52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 1 - An Ancestor I Admire

 

Friedrike "Freda" Sophie Louisa Trenkman Ziegenfuss and children

I wish I had known my great-great-grandmother, Freda Ziegenfuss. She was born in 1846 in Prussia. From the stories passed down, she was a strong woman. No record has yet been found of her exact birthplace or of her marriage to my great-great-grandfather, Gottlieb Ziegenfuss. Family tradition says her full name may have been Friedrike Sophie Louise (or Louisa) Trenkman.

Freda married Gottlieb, who was twenty-six years older than she was. Around 1869, based on the birth of their first known child, Louisa, in 1870, Freda would have been about twenty-two years old.

Gottlieb had been married before. On January 14, 1844, he married Dorothee Caroline Wilhelmine Hildebrandt in Wernigerode, at St. Sylvestri Church (Evangelische Kirche zu Sylvestri und Georgii Wernigerode). No death record has been found for Dorothee, and no children from that marriage are known.

Freda and Gottlieb’s children born in Prussia were: Louisa (1870), Otto (1872), Benno John (1875), Bruno Hugo (1876), Mathilda Augustine “May” (1878), Ernst Rufe (1879), and Helene Olivia “Lena” (1882). Lena was my great-grandmother.

In 1885, Gottlieb brought Freda and the family from Weferlingen to the United States. They left Hamburg on August 5 and arrived in New York on August 18, 1885. Lena was three years old. From there, they traveled to Arlington, Texas.

Family stories say that Freda and Gottlieb had been sending money to a friend in America to buy land and prepare a house for them. When they arrived in Arlington, land had been purchased, but no house had been built. Gottlieb was sixty-four years old. The family says he “sat down and just slowly died.” On January 20, 1890, he died in Tarrant County, Texas, heartbroken and devastated.

I often think about Freda. She had been in her new country only four years. She now had eight children. Rosie was born in 1888 after their arrival. Her husband was gone. I imagine she worked hard to put food on the table, and that the older boys found whatever work they could nearby to help the family survive.

Sometime between Gottlieb’s death in January 1890 and 1895, Freda moved her children to Eastland, in Eastland County, Texas. Why did she move to Eastland? Family stories – yes, another one to add to all the others – the man who had taken their money and not built a house for Gottlieb in Arlington, lived in Eastland County. Truth? I’m not sure. I do know what happened next in Freda’s story.

On August 14, 1895, she married another Prussian-born man, Friedrich (Frederick) August Grӓefe. It was not a good marriage. All of the children except little Rosie were forced out of the home. They went to work and lived with other families, or perhaps on their own. The oldest son, Otto, would have been twenty-two.

My great-grandmother Lena was thirteen. She lived with a family and helped care for their children. During that time, she met my great-grandfather, James Andrew Cauble. They were married on December 9, 1897, in Eastland County, Texas. According to family stories, Lena taught the cowboy “Jim” Cauble how to read and write.

Freda remained in an unhappy marriage. In the 1900 U.S. Census, she appears in Justice Precinct 4, Eastland County, Texas, with Frederick “Greofe,” age fifty-six, head of household, his son Friedrich, age twenty-four, and her daughter “Rossa,” age twelve.

By the 1910 census, Freda had left Mr. Grӓefe. She was living in Wichita Falls, Wichita County, Texas, in the household of her son Benjamin (Benno John), age twenty-eight and single. Freda is listed as widowed, and twenty-two-year-old Rosa is also in the household.

On February 3, 1920, when the census was taken in Cement City, Dallas County, Texas, Freda, age seventy-five, was living in the household of her son-in-law, Darling D. “Kensey” (Kenney), with his wife—her daughter Rosie—and her son Ben.

About a month later, on March 5, 1920, Freda died in Wichita Falls, Texas. She was buried in Riverside Cemetery in Wichita Falls.

After leaving Mr. Grӓefe, she lived the rest of her life using the name Ziegenfuss.

I admire Freda. Being widowed in a new country with so many children and struggling to survive must have been incredibly hard. Then to marry again and find herself in another painful situation, especially one that separated her from her children, makes me sad.

Freda, I wish I could tell you that you persevered and raised children who went on to have families that would make you – and Gottlieb – proud!

Revis

A new blog - Freeman Genealogy

 A new blog has appeared online, and it’s called Freeman Genealogy.

The blog is devoted to sharing family stories, genealogical research, and the heritage of Native American Freeman families throughout the United States. It brings together history, documentation, and DNA evidence to tell those stories clearly and carefully.

These Freeman families-once distant and unconnected-were linked through Y-DNA testing at Family Tree DNA. The DNA results revealed shared paternal lines that traditional records alone had not shown.

Displayed below are the Y-DNA haplogroup badges for the Dennis/Freeman men in my family, which would include my grandfather. These results reshaped how we understand our ancestry.

What we once believed to be Irish is no longer our story. We now know we are descendants of Native American men who carried the Freeman surname-and we are proud of that heritage.

See you over at the blog to enjoy the posts by various members of the Freeman family. 

Revis 

Family Recipe Friday: Drop Cookies (Aunt Ida)

 

I remember making these drop cookies years ago. I admit I haven't made anything but Christmas cutout cookies in the past few years and that's because my grand-daughter's love to decorate cookies.

This Drop Cookies recipe I got from my "Aunt Ida". She was my grandmother's older full sibling in a family made up of "yours, mine and ours" way before The Brady Bunch tv family was streamed into our homes. 

Polly Ida Kolb, my grandaunt, was the daughter of Robert Franklin Kolb (b. 15 Jan 1858-Grapeland, Houston Co., Texas, d. 02 Dec 1957-Sweetwater, Nolan Co., Texas) and Neoma Ida Martin (b. 1873-Webster Parish, Louisiana, d. 07 May 1937-Rotan, Fisher Co., Texas). Polly Ida Kolb married Tom Helm (from original Marriage Certificate #10982 at FamilySearch), on 23 Dec 1924 in Anderson County, Texas. I knew Tommie Coin Helm as "Uncle Tommie" growing up. 

Aunt Ida was about seven years older than my grandmother Cauble. Growing up we joked at how Aunt Ida and the older sister, Aunt Luna, checked up on little sister Neoma as if she was still a little child. 

Today I find it refreshing (is that the right word, not sure) that my grandaunts Ida and Luna still cared for their little sister enough to check on her almost every day if she didn't answer her phone. 

And I have to wonder if Polly Ida Kolb Helm served her Drop Cookies when the sisters got together and chatted about their children and grandchildren. 

Revis

Madness Monday - Changing and Adding People to Trees at FamilySearch (Late Post - obviously not a Monday)

 I resolved to not go down the "Madness Monday" path when I reviewed my tree information at FamilySearch. And that's why this is not posted on a Monday. 😏

But I just couldn't help myself. The frustration of having added wives to my ancestors and changing child relationships is - well - just frustrating. 

Someone added another wife for my 2nd great-grandfather, John David Baldridge. He was a man who married a lot because every wife died after having children, it seems. 

First, John Baldridge married M.E. Johnson on 7 Nov 1871 in Gonzales, Texas. In the copies of the bible pages I have, she is listed as Margaret Johnson. They had three children, Anna Sue, Lewis Eugene and Edwin Carter Baldridge (all listed in the bible).

Margaret Johnson Baldridge died after 23 Apr 1876 when Edwin Carter Baldridge was born in Waelder, Gonzales, Texas, and before 27 Jun 1877, the marriage date of he and his Second wife, Jemima E. Stroud. She's listed as "Jimima Stroud" in the bible. This is where it gets tricky because Nina re-writes what is in the bible and changes her parents wedding date and her own birthdate to make her look ten years younger than she really was. 

But the records show that Jemima and John David married on 27 Jun 1877 in Lockhart, Caldwell County, Texas; not in 1886 as Nina would have us to believe. NOTE: She always dyed her hair and my mother said there was a joke in the family as to "wonder what her real age is?" Oh, my Nina, who we called Mama Dennis. 

Jemima died after giving birth to John William Baldridge on 4 Aug 1882 at San Marcos, Hayes County, Texas. Nina changed the bible birth date to "August 4 18-90". According to Nina, her baby brother died soon after birth as did her mother. 

Now the Third wife comes along. 14 May 1884 in Waelder, Gonzales County, Texas, John David marries M.A. Johnston. In the bible, she's listed as "Jannie" and the marriage date? You guessed it. Nina re-wrote it as "May 14 18-94". One thing's for sure, Nina was consistent with her dates when adding years to them. 

My cousin who descends from Anna Sue Baldridge (married a Wood) knew that M.A. "Jannie" was called "Janey". No record of Janey's death has been found, but she is believed to have died before 1889 when J.D. Baldridge and Mary Susan Caperton married, according to the 1900 U.S. Federal Census, Justice Precinct 7, Gonzales, Texas, for J. D. Baldridge household. 

Nina lived in the household with Mary "Mollie" Caperton Baldridge and her father, J. D. Baldridge. Stories passed down include Nina leaving the household and going to live with an older brother after "squabbling" with her step-mother. 

The main point of this post is make sure as a family researcher, whether a hobbyist or "pro", that you look at records - birth certificates, marriage certificates, censuses, and newspaper articles or obituaries - like the ones mentioned in this post which I have in my tree at Ancestry, and in my genealogy program on my computer. Most importantly, remember those "trees" online might just be wrong. So do your own research before you make changes to collaborative or one-world trees like FamilySearch. 

Revis