Using Search Engines to Expand the Family Tree

Using Search Engines to Expand the Family Tree

This week I joined Genea Bloggers group on Facebook and was invited to participate the weekly challenge "52 Weeks to Better Genealogy" created by Amy Coffin. I'm a little late to the party, starting with Challenge #14:

Use a different search engine for your online genealogy research. Google is quite popular, but other search engines may provide different results. Try Yahoo! Search (http://search.yahoo.com/), Bing (http://www.bing.com/), Ask.com (http://www.ask.com/), Dogpile (http://www.dogpile.com/), and even Clusty (http://clusty.com/). Pick an unusual surname and search it in different engines. Make note of the top 10 page returns for each. If you’re a genealogy blogger, share your observations on this experience.


I have chosen to search the surname of my 6th Great Grandmother on my paternal grandmother's side, Quattlebaum. I picked this name for two reasons.  Firstly, I haven't done any research at all on this name and second, well, the name makes me smile when I say it. I just love it...it sounds like a fun game of sorts, like a cousin to "Whiffle Ball".


Challenge in hand, I started do some searching starting with Yahoo! Search which yielded these various pieces of information on the surname Quattlebaum that I found useful:
*Altered spelling of German Quattelbaum, probably a topographic name from Middle Low German quattele ‘quail’ + bōm ‘tree’.


*"Quattlebaum, a Palatine Family in South Carolina" by Paul Quattlebaum
Finding this book led me to a wealth of information and I got sidetracked from my challenge for about an hour while I read excerpts from the book which in turn led to an additional link at Genealogy.com where I found bits of detail.  I've decided to blog separately about the stories of the Quattlebaum line and keep this posting about the links that have helped me find this information thanks to this week #14 challenge. Most of the other links on Yahoo! Search led me to message boards of various genealogy sites with postings of fellow enthusiasts looking for information on their own Quattlebaum ancestor. Next, I decided to try the search through Bing which yielded pretty much the same results but when I clicked on "images" I found a Quattlebaum cemetery located in Arkansas. Will bookmark that for later review if needed.


Searching on Ask.com, the first hit was for DistantCousin.com which is useful for organizing all the records you can search by surname including death and burial records, immigration passenger lists and military records which should come in handy when I delve deeper into the line. Also useful will be Linkpendium which lists worldwide information for the chosen surname. This site was completely new to me and I can see that it will be helpful for all future surname searches. The next two search engines, Dogpile and Clusty, I had never heard of before this challenge. I was definitely curious to see what results the sites would give me.
Clusty didn't reveal any new information or links but for Dogpile, I found Public Domain Genealogy, a website with access to millions of free records.  Also, Meaning-of-Names.com which said that Quattlebaum meant "dweller near the bridge across the bog". Not very useful, but fun all the same. I enjoyed this challenge of using different search engines and seeing the results and where they would lead me to.  It allowed me to have new eyes to find new links to various genealogy sites, many that I hadn't known before of before the challenge. 

Quattlebaum family history

Deep Roots in American History: The Gaskill Line

Gaskill Name Meaning and History

English (Lancashire): habitational name from Gatesgill in Cumbria, so named from Old Norse geit ‘goat’ +skáli ‘shelter’.
The Gaskill Name in History

My Gaskill Line

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Billie Louise Gaskill (grandmother)

b. 1919, Dodge City, Kansas

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Claude Everett Gaskill (great grandfather)

b. 1890, Wray, Colorado
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Asbury Gaskill (2nd great grandfather)
b. 1844, Mt. Pleasant, Iowa
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Timothy Sewell Gaskill (3rd great grandfather)
b. 1811, Wilmington, Ohio
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Thomas Gaskill (4th great grandfather)
b. 1788, Fayette County, Pennsylvania
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Samuel Gaskill (5th great grandfather)
b. 1749, Burlington County, New Jersey
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Benjamin Gaskill (6th great grandfather)
b. 1709, Burlington County, New Jersey
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Edward Gaskill (7th great grandfather)
b. 1667, Salem, Massachusetts
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Samuel Gaskill (8th great grandfather)
b. 1639, Salem Massachusetts
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Edward Gaskill (9th great grandfather)
b. 1604, Upholland, Lancashire, England

Well...wouldn't you know it! My paternal grandmother's line leads right to some major events in American History, including the founding of Salem, Massachusetts and the Salem Witch Trials.

The entire line is full of interesting characters that led interesting lives although sometimes those lives were filled with betrayal, persecution, torment and tragedy. There are so many stories to tell here including treacherous travel on the high seas,  the pioneering of New Jersey and Ohio. Several books are filled with the accounts of this line of ancestors that include their diary entries, letters and trial accounts .I must buy all of them! My 8th Great Grandfather and grandmother, Samuel Gaskill and Provided Southwick Gaskill, were Quakers and have deep roots in the beginnings of the Quaker religion. Provided has an amazing story herself, one of being nearly sold into slavery to pay the owed fines of her parents, also Quakers. More on these individuals in later postings for each one deserves their own so that their story may be told once again.

I have come to enjoy the detective work involved with following the lines, verifying documents and making sure everything matches up with proven sources. It's so exciting to find a story while on the paper trail, one that may have been buried under years of past generations but now uncovered by yet another descendant.

Such was the case with my Great Grandparents, Claude E. Gaskill and Myrtle Irene Currey Gaskill. My great grandfather Claude was born in 1890 in Wray, Colorado and before the age of five, the family up and moved taking Claude and his seven siblings (a 9th child would be born later) to Washington County, Kansas. He grew up in Mill Creek and after he turned 20 years old he left home looking for work as a "Hired Man" in Grandview, Kansas. He married Myrtle Irene Currey on March 24, 1917 when he 26 years old and Myrtle just 18. During their marriage they had four daughters, Dorothy, Billie (my grandmother), Marjorie and Ruth.  Their marriage lasted about 10 years, then, for unknown reasons, by 1930 they were divorced and Claude was living in Wichita, Kansas shacked up with a woman thirteen years younger than himself. This left my great-grandmother in Dodge City to raise four daughters, all under the age of twelve, alone and during the Great Depression. This couldn't have been easy. After the divorce she rented a room at the Lora Locke hotel which had just opened in 1928 and where, coincidently, my 2nd Great Uncle Carl Clare was also a lodger. She began work as a maid at the hotel while the children lived with her parents. It's assumed that she also stayed with her children at her parent's home when she wasn't working as she was listed at both locations during the 1930 census...oops!  She was counted twice!

The Lora Locke Hotel, 1930's

Without access to the 1940 census (to be released to the public in April 2012) I cannot be sure when she was able to get back on her feet and have her children living with her. I do know that she remarried Everett Donald Jones but I am unsure of when this marriage took place. My dad said that he never liked Myrtle or his step-grandfather much because they were mean and gave out beatings if you misbehaved (Myrtle does come from a line of  Slave Owners!). He told the story of how all the families, cousins, siblings, everyone would gather over at "The Joneses" and that they would always have a big meal but that Myrtle, being a rather large woman, would just sit and boss everyone around. When they would go over to visit, she would put the kids to work in the yard. When my dad was old enough to say his peace, he told his parents that he wasn't going over there anymore and that was the end of his visits. Perhaps, though, she had a hard, long life full of heartbreak and disappointment. Perhaps discovering the story of her raising her four daughters during the depression, will give him a new perspective. He said his mother, Billie, never talked about when she was a child, never talked much about her mom or the life they led so this story of his grandmother as a strong, single parent was new to him.

On the other hand, my dad loved going to visit his grandfather, Claude in Wichita, Kansas. Claude would call the kids "Scallywags". He lived next door to a penny arcade and my dad and his siblings would save up all their pennies for the visit just so they could go and play all the games. Claude died in 1962, three years before I was born. Myrtle died in 1970 when I was six years old. I wasn't raised with this side of the family so I don't have any memories of her and I'm not sure if she had a chance to see me when I was a baby.  But, I feel like I know her now and I'm very proud to have yet another strong woman in my family tree!

The Clare Line

Clare Name Meaning and History

1. Irish and English: habitational name from Clare in Suffolk (probably named with a Celtic river name meaning ‘bright’, ‘gentle’, or ‘warm’). One of the first Normans in Ireland (1170–72) was Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke, better known as ‘Strongbow’, who took his surname from his estate in Suffolk.
2. English: habitational name from Clare in Oxfordshire, named with Old English cl?g ‘clay’ + ora ‘slope’.
3. English: from the Middle English, Old French female personal name Cla(i)re (Latin Clara, from clarus‘famous’), which achieved some popularity, greater on the Continent than in England, through the fame of St. Clare of Assisi. See also Sinclair.
4. English: occupational name for a worker in clay, for example someone expert in building in wattle and daub, from Middle English clayere, an agent derivative of Old English cl?g ‘clay’.
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   The Clare Line

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   Larry Clare (father)
   b. 1940, Kansas
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   Carl Clare (grandfather)
   b. 1917, Kansas
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   Harry Cleveland Clare (great grandfather)
   b. 1883, Kansas
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   James Daniel Clare (2nd great grandfather)
   b. 1849, Kentucky
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   James Clare (3rd great grandfather)
   b. 1805, Kentucky
   
   
   Not much is known about my main paternal line. I didn't grow up with this side of the family so I don't have much to go on at all. James Clare Sr. moved his wife Elisabeth and four children (Martha, Sara, James Daniel & Luella) from Kentucky to Illinois sometime before James Daniel was 12. What brought him to Illinois is unknown at this time.  I'm going to have to rely on a marriage record for James Daniel Clare to try to get me further in the search. Most of the Clare's that settled in Kentucky where English but I'm sure there must be an Irish connection somewhere with a surname like Clare!
   James Daniel married Amanda Clarke in Illinois and sometime between 1895 and 1900 moved the family (Ray, Harry Cleveland, Elsie, Katie and Carl) to Perry, Oklahoma.  During this time, the famous Land Runs were taking place.  I doubt that James participated in the land run as the 1900 census shows him as a "renter" and "day laborer"  in Perry.  It's more probable that he went there to find work because towns were quickly growing as a result of the land settlements.  Just five years later he was living as a widower in Winfield, Kansas.  My great grandfather was 24 at the time but two of his siblings were still teenagers and living without their mother.
   Most of the information I found for my great grandfather, Harry Cleveland Clare came from his WWI draft registration card which showed him married with 4 children (Clinton, Clyde, Carl and Laurence), working as a truck driver and having gray eyes and brown hair. All that my dad really remembers about his grandfather was that he was a boxer in his youth.  I like the sound of that...both the Oklahoma Land Run and an Irish boxer make me think of the movie "Far and Away". A distant cousin is researching my great grandmothers line and shared with me his funeral card which gives the date of birth, death and final resting place:
   
   
   
   I hope the luck of the Irish will be with me as I continue to search records trying to find the birth city and parents of James Clare, Sr. and his wife Elisabeth.

The Spahn Line

Spahn Name Meaning and History

1. metonymic occupational name for a carpenter or for a roofer who applied wooden shingles, from Middle German span ‘chip’, ‘shaving’, ‘splinter’.
2. nickname for a skinny person.

Our Spahn Line

Betty Jane Spahn (grandmother)

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Adam George Spahn (great grandfather)

b. 1897, Topeka, Kansas

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John Spahn (2nd great grandfather)

b. 1864, Saratov, Russia

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Adam Spahn (3rd great grandfather0

b. unknown, Saratov Russia

Part of the problem researching this line is lack of documentation for immigration for my 2nd great-grandfather, John Spahn.  According to family legend, he never wanted to talk about his life in Russia or how he came to the United States.  He told a story to his great granddaughter, Betty Jane when she was young about boys being forced out of their homes and made to go serve in the Russian Army.  It was rumored that John went A.W.O.L. from the Russian Army.  This rumor could be fact because out of all records from Saratov, John and his wife Mary are not among the passenger lists.  From the various Census reports, I was able to determine that they arrived into the United States in 1891.  I searched all the ships that came into port in 1891 and they weren't on them.  In addition, the Census tells us that they were naturalized as American Citizens in 1900.  They settled in Topeka, Kansas where my great grandfather and his siblings were born before the entire family moved to Offerle.

I had always wondered how the Spahn's ended up in Russia because I knew Spahn wasn't a Russian name but rather a German name.  Researching the Spahn immigrants in general, including John's assumed brother, George Spahn, yielded a wealth of imformation about how the Spahn ancestors ended up in Russia...they were Volga Germans who settled the region in the mid 1700's.  Here is the story from Wikipedia:

The Volga Germans (German: Wolgadeutsche or Russlanddeutsche, Russian: Поволжские немцы, Povolzhskie nemtsy) were ethnic Germans living along the River Volga in the region of southern European Russia around Saratov and to the south. They maintained German culture, language, traditions and churches: Lutherans, Reformed, Roman Catholics, and Mennonites. Many Volga Germans emigrated to the Midwestern United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and other countries in the 19th and early 20th centuries. During World War II, many died in Soviet labour camps. In the late 20th century, many of the remaining ethnic Germans moved to Germany.

Here is a lovely picture of Norka, Saratov settled by the Volga Germans:

Another issue with searching the records for John and George Spahn is an abundance of Spahn's with the same names...Adam, George, John are all popular and there are several of each, including the infamous George Spahn who owned Spahn Ranch in California, where the Manson Family stayed and hatched their murderous plan.  Even the female Spahn's had repeating names such as Elizabeth, Katherine, Mary/Marie.  Most are probably related to each other and to me in one way or another.  I will have to add the Saratov region to my list of ancestry travel destinations.  I could visit this church in Norka and just maybe I will find the birth and marriage records for John Spahn, which in turn, could lead me down a longer road back in time.  To a time and place where the Spahn's were once again back in the motherland of Germany.

Even though I can't currently get further down the line, I was happy to finally understand how the Spahn ancestors ended up in Russia. One mystery solved!

The Dusing/Duesing Line

Dusing/Duesing Name Meaning and History

1. from Middle High German duz ing, Middle Low German dusinc, the term for a particular type of belt, often ornate and richly decorated with bells, worn both by men and women, although often locally prohibited by the Church.
2. probably a patronymic from one of the numerous old personal names related to Dietz.

Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4

Our Dusing/Duesing Line

Eugene George Duesing (grandfather)

b. 1917 in Windthorst, Kansas

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Joseph John Duesing (1st great grandfather)

b. 1881 in Windthorst, Kansas

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Joseph John Duesing, Sr. (2nd g. grandfather)

b. 1842 in Halverde, nordrhein-westfalen, germany

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Johannes Gerhardus Duesing

b. 1793 in Halverde, nordrhein-westfalen, germany

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Johann "Jan" Dusing

b. 1762 Schapen, Germany

This was as far as my research online would take me.  The next step is to travel to the Nordrhein-Westfalen area parishes and physically look for birth/marriage records...meander through the local villages and graveyards to see if I can locate any of our lost ancestors.  Of course, any kind of travel is all right with me...especially if the villages look like the village of Halverde where my 2nd and 3rd Great Grandfathers were born:

Perhaps a trip to the Duesing homeland in the fall? 

Tombstone Tuesday- Duesing

Headstone for Joseph John Duesing and Caroline Agatha Nau Duesing

located at Holy Cross Cemetery in Windthorst, Kansas.

There are seven source citations, including Joseph's passport application which he filled out in his own hand that state his date of birth was June 16th, 1881.  The only place it shows as June 29th is here on his headstone.  There is a bit of a mystery here as to how the incorrect date of his birth ended up on his final monument.  Perhaps over time, no one could remember the exact date or documents weren't checked and verified before the stone was ordered.  Whatever the reason, it will remain a family mystery unless someone else out there knows a story behind the date.

The Düsing Immigrant

It's raining today.  It's a damp, dark and gloomy sort of day.  A perfect morning to spend drinking a cup of java and researching my roots.  And this morning turned up a wealth of information on my Great Great Grandfather, Joseph John Duesing.  I discovered a passport application that he filled out in March 1907.  On this application was his date of birth (2/9/1842), place of birth (Halverde, Germany), when he arrived in New York City as an immigrant (Aug 1866), the ship he came in on (The S.S. Hermann) and the port he sailed from (Bremman, Germany). It showed that he traveled alone, without any family members or spouse. It also had his residency (Cincinnati, Ohio from 1866-1876) and where and when he became a naturalized citizen (Distric Court of Hamilton County, Cincinnati, Ohio on 12th of October, 1874). It showed his current residency of Windthorst, Kansas and his occupation as a farmer.  It stated that he was about to go abroad temporarily and that he would return with in four months back to the USA and resuming citizenship duties.  It included his signature at the bottom of the Oath of Allegiance.  In addition it also included his physical description: He was 65 years old at the time of the application and was 5' 4.5" (he was short!).  He had a medium-high forehead, a dominant nose and blue eyes.  He had a mustache and full beard and his hair was listed as gray.  His face was round and his complexion was listed as "florid".

I tried to locate the passenger list for the Bremman but they were destroyed in 1875.

I found this great source on Passenger Departure Lists of German Immigrants 1709-1914 which lists all the ships carrying German Immigrants.  Here is a photo and a painting of the ship Joseph arrived on, The S.S. Hermann:

For what purpose Joseph was travelling back to Germany is not known yet...perhaps a family member was ill or had died.  I haven't found the ship he departed out on or the date but I did find the passenger list for his return back into the United States.  He arrived back from Bremman on August 8th, 1907 on the Barbarossa.

Here is a photo that very ship:

I have just begun researching the Dusing/Duesing line and will post additional information and photos as I discover them.  For now, the rain has stopped and it's time to set aside the search and do some actual work.