German Language Class - Learning more than words!

Guten Tag!

So, last month, I signed up for a German language class with the intention of learning some German to help with reading genealogical records and for another potential future visit to Germany.  After I met our instructor, a German-born retired teacher in his 70s (who couldn't quite give up his teaching, as evidenced by this class!), and explained why I was taking the class, he was interested in hearing about my German ancestors.  Excellent!

First, I asked about the term "Pfründnerin" that was listed as the occupation of my 3x great grandmother Maria Margaretha Bauer at her death.  He did a little research and found that these were people who lived in a Pfründenhaus, a church-run home for the elderly and invalids.  They also took in widows and orphans, often as workers, and at the time, Maria was a widow.

After that first success, I told him about the Harburg bible and brought printouts of some of the bible pages as well as the loose papers from the bible to class:

Loose Papers from the Harburg Bible

I also sent him the link to the German bible page on my web site so he could see some more of the bible itself.  My teacher said this of the bible:  

It is an original full Luther-Bible, which came out for the first time in 1534, printed by Hans Lufft of Wittenberg. He reprinted it several times afterwards until 1584, selling something like 100,000 copies within these 50 years, a truly astronomical figure for those times. 

 That agrees with much of what the folks at the Smithsonian had to say as well.  :)

 

Ancestry Connections

I may have just found some 7th and 8th cousins out on Ancestry.com via my 7x great-grandparents, Johann David Steinbrenner and Anna Maria Breunig.  That is, if I did the family math right - I've never tried that distance before!  Assuming that the tree owners on Ancestry.com are the home people in their respective trees*, then I may have found an 8th cousin and a 7th cousin once removed. 

My friend Shannon sent me a relationship chart to help work out the connections; I also found a different chart which gives a cool mathematical formula and has one more row & column!

* Which is an assumption - I just spent a good bit of time moving a lot of my cousins' family into a separate tree, with their father, my aunt's husband, as the home person, since I found a lot on his relations and have had several contacts with cousins of my cousins who aren't my cousins.

German for Travelers

I've just signed up for a 10 week "German for Travelers" class through the Adult Education program at one of the local high schools that starts next week. Here's to step 1 on the path to learning more about my German ancestors!

The Harburg Bible

Yesterday was an awesome day out visiting the National Archives, both as researcher and as tourist, and meeting with experts at the Smithsonian to learn about conservation/preservation of the family bible I recently acquired.  This bible was sent to my great grandmother Marie Bierdümpfel Jurgens from Germany after she had migrated to America.

German Bible from 1575

More images of the bible can be found at http://www.jordanclan.org/family_tree/Research/bible.html

The short answer - find a local book conservator (http://www.conservation-us.org/) and commission them to build a box specifically to store the book. For this particular book, given that it appears to still be in its original binding and in good shape for its age, I was advised not to try to get it restored, but to protect it as is. Although several pages at the front and back have had attempts at repair in the past, at this point those attempts are also historical. History within history! :)

Reviewing Family Documents and Heirlooms

More genealogy wonders - I have been looking through the treasure trove of documents and pictures provided by my aunt (my mother's sister) on Saturday, which includes my great-grandfather William Jurgen's US naturalization certificate and Masonic tie pins and clips, and a necklace pendant of my great-grandmother Marie Bierdümpfel's family (supposed) arms. 

Pendant of Bierdümpfel Arms

More details on the crest can be found at http://jordanclan.org/family_tree/Research/bierdumpfel_crest.html

Names written on the backs of pictures confirm info I discovered online, which means I made good guesses!  Whether the Johann von Bierdümpfel who earned these arms has any relation to my Bierdümpfel family is another question, however.  My great-grandmother had these pendants made for her two children, my grandfather and great aunt, so they are not long-time family heirlooms.

And now that I have my great-grandfather's naturalization certificate, I can request the rest of his papers using the naturalization date and the name they were filed under: Heinrich William Otto Jurgens.  The requests for William Jurgens have not yielded results - now I think I know why.  :)

Trip to the NJ Archives

I spent a couple of days this week doing research at the New Jersey State Archives. This was my first on-site trip to any kind of archives, but I had a buddy to meet up with who has been down this road before, so that helped. My preparations were good - I completed orientation and received my official researcher card, and then it was on to the microfilm. It's been years since I've used I microfilm reader, but apparently it's like riding a bike. :)

I made awesome discoveries on my first day - 10 birth, marriage, and death records! These included my father's mother as well as both paternal and maternal aunts and uncles (my grandfather was born in NY, but most of his younger siblings were born in NJ).

Then I took a couple of days to spend with family and review what I had found to make plans for round two. My second day's find at the archives - Dad's Irish grandfather, James Carroll, was a railroad engineer! Yeah, that explains a lot...like the basement filled with model trains growing up!  Now, of course, he needs to find out which railroad - maybe his favorite Erie Lackawanna line will be replaced with a family affiliated one.  :)

My father never knew his grandfather - Dad's own mother died when he was 9, and her father died at the age of 33.  So Dad never even knew his name before.  It was great to be able to tell my father about his grandfather, and make a family connection to the trains he's been fascinated by his whole life. 

Family History in Bergen County, New Jersey

My parents and I spent today roaming around Bergen County, New Jersey in search of my father's family's past.  

East Ridgelawn Cemetery
The first goal for the day was to find the grave of my father's grandparents, Frank and Ellen Jordan, from information in a cemetery plot deed:

Cemetery Deed for Frank and Ellen Jordan

List of Interments on Deed

So we traveled to East Ridgelawn Cemetery in Delawanna (Clifton), NJ.  Using the plot designation from the deed (Section 21, Lot 838, Grave #1), we looked for signs marking section 21.  Then came the hard part - wandering around section 21 looking for Jordans!

There are four parts to section 21 at East Ridgelawn. After about an hour of wandering, I finally found the grave half buried in dirt, making the Jordan last names difficult to see, in section 21 South End.  Using the snow brush from the car and water from our water bottles, Mom and I were able to clear the grave marker of dirt:

Grave Marker for Frank and Ellen Jordan

Goal 1 success!

Rutherford
After visiting the cemetery, Dad took us on a tour of his hometown of Rutherford, where we first stopped to take pictures of his sister Jeanne's old house on Riverside Avenue.

Bud and Jeanne Winand's House - 467 Riverside Avenue

From there, we drove by 145 Springfield Avenue where Dad lived for 12 years growing up.

Jordan Residence - 145 Springfield Avenue

Then we proceeded to St. John's Lutheran Church.  It is said that Ellen Jordan was one of the founders of this church and there was supposed to be a plaque commemorating that event in the church, though we couldn't find one.

St. John's Lutheran Church

Then we headed over to 374 Feronia Way where the Jordans lived after Springfield Avenue.

Jordan Residence - 374 Feronia Way

George Washington Memorial Park
The next cemetery on the list was George Washington Memorial Park, where a number of relatives were buried, including my father's older sister and her husband.  Since we did not have any deeds for this cemetery, and the office was open on Sunday, we stopped in and asked about our relatives this time.  :)  The staff kindly provided us with section numbers and a map!

Map of George Washington Memorial Park

Unlike all the various styles of headstones in East Ridgelawn, GW Memorial Park has a single, uniform grave marker used for all interments.  My father's sister and husband's marker (Bud and Jeanne Winand) was right next to that of his aunt and uncle (Charlie and Dot Richardson), in Section L 18A, D 3 and D 4.  After more cleaning and weeding by me and my mother, we were able to read the markers:

Grave Marker for Richard "Bud" and Jeanne (Jordan) Winand

Grave Marker for Charlie and Dot (Jordan) Richardson

Based on additional markings on the grave, it looks like Uncle Charlie was a Mason, and Aunt Flo was an Eastern Star! 

The other relatives buried here were my father's uncle Albin and his wife Betty.  They were buried across the road in Section T 30, A 4:

Grave Marker for Albin and Betty (Burkhardt) Jordan

You may notice that this marker has fresh flowers on it.  This is because on this cemetery visit, we did not just find deceased relatives, but living ones, too!  One of my father's cousins, a son of Albin and Betty, was there with his wife at the same time we were, visiting his parents' grave.  Now THAT is an impressive cemetery find!  :)

We had hoped to visit a few more cemeteries, but it was getting dark, so that will have to wait until another day. All in all, a good start for family history and cemetery visits!