Sarah E. McCage (~1812-1860), who married William Kennedy Dickson (1811-probably 1860s), was born in Tennessee and lived in Perry County, Tennessee by 1840 (if not before). I’d seen her maiden name, McCage, on other researchers’ trees, but last year is the first time I found it on a document. One of her children, Jacob Tipton Dickson, had written his mother’s name as Sarah McCage on a Civil War Questionnaire in 1920. Jacob Tipton’s Civil War Questionnaire (Question #8 lists “Maiden name in full of your mother: Salley McCage.) She was the daughter of “dont know” and his wife “dont know.”...
Over the past couple of days, I’ve spent some time looking for ancestors and other relatives on Ancestry’s new “Wills and Probate Records” series. I was having trouble finding any of my numerous Perry County, Tennessee relatives, so I decided to skip the index and look at the actual records. Here are the steps I used to get started: Went to Ancestry.com Clicked on “Search” then “Card Catalog” For Title, typed in “Probate” and the state’s name (in my case, “Tennessee”) Clicked on “Tennessee, Wills and Probate Records, 1779-2008” On the right hand side, chose the county (in my case,...
The fifth person on this list is Edmund Kaechle. His age appears to be 24 years old and he died about 1885. If you look at the person above him, Charles, you will see he is 5 years old. The “y” for Charles’ 5 years looks nothing like the “4” on Edmund’s 24 years. That was my big mistake. Even though everyone in this cemetery plot are my family members, I didn’t study the list to see how the ages were recorded. If you look again, you’ll see the ages are as follows: 55y 2d 42y 5y 24 90y 70y...
The 1910 census has two wonderful columns labeled “mother of how many children” and “number of those children still living.” My 2nd great grandmother, Mary (Koerbach) Kaechle, was a 52-year-old widow in 1900. In the census, she’s listed as having 4 children with 3 still living in 1910. I only had names for 3 of her children: all sons. Yesterday, I came across the record that solved the identity of this missing child, another son. The record was a photo of Mary’s husband’s headstone, Reinhard Kaechle. There, on the bottom of the stone, it lists the name of another deceased....
As I worked on my Koechle/Kaechle chapter for the Holthoefer family book, I was shocked to come across a piece of conflicting evidence which threatened to chop off a branch of my tree. For years I’d worked with the thought that Reinhard Koechle’s father was Thaddeus Koechle. But, upon discovering Reinhard’s death certificate at Seeking Michigan, I saw his father’s name listed as Mathias. For about 24 hours, I was desperately trying to determine who really was the father of Reinhard Koechle. Detail of Reinhard Kaechle’s death certificate (from Seeking Michigan site) showing father’s name as Mathias Reinhard’s death certificate...
LESSON LEARNED: Changing the spelling makes a difference! For the past few weeks, I’ve been working on the family of Thaddeus Koechle who immigrated from Germany to America in the summer of 1851 with his wife and 5 children. But, there was something odd about the oldest child, Maria or Mary. She appeared to have been born about 2 years before Thaddeus and his wife, Katharina Kern, were married. Thada Koechle, passenger #281, 05 July 1851, Ship Monmouth, Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010 (Maria, age 17, is 3rd on this...
While at GRIP (Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh) last week, the news at dinner one night was that Ancestry had released a new database. It was called “Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007” and offered more information than the “Social Security Death Index.” But, we were told, do your homework first! (Yes, classes at GRIP have homework in the evenings!) (image from Wikipedia) I didn’t access the new index until a couple of nights ago. I decided to work with one of my more unusual surnames: Kaechle. And, I found a lot of new information! If you don’t know...
My newly discovered Correy family of Chester County and nearby Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is potentially the most interesting branch I’ve yet uncovered. I’m anxious to share these incredible stories. But, first I have to prove that all of these “Correy’s” are my family! I have a huge job ahead! Thankfully, there are lots of documents. I’ve found more than a dozen wills, over 50 other documents, and at least 50 names. But I’m struggling to put these family members together. And, it is quite possible that all of these individuals do NOT belong to the same family: my family! So, until...
Thaddeus Kaechle, my 3rd great grandfather, arrived at Castle Garden in New York aboard the ship Monmouth in the summer of 1851 with his wife, Katherine, and five or six children. (Only five are listed on the passenger list, but there should be six.) They were in Huron County, Ohio when, two years later, his wife gave birth to their 7th and later 8th children, both daughters. Thada Koechle, passenger #281, 05 July 1851, Ship Monmouth, Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010 A big breakthrough on this family was the German marriage records on...
Randy Seaver posted his weekly Saturday Night Genealogy Challenge and I’m a few days late, but decided to give it a try! His challenge? Do some random genealogy research and basically report what you started with and what you learned. I like how Diane at Michigan Family Trails changed it up a bit and went with the first person in her tree and limited it to one hour. So, I’ve decided to go that route. My person? Her name is Agnes and she married Cline Quigley. What I know? She was born in about 1820 in Pennsylvania and had 3 (known)...
