It remains a mystery...

My great-great grandmother, Johanna (Leue) Prehn died 23 Sep 1871 of puerperal fever (an infection after child birth). Her death is recorded in the St. Louis county (Missouri) death register, item #4698. On 25 Nov 1871 the death register lists the death of William John Prehn. He is 2 months, 5 days at the time of death and lived in Webster Groves (which is where Henry & Johanna lived), and he's buried in the same cemetery as Johanna (Old Pickers). Is this a child of Henry and Johanna? We just don't know for sure. But the mystery deepens...

The baptism records of the First Congregational Church of Webster Groves list two infant baptisms:

Pg. 1, #22 - Charles Henry Prehn, born 17 Sep 1871 and baptized 01 Oct 1871
Pg. 1 #23 - John Frederick Prehn born 17 Sep 1871 and baptized 01 Oct 1871

The parents for both children are listed as Henry & Johanna Prehn. So we know that Johanna gave birth to twins. The only newspaper reference to Johanna's death is found in the "Missouri Republican," 24 Sep 1871 issue (pg. 2). However, that is just one sentence that merely says "Johanna beloved wife of Henry" died.

The mystery is that we don't know what happened to the boys. They simply vanish. They aren't living in Henry Prehn's household in the 1880 census. Henry remarried in 1873. In 1880 he's listed with his two children (14 and 12) from his marriage to Johanna and four children from his second marriage. None of which are the boys listed above.

At the time of her death, Johanna had a 4 year old son and a 2 year old daughter. The most likely scenario is that Henry felt he could take care of these two toddlers, but couldn't take care of twins (or triplets) so decided to give them up for adoption. There was an orphange in Webster Groves called St. Louis Protestant Orphans' Asylum. I found that the Western Historical Manuscript Collection at the University of Missouri had microfilm copies of their records. I checked roll #5 which contained the record of admissions and departures for that time period...nothing. Of course that doesn't mean they weren't given to another orphanage. Henry's will (probated 10 Dec 1913) makes no mention of these boys.

So I have two main questions...

1. Was William John Prehn a child of Henry and Johanna? If so...why wasn't he baptized at the same time as the other two boys? If his age is accurate in the death register, he was born about the 20th of Sep (3 days after the other boys)...so not likely to be Johanna's. The only other Prehn living is Webster Grove was Henry's brother, John Prehn. I don't think this infant could be John's because his wife gave birth to a daughter in April of 1872. Although it's not impossible to have only a six and one half month separation between births, it seems unlikely.

2. If Henry was going to give the boys up for adoption, why have them baptized? But mostly...where did the boys go? They aren't listed as dying or being buried anywhere in the Webster Groves area.

It just remains a mystery...

Don't take NO for an answer

Several years ago my husband and I (along with my parents) made a genealogy trip to Trinity county, California. We wanted to visit the area where Horace Fitch lived and ran Fitch's Ferry. We stopped at the Trinity County Historical Society in Weaverville...hoping they would have information on Horace and his family. Much to our disappointment the docent said they didn't have anything.

Before leaving, we all strolled through the various displays. I notice in the back of one room there were some card files. They appeared to be a card catalog of the Society's holdings in alphabetical order by surname. Even though we had been told that there was nothing on the Fitch family, I decided to check the card catalog. Imagine my surprise when I saw a card for Horace Fitch and also one for Oscar Fitch (Horace's brother)!

The card for Horace referenced a photo in the Society's collection of Horace and Oscar taken in about 1907.

The back of the photo identifies Oscar in the front riding "Ted" and Horace in the back riding "Jim." On the porch is Oscar's wife, Louisa (Plank) Fitch, and his granddaughter, Dorothy, is on the right edge of the photo. We were allowed to photograph the front and back of the photo.

The catalog card for Oscar referenced a diary or memoir he wrote of his Civil War experience. We weren't allowed to photocopy or photograph it (darn!). So we transcribed what we could.

The moral of the story...don't take NO for an answer. Ask if the agency has a card catalog of their holdings. You never know what you might find!

On the street where they lived...

Abraham Albee's & Fannie (Fitch) Albee's home on Dorland St. burned down during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Fannie's father, Horace Fitch, bought them a lot at 222 Prague St. Abraham purchased two earthquake shacks and had them moved to the lot; where he joined them together. In this picture (L-R) Bertha, Fannie, Winnie, Walter and Abraham Albee holding Jeff are standing next to their Prague St. earthquake shack.

The photo is circa 1906/1907

I checked the McInerney actions (court actions to establish land ownership). I didn't find anything, but then I realized...I wouldn't. The McInerney actions were for people to claim their land after records were destroyed in the earthquake and subsequent fire. Had the Albees put their earthquake shacks on Dorland where they had lived at the time (if they owned the land), there would probably have been an action. But they put the shacks on Prague street. This would have been a new purchase - hence, no McInerney action required. I need to check regular land records to confirm the family story that Fannie's father purchased the land for them.

Watch that first step...

Quinto Mariucci was working as a department store janitor when he unfortunately stepped into an elevator that wasn't there. He was found at the bottom of the elevator shaft. Quinto was only 38 years old.

Here is the newspaper article from the San Francisco Examiner newspaper. I would like to find out what department store. Just curious.

Texas? Why Texas????

My great-great grandfather, Horace Y. Fitch, was born in New York and died in Stillwater, Payne county, Oklahoma. Based on census records, he lived in New York, California, Kansas and Oklahoma. My mother found something surprising the other day...an obituary for Horace in a Dallas, Texas newspaper. Why Texas? To our knowledge he never lived in Texas, and none of his children lived in Texas. I searched Ancestry's Dallas City Directories (1889 to 1894)...no Fitch. The obituary is printed beneath the title "Special to the news." It remains a mystery. Why would his death be newsworthy in Dallas? Any ideas?

What a find...

On a research trip to Machias, ME, we visited the Machias Historical Society. When we told the volunteer our ancestor's name, she said she had something we might be interested to see. She took us to a room upstairs and showed us a trunk. T here's a plate on top identifying it as belonging to William Albee (our ancestor). The docent said this trunk came on the ship with him.

Here's a close-up of the plate

I found his obituary recently in the Eastern Argus Newspaper (ME), 12 Jul 1836 issue - pg. 1, col. 6. The obit talks about him being a surgeon.

"the kindest of women..."

Ella (Fitch) Myers was the mother of 3 small children when she passed away. While making their breakfast her dress caught fire, and she was badly burned. She never recovered. Her obituary testifies to the sweet, loving person she was and how much she would be missed. I love the quote from her obituary..."sympathy is no balm to their wounded hearts."

Will the real Cornelia please stand up...

We have received pictures from 2 different sources. Each sender contends the picture they sent was of Cornelia Reynolds (who married Horace Fitch). I don't think they look like the same person or even appear to be from the same era. I'm no expert, but the hair style and manner of dress in the second photo appear to be from an earlier time period. Also, I don't think women changed their hair style so drastically back then. What do you think?

Technology...it's a wonderful thing!

I don't know if I've mentioned it...but I love technology. I love how I can use it for the benefit of my family history. Case in point...photo restoration. Repairing and restoring old photos has never been so easy or fun. This photo took me a couple of hours to fix. Doesn't Uncle Joe look better? Like I said...technology is a wonderful thing. Now all I need is more RAM, a bigger hard driver, a more powerful processor, two 24" monitors, Adobe CS4 and unlimited $$ for all this :-)

Don't go near the water...

Poor Minnie...she didn't have much luck with husbands. She divorced her first husband, her second died in the influenza epdemic of 1918 and her third husband had a fatal heart attack at 30.

She probably thought she was safe when she married a man 26 years younger...but alas...it was not to be.

She fought the scoundrel and won...

A while back I was doing a google search for "Colorado historical newspapers," but what my fingers typed was "California historical newspapers." I didn't realize my mistake until I clicked on the first hit. When I found I was at a California site I decided to run my standard list of research names. Little did I know that I would hit upon information I not only wasn't expecting to find, but it was information I knew nothing about. The first thing I learned was that my great-great grandmother, Minnie Prehn, didn't have an easy life (I'll write more on her life later).

One of the newspaper articles showed she was a woman with a lot of fight in her.

Don't underestimate the value of newspapers in family history research. You can find information there that you won't find anywhere else. Sites such as GenealogyBank, Newspaper Archive and Ancestry have put newspapers at our fingertips (but for a usage price).

A woman of substance...

Quite by accident (a random google search) I found that the Arizona Historical Society in Tempe had 2 boxes of items belonging to Reamy Fitch and his wife, Helen Klingler. Although Reamy is not my direct line, I was intrigued and we arranged to make a stop on one of our trips.

Among the items were copies of Christmas letters Helen sent out every year. Helen was quite an accomplished woman. Every Christmas letter included a poem she wrote. Here is one of her poems:

She was also a painter

I feel so blessed to have "happened" on these little pieces of Helen and Reamy's life. I would have enjoyed knowing them. I believe we were guided to finding this information. When I later checked to see if their work had been done, I found all had been done except their sealing to each other. Reading their letters, I could feel their love for each other, and know they would want to be sealed together for eternity.