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13 hours private research
45 min week on class projet

Finding the Vogts through Meta

Today's work will be to find information about Wilhelm Vogts and Martha Henn.
They are my great-great-great grandparents. This is the first generation where I see a lot of information gaps. My guess is that they lived entirely in Europe and that their daughter Martha "Meta" Vogts.

Bolded information is the information that I have primary sources for.

Martha "Meta" Vogts:
Born 20 Dec 1870 in Mersum, Hanover Providence, Germany
Married: Adolph Martin Haertling on 5,3 Nov 1891 in New Wells, Cape Girardeau, Missouri (age 21)
Religion(s):
Death 14 Feb 1945 in New Wells, Cape Girardeau, Missouri (burial 17 Feb 1945, age 75)

Note from Grandma Meyr:

Martha Meta Vogts came to america with Welhelm Dickman and wife -her brothers
were Wilhelm-William and Henrick(Henry) had relatives names Kackma--Catherine
died of Tyfoid sister died young-This is in a letter of Wilhelm Dickman and
wife martha Henn.-This is a letter that Helen Meyr Brown has by a
relative--Talked of Schwing,Germany Marie (Vogts)Jergens-Wilhelm Bill Dickman
died 26 Nov 1837 Zu-Bullenzolz,Hanover Germany died 15 May 1924
of Influenza 86 yrs old left his wife and adopted daughter Martha Haertling

Ordinances: all complete except for sealing to parents (not enough information)

My plan to research her parents will go through Meta. I'll research her as much as possible to help get across the pond and research her life there. Surely surrounding information will illuminate the family members she was around there.

Who is the polleymary1 contributor who contributed to Adolph Martin Haertling (Meta's wife) on 31 Aug 2008? And who is unknown4470317 who contributed to Meta's file?

Who is Welhelm Dickman and why did Meta come to America with his family and his wife's brothers.
Can I get a copy of the Helen Meyr Brown's letter?

Was Meta adopted by Welhelm Dickman? The letter seems to say that.

--I should collaborate with Granny Meyr in this research, it's only natural.--

Sources:
Likely marriage license (with Martin Ha**l**g), so Adolph possibly went by Martin
See who were the witnesses, glean other possible information.
Missouri Marriage Records. Jefferson City, MO, USA: Missouri State Archives. Microfilm.
http://search.ancestry.com/iexec?htx=View&r=an&dbid=1171&iid=vrmmo1833_c1262-0297&fn=Martha&ln=Vogts&st=r&ssrc=&pid=508799998

Gustav Meyr, sourcing

I noticed that on the new Family Tree portion of NFS there is a way to link sourecs to data. Hooray! I'm going to spend today's genealogy session nailing down as many sources as I can for Gustav and his family. But new time I do family history I have to move on to another person or family. Time's a 'wastin!

I requested a microfilm record of Ottilie Meyr's christining today. It should arrive at the BYU FHL in 3-4 weeks.

I'll begin by going to the census records I've already found Gustav on and sourcing as much data for the family as I can.

There are 14 children for Gustav and Paulina listed in the 1920 census but only 12 listed on NFS.

My guess is that Ottilie Lina Meyr (listed on NFS FT) is not a child of this couple and that William, Walter, and Otto Arthur are. Now I will search for birth certificates and other information to verify or refute this hypothesis.

Perhaps Ottilie is the daughter listed on the 1910 census as Lucie M? Ottilie is probably a real daughter because Grandpa Meyr's username added her.

Gustav Adolph Meyr

Today I will gather all of the records about Gustav Adolph Meyr that I can find on familysearch.org. I just realized that he and I have the same initials.

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:

1.  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.
2. His family on the 1920 US Census--
3. His family on the 1930 US Census--
4. His family on the 1940 US Census-- 

Section B

Now I will search for records from Cape Girardeau and note potentially useful ones:

1. 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.
2. County census; 1868, 1876. Microfilm. There are many other county census records through 1930.
3. Cape Girardeau, Biography of a City. Book
4. City Directory of Cape Girardeau. Book. Possibly ca. 1930. Not likely to be helpful.
5. City birth records. Microfilm.--Possibly a good way to verify children.
6. City mortuary death records. Book.
7. Deed Records. Microfilm.
8. Court records. Microfilm. Other potentially helpful court records are also available for CG county.
9. CG military discharge records. Microfilm.
10. 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.

Thoughts: Annie Dillard & Intricacy

Wrote Annie Dillard in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek:

I am as passionately interested in where I am as is a lone sailor sans sextant in a ketch on the open ocean. What else is he supposed to be thinking about? Fortunately, like a sailor, I have at the moment a situation which allows me to devote considerable amounts of time to what I can see, and trying to piece it together...I've gathered statistics feverishly: The average temperature of our planet is 57o farenheit. Of the 29% of all land that is above water, over a third is given over to grazing...These statistics, and all the various facts about subatomic particles, quanta, neutrinos, and so forth, constitute in effect the infrared and ultraviolet light at either end of the spectrum.

 This brilliant observation about the world we live in is incomplete. Along with these invisible macro and micro influences we have familial ones. Our ancestors remain in a macro influence at an undetected end of the spectrum of a person's life and I don't know what the other end of the spectrum would be, the minutia of human relationships. Perhaps it is a person's subconsciousness.

Maybe this quote can be adapted for use in the book.

Table of Contents

Meyrs, Hansons, and Bears:

The marriages of my ancestors; spanning my great-great grandparents to my parents.

Prologue:

Part I--Dad's Side

Ch. 1: Gustav Adolph Meyr & Clara Loise Scholl-Interesting alternate title yet to be determined

Ch. 2: Adolph Martin Haertling & Martha "Meta" Vogts-Interesting alternate title

Ch. 3: Benjamin Franklin Hillman & Annie Lavania Freeman-

Ch. 4: Jacob Elemander Watts & Lavada Viola Morris
-
Ch. 5:Arthur Frederick Meyr & Ida Hedwig Haertling

Ch. 6: Uriah Victor Hillman & Ollie Eva Watts
-
Ch. 7: Elmer Arthur Meyr & Irma Mae Hillman


Part II--Mom's Side

Ch. 1: Henry Hanson & Ingaborgaline Melland

Ch. 2: Henry Wagner & Maude Saranne Wonser

Ch. 3: Mckendree C. Hawkins & Estella Maude Smith

Ch. 4: Arthur Lincoln Wooley & Eva Louise Reynolds
-
Ch. 5: Oscar Nickoli Hanson & Lois Marie Wagner

Ch. 6: Leroy Emery Hawkins & Bessie Wilma Wooley
-
Ch. 7: Lloyd Theodore Hanson & Colleen Rae Emery


Epilouge: Huff Ward Meyr & Sarah Elizabeth Hanson