Two Brick Walls or the Forgotten Post

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I read a post by another blogger recently, who was frustrated by the lack of sources quoted by others posting family trees online and was reminded of my two brick walls, Patience Watson and Wilson Parker. When I first joined Ancestry and found them listed as the parents of Mary Ann Belle Parker, in others’ family trees, I wondered how these people knew this. There were no records posted proving the relationship. I remember thinking the difficulty in researching this particular couple might lie in the possibility that these were not, in truth, the parents of Mary Ann Belle Parker. Or, perhaps, the names and birth dates were a little off?

Fast forward a few months. I made a connection on Ancestry with one of the descendants of Wilson Jesse Parker, Mary Ann Belle’s brother. My new connection sent a lot of information my way, including the death certificate of Mary Ann Belle Parker. Hers was the first death certificate I had ever seen. Listed on that death certificate were the names of her parents -- Wilson Parker and Patience Watson. So now there was a source document for Mary Ann Belle’s parents. However, the problems with Mary Ann Belle’s parents do not end here. Birth years for Wilson Parker and Patience Watson are listed in these trees as 1792 and 1796 respectively. Where did this information come from? I have yet to find a source. In fact, lacking actual dates for their births, it is my opinion these birth years are estimates at best and wild guesses at worst.

Not being one to give up, I recently went over my research on Wilson Parker. I have since listed his birth place as Pennsylvania. My source is the 1880 U.S. Federal Census, not for Wilson Parker himself, but for his daughter, Mary Ann Belle, whose father is listed as having been born in Pennsylvania. The problem is, this is a secondary source and may be inaccurate. I myself take it with a grain of salt and recommend others do as well. Pennsylvania makes an excellent starting point for research, but if and only if Wilson Parker was actually born in Pennsylvania. The problem is not knowing which area of Pennsylvania to look in for evidence. Further aggravating the problem is the lack of knowledge regarding which religion Wilson Parker was born into. (Which church records do we search? All of them!? I don’t think so! None of us live long enough to do that, and I would prefer a more efficient method.) Better would be to search probate records. I would love to find Wilson Parker’s “death records.” However, I do not know when or where he died, so I do not know which state to begin in. The last census I have been able to find Wilson Parker in is the 1849 Minnesota Territory Census. He is living next door to son-in-law, W.C.D. Harrington, in Marine Mills, Washington County, Minnesota. In the 1850 U.S. Federal Census, W.C.D. Harrington and family are still living in Marine Mills, but Wilson Parker is gone. Nor have I been able to find Wilson Parker in any other part of the 1850 U.S. Federal Census... or any subsequent U.S. Federal Census for that matter. Yes, there are other Wilson Parkers in these censuses, but further research proves they are not my Wilson Parker - they are all different individuals with the same name. At least one was even born the same year as Mary Ann Belle’s father, but if you look at earlier censuses, that same man is listed in the federal census in the Carolinas in years when he would have been in Illinois or Minnesota if he were the right Wilson Parker. He was also married to a woman named Margaret. The Wilson Parker I am looking for was married to Patience Watson and, later, possibly, Sarah Nesler. No Margaret there. I believe Carolinas Wilson Parker can be eliminated as a possibility.

There is a Wilson Parker that shows up in the 1854 Iowa State Census living next door to Wilson Jesse Parker’s brother-in-law, John Terrell. The problem is, the Wilson Parker listed is more likely to be Wilson Jesse Parker himself rather than Wilson Parker Sr. Why? The town and county of Iowa “Wilson Parker” is enumerated in border the town in Hancock Illinois, where Wilson Jesse Parker is enumerated in in the 1850 census and to which he subsequently returned and died. Both of Wilson Jesse Parker’s children were born in Illinois. In fact, Wilson Jesse Parker is listed in the 1855 Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois Census. There are three people in the household - himself, a female child under 10 years of age, and a female between 20 and 30 years of age. Wilson Parker himself is listed as being between 20 and 30 years of age. So this is Wilson Parker Jr. Furthermore, LDS records list Wilson Parker marrying Rebecca Terrell on 29 March 1849 in Hancock County, Illinois -- Hancock County Marriage Register, License number 1396.

In truth, Wilson Parker Sr. only shows up in two censuses -- the 1830 U.S. Federal Census and the 1849 Minnesota Territorial Census. We know he was living in White County, Illinois in 1820 because this is the year he married Patience Watson -- source, marriage record. He may also be the Wilson Parker listed as being from Carmi, White, Illinois in McHenry’s Company of Spies in the Black Hawk War, 1832. By 1841, a Wilson Parker had married Sarah Nesler in White County, Illinois. Which Wilson was it? This particular marriage record has been sworn to secrecy.

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Black Forest Nussbergers

My German immigrant ancestors are Casper Nussberger and his father, Johann Nussberger.  Johann Nussberger came to the United States with two of his sons - Casper and Conrad - aboard the Belgique on 27 October 1856.  He brought no wife with him and married, by 1870, Cecilia Ebener.  In the 1860 U.S. Federal Census for Bear Creek, Wisconsin, Johann Nussberger heads a household with four boys - no female lives in the household.  The boys are 14 year old Casper, 9 year old Conrad, 3 year old Hans, and an unnamed 1 month old male, indicating Johann Nussberger may have remarried sometime after arriving in the United States and before he married Cecilia Ebener.  (Or he had two children out of wedlock before marrying Cecilia Ebener.)  In any case, we have two possible mystery mothers.  By 1860, Johann had dropped the an in his name and started calling himself "John."  Clearly, the mother of Hans and the 1 month old male of the 1860 census are not the same person as the mother of Pauline, Mary, and John Jr., who are born in the years 1861-1865.  We have three wives here - the first one lived and died in Germany before October 1856, the second who died before June 1860, and Cecilia Ebener, the third wife, who had her first child with John/Johann Nussberger in 1861.  Judging by the age of the baby boy in the 1860 census (one month), the mother of that child - if legitimate - likely died in early to mid June of 1860, given the census date of 29 June 1860.  The baby is likely Benedict Nussberger and, if that's the case, the 1900 census with a birth date in March of 1858 may be incorrect.

However, Benedict Nussberger is not the individual I am interested in at the moment.  My concern is with the identity of the woman who bore my direct ancestor, Casper Nussberger, the first wife, who died in Germany.  For a long time, I could find nothing on her.  Let's face it, I didn't even know where to look or where to begin.  My first thought was Ancestry, but there was nothing there.  They have only recently begun to put German records on the site and I don't have the World Deluxe Membership that would grant me access to those records.  There was nothing on the LDS site, Family Search, at the time.  The German sites I knew of were not much help either.  I found Johann Nussberger's immigration records on Auswanderer, but nothing of course on his wife.  Not having a knowledge of German does not help me, but my thought was that I initially had no knowledge of Norwegian when I began researching my Norwegian ancestors on Norwegian sites - I learned to read a little Norwegian.  I learned to read Gothic handwriting.  I could learn a little German, too.  Why not?

Then, this last week, I visited Family Search Labs, an experimental LDS website.  Family Search Labs has a record search project that you can enter and type in names of ancestors and find records.  You can even view actual images of some of these records online and if you haven't tried this site, I highly recommend you do.  I typed "Johan Nussberger" in the name fields and by the end of the night had my German ancestors back to the 18th century.

Best of all, I had found the mother of Casper Nussberger -- Magdalena Spiegelhalter/Spiegelhalder, daughter of Andreas Spiegelhalter and Maria Siebler, born 31 August 1819 in Holzschlag, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany.  I found the marriage record of Johan Nussberger and Magdalena Spiegelhalter after finding the baptism records of their children and the marriage record had the birth dates, christening dates, marriage date, and parents of both spouses.  Johan Nussberger and Magdalena Spiegelhalter had more than two children, some of whom died in childhood or married before Johan left for the United States.  So Nussbergers of Wheeler, Dunn and Durand, Pepin, Wisconsin, you have relatives who were left behind in Germany!

The caveat is the German records online are merely indexes, so must be checked against the original records for accuracy.  I sense a major project coming on...

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