Day: April 13, 2008

Genealogy

Christian and Henriette

Shelly

I mentioned that I had found the names of Henry Meineke’s parents in the 1925 Iowa census, and that I was almost certain I’d found the same family in the 1870 US census, living in Illinois. Well, I later found that the Auguste on the 1870 census was a daughter, not a son, as I’d assumed. She married ended up in Iowa. I know this, because I stumbled across Auguste in the 1925 Iowa census, married to a man named Henry Sheppelman. She was born in Illinois, and her parents were Christ Meinicke and Henrietta Liddke.

At that point, I was convinced that the folks in the 1870 US census belonged to Henry. Now, the question was to find their emigration information. When did they come over? According to the 1900 census, they (or Henry, at least) emigrated in 1871, which would make it impossible for them to be listed in the 1870 US census.

I did some more digging, and was about to give up, because I just wasn’t finding anything at all close to what I needed. But, then, I thought I’d go check the LDS website. The information there is limited, but their genealogical index sometimes has little nuggets that aren’t available elsewhere.

I turned up a record for an Auguste Dorothee Christine Meinecke (b. 3 December 1867 in Lebenstedt). Her parents were Johann Georg Christian Meinecke (b. 14 August 1813 in Lebenstedt) and Sophie Henriette Elisabeth Lueddecke (b. 16 December 1826 in Lichtenberg). Aha! Not only is it more confirmation that I’m on the right track, but it provides a few more useful clues.

With the proper (or at least an alternate) spelling of Henriette’s last name and more options for first names for both her and Christian, I was finally able to find an abstract of the emigration record for the family. It’s sparse, but they did indeed come over in 1869, as I’d suspected. The record also lists complete names for everyone in the family, including three more children and an unnamed stepchild.

I still can’t find any further information on Christian and Henriette, aside from the immigration record, the 1870 census, and the LDS record. In addition to that, for Henriette, I found her in the 1900 US census, widowed and living with Auguste and Henry Sheppelman.

Photography

Avon

Shelly

IMG_0786

I got these in a box of junk at a yard sale. I think all of them still have old cream perfume in them. They’re in pretty bad shape, but I kept them because I thought I might use them in an art project. So far, all they’ve done is sit in a drawer. I came across them this afternoon and thought, at the very least, I ought to take a photo of them.