Week #1 - FRESH START

In 1901, My grandmother, Flora Sarah Wenzel, at age 19, escaped the drunken rages of her father, Peter Nicholas Wenzel, in Poughkeepsie, New York, and fled to Jersey City, New Jersey with William C. (nee Dickhaut) Lieberknecht.

Flora, (now Florence), assumed she was getting a FRESH START. Within a year or two, she was a new mother of a daughter, Dorothy, and by 1908 a daughter Ottilie, Dorothy having died in infancy.  By 1910 the family of three was in Detroit, Michigan, and in 1911 another daughter, Barbara, was born in Santa Barbara, California. Was this the FRESH START Florence had envisioned?

There was a lot of moving around the country going on, as in 1912 the family was living in El Paso, Texas after a short stint in Oxnard, California. In 1918 they were back in Oxnard living in the rooming house of Florence's mother, Annie Taylor Wenzel, now Annie Adams, and her new husband, Thomas W. Adams as shown in the 1920 US Census.

The 1920 US Census also shows William C. and Florence Lieberknecht living on West Ortega Street in Santa Barbara, CA but without the two daughters. They must have been in the process of settling in Santa Barbara and had moved into the apartment house there. That's why they were counted twice in the 1920 US Census. By 1922, William had left the family in Santa Barbara and had gone to Los Angeles was working at the Los Angeles Times. He was a linotype mechanic having registered a patent for a linotype setting machine in New York City in 1904. His step-father, George Lieberknecht, had been a printer in Omaha, Nebraska where William took up the trade and most likely learned the linotype. William eventually married a woman in 1929 in Oakland, CA, and moved to San Jose, CA where he retired from the San Jose Mercury News and died in 1945.

Meanwhile, Florence, looking for a new FRESH START, met and married in 1926 a neighbor, David McLean, a Scotsman fresh from Argyll, Scotland via British Columbia and San Diego. David was a boatbuilder and craftsman, and eventually, he became an ice delivery man for the Santa Barbara Ice Company.

David step-fathered the two girls, Ottilie and Barbara until they left home for marriage and careers.  Florence and David remained married until David's death in 1955. Florence then lived with her daughter, Barbara, until Florence's death in 1967. This had been Florence's last FRESH START and it lasted with David for 29 years.

Week #2 January 2020 - FAVORITE PHOTO

Week #2 January 2020
FAVORITE PHOTO

My Ukrainian Genik Family 1906 in Winnipeg, Canada

This is one of my favorite photos because it is the earliest photo I have of my father. He is 2 years old, born Oct. 1904, sitting in the little chair center front. His new brother, Charles Jones, Jr., born 1906, is above him with mother Eugenie Genik Jones.

#3 UNUSUAL NAME

Dickhaut - Lieberknecht - What names could be as UNUSUAL as these?
Karl (Carl/Charles) Kaspar Dickhaut was born in Germany as he states in the 1870 US Census in Winslow, Camden County, New Jersey. That was the first place I found him with his wife "Oteliee" and son (my grandfather) William.  I did find a death certificate for his first-born son, Paul, who had died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1869.

Later I found his name listed in Philadelphia City directories in 1871, 1872 and 1873. Also listed was a George Dickhaut, and Michael Dickhart. I do have a DNA match with a Dickhart, and this is where the mystery begins. Was there a name change? Were these men related? More on this subject in a future post.

My grandfather, William Carl Jacob Dickhaut Lieberknecht (he tells his daughter in a letter that "this is our name"), began using his step-father's name Lieberknecht after his mother, Ottilie, married a second time and had moved to Omaha, Nebraska with William's two siblings, Herman and Agnes. Herman kept his father's Dickhaut name, but William and Agnes used Lieberknecht. Both William and Agnes said their father's name was Dickhaut on various documents, one being marriage records.  Brother Herman used Dickhaut most of his life and his descendants somehow changed it to Dickhart.

Dickhaut means Thick Skin. Lieberknecht means Dear Servant.

Agnes Dickhaut marriage record

William C Lieberknecht Dickhaut marriage record

Week #2 CHALLENGE

The CHALLENGE is to find the oldest ancestor. For me, it's to find my missing ancestors. . .ancestors who refuse to leave a paper trail. For my ancestors, it was a CHALLENGE to be alive in the 1600s in New York with Indians and other immigrants from different foreign countries. 

Take the issue of Christopher (Christoffel) Davis/Davidts.
In the minutes of Mattheus Capito, the Secretary of the village of Wildwyck, dated March 27/April 6, 1667. Christopher Davis left a lot of paper records, reports and stories.
In the matter below, Davis is conveying title of a property in exchange for another property from another entity or person. It's like today's 1031 Exchange it seems.
It starts out with the Secretary, Mattheus Capito, the Secretary of the Village of Wildwyck saying, before me:

"appeared Christoffel Davids, who declares having conveyed and ceded as by the present he is ceding and conveying for himself and his heirs to Evert Pels his small dwelling and the land situated near the Rondout on the bank of the Esopus Kil, belonging under the jurisdiction of the village of Wildwyck, with all the obligations and privileges appertaining to the aforesaid land, by virtue of the grant made by the former vice-director Johannes Dyckman at the time residing at Fort Orange in the service of the Lord's Directors of the privileged West India Company, dated Aug. 16. 1653, with the request that the said Evert Pels in the name of him, Christoffel Davids, shall obtain for said lands a deed from the hon. Lord Gov. Genl. Ridsert Nicolls. Wherefore he also grants him absolute power and authority to obtain the aforesaid deed. Promising to consider valid whatever he, Evert Pels, may have done regarding said affair in his name, and also nevermore to revoke the aforesaid conveyance and grant, neither by himself nor his heirs, nor to proceed nor to have proceeded against the same under obligations as per law, under condition that the conditions of sale of said lands and little house shall be complied with by Evert Pels, in accordance with the contract of sale of the same, dated Feb. 12/22, 1667. And therefore the appearer besides Roelof Swartwout and Gerret Fooken as witnesses invited and requested for the purpose, has subscribed to the present with his own hand at Wildwyck on the day and in the year named before. (Signed) the mark C D of Christoffel Davids, (signed) Roelof Swartwout, Gerre Foocken. In my presence, (signed) Mattheus Capito, Secretary."

In other words,  Christoffel Davis has conveyed or granted his property to Evert Pels in exchange for a deed from the Lord Governor General Nicolls to be obtained by Evert Pels. The new property is not described.  There must be more information to this transaction. The lawyers were no doubt paid by the word. Not much has changed since then. 

Week #1 - FIRST

This is my FIRST post on this blog. I'm 13 weeks behind already. This is not going to be easy to have to post 13 themes in one week, but here goes. I have to play catch up.

FIRST:

The FIRST document I received, when I FIRST became interested in my family history in 1987, was my mother's birth record from New Jersey. Boy, was I ever excited to see it. I ran up and down the dock at the Indian River Marina in Vero Beach, Florida looking for a boater friend to show it to. She was as excited as I was.

Ottilie Lieberknecht's Birth Record

It reads: Name of Child: Ottille.      Sex: Female       Color: White                                    

Date of Birth: Sept 20, 1908

Place of Birth: 243 Montgomery St., J. C. (Jersey City)

Name of Father: Wm C. Leib. Birthplace: US

Maiden Name of Mother: Florence Wenzel. Birthplace: US

Age of Father: 39 yr.  Age of Mother: 25 yrs

Occupation of Father: Printer. Occupation of Mother: H.W.

Number of Children in all by the Marriage: two. Number of Children Living: one.

"Name and Address of Professional Attendant in Own Handwriting: "James G Enright M.D.What I found interesting was that it said there had been two children but only one was living.  My mother had written in my baby book that she named me after her dead sister, Dorothy. So, I would guess that there may be a birth and death record for that dead baby. My mother was the FIRST living child of this couple but not the FIRST child born to this couple.

We had been spending the hot summer in a rented house in Vero Beach, Florida while husband Chester finished writing his latest legal thriller. When I received the birth record, we were back living on our boat Tempest since the weather was cooler. We were waiting for good weather to go up the Intracoastal Waterway and end up in Annapolis, Maryland for a while on our way to Maine. I was looking forward to researching in the National Archives in Washington, DC. What could I find there?