Life Lessons Through the Ages

The effects of Covid 19 made its appearance in early 2020. Life interrupted best describes our lives over the past year. During the 'downtime' from what our normal lives I used my free time to dive into solving my dad's maternal line. The research was somewhat troublesome to the extent I referred to  them as my quiet Germans. 

There were days when I could justify my great great grandfather's siblings' lives, and others not so much. Then I began to see pieces of my great great aunt Susanna Monath Loehmeyer's life come alive. I credit my information findings to city directories and Newspapers.com.

Susanna and her husband were married in Maryland and eventually moved to Memphis, Tennessee, this learned from city directories. This also justified the birth of their daughter Henrietta, but not why I could not find what happened to Susanna's husband Augustus Loehmeyer. I found Susanna living in Baltimore, Maryland 1880 through 1917 but not her husband. This is where she died and is buried. Even Ancestry.com and Find A Grave had no listing for Augustus. Frustrating for sure!

City directory entries listed Augustus and his brother William living and working in Memphis but stopped in 1878. I resorted to Newspapers.com with little hope.

In August of 1878 yellow fever killed thousands of people. Augustus, his brother William and William's wife were victims of this disease and their remains are buried in mass graves around the city. Susanna and Henrietta survived. My search was now completed. (The last entry in the image to the right shows A. Loehmeyer age 47 died of yellow fever. The article came from The Public Ledger, Memphis, Tennessee published 22 August 1878, page 2.)

However, my point about this is that we endured the effects of Covid 19 much like our ancestors. I wonder what will be written in the decades to come about our losses and survivals experienced throughout our global community that will teach future generations and researchers. 

To learn more about the 1878 epidemic, click this link: https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/yellow-fever-epidemics/.

Record Losses and Genealogy

The words, record losses, are not what a researcher wants to find. 

Fires and natural causes destroy precious historic documents forever. So after days of researching, changing spellings of names, etc. I accidently learned why my hours of research were not providing me information about two ancestors - John Monath and his sister Marie Dorothea Monath.

In 1911 fire destroyed precious documents and recordings held in the library of the New York Capitol building. The 4 May 2018 blog link, https://www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org/blog/fire-new-york-state-library, details the event. [Image left: The New York State Capitol building is currently the seat of New York's state government, but in 1911 it also housed the State Library. Image via Wikimedia Commons.] 

Having learned about the fire I had one nugget of information about my Monath family. It is said that one of my great great grandfather's siblings, John Monath, stayed behind in New York after arriving to America in 1852. His youngest sibling, Marie Dorothea, is another story. She was about 4 years old in 1852. The 1860 Maryland U.S. Federal Population Census does not show Marie living with her parents. So I thought that maybe she lived with John in New York. I repeatedly tried to find census reports for both John and Marie. That is when I learned about the record losses. This left me knowing a little about Marie and less of John. I will settle for what I did learn about the Monaths.

Marie married twice, was widowed once, and lived what seemed to be a comfortable life in Washington, DC until 1895. The life of Marie/Mary/Maria D. Monath prior to marriage will remain a mystery to me. 

Researching Through the Pandemic

I am speaking for myself when I say that there is nothing more awesome than to hold a piece of your ancestor's life. 

My first hand experience came at when I worked in Emmitsburg, Maryland where the Daughters of Charity lived and worked. The archivist invited a few of us to visit the archives, showing us several of many historic pieces that once belonged to Saint Elizabeth Ann Seaton. This was my first dive into history to understand the relevance of historic documents a bit and feel the excitement to witness them in person.

Years later I had the opportunity to visit the Maryland State Archives in Annapolis, Maryland to research my great great grandfather, Christian Monath. His naturalization was granted to him in October 1865 after having lived in the United States for five years and three years in the state of Maryland. 

Social media sites offer digital images of original documents, and I am not complaining because I had to rely on these resources for the past year. However, by visiting repositories I have access records that tell a real life story of someone I never met but is a part of me. The resources available are not all found online and it is not the same as touching a piece of history.

So, am I counting the days and months to return to normal and to have access to leave my home office to that of a repository? Yes!! 

One Brick Wall Conquered

Since my last post in 2018 life took a turn from normal to one that stopped us in our tracks. It is now 2021. 

When the pandemic crossed the pond to America in 2020 researching changed from onsight researching in repositories to becoming an 'armchair genealogist'. By that I mean I joined the many others who rely on public family trees for clues, upgraded my basic subscriptions to access German records, and Zoom to continue my genealogy education. 

I finished projects to give as Christmas presents. I broke through several genealogy brick walls, and shared what I learned of my combined families with others. However the biggest achievement was confirmation of my dad's maternal lineage, one that I dubbed the 'quiet German ancestors'-my Monath family.

My great great grandfather Christian Monath came to America 21 July 1852 with his parents and several siblings. Prior to their arrival several of his siblings sailed the Atlantic Ocean and settled in Baltimore, Maryland. For years I read what others posted to their public trees. I wanted to trust what I read, but the need to be accurate was greater than just putting names into my database. 

The image of a German family record to the right is proof that Johann Christoph Monath married Anna Dorothea Weber and proved their children's births and names. One stuck out from the rest and that is Johann Georg Weber. He was born in 1825 in Hergershausen, Darmstadt-Dieburg, Hesse, Germany to Anna Dorothea Weber prior to her marriage to Johann Christoph Monath, which happened in 1829.  He was later accepted into the Monath family. BINGO! Now I can continue building my Monath family tree.

Another treat was meeting a lady online who is the older brother to my gr grandfather George Monath. It is nice to share even if on line with another extended cousin.

So, as we continue to move away from life in the pandemic and return to a life of more normalcy, I consider my achievements quite satisfying. 

Slippery Slope into the Rabbit Hole

In July my application to join the Daughters of the American Revolution (D.A.R.) was submitted. As of this post I patiently await to learn if the D.A.R. approves my application for proving a new Patriot, George Jacob Sherman. While waiting my writing and research continues, only to topple into another 'rabbit hole.' You may wonder what I mean by this.

A 'rabbit hole' is like taking a detour from a determined course of action, or research. My new 'rabbit hole' resulted from a deed search on our small piece of land where I currently live. About a year ago I discovered that the large tract of land, of which our property is a small piece of, was warranted to a Peter Shute in 1738. I had to learn more, so I proceeded to dig out old deeds. This discovery doesn't stop here.
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In an earlier blog post of July 23, 2018 I shared the story about the writing on our bathroom wall. I learned how our street was named. It is through this research that I found that one of my Wildasin ancestors married a Mummert! Catherine Elizabeth Wildasin married a Peter B. Mummert. My curiosity continued to haunt me and the 'rabbit hole' just got deeper.

Peter's grandfather William Mummert served in the Revolutionary War and, because of the marriage between Peter and Catherine, I may have discovered another family-related Patriot. This is not earth shattering news, but an example of how our ancestors' lives intertwined, hence Twisted Roots and following the 'rabbit hole' trail.

The Colonel Richard Mc Calister Chapter I am waiting to join is an amazing group of women with like minds to continue the D.A.R.'s mission-Historic Preservation, Education, and Patriotism-of those ancestors who contributed in some capacity to serve during the American Revolution.