Treasures from the To-File Pile

Ah, the things I find: a 30-year-old photocopy of an 1918 letter from Andrew W. HEGWER of Lincolnville, Kansas, to his first cousin, Ray D. Hegwer of Grand Junction, Colorado. I remember my thoughts when I first read this letter a few years ago: an OK letter but it doesn't give my line any new names. But now, re-reading it as I work my way through the bottomless To-File pile, I see what a treasure it really is!

Andrew
The letter documents the handwriting and style of Andrew. While the main topic of the letter was possible litigation over land from the 1873 estate of their grandmother Maria Rosina (Ilgner) Hegwer, general family connections were also very important to Andrew as he gave addresses and invited visits. Andrew died in 1919, just the year after this letter was written. He left a wife and two very young children.

His mom & siblings
Andrew documented the whereabouts of all 4 of his surviving siblings on page 3. I had no idea that his mother and sister Dewia were ever in Nebraska.

Great Uncle Henry
There are numerous, historical, online newspaper articles about Henry testifying before congress. Very recently, I found a Washington DC directory giving Henry a residency there, too, but I assumed it was just a fluke of his being in town when the directory was prepared. But the one brief mention in this letter makes it clear that Henry actually did live in DC.

Grandfather Ben
This is the real treasure for me: proven connection between Ben and his father's death. It appeared from Charles' obituary that Ben had not attended the funeral and I had wondered it there had been a falling out. But with Andrew's letter, I think that while Ben couldn't easily get from McGill, Nevada to Chase County, Kansas, he did participate by assuming the responsibility of paying for it, which was probably a significant expense for a 26-year-old who worked for the Steptoe Valley Smelting & Mining Company.

Page 1 Page 2
Page 3

Conclusion
I think this letter is significant enough to include all of it here, especially for Andrew's descendants. And, I'll go back to my To-File pile....

Andrew's Line of Descent
Carl Benjamin Hegwer = Maria Rosina Ilgner
Ernest Gothelf Hegwer = Maria Charlotte Frey
Andrew William Hegwer = Lula Hoffman

Great-Great Grandparents CAUSIER & 7 missing children

This photo was one of the first CAUSIER items that I found online: it’s posted in numerous places now by several family members. I first found it at Genealogy Cousin Kathy’s website. It shows great-great-grandparents Charles CAUSIER, Catherine (HUGHES), and four children: Manwella, Ann Matilda, Charles, and Martha.

Here is the young family in the 1861 census at 70 Chapel Street in Dist. 29, Sedgley, Staffordshire, England:
In 1871, they are at Half Acres in District 9, Castleford, Yorkshire, England:
By 1881, they have moved a bit to 85 Richard Row, Whitwood, Yorkshire
It was fairly easy to find additional info on the four children, which I'll only summarize here:
Manwella (1859-1937), married Enoch Field
Ann (1861-1940), married John Henry Carr
Charles (1874-1961), married Elizabeth
Martha (1876-1937), married David Slater

The 13 years between the births of Ann and Charles bothered me. Having read several basic genealogy books by then, I knew that such gaps should raise questions. I even went so far as to wonder if the last two were actually grandchildren or were otherwise not birth children of Charles and Catherine.

But then I found Charles and Catherine in both the 1900

and 1910 census
In both of these US census records, they are at 188 Williams St. in the 17th ward of Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Both images show entries with Catherine having 4 living children but having had 11 children! I was missing seven children!

Since I already had found the family in every possible England census, it probably meant that the seven had died very young and missed census listings. But it really bothered me not to know their names. Since finding they existed, I have been on the lookout for the missing children.

A reference from Genealogy Cousin Judy first showed me that the family had been non-conformist. (I now know that in that time period in Yorkshire non-conformists were common.) Judy’s reference led me to FHL# 1,657,057, which is primarily baptism registers for several Methodist chapels or circuits in Yorkshire. It wasn’t too hard to find three entries (Item 3, Primitive Methodist Baptism Register, Castleford Bradley Street, 1862-1880, pp. 12, 28, & 37 respectively) for children of Charles & Catherine Causier, living in Castleford with Charles’ occupation as a labourer:

Charles (#1), born 24 Dec 1867, baptized 19 Jan 1868
Sarah, born 1 Aug 1871, baptized 27 Aug 1871
Lydia, born 30 Dec 1872, baptized 2 Mar 1873

Now, my list of the children of Charles & Catherine CAUSIER is:
Manwella, born 1859
Ann, born 1861
Missing child 1863?
Missing child 1865?
Missing child 1866?
Charles (#1), born 24 Dec 1867
Missing child 1869?
Sarah, born 1 Aug 1871
Lydia, born 30 Dec 1872
Charles (#2), born 1874
Martha, born 1876

Of course, the possible dates that I’ve listed for the missing children are merely guesses. Catherine would have been about 40 in 1878, so there could even be one that late. [Writing this blog entry also shows me that I am missing real sources for most of Charles & Catherine and for all 3 of the girls in the photo, too! I have to see if the Primitive Methodists kept burial records…. This family group sheet is not in anywhere as good a shape as I thought it was… ]

So, this blog entry is not complete. It is important to me to remember all 11 of Charles and Catherine’s children. At least now I only have 4 missing children. I will keep looking for them and I hope to have good news here one day!

IMAGES All census excerpts are from ancestry.com images

2010 Genealogy Resolutions

I have never ever made written resolutions before, so this is really an experiment! Many of these are dreams, but perhaps I can get a bit closer to achieving them if I write them down.... In no particular order:

1. Find the missing CAUSIER-HUGHES children

2. Find the parents of the Lucy WAIT who married Asahel DAVISON circa 1792 , possibly Connecticut, Massachusetts, or Vermont

3. Research land and probate records in Knox County, Ohio for info on & verification of the SHAW & MILLER lines that lead to the Isabel SHAW who married John RICHARDSON in Morgan County, Missouri in 1849

4. Attend the reunion of descendants of Amos RICHARDSON in Morgan County, Missouri in June, 2010

5. Go to Salt Lake City for research in the Family History Library

6. Write/phone the Del Norte Cemetery in Rio Grande County, Colorado to see who is buried in the plot for which I have a bill of sale / deed to Charles HEGWER

7. Find the John NORRIS/Morris? of Staten Island or Stratford CT? who has a daughter Hannah who married Ashbel PORTER in North Branford, Connecticut in 1762

8. Arrange for a headstone at the unmarked grave of Celim PORTER [10 May 1913 - 18 Jun 1913] at Cavalry Cemetery in Los Angeles. Celim was the son of L Willis PORTER and his first wife, Josephine Slater, who died barely a month after her only child and is buried about 20 yards away.

9. Work on the TO DO piles of research to input or analyze. If I can't eliminate the piles, I'd be happy if it's down to just one pile!

10. Get all my cemetery photos into findagrave.com

11. Visit at least 2 local genealogy libraries that I have never been to: Pomona Public Library, Carlsbad Public Library, Biola University, CSU Fullerton, and Claremont University

12. Investigate the HEGWERs who died in San Bernardino County; go out there and see death certificates?

Well, well ... an even dozen ... it looks like I'll have a busy year!

May you have a GREAT year and may your greatest genealogy problem be solved in 2010!

PS: Whoops! I forgot to say that I resolve to have made at least 20 new blogs in 2010! One down, 19 to go!