New Discoveries in the Butterfield Diaspora

Most of us have skeletons somewhere in our genealogical closet.  Not that I am saying the kin mentioned in this post are skeletons in my closet.  One or two of them might have been skeletons in my ancestors' closets, however.

Many years ago, I was told by a psychiatrist he had found an "aunt" on my mother's side of the family who had been institutionalized for schizophrenia.  Naturally, I assumed he meant one of my mother's aunts and, for some reason, I assumed the "aunt" was one of my maternal grandmother's sisters.  Perhaps because my mother is always talking about how "insane" my grandmother was?

Well, I did find a relative in my family tree who was institutionalized, but she was not an aunt... more like a great aunt of my mother's.  I do not know why she was institutionalized.  I only know that she was institutionalized until the day she died.  The woman was my great grandmother's sister, Alice Edna Butterfield, my maternal grandfather's aunt.

I believe I have written about Alice Edna Butterfield before.  I am writing again because I found more information on this branch of the tree.  Alice married a man named Peter John Thue on 31 December 1900 and, so far as I know, her first children were a set of male twins named Curtis and Deward.  Peter John Thue was Norwegian, so we have a Norwegian line even on the German/English side of the family.  They are, of course, not directly related, but are cousins nonetheless and having experience researching my own direct Norwegian lines throughout Norway, I researched a bit of the Thue lines as well.  (No, I have not found any insanity.)

Curtis Thue married twice, both times to women of foreign birth.  His first marriage was to Dolores Medina, who was born in San Juan de Lagos, Jalisco, Mexico in 1912, came legally to the U.S. in the 1920's, became a U.S. citizen in the 1930's and died 19 December 1942 in Los Angeles, California.  Dolores had at least one child with Curtis Thue, so we have cousins with Mexican and, I am guessing, Spanish, heritage.  The fun part is that I get to learn how to do research in Mexico.  Fortunately, I already read Mexican Spanish and I speak Spanish, although not fluently, as well.  I do not expect to have an easy time of it, however, as I have seen old Spanish documents dating back to the time of the Missions and they are not the easiest things in the world to read, but I know I'll get through it because I also read German gothic script and if you can read that, you can learn to read just about anything!

Curtis Thue married a second time to a Lebanese woman, whose name I will not mention because she may still be alive.  I suspect they may have married in Lebanon, but in any case, if they had issue, we have cousins from the Middle East as well.

Before anyone sends me nasty grams, let me note that I do not consider having Mexican or Middle Eastern branches in the family tree a "skeleton in the closet."  In fact, I was delighted to find these branches of the tree because it illustrates how diverse one individual's heritage can be and if the knowledge that you might not be who you think you are doesn't deter racism, hatred, fear and prejudice, you are a lost soul indeed.  It should at least make you think twice before succumbing to knee-jerk reactions.

I'm Keeping the Connection in Spite of all

After researching the whereabouts of Valentin Neuhardt and his family members and discovering their Ohio connections, I now believe my third great grandfather, Frederick Neihardt/Neuhardt, is not the son of Valentin Neuhardt and Catherine Schneider.  There was another Frederick Neuhardt, who lived in Ohio and better fits the profile of Catherine Schneider and Valentin Neuhardt's son.  Ohio Frederick's tree is listed in Ancestry member SueMeister223's Susan Rae Green Family Tree .

You see, Ohio Frederick has a much better claim to the Catherine Schneider/Valentin Neuhardt family than my Minnesota Frederick.

In spite of the error, I intend to keep Catherine Schneider and Valentin Neuhardt listed as Frederick Neihardt's parents until I figure out what to do with these "former ancestors."  I found valuable information regarding this family's immigration to the United States that does not appear to be listed on the other member trees on the Ancestry web site.  Either the tree owners are unaware of the information or they are aware of it and have not posted it to their trees for one reason or another.  Perhaps the information I attached to them will be of some service to those who truly are descendants of Catherine Schneider and Valentin Neuhardt.

Neihardt Civil War Pension Records

Image via Wikipedia

I found Frederick Neihardt in the Civil War Pension Index:  General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934 on the Ancestry web site.  I know he is my Frederick Neihardt because his widow, Elizabeth, is listed on the index card.  I also discovered my ancestor spelled his name "Niehardt" on the rare occasion, but, it would seem, his preferred spelling of the family name was "Neihardt."

I found Frederick Neihardt in the NARA T289 pension applications for service in the US Army between 1861 and 1917 on Footnote's web site and, there, I found his death date - 22 April 1872.  He died in "Hutcheson," Mcleod, Minnesota.  More evidence pointing to the probability Frederick Neihardt, the soldier, is my ancestor, Frederick Neihardt.  The application numbers listed on the Ancestry document and both Footnote documents match, so all three documents refer to the same soldier.

All three pension file records provide important and useful information about my third great grandfather, Frederick Neihardt.  Now to visit the NARA web site and pay the $75.00 for the full pension file and the $25.00 for the military file...

Related articles by Zemanta

• Obama Marks Memorial Day, Attempts to Dodge Wreath Race Controversy (abcnews.go.com)
• The Writer's Notebook: Roxana Robinson (papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com)
• April 9, 1865: War Ends, But the Horror's Just Beginning (wired.com)
• US Senate passes apology for slavery, segregation (delawarewatch.blogspot.com)

after...

Revision Two.  Here is the same photo, completely revised in Photoshop Elements with the color cast removed.  Whereas Gaussian Blur was applied in the previous revision in GIMP, only Lens Blur was applied in Revision Two.  Yes, layers and multiply were again used.  I think I prefer this version of the photo... or, at least, I prefer Lens Blur to Gaussian Blur.  My opinion has nothing to do with the programs themselves.  Only technique.

After...

Revision One.  I employed layers and "multiply" in GIMP to bring out the details.  Then, just because I could, I opened the image in Adobe Photoshop Elements and applied yet another layer of sharpening under the enhance menu with remove lens blur selected because I was not satisfied with the print quality.  I created three different sizes of this photo - 4X6, 5X7, and 8X10 - in Adobe Photoshop Elements and selected resample option bicubic smoothing because I was enlarging a nearly thumbprint sized photo.  Print quality was much improved.  Wish I had Genuine Fractals 6!

Before...

This is an image entitled "G-ma butterfield's house" my uncle sent me.  The "G-ma butterfield" referred to is Caroline (Harrington) Butterfield (1850-1936).  The identities of the individuals who are the subjects of this photo are unknown.  The photo appears, to me, to have been taken in the 1930's, judging by the clothing worn.  However, I am far from an expert on dating photos...

A Preponderance of the Evidence

Image via Wikipedia

In the previous post, I mentioned I would post more on the 1860 U.S. Census results for the Nihart/Neuhart family.  What drove me to search for this particular census, other than pure documentation, was the fact that in every record I had for Elizabeth and Frederick Nihart's children, the children are listed as having been born in Minnesota.  Since, the earliest record I had at the time was the 1870 U.S. Census for Hutchinson, Mcleod, Minnesota, I assumed the children may have been born there.  So I looked in the 1860 Census for Hutchinson, Mcleod, Minnesota and the family was not there.  I looked twice.  Still not there.

So I decided to peruse every page in the 1860 Census for the county of Mcleod in Minnesota.   The Nihart family was not there under any variation or misspelling of their surname.  There should have been three of them at that point - Husband Frederick, Wife Elizabeth, and firstborn son, August/Augustus.  But they were nowhere to be found in Mcleod.

What county were they in then?

The 1857 Minnesota Census had an answer.  In Township 111, Wabasha County, Minnesota, a "Felk" or "Fretrk" and Elizabeth Newhart were enumerated.  However, was this the correct couple?  If I could only find them in the 1860 census when Augustus would have been enumerated as well!

To make a long story short, I did find this same couple in the 1860 Census in the same town - Township 111, range 11, Wabasha, Minnesota... and there was Augustus, listed as their two year old son!  So I now know the birth place of the Nihart/Neuhart children.

Lowered Confidence in the 1870 U.S. Federal Census
In the 1870 U.S. Census, the Nihart family has moved to Hutchinson, Mcleod County, Minnesota.  Frederick is listed as being of an age that would place his birth in about 1820.  Meanwhile, his wife, Elizabeth, is listed as being seven years younger than her actual years.  Elizabeth was born in December of 1838 according to the 1900 U.S. Census and other records list either 1838 or 1839 for an approximate year of birth.  In the 1870 Census all three of Frederick and Elizabeth's children are enumerated.  Daughter Josephine, however, is enumerated as "Glindelia," a fact which, together with the errors in ages, leads me to suspect the information for this census came from a neighbor and not one of the family members themselves.

In the 1860 Census, I found the family in Wabasha, but not under any variation of the name I would have expected to find them under.  Even using simple pronunciation as a guide.  The family was enumerated under the surname "Neighart."  Husband Frederick was listed as having been born in Prussia, wife Elizabeth as having been born in Bavaria, and son Augustus as having been born in Minnesota.  Frederick's age is listed as 24, Elizabeth's as 20, and Augustus's as 2.  This implies birth years of about 1836 for Frederick, 1840 for Elizabeth, and 1858 for Augustus.

Why the greater trust in the 1860 Census.  A preponderance of the evidence.  For those still living at the time, the 1880 and 1900 U.S. Federal Census lists the same or similar years of birth as those given in the 1860 Census.  Then there are the Civil War  and Civil War Pension Records I found for a "Frederick Neihardt" and his wife Elizabeth.  These records reveal Frederick enlisted in 8th Infantry Regiment of Company K, Minnesota on 20 August 1862 at the age of 25 and was transferred into the Veterans Reserve Corps on 11 April 1864.  Frederick Neihardt - which is how he spelled his name the remainder of his life - survived the war.  The pension records indicate his wife filed for a pension on 21 February 1876 and that Frederick died 22 April 1872 in Hutchinson, Mcleod, Minnesota.

Before his untimely death at the age of 36 in 1872, the Neihardts, as they were now known, had no intentions of leaving Mcleod, Minnesota.  How do I know this?  Frederick Neihardt received a land patent in March of 1871 under the Homestead Act for land in Mcleod County.

It seems a preponderance of the evidence and the Civil War records themselves have come to the rescue in the previous matter of which Frederich Neuhard aboard the ship the Scotland is our Frederich Neuhard.  It would appear that our Frederich Neuhard/Frederich Nihart/Frederick Neihardt was born about 1837, indicating he was the little boy that sailed aboard the Scotland with his family to the port of Baltimore and heading to Pittsburgh.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Civil War Battlefields Must Be Protected as Signs of American Bravery (usnews.com)
• Why Are We Honoring Traitors? (oliverwillis.com)
• Hitting the Great River Road to Galena (passingthru.com)