Mom and I have fun with the 1870 US Census

Mom, who was 96 years old just last month, has been doing genealogy since the early 1970s, only recently announced to me that she was retiring from it. She might have trouble seeing the computer screen due to eye issues, but you can't dampen her interest. We were talking about the copies of death certificates I'd received in the mail from my guy at Maryland State Archive that were for Mom's mother and father and Dad's birth certificate. We had such a good time exploring every line and wringing every last drop of meaning out of it! You get that, don't you? "He died of what???"

The only great grandparent I now don't have a death cert for is Dad's paternal grandfather, Gustav Zeller (1858-1927) and that request is in. He was born and died in Frostburg, Allegany, Maryland, a small mountain town in Western Maryland as so many other of my ancestors. In fact my parents, grandparents, and six of my eight great grands were all born and died there.  If I want to find out who was doing what about 1870 I check out the census for good old District 5 in Allegany County, that's Frostburg.

US Census 1870, District 5, Allegany, Maryland; Roll: M593-566; Page: 148A; Image: 299.

My Zeller family.

After Mom and I had some fun with death certificates we went on and chatted about how much we like just browsing census pages before and after the page on which our ancestor appears. We agreed that for us the most fun census to browse is the 1870. You see, Frostburg was on the upswing then. Coal mining, the railroad, ironworks, and brickworks all fed the main pipeline of prosperity. And merchants followed and built strong businesses. The region drew immigrants like a great big magnate from the British Isles and Germany especially. Hard work and great promise drew my own ancestors from Ireland, Germany and Wales about 1840. The head of household in the 1870 census was often listed as having a surprising amount of personal wealth.

The first thing that struck me was the uncommon names for the German states. My great great grandfather Charles Wm. Zeller (1829-1901) had immigrated from Wurtemburg in 1851. He returned a year later and married Anna Mary Bruening. They were back in Frostburg in time for the 1860 census and he was listed as a confectioner and she a milliner or hat maker. Doesn't that sound like a fun couple? His son and my direct ancestor and great grandfather was Gustav. But what of all these different German states? Look at part of the census page to see, below.

When I look at the 1870 census the families listed right before my Zeller family are from Hesse and  from Prussia. My Zellers are listed as born in Wurtemburg. Where was that? I had to know and German history is not my strength. So off to Wikipedia which you can see here. I won't take time to explore here what the unification was all about but you can go see for yourself. Here's a map from that page showing where everything was after unification. You might have to go to the Wikipedia page to see the full map. Look at the golden color area. That's where the Zellers came from and where Charles returned to marry Anna Mary Bruening.

Thanks, Wikipedia!

The neighbors listed past the Zeller family were also from the German states as well as Ireland, Wales and England. It seems to me that every-other head of household was not from Maryland or the adjoining states of Pennsylvania or even West Virginia but were immigrants. The churches in town served the diverse population and my own ancestors worshiped at St. Michael's Catholic Church (Irish), the Welsh Shiloh Congregational Church, and the Lutheran Church. My Zeller people, you might think, could have worshiped at the Lutheran Church but they were Catholic. It was the old-line Revolutionary War families who were Lutheran.

And what of local prosperity? There was plenty of work to go around and pay day brought locals and those living in adjacent town to Frostburg to shop. Saturday night downtown was a busy place!

 

Frostburg, Allegany, Maryland. Main Street, about 1900.

Charles Zeller's confectionery and sweets shop prospered and his family grew too. Here they are in the 1870 census and look, he owns $2000 in real estate.

 

 

Other families are doing well and buying up real estate too. George W. McCulloh living three residences away has $30,000 in real estate and his wife has $5000 in her own name. He's a banker. Edward Hoffman a brewer from Saxony had no real estate holdings but his neighbor Albert Holly from Hanover, also a brewer, is holding $9000 worth of real property. Their neighbor Thomas H. Paul from New York is a machinist and has $16,000 worth of real estate holdings and $7000 of personal property. Yes, it sure looks like a prosperous little mountain town. Opportunity abounded!

 

Mom and I had a real good time on the phone reviewing the Frostburg 1870 census. We just don't get people who don't get us;) Imagine, not enjoying looking at the census!

 

 

Gustav Zeller in the white barber's coat standing on the front steps of the first electric trolley that came to Frostburg. Notice his hand touching his hair... to signify that he was a barber? He was a super promoter!

 

Gustav Zeller again, this time close-up so we can see his grooming.

 

Gustav's father, Charles Wm. Zeller.

 

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/08/mom-and-i-have-fun-with-1870-us-census.html 

Getting to better know the Zellers of Frostburg and Chicago

The Zellers are on my Dad's side, his mother's father's family. They go back to Germany and you could probably guess as much. When picking which family to look into and explore next they got overlooked by me until recently. I guess that because I heard so much about them growing up, their lives seemed an open book with not much left to explore. Of course I was wrong. There's always so much more to learn! Silly me. And the best part of this has been comparing what I thought I remembered about the Zeller, especially the group who moved from Frostburg, that little mountain town in Western Maryland that gets written about so often here, to Chicago in either 1884 or 1894, I'm still not sure which. So let me tell you what I found out.

Charles William Zeller (1829-1901)

There he is, the first of our Zeller folks to land in America. Charles William Zeller. Born in Wuerttemburg, Germany in 1829, he came to the states about 1851. We haven't a clue as to why, other than the usual reasons such as escaping poverty or persecution. He landed in Western Maryland and Mom's genea-sense says that he probably had relatives there or east of there near Hagerstown or Frederick. There were Zellers in both those locations just about the time he came and one could easily imagine him visiting them and then working his way in a westerly direction along the National Road, ending up in Frostburg, a town just on the brink of boom due to coal mines. Prosperous times were ahead and Charles was there and ready.

His occupation was as listed on the 1860 and 1870 census was confectioner. He brought his candy and baking skills with him from Germany to little Frostburg and opened a successful shop. Checking some history writings for the area I found that he was one of very few confectioners when he first opened the door of his shop but as time went on competition grew fierce. It seems that Frostburg had a sweet tooth back then.

The 1880 census gives hints to the family circumstances. Charles, age 51, doesn't own a candy shop anymore but is listed as working for a coal company. That's hard to imagine. How must he have felt about closing his shop and then needing income, going to work for a coal company, which was hard dirty work. It doesn't say he was a miner so I'm thinking that he had an office job. This census page is hard to read and names and jobs are abbreviated so one is left trying to figure out what's what, but it clearly says that Charles "works for coal co." and his son "mines coal". That gives me a hint as to the logic of the enumerator.

About 1884 Charles moves his family to Chicago. They are there in the 1900 census and Charles is a baker again and 71 years old. All of his children are living with he and Anna Mary, except my great grandfather Gustav Zeller who stayed in Frostburg, and Gottlieb who died in 1889.

So here's my purpose in this post. Once you read this you'll understand what I'm up to but let me save you some time and just go on and tell you what's happening. There are few descendants of this couple who married and even fewer who had kids. This family unit is highly unusual in that regard because the other ancestral family groups in this time period were busy growing families that had a dozen or more offspring. So this post is a way of reaching out to any cousins who descend from this family. If you slipped through the cracks in our research, I really want to connect with you, and I'm hoping that if you google names you'll find this post and email.

Charles and Anna Mary had these 11 children:
 Charles H. Zeller (1855 - 1837)
  Gustav William Zeller (1858 - 1927)
   Gottlieb Zeller (1861 - 1889)
    George W. Zeller (1862 - 1931)
      Frederick Zeller (1869 - after 1940), he and John are twins
       John Zeller (1869 - 1945), he and Frederick are twins
        Henry Zeller (1870 - 1886)
         William Zeller (1872 - 1906)
          Daniel Zeller (1875 - 1828)
           Annie Mary Zeller (1878 - 1944)

Gustav William is my great grand father and we know tons about him. If you want to see what he was about just type his name in the search box right under the surname graphic to the right.

At a tangent let me say that in about half the census listings Charles is listed as "Charles J" and not Charles William, so that's confusing. Also, Charles William died in 1901 at the age of 72 and Anna Mary died in 1906 at age 72 as well. The kids in Chicago pretty much lived with them until right after their parents died. By the 1910 census they are scattered... well not really because they continued to live with each other from time to time, as you'll see.

Let's proceed now and I'll list the children of Charles and Anna Mary and share the bones of what we know about them. First there was Charles H. Zeller (1855 - 1837). In the 1900 census he's living with his parents at 5248 Dearborn in Chicago and working as a machinist. He married Christina Long (1851-1930) on 8 March 1906 a few months before his mother died. Christina was born in Germany, as were Charles' parents. In the 1910 census he and Christina are residing at 7001 Calumet. It says that he is living on his own income, whatever that means, but to me it sounds like he might have investment or an inheritance he put to good use. He's still married but they have no children. In the 1920 census he and Christina own the house at 7258 Calumet and they have two renters. He's listed as a retired engineer. In the 1930 census he's widowed and living as a renter at 518 E 70th Street and renting for $58 per month. He's retired, it says. Charles H. and Christina never had children so there's no hope of finding a living descendant on this line. Charles is buried in the family plot at Oak Woods Cemetery.

Mom thinks Gottlieb Zeller (1861 - 1889) died in 1989 at age 28. In the 1880 census he's 19 and living with his family in Frostburg in Western Maryland and working as a coal miner. He too is buried in the family plot at Oak Woods Cemetery. Wonder why he died? At some point I'll have to try for the death certificates for this family.

George W. Zeller (1862 - 1931) is another one of the family who married. In the 1900 census he's living with his family at their home at 5248 Dearborn in Chicago and working as a barber and single. On March 20, 1906 and before his mother died but just a couple of weeks after his brother Charles H. married, George marries Karloine Jansen. I seriously can't find him in 1910 and I've looked high and low. Did he and Karoline move away, perhaps back to Germany to visit family? He and Karoline are just invisible to me. In the 1920 census he's single and renting at 4138 Cottage Grove Ave. He's manager in a barber shop and owns it. By the way I should point out here that his brother and my great grandfather owned very successful barber shops in Western Maryland. In the 1930 census he's listed as a retired barber living with his brothers John and Frederick at 7229 Champlain Avenue. He owns the building and has two renters who pay $65 a month to him. The building is worth $5000. His death listing indicates that his mother's name was Mary Browning born in Stuttgart, Germany and his father was born there as well. He died at the age of 68 and is buried in the family plot at Oak Woods Cemetery.


Now for the twins, Frederick Zeller (1869 - 1932) and John Zeller (1869 - 1945). Let's consider Frederick first. I'll get to them in the next post.
 

My great grandfather Gustav Zeller (1884 - 1927.)

 

The URL for this post is:  http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/06/getting-to-better-know-zellers-of.html

Treasure Chest Thursday: Thank you, Betty VanNewkirk

Not much makes me happier than getting my hands on some real homey writing about the little mountain town of Frostburg, Allegany, Maryland. I love the stories of its history and people, some of whom I can count as my ancestors. To my mind, there's no one who is a better historian and story teller about Frostburg than Betty VanNewkirk. In a previous post from last fall I wrote this about Betty:

I picked up two books by Betty VanNewkirk about Frostburg: Windows to the Past, and Kalidascope. They are both collections of essays written for the Cumberland Times-News newspaper. Here's a link: http://times-news.com/bettyvannewkirk . Betty taught at Frostburg State University for many years as did her husband, whom I think I had as a professor. I believe Mom told me that Betty just celebrated her 97th birthday!

Those two books have a special place in my Treasure Chest! Windows to the Past is falling apart at the binding, but never mind, and I love it and use it all the same! Click here to read about the Moonshining Miners and here to read a post entitled, He Died in the Outhouse. I can't even tell you which are my favorite stories because almost every one gives me a chuckle or brings a tear to the eye. Betty sure knows her history!

I got my copies of these two book at the Frostburg Museum and here's the link to their new spiffy web site.

 



I was thrilled to find my great great grandfather,  Charles William Zeller (1829 - 1901) mentioned on page 50 of Kaleidoscope,  in an article titled, "37 West Main Street," in which it says, "In the 1860s the tennant was a Mr. Zeller, who was a baker and confectioner."

On page 103 an article, "The Body in the Privy," contains reference to Charles William's son and my great grandfather, Gustav William Zeller and his barbershop that offered, "showers and tubs for the convenience of his customers."

 

 

 

Treasure Chest Thursday is a blogging prompt of GeneaBloggers.

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/05/treasure-chest-thursday-thank-you-betty.html

Surname Saturday: Last Name Unknown (Possibly Breuning)

Oh, I'm not liking this Surname Saturday, the blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers. I have next to nothing for you because here in the fifth generation, there's a big ugly brick wall. Mom has worked on it and another researcher has too. Now it will go on my To Do list and I'll take my best shot in rotation. I can almost feel the other genealogists who've tried this line before having a good laugh at this beginning intermediate who will undoubtedly stumble around a lot as I try to find Chicago and German records. I'll be looking for my 2nd GGM, Anna Mary (?) Zeller who married my 2nd GGF, Charles William Zeller. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

He's a short look at all that we've got.

1. Diane Kelly Weintraub

2. Francis Patrick " Pat" Kelly (1916 - 2007)
3. Virginia Williams, living and loving it

4. John Lee "Lee" Kelly (1892 - 1969)
5. Helen Gertrude Zeller Kelly ( 1894 - 1985)

10. Gustav William "Gus" Zeller (1858 - 1927)
11. Moretta Workman Zeller (1859 - 1946), everyone called her "Ma"
They had these 5 children:
Charles Sample Zeller ( 1880- 1966)
Adelbert "Burt" Zeller ( 1883 - 1947)
Gustav William "Gus Jr." Zeller Jr. (1884 - 1964)
5. Helen Gertrude Zeller Kelly ( 1894 - 1985), that's Grandma Kelly there:)
Anna M. Zeller ( 1882 - 1882)

20. Charles William Zeller ( 1829 - 1901)
21 Anna Mary (possibly Breuning/ Browning/ Bruning) Zeller (1834 - 1906)
See that "Bruning" I put in there? I sort of remember that name when I just got started doing genealogy but failed to take even a scrap of a note about the source! The name stuck in my head and so I entered it this week on Mom's Ancestry tree while preparing this post and some leaves started shaking at me. I checked out Ancestry member trees and a couple had Browning. I then changed it to the more German Breuning and got nothing. I then translated "brown" into german and saw that it was "braun" so I entered Brauning as her surname. Still nothing. I'm still confused.
This couple were both born in Werttemburg, Germany. They immigrated and settled in the little town of Frostburg, Allegany County, Maryland. Mom believes there were relatives in the area and a search of local records turns up a number of other Zeller families, although their exact connection mystifies us.
After 1878 when the last of the children was born in Frostburg, and before 1886 when Henry died in Chicago, the family moved to Chicago, Cook County, Illinois. All the children except Gustav are buried in the Chicago area. The local Cumberland, MD newspaper mentions Anna Mary's death in the issue printed on 17 Sept 1906 and says she and her husband were residents of Frostburg 22 years ago, making their moving date about 1884. Good tip from a local newspaper! Too bad it didn't give a maiden name.
Charles was a confectioner and his wife, Anna Mary, was a diabetic. Go figgure! Charles ran a very popular sweets store in Frostburg until he moved to Chicago. I wonder if he realized the wider potential of his success in Frostburg and decided to move to the larger market Chicago would promise?
In checking the 1870 US Census Mary Ann is listed as being a milliner. Seems to me I remember Grandma Kelly telling a story about a milliner. Maybe Mom remembers better that I do.
In the 1900 census they are living in Chicago, he's 71 and working as a baker. It says that he was naturalized in 1851 and Anna Mary did the same in 1852. He owns his house free of mortgage.
They had these 11 children:
Charles Zeller (1855 - ?)
10. Gustav William Zeller (1858 - 1927)
Gotlieb Zeller (1861 - 1889)
George Zeller (1862 - 1931)
Delbert Zeller (1865 - after 1910)
Frederick Zeller (1869 - 1932), he and John are twins
John Zeller (1869 - 1945), he and Frederick are twins
Henry Zeller (1870 - 1886)
William Zeller (1872 - 1906)
Daniel Zeller (1875 - ?)
Annie Mary Zeller (1878 - ?)

That's all I have, sad to say. But wait, don't go. I have a photo, well not of Anna Mary. Bummer.

20. Charles William Zeller ( 1829 - 1901)

Husband of Anna Mary.

10. Gustav William Zeller (1858 - 1927)

 

 

Just an observation, but you'd think that if there is this fine photo of Charles William Zeller that there'd be a fine photo of his wife, Anna Mary. He predeceased her so, well, wouldn't you think she'd had her picture made if her husband did? Sure would kike to find a cousin who has that!

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/03/surname-saturday-last-name-unknown.html

Surname Saturday: The Zellers from Germany

Off we go on another Surname Saturday, a dandy blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers! I blogged a bit this week on Treasure Chest Thursday about some of this family's members, Grandma Kelly's brother's family, and the Zeller Family Ensemble. That was fun! So here comes the line-up for Grandma Kelly and her ancestors, the Zellers from Germany.

It's sort of unusual that we have a lot of information about the known members in this line but it just doesn't go back too far as compared with other lines on Mom's Big Tree. And the other interesting thing, and a project for a day in the future, is that the other children of great great grandfather Charles William Zeller (1829 - 1901) and his wife, Anna Mary (1834 - 1906) are yet to be discovered by us. They disappear in the Chicago area. Mom has some skimpy information but more must be out there and sitting pretty, ready for us to get to.

So here we go: the Zeller family.

1. Diane Kelly Weintraub

2. Francis Patrick " Pat" Kelly (1916 - 2007)
3. Virginia Williams, living and loving it

4. John Lee "Lee" Kelly (1892 - 1969)
5. Helen Gertrude Zeller Kelly ( 1894 - 1985)

10. Gustav William "Gus" Zeller (1858 - 1927)
11. Moretta Workman Zeller (1859 - 1946), everyone called her "Ma"
Gus and Ma, were both born and died in the Frostburg, Allegany County, Maryland area. See below for the good stuff:)
They had these 5 children:
Charles Sample Zeller ( 1880- 1966)
Adelbert  "Burt" Zeller ( 1883 - 1947)
Gustav William "Gus Jr." Zeller Jr. (1884 - 1964)
5. Helen Gertrude Zeller Kelly ( 1894 - 1985), that's Grandma Kelly there:)
Anna M. Zeller ( 1882 - 1882)

20. Charles William Zeller ( 1829 - 1901)
21 Anna Mary (possibly Bruning) Zeller (1834 - 1906)
This couple were both born in Werttemburg, Germany. They immigrated and settled in the little town of Frostburg, Allegany County, Maryland. Mom believes there were relatives in the area and a search of local records turns up a number of other Zeller families, although their exact connection mystifies us.
After 1878 when the last of the children was born in Frostburg, and before 1886 when Henry died in Chicago, the family moved to Chicago, Cook County, Illinois. All the children except Gustav are buried in the Chicago area. The local Cumberland, MD newspaper mentions Anna Mary's death in the issue printed on 17 Sept 1906 and says she and her husband were residents of Frostburg 22 years ago, making their moving date about 1884. Good tip from a local newspaper!
Charles was a confectioner and his wife, Anna Mary, was a diabetic. Go figgure! Charles ran a very popular sweets store in Frostburg until he moved to Chicago. I wonder if he realized the wider potential of his success in Frostburg and decided to move to the larger market Chicago would promise?
In checking the 1870 US Census Mary Ann is listed as being a milliner. Seems to me I remember Grandma Kelly telling a story about a milliner. Maybe Mom remembers better that I do.
They had these 11 children:
Charles Zeller (1855 - ?)
10. Gustav William Zeller (1858 - 1927)
Gotlieb Zeller (1861 - 1889)
George Zeller (1862 - 1931)
Delbert Zeller (1865 - after 1910)
Frederick Zeller (1869 - 1932), he and John are twins
John Zeller (1869 - 1945), he and Frederick are twins
Henry Zeller (1870 - 1886)
William Zeller (1872 - 1906)
Daniel Zeller (1875 - ?)
Annie Mary Zeller (1878 - ?)

Boom! Done. That was short, too short. Maybe after a while Mom and I will dig into those Chicago records and track down this family. Wouldn't it be fun if we could locate living Zeller people... and they had more family photos and stories? And, we'd like to get more knowledgeable about German records so that we might pursue the Zeller family there.

Something I've noticed because of this family is that if the ancestors were in retail, especially in a small town with a local newspaper with booster tendencies, it's possible to find them mentioned. In a previous post this week which you can see here on Treasure Chest Thursday, I talked about Uncle Delbert's researcher, Sharon. Well Sharon dug into the pages of the wonderful Frostburg Mining Journal, published from 1871 - 1913, and a treasure trove for anyone who has ancestors from the area, to find mentions of GGF Gus Zeller and his barber shop, or as it's often described, "tonsorial emporium". There was giant 6 foot barber pole out front, in case anyone had doubts about his business;) He also had a very large and colorful goldfish tank in the window. It was at 14 East Main Street, but burned in a building fire on 14 Dec 1917. He moved his business to 35 East Main Street after the fire. His new location was also a full-service affair with showers and baths.

Guss, my GGF, had a reputation as quite the drinking man. At the end of this paragraph I'll place links to some of the stories about him I've posted to this blog before. Family lore has it that whenever he'd get drinking such that it hampered family life, Ma would insist that they leave town on a "vacation" with the intention of "drying him out." One mention in the Frostburg Mining Journal of 7 Oct 1899 talks of Gus Wm. Zeller, wife, and little daughter (that's Grandma) having gone on an extended tour, eastward, northward and westward to Boston, Montreal, Chicago, and other cities. Getting GGF Gus to Chicago to visit the family there was a strategic mistake on Ma's part as his father Charles was also a drinking man. Poor Ma!

Here are some other stories about GGF Gus Zeller and his barber shop:
http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2011/07/more-drinking-stories.html
http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/10/he-died-in-outhouse.html
http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2011/09/those-who-labored.html

Dad and Mom, Grandpop Kelly and Grandma Kelly:

2. Francis Patrick " Pat" Kelly (1916 - 2007)

3. Virginia Williams, living and loving it

4. John Lee "Lee" Kelly (1892 - 1969)

5. Helen Gertrude Zeller Kelly ( 1894 - 1985)

 

The next generation back,

10. Gustav William "Gus" Zeller (1858 - 1927), above

11. Moretta Workman Zeller (1859 - 1946), below 

20. Charles William Zeller ( 1829 - 1901), father of Gustav and confectioner.

Sadly, we do not have a photo of his wife Anna Mary Zeller.

 

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/01/surname-saturday-zellers-from-germany.html

He Died In The Outhouse

Am reading Betty VanNewkirk's second book, Kaleidoscope, ever a treat! Betty writes a weekly column about local history for the Cumberland Times-News newspaper. Here's a link: http://times-news.com/bettyvannewkirk . Some of the columns specifically about Frostburg have been gathered together to form this and another book, Windows To The Past.

I do like reading local Western Maryland histories because I never know when an ancestor might pop off the page. My paternal GGGF Charles William Zeller (1829 - 1901) and my GGF Gustav Zeller (1858 - 1927) have both been mentioned a couple of times in Ms. VanNewkirk's entertaining books! So let me share the bare bones of one story in which my GGF's barber shop is mentioned, although as you'll see, the story takes some twists and turns far afield of his excellent establishment!

This particular story, "The Body in the Privy", can be found on page 103 and mentions Mr. Zeller's barber emporium up the street from the location under discussion and the fact that Gus had not only running water in the 1920s but tubs and basins for showers and baths! Imagine! Family lore has it that GGF prided himself on having the most elaborate and top level barbershop in all of Western Maryland.

But the story on page 103 isn't about Gus Zeller. No, it's about that inconvenient body they found when excavating for a new building 115 East Main Street and down the street from the Zeller Barber Shop. The building at 115 had been purchased and improvements were required. Digging revealed an old outhouse cleared and limed when indoor plumbing was installed. In July of 1923 the boys digging a sewer ditch for the new building found - are your ready - a leg bone! They called the cops.

More digging revealed a full human skeleton, gold cuff links with the initials J. R. D., small change, a watch fob and bits of fabric. If you want the full Monty of gory details you'll have to read the book:)

Through a series of CSI Frostburg deductions and general questioning the man's identity was determined. The story came out, it seems, in dibs and drabs. The cuff links, it was determined, belonged to one John Daniels also known as Uncle Shink, a rotund jovial man who liked his drink. Not married... wise were the single ladies of town!

On the night in question, Uncle Shink visited two of the numerous bars, said he was going home, and then just up and disappeared! The hunt for him extended to Ohio and other mining areas of the country with no results. On what would have been his 45th birthday his body was found in the old outhouse so long out of use that everyone had forgotten that it was even there in the first place.

Now I ask you, how drunk would you have to be to fall in an outhouse?!

Photos of the Day from the Archive:

Gustav Zeller (1858 - 1927)

 

The day the first electric trolly came to Frostburg
and Gustav Zeller in his white barber's coat,
hand to head, at the front of the trolly.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/10/he-died-in-outhouse.html

On The Job Training

As I often say here, I'm a relative newbie to this genealogy thing. Mom get me started and has filled me in on a lot of methods as well as tips and tricks. I've been very lucky to be handed a gigantic tree and lots of research. And I've learned from work that wasted her time or things she wishes she'd done differently. But I'm such a beginner! Bottom line: I have so very much to learn. And I learn as I go so it's on the job training.

I've been a tad dismissive of the seeming obsession with citing sources and the form that takes. Truth told, rolled on the floor laughing at one of Randy Seaver's post to his excellent and enlightening blog Genea-Musings at http://www.geneamusings.com/ that dealt with a particular citation, perhaps a census as I try to remember. In his post he gave a couple of different versions according to various accepted forms. I had a fit of laughter because, A) I could hardly see the difference because I'm so untrained, and B) I was at that moment lucky to remember where I got a particular document let alone how to properly cite a source according to such high genealogy standards.

I have an academic background and am not totally ignorant about the need to cite sources or proper form. I have a working understanding of the Chicago Style Manual. But I have to say that my initial impression of citing sources and the seeming obsession about it in the hard-core genealogy community (read: professionals) was one of amusement. I'm changing my tune.

OK, sure I'll never have Randy's dedication or mastery of source citation, - or probably anything else - but I get it as to why it's important and why one needs to be consistent about how one does it. How did this shift in attitude come about? A little book, just a hundred twenty-something pages long called, "Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian," by Elizabeth Shown Mills. Her big book shares the socks off me! At least right now;)

Every day I read and think about the next item she presents. The organization of the book is efficient enough such that I can wade into it and be "safe" without getting bogged down or overwhelmed. One concept at a time starting with the most basic so as to lay a proper foundation and build upon it. And I stick with each concept until I'm comfortable with that. It's a slow process but for me it makes sense:)

Photo of the day from The Archive:

My GGGF
Charles William Zeller,
1829 - 1901
Born in Germany and died in Chicago.

Date of photo unknown.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/08/on-job-training.html