Last night I had yet another bout with insomnia. Benadryl, which I take at night for my allergies, usually knocks me out, but last night it had no effect. My brain was just too wired and my mind too active. My mind was racing, in fact, and I couldn't stop it. So I decided to use my racing brain for good and look into my second great grandmother's surname. Her name is transcribed in the Wisconsin Genealogy Index as "Josephinne Nihact" and, I had long searched for her surname before stumbling upon the Wisconsin Genealogy Index.
Once I found my second great grandmother's surname in the index, I had a difficult time finding other records for a "Josephinne Nihact." Googling the Nihact surname I discovered no one with the name, Google suggesting I may have meant Nihat, a Turkish surname. However, unless I had been lied to all these years, I knew "Josephinne Nihact " was German, as was the man she married, my second great grandfather, Casper Nussberger.
Seriously suspecting the transcription was incorrect, I did a wild card search for Nih* on Ancestry and the Wisconsin Genealogy Index. I discovered Nihart's living in Pepin, Wisconsin (and other areas of Wisconsin) in both search engines.
My big discovery: Josephine's last name was Nihart/Neihart/Neuhart (depending on which country's records you are looking at) and her family members consisted of brothers August and Fred, father Fred, mother Elizabeth, stepfather John Guilfoyle and step-siblings John and Elizabeth.
I may have killed two birds with one stone with this discovery.
Why? Well, great grandmother, Nellie (Butterfield) Nussberger used to tell my mother the family was German, English, Irish and Native American, but so far as I know did not elaborate any further than that. Josephine Nihart was born in Minnesota and her mother was born in Landau, Germany - which Landau, I am not certain. John Guilfoyle Sr. was born in Ireland and this may be where grandmother got the idea we were Irish. A simple misunderstanding of Josephine Nihart's parentage. Fred Nihart Sr. was born either in Pennsylvania or Berlin, depending on which document you look at, but in any case, his heritage always shows up as German.
On the other hand, Nellie (Butterfield) Nussberger is quoted as saying she is English, Irish, and Native American. So perhaps that bird hasn't been killed yet. Unless, of course, she was misquoted, which is a distinct possibility because what you hear in childhood sometimes becomes something altogether different in your adult memories and you get things confused and mixed up, oftentimes downright wrong.
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