{"id":1570,"date":"2021-02-20T18:48:13","date_gmt":"2021-02-20T18:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/?p=1570"},"modified":"2023-02-18T16:47:38","modified_gmt":"2023-02-18T16:47:38","slug":"researching-step-sibs-unveils-a-treasure-trove","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/?p=1570","title":{"rendered":"Researching Step Sibs Unveils a Treasure Trove"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Photo courtesy of Tut on Find-a-Grave<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A few blogs ago I mentioned I needed to check out the\nsibling and step siblings of Margaret Ann Martz Searight Duer to try to\ndiscover why she relocated from Hardin, Ohio to Adams, Indiana.  I guessed that she had met my John Duer in\nAdams as he was a property owner in the same area as Margaret.  Turns out, there was much more involvement\nthan I thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since Margaret was the second wife of John, I had never\nresearched her family since they are not related to me, or so it seemed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Online trees showed Margaret was born to the first wife, Margarethae Himmelsbach, of George Peter Martz in Germany.\u00a0 I have found a baptismal record for another child of the couple, Catharina, born 17 September 1830 in Rheinzabern, Pfalz, Bayern.\u00a0 The child and the mother must have died shortly after as George married Elizabeth Goetz Martz, the wife of his deceased brother, John.\u00a0 The second union produced eight children.\u00a0 I never found a birth record for Margaret and determined her birthdate from her tombstone shown on Find-a-Grave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Margaret and her first husband, George Washington\nSearight, \u201cfather\u201d George and \u201cstep-mother\u201d Elizabeth lived in Hardin, Ohio in\n1850.  By 1860, some of the children were\nstill residing with George and Elizabeth who had moved to Mercer County,\nOhio.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interesting, I thought! \nPerhaps John hadn\u2019t met Margaret in Adams, Indiana but instead, in\nMercer where he was found living with his first wife, Jane, in 1860.  Actually, they are 3 pages away in the census\nfrom where John and Jane lived.  Also\nliving nearby, just two residences away, was daughter Maria Duer who had\nmarried Henry Kuhn, also an emigrant from Germany.  Perhaps John and Margaret met at a community\nevent as Henry Kuhn was a leader of the German settlers in Mercer County. His\nwife, Maria, who was not German, even has an obituary in the German newsper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knowing that Margaret had family in Mercer helped me better\nunderstand why she was buried there and not in Indiana.  I still had no answer as to why Margaret\npurchased property in Indiana so I took the time to learn about her step\nsiblings, thinking that perhaps, they lived in Adams County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I decided to start with \u201cstep sister,\u201d Hannah Lucinda and\nwhat a surprise I found!  Hannah died in\nMissouri before 1880 when the census shows her husband, Abraham Orr, residing\nwith his brother, Thomas.  I was\ninterested in learning more about Abraham because he was a property owner at\none time in Trumbull County, Ohio, where my John Duer was born and where he\nfirst married.  In researching Abraham I\ndiscovered his mother was Anna Duer, sister to my John Duer.  Who knew these families were interrelated! It\ngets even better \u2013 After Hannah Lucinda died, her youngest children, Mary and\nPhillip Orr, are found living in the household of Phillip Martz, \u201cstep-brother\u201d\nof Margaret in (drum roll, please) Mercer, Ohio.  So the Duers and Martz\u2019s were connected prior\nto John\u2019s marriage to Margaret.  No\ntelling when or where they first met!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hit pay dirt when I got to \u201cstep-brother,\u201d Eli Martz.\u00a0 He had a bio in amugbook from Mercer County, Ohio<\/a> that, although not 100% accurate, provided me with background information about Margaret and her family.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought it strange that Eli has two entries and the information is slightly different.\u00a0 The first, names him Eli Martz, \u201cthe son of George P. and Elizabeth (Goetz) Martz.\u201d P. 429.\u00a0 I read this entry first.\u00a0 When I finished the article I noticed the next article was for an Elisha Martz.\u00a0 Hmm, who could he be?\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elisha Martz was the \u201cson of G. Peter and Elizabeth (Goetz) Martz.\u201d p. 430. Yes, George P. is the same man as G. Peter.\u00a0 Elizabeth Goetz Martz is the same mama.\u00a0 At the very end of Elisha\u2019s article the confusion is cleared \u2013 Eli and Elisha are brothers.\u00a0 Why the parents would have named them so similarly I have no idea.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their stories have a few discrepancies which makes this very\ninteresting!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both stories state Margaret emigrated with her STEP-father\nand 3 of her step-brothers to Frederick Town, Maryland about 1830.  All of the online trees have Margaret\u2019s\nfather\u2019s name wrong \u2013 it was not George Peter but George\u2019s brother, John\nMartz.  George Peter was Margaret\u2019s uncle\nwho raised her after his brother died and George married the widow.  That explains why no record for Margaret\u2019s\nbirth has been found!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Eli\u2019s article, the family arrived in 1830, however, the twins, Phillip and Caleb, were born in 1831 in Germany so that is not correct. Elisha\u2019s article states they arrived in 1833.\u00a0 That makes sense and would explain the longer than usual lapse in children’s births.\u00a0 The couple seemed to have children annually in Germany but there is a longer gap between the twins (1831) and Eli in 1834.\u00a0 Having twins and moving to start a new life in a new country would definitely have put a damper on having another child at the original rate.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Margaret\u2019s uncle was a shoemaker but decided he wanted to try farming so he relocated to Sandusky, Ohio after 3 years in Maryland, according to Eli, or 18 months, according to Elisha.\u00a0 Really, what\u2019s a year and a half?!. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quickly deciding raising corn wasn\u2019t for him, they packed up\nwith the intent to return to Maryland. \nOn their journey they stopped at Wayne County, Ohio where they decided\nto stay for 14 years, per Eli, or until 1848, per Elisha.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

George bought land in the then wilds of Mercer County, Ohio but on the way in 1847 (Eli) or 1848 (Elisha), the family decided to stop in Hardin County, where they were found in the 1850 census.\u00a0 Both agree in 1852, the family made their way to Mercer.\u00a0 After his second wife died in 1876, says Eli, George relocated to Illinois where he died \u201cabout 1882.\u201d\u00a0 Elisha says George relocated to Illinois in 1864. He doesn\u2019t say when George died. He does gush about what a great dad George was; Eli says nothing.\u00a0 Hmmm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This leads me to a big WHAT?  So, sons Eli\/Elisha did not keep in close contact with Pop, as the year discrepancy is rather large of when George left Ohio not to mention they don\u2019t know when their dad died.  Seems like this is a trend with the Duer siblings too, who never told their children their mother Jane\u2019s name.  What is going on with these folks?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since George’s wife, Elizabeth, was found living with Eli in 1870 and George is not found in any record after 1860, I’m thinking that both Eli and Elisha were somewhat accurate about George’s whereabouts. Eli would have known when his dad left the area because mom was in his household. Elisha might have remembered when his parents split households, probably in 1864. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mug book names George\u2019s 9 children, the eldest, being Margaret, \u201cthe widow of John Doer, who resides in Adams, county, Ind.\u201d p. 429 or \u201cMargaret, the widow of John Deuer, of Jay County, Indiana.\u201d p. 430. \u00a0Yes, she was the widow but John wasn\u2019t from Jay County \u00a0and I love the spelling of John\u2019s last name! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The point, though, is I would have never located this had I\nnot searched for more information on Margaret\u2019s step siblings.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book goes on to note where every sibling resided and the only step-brother\/cousin of Margaret that lived in Indiana was \u00a0Phillip.\u00a0 However, he lived in Salem which is in southern Indiana, Adams is in northeast so Margaret clearly didn\u2019t relocate to Adams because of Phillip\u2019s move to that state. I\u2019m thinking Margaret moved to Adams to be near John and away from ex wife Jane who most likely remained in Mercer.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now I\u2019m intrigued as to why Uncle George (geez, I DO NOT need another Uncle George in the family) went to Illinois at an advanced age.  None of his children were residing there between 1864-1876. Supposedly, youngest daughter Hannah Lucinda died in Illinois per an online family tree but there is no citation. Her spouse was listed as a widow in Iowa in 1880 so possibly she died on the way to relocating west. Whether she stopped to visit her dad on the way, I don’t know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

George didn\u2019t appear to keep in touch with any of his children as no one seems to know what became of him. The year of 1864 is interesting to me as that was likely when John and Margaret married.\u00a0 The Civil War wasn\u2019t over yet.\u00a0 Maybe there was just too much drama for a man up in age and he decided to leave his wife for a new start.\u00a0 I say that because Elisha mentions that George\u2019s wife died in Mercer.\u00a0 Eli\/Elisha both agree it was in 1876.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mysteries may continue, however, the beauty of the information in the mug book is priceless.  What a wonderful example of why it\u2019s important to research the relatives, no matter how distant they may at first appear to be!  My tree is becoming gnarled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few blogs ago I mentioned I needed to check out the sibling and step siblings of Margaret Ann Martz Searight Duer to try to discover why she relocated from Hardin, Ohio to Adams, Indiana.  I guessed that she had met my John Duer in Adams as he was a property owner in the same … Continue reading “Researching Step Sibs Unveils a Treasure Trove”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[914,924,119,900,923],"class_list":["post-1570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-relationships","tag-adams-county","tag-hardin","tag-indiana","tag-john-duer","tag-margaret-martz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1570"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1581,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1570\/revisions\/1581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}