I\u2019ve been researching my Duer line lately with the idea that I\u2019ll write a Kinship Determination from where my line begins, with Maria Duer, my great great grandmother, to my gateway ancestor, Thomas Stone Duer.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve blogged previously about the serendipitous events and detailed how history repeats itself (see Circular Migration Patterns-How History RepeatsItself,<\/a> 30 May 2015).\u00a0After discovering the connection, I\u2019ve become more determined to learn about the Duer Family.<\/p>\n Maria left some wonderful records, however, they initially led me to a wrong conclusion.\u00a0 Years ago, I had found her obituary through the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center Obituary Index[1]<\/a> but I couldn\u2019t decipher it as it was in German and used Gothic script.\u00a0 Her daughter Emma\u2019s death certificate stated Maria was born in Germany.[2]<\/a> \u00a0The obit and the daughter\u2019s death certificate led me to believe that Maria was of German descent.\u00a0 By just looking at the surface, those two records reinforced what I already knew about my father\u2019s long line of German ancestry; I had Leininger, Bollenbacher, Kuhn, Kable, and Kettering surnames sprinkled everywhere in my tree and all of them were German immigrants.\u00a0 No surprise that Maria Duer would have also been German.\u00a0 How wrong I was!<\/p>\n Maria was born in Mahoning, Ohio on 2 September 1833.[3]<\/a>\u00a0 Adam Kuhn, Maria\u2019s son with whom she resided at the time of her death and who was the neighbor of his sister, Emma, had served as Emma\u2019s death certificate informant.\u00a0 It is understandable that Adam most likely identified himself with his father Henry Kuhn\u2019s German heritage.\u00a0 German born Henry Kuhn was a prosperous citizen in Mercer County, Ohio and maintained a close connection with others who had immigrated from Germany.\u00a0 Henry and Maria had been married for 55 years so she, too, would have been known in the German community so her obituary in a German newspaper makes sense.\u00a0 After having the obituary translated, I learned that it never stated she was German but it did mention her German born husband.\u00a0 Daughter Emma died at age 50 after suffering long term physical abuse from her ex-husband of 25 years.\u00a0 Adam likely recalled his father\u2019s birth place instead of his mother\u2019s when he provided Emma\u2019s death certificate information.\u00a0 In grief, he probably just made an error.<\/p>\n Census records, a second obituary in English, and a mug sheet entry all confirm Maria was born in Ohio and connect her to her parents, John and Mary Jane (Morrison) Duer.\u00a0 Maria Duer was once a brickwall ancestor but no longer!\u00a0 What a great lesson in making sure a reasonably exhaustive search was performed AND analysis of all the found records was done.<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> \u201cMaria Duer Kuhn,\u201d obituary, Die Minter<\/em> [Ohio] Post<\/em>, 1 August 1913, page 1, col. 3.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Ohio, Bureau of Vital Statistics, death certificate, \u201cEmma Landfair,\u201d number 12296 (stamped, 21 February 1914.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> 1850 U.S. census, Killbuck, Holmes County, Ohio, population schedule, page 245 (handwritten) dwelling 557, family 572, Maria Duer; digital image, Ancestry.com<\/em> (http:\/\/www.ancestry.com<\/a>:\u00a0 accessed 16 October 2016); citing NARA microfilm publications M432_696.<\/p>\n 1860 U.S. census, Liberty, Mercer County, Ohio, population schedule, page 141 (handwritten), dwelling 1008, family 1013, Henry and Maria Coon Jr.; Ancestry.com<\/em> (http:\/\/www.ancestry.com<\/a>:\u00a0 accessed 16 October 2016); citing NARA microfilm publications M653_1009.<\/p>\n 1870 U.S. census, Liberty, Mercer County, Ohio, population schedule, page 15 (handwritten) dwelling 55, family 58, Maria Kuhn; digital image, Ancestry.com<\/em> (http:\/\/www.ancestry.com<\/a>:\u00a0 accessed 16 October 2016); citing NARA microfilm publications M593.<\/p>\n 1880 U.S. census, Liberty, Mercer County, Ohio, population schedule, page 7 (handwritten) dwelling 55, family 58, Maria Kuhn; Ancestry.com<\/em> (http:\/\/www.ancestry.com<\/a>:\u00a0 accessed 16 October 2016); citing FHL microfilm 1255048; citing NARA microfilm publications T9_1048.<\/p>\n 1900 U.S. census, Liberty, Mercer, Ohio, population schedule, sheet 9 (handwritten) dwelling141, family176, Meriah Kuhn; digital image, Ancestry.com<\/em> (http:\/\/www.ancestry.com<\/a>:\u00a0 accessed 16 October 2016); citing NARA with no further information provided.<\/p>\n 1910 U.S. census, Liberty, Mercer County, Ohio, population schedule, sheet 9 (handwritten) dwelling 320, family 278, Miria Kuhn; digital image Ancestry.com<\/em> (http:\/\/www.ancestry.com<\/a>:\u00a0 accessed 16 October 2016); citing NARA microfilm publication T624_1214.<\/p>\n Ohio, Department of Health Division of Vital Statistics, death certificate, \u201cMaria Kuhn,\u201d state file number 41826, 22 July 1913.<\/p>\n \u201cMarie Kuhn,\u201d The Grim Reaper, The Celina<\/em> [Ohio] Democrat<\/em>, 25 July 1913, page 1, col. 4.<\/p>\n Compilers, A Portrait and Biographical Record of Mercer and Van Wert Counties, Ohio<\/em> (Chicago,IL:\u00a0 A. W. Bowen & Co., 1896) 400-401; digital image, Google Books<\/em> (https:\/\/books.google.com<\/a>:\u00a0 accessed 16 October 2016).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019ve been researching my Duer line lately with the idea that I\u2019ll write a Kinship Determination from where my line begins, with Maria Duer, my great great grandmother, to my gateway ancestor, Thomas Stone Duer. I\u2019ve blogged previously about the serendipitous events and detailed how history repeats itself (see Circular Migration Patterns-How History RepeatsItself, 30 … Continue reading “Records Breadcrumb Trail May Lead to Wrong Conclusions”<\/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":[17],"tags":[82,141,143,144],"class_list":["post-468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brick-walls","tag-duer","tag-kuhn","tag-mercer","tag-ohio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468","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=468"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":469,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions\/469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}