The goal is not just to verify the vital information recorded in on new.familysearch.org. The goal is to gather enough information to weave an accurate, if simple, narrative about his life and his environment.
I summarized the information I found and wrote a rough outline of his life, which is at the bottom of this post. (Section C) This might be the only thing that visitors to this blog will find interesting--especially if they are related to the Meyr family.
Section A
First I will run a general search on familysearch.org. The results:
- Daughter's Christening record--He had a daughter--Otilie Linn--by Clara Scholl who was Christened in a Lutheran church in 1888. GAM was 23. According to NFS Otilie was his first child.
- His family on the 1920 US Census--
- His family on the 1930 US Census--
- His family on the 1940 US Census--
Section B
Now I will search for records from Cape Girardeau and note potentially useful ones:- Cape Girardeau County, Missouri : history and biographies--possible references to the Meyr family, but not likely. Good source of historical context/ info about GAM's environment.
- County census; 1868, 1876. Microfilm. There are many other county census records through 1930.
- Cape Girardeau, Biography of a City. Book
- City Directory of Cape Girardeau. Book. Possibly ca. 1930. Not likely to be helpful.
- City birth records. Microfilm.--Possibly a good way to verify children.
- City mortuary death records. Book.
- Deed Records. Microfilm.
- Court records. Microfilm. Other potentially helpful court records are also available for CG county.
- CG military discharge records. Microfilm.
- Marriage records. Mf.
Section C
Now I will scan his parents', own, and wives' info on NFS and write a rough-sketch narrative of GAM's life.
Gustav Adolph Meyr was the youngest child in his family and born in 1864. Perhaps he is the twin brother of Earnest Meyr. His father-Joseph Meyr--was 55, his mother--Anna Starzinger--was 43. (12 year difference.) His parents were Austrian immigrants. His mother died when he was three. (of what?) It is unclear if Joseph remarried and, therefore, if GAM grew up with a mother figure. [Also, it is unclear if Joseph or any of GAM's brothers served in the Civil War.] He married Clara Louise Scholl when he was 23 and she was 20. They had five children all about two-three years apart after they were married. Clara died 30 May 1900, two years after the birth of their last child. [Question: who was the mother of Alma Paula Meyr and Albert Hugo Meyr? They are attributed to Clara but she died before their births--according to NFS. Of course, they were also attributed to Paulina Perr in NFS, so she's probably their mother.}
GAM was probably a farm laborer his entire life. He listed that as his occupation in the 1920 and 1940 census' (when he was 76. ) Although he was an Austrian immigrant he did learn to speak English [according to the 1920 census].
In February 1901 (about eight months later) GAM remarried. His new wife was Paulina Perr and also a Cape Girardeau native. She was 25 and GAM was 37. They had eleven children in eighteen years. GAM fathered 16 children (as far as the records go.) Paulina and GAM both survived to the 1940s, she passed away in 1946 and he did in 1948. He appears to have lived his entire life in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.This concludes today's research session. I already feel a closer connection to my great-great-great paternal grandfather, Gustav Adolph Meyr. He was an Austrian immigrant, patriarch--to two wives, consecutively, that he stayed with their entire lives and sixteen children, and hard-working farm hand even in his old age. And he begat Arthur, who begat Elmer, who begat Huff, who begat me: Gabriel Arthur Meyr.
