968. Add in the fact that this was 50 years ago and these take on greater significance.

Miller Family History Book Published

I've just released my book containing my Miller family research. It's called "Johan Christian Müller, and the Liebrich Sisters - Their Descendants and Ancestors". I've made it available in both hardcover and paperback. While working on getting this book ready, I've also made my Panther family history book, "Moriz Panther and Elizabeth Birk - Their Descendants and Ancestors", available in paperback.

Homes for the Holidays

How many ancestral homes do you have photos of? How many are still standing? I collected photos of all of the known homes from my family's history. As far as I know, all of these homes are still standing except one.

First up is the house in Columbus, Nebraska that I and my siblings grew up in. This is the house my mother lived in until she passed.

It has been sold to a family friend and I understand his young daughter loves her new home.

Spur of the Moment Trip to Iowa

My wife and I decided to drive to southeast Iowa at the last minute. While there, I decided to stop by the Fort Madison public library to see if I could find the obituary for my great-grandmother, Philomena Bixenman Miller. When I found it, I looked for others I may have overlooked previously. Would you believe that I didn't have the obituary for any of my Miller grandparents or great-grandparents? We also made it over to Carthage, Illinois to look for records and look around the town. Here's a time-lapse video I took of the Carthage Jail while looking at records at the Hancock County Historical Society:

Old Miller and Doran Photos Scanned

I'll take this moment to remind you of the importance of scanning in your old family photos, especially if you don't know who they are! A cousin of mine had several old family photos, several of which she didn't know who was in the photo and one just made my day when I saw it. Here they are.

First, does anyone know who the lady in the fur collar is? The closest resemblance I can find is Grand-Aunt Crescence Miller. Crescence is shown in the hat. Are these two fashionable ladies the same person?

Known photo of Crescence Miller

Is this fashionable young lady also Crescence?

Müller Orphan Train Connection

The distant cousin that helped me with the discovery of the Müller family connections mentioned that he received some information from a Barbara Heise Grooman from Asheville, North Carolina. He didn't have an email address, physical address or phone number for her. I did a web search for her name and town and found snippets from two books on Google Books. The books were "Train to Red Cloud: A Small Boy's Journey" and "Journey's End: An Orphan Train Rider's Story". I found In the Journey's End snippet a good copy of the Müller family photo that I had only a poor copy from the Bixenman family history book.

Locations in Old Photos

I had this old photo of my parents and my two oldest brothers. Given their ages in the photo, I'd estimate it was taken in 1958.

So where was this photo taken? I see the house number of 3602. Unfortunately, that doesn't tell me much. Had I truly thought about it, which I didn't, I may have been able to find it. I recall my mother talking about how they lived for a time on 18th Street in Columbus, Nebraska. I just never bothered thinking about where this was taken.

Family Search - Iowa Death Certificates

When was the last time you looked at the records available at Family Search? If it's been a while, I encourage you to go and look at the collections available. To do this, go to Search, Records, then click the link "Browse all published collections". Then, if you haven't visited in a while, click on "Last Updated" to sort them by the last updated date, newest first. When I did this, I saw that they had recently added "Iowa, Death Records, 1921-1940".

I found scans of official death certificates for a large number of people in my genealogy database, including several that I had paid for official copies of previously, such as my great-grandmother, Elizabeth Dunzinger Panther, and great-grandfathers Tom Doran and Charles Miller.

Family Portraits

Some of my favorite pieces of family history documentation are family portraits. They literally let you see the family structure at a given point in time and give you perspective on the difference in ages between generations and let you see similarities between different family members and sometimes can show you the personalities of your ancestors. Here are a few family portraits. Some from my immediate ancestry and some from collateral lines.

First we'll focus on the Panther family. First up is the family of my great-grandfather, Alois Panther:

F: Veronica, Mary, Anna
M: George, Alvin Edward (Middle), Joseph, Elizabeth
B: Leonard, Benedict (my grandfather), Frank, Aloysius, Morris

Surnames - Why Your Ancestors' Names Were Not What You Think They Should Be

I got to thinking about surnames and how many of the surnames of my ancestors did not follow the rule of children taking their father's last name and daughters changing theirs to their husband's last name when they get married. Because they didn't follow this rule, both of my grandmothers had last names other than what they would have been had their ancestors strictly followed this rule. Here is a list of the surnames that did not follow this rule and an explanation of how this happened.

It wasn't changed at Ellis Island - My great-grandfather, Carl Müller, and his brothers and sisters were all born with the surname of Müller. Previous family histories said that it was changed to Miller at Ellis Island or that he gave them the wrong name because he was hiding from the German military. While he may or may not have been hiding from the military, we know that his name change was not because of this and it certainly wasn't changed at Ellis Island.

Ancestors of Maria Magdalena and Anna Maria Liebrich

This is part three of the results of my research of the ancestors of my great-grandfather, Charles Miller. These are the ancestors of his mother, Maria Magdalena Liebrich and her sister Anna Maria Liebrich. After Maria Magdalena died, his father married her sister, Anna Maria.

First Generation

1. Maria Magdalena Liebrich, daughter of Ludwig Liebrich and Maria Catharina Maier, was born on 30 Apr 1830 in Ohmden, Esslingen, Württemberg and died on 6 Feb 1865 in Nürtingen, Esslingen, Württemberg at age 34.

Maria Magdalena Liebrich baptismal record

Maria married Johannes Handal. Johannes died July 6, 1851.

Maria married Johan Christian Müller, son of Christian Gottlieb Müller and Anna Maria Schach, in 1852.

Johan Christian Müller and Maria Magdalena Liebrich marriage record

Children from this marriage were:

i. Carl Christian Miller was born on 7 Oct 1852 in Nürtingen, Esslingen, Württemberg, died on 20 Oct 1923 in Fort Madison, Lee, Iowa at age 71, and was buried in Fort Madison, Lee, Iowa. Another name for Carl was Charles. Carl married Philomena Bixenman, daughter of Benedict Bixenman and Crescentia Wolfgang, on 14 Apr 1891 in Wien, Chariton, Missouri.

ii. Christiana Friederika Müller was born on 12 Nov 1854 in Nürtingen, Esslingen, Württemberg.

iii. Christian Luis Müller was born on 26 May 1856 in Nürtingen, Esslingen, Württemberg.

iv. Maria Louisa Müller was born on 28 Oct 1857.

v. Luisa Friederika Müller was born in Sep 1859 in Nürtingen, Esslingen, Württemberg and died on 25 Dec 1872 in Nürtingen, Esslingen, Württemberg at age 13.

vi. Dorothea Fredricka Müller was born on 2 Aug 1861 in Nürtingen, Esslingen, Baden-Wurtemburg and died in 1939 in New York, New York, New York at age 78. Dorothea married Christian Kurz about 1900. Dorothea next married John Gusenburger in New York, , New York.

Ancestors of Johan Christian Müller

This is part two of the ancestors of my great-grandfather, Charles Miller. Here are the ancestors of his father, Johan Christian Müller.

1. Johan Christian Müller, son of Christian Gottlieb Müller and Anna Maria Schach, was born on 6 Dec 1828 in Nürtingen, Esslingen, Württemberg and died on 21 Nov 1899 in Nürtingen, Esslingen, Württemberg at age 70. Another name for Johan was Gottlieb.

Johan married Maria Magdalena Liebrich, daughter of Ludwig Liebrich and Maria Catharina Maier, in 1852.

Marriage record of Maria Magdalena Liebrich and Johan Christian Müller

Children from this marriage were:

i. Carl Christian Miller was born on 7 Oct 1852 in Nürtingen, Esslingen, Württemberg, died on 20 Oct 1923 in Fort Madison, Lee, Iowa at age 71, and was buried in Fort Madison, Lee, Iowa. Another name for Carl was Charles. Carl married Philomena Bixenman, daughter of Benedict Bixenman and Crescentia Wolfgang, on 14 Apr 1891 in Wien, Chariton, Missouri.

ii. Christiana Friederika Müller was born on 12 Nov 1854 in Nürtingen, Esslingen, Württemberg.

iii. Christian Luis Müller was born on 26 May 1856 in Nürtingen, Esslingen, Württemberg.

iv. Maria Louisa Müller was born on 28 Oct 1857.

v. Luisa Friederika Müller was born in Sep 1859 in Nürtingen, Esslingen, Württemberg and died on 25 Dec 1872 in Nürtingen, Esslingen, Württemberg at age 13.

vi. Dorothea Fredricka Müller was born on 2 Aug 1861 in Nürtingen, Esslingen, Baden-Wurtemburg and died in 1939 in New York, New York, New York at age 78. Dorothea married Christian Kurz about 1900. Dorothea next married John Gusenburger in New York, , New York.

Johan next married Anna Maria Liebrich, daughter of Ludwig Liebrich and Maria Catharina Maier, in 1866.