And Siems Has Been Found

One day a few months ago, I was on my tree on Ancestry and saw a little leaf (hint) on John C. Siems. Siems is my direct paternal line, and John C. is the most distant ancestor I had found to date.

Siems was, of course, an early focus of mine when I started up researching about 9 years ago, being my direct paternal line. First census gatherings were easy, as were "recent" (1910s/1920s) death certificates. I quickly found John C., who immigrated to Saginaw from Mecklenburg. The C. is very important, as my line goes John C. -> John E. -> John L. -> John W.! This is better than my 6 Robert Grays in a row, at least. I'm still not sure what the E. stands for, but as we see below I have finally discovered the C.!

Collecting information about John C. proved more difficult than initially finding his name. Once I realized it was spelled Seams in 1870 and 1880 census records, I finally found the family in Bridgeport, Saginaw County. With manually scrolling through a poorly-transcribed and written 1860 census, I finally found the family living in East Saginaw in the 1860 census. I also found them, spelled Seams again, in the Oak Grove cemetery. Birth years for both him and his wife Mary were way off, but day and month were spot on. They were buried near their two children who did not survive to adulthood: Minnie and Friederich.






Here the trail ended for a while, until I found East Saginaw Lutheran records transcribed online. I was able to get a marriage record for John and Mary:

#18 SIRUS, Johann. 28 years. Lutheran. Worked by the day.  Maria EGGERD. 27 years. Married, September 4, 1857. East Saginaw.



As per usual, trying to search for the name Siems is practically impossible. It is always transcribed wrong. I've mentioned the Eggerts briefly before, but Mary came to Saginaw with her father and several siblings, arriving at New York in July of 1857. Less than two months later, she was married to John. I always wondered if they had met over in Mecklenburg, or if they really just decided to get married in such a short time since they were both newly arrived from the same country.

Back to my hint. It was in the record collection Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1519-1969. Johann Jochen Christian Siemss was born 30 Apr 1829 and baptized 1 May 1829. While a year off from his death certificate which gave a birth of 1 May 1828, it's not totally uncommon for mismatched birth dates in my experience in other records. And 1 May, while not his technical birth, was in a way being his baptism. But the birth location - Eickhoff!

I couldn't believe it. Eickhoff! This is the village that the Eggert family immigrated from. Where Mary came from and quickly married John in Saginaw. Where her father, who lived with the family in 1860, set off from to the new world. Off by a year, which I've encountered before, 1 May, John C. Siems/Johann Jochen Christian Siemss, Eickhoff - I can't ignore such coincidences!

Next was to see if I could trace this German Johann Siemss to where he ended up. I never had found a match to my John C. in ship records. But this time I checked a new record collection - Hamburg Passenger Lists, 1850-1934. I found a J. Siemess who departed Hamburg, alone, on 1 Apr 1857. He was a resident of Eickhoff and age 25, which gives an approximate birth year of 1832. A few years off, but I've seen a lot of poor ages on such records so it doesn't exclude him. And it's not like Eickhoff was crawling with young men named J. Siemss! I then pulled up the arrival record from New York for the ship named Humboldt. It arrived 12 May. The image is in poor shape, but I matched up some of the names with the Hamburg departure and think I found my guy. Of course, "Johann Schmidt Sr." in the transcription did not make this possible before!

Looking on FamilySearch instead of Ancestry gave me a much clearer image. There is a rip across the last name, but it looks like a Johann Siems age 28, which matched the 1829 birth record. He arrived with one case.

I do believe given the Eickhoff connection that this is my John C. He left Eickhoff in April of 1857, arrived on 12 May to New York, then made his way to Saginaw. Here he prepared for his family, who arrived a few months later. Soon after his bride-to-be arrived, they married at the local Lutheran church and began their new life in the U.S.

And now we move from John C. and Mary Siems of Bridgeport to:

Johann Jochen Christian "John" Siems, born 30 Apr 1829 in Eickhoff, Mecklenburg-Schwerin to Christian Jochen Friederich Siemss and Friederica Elisabeth Charlotte Frese. He immigrated to the U.S. on 1 Apr 1857 and later that year married Maria Carolina Charlotta "Mary" Eggert on 4 Sep in East Saginaw, Michigan at St. John Lutheran Church. Maria was born 6 Jan 1826, the daughter of Christian Eggert, who immigrated with her, and Margaretha Sophia Christina Reichmann and was born in Rosenow, baptized in Witzen, and later moved to Eickhoff with her family. She had several younger siblings born in Eickhoff, and there her mother died. John C.'s grandparents included Jochen Siemss and Margaretha D. Brüsch, and Johann Frese. Mary's grandparents were Johann Heinrich Eggert and Margaret, and Johann Friederich Reichmann and Maria Sophia Grewols.

I only wish this had happened before my grandfather passed, so I could share the information with him. He would have loved it.

I Found You, Thaddeus!

I've decided to revive the genealogy blog with some exciting news - I found my Thaddeus!

I my previous post about Thaddeus, I gave an outline based mostly on work by fellow researcher and distant cousin Daryl Althaver. In the time since, I hadn't really gotten anywhere. At all. I revisited it often, but only really found a few new pieces of information:

1. In Obediah Deland's probate papers, Thaddeus and wife Lucy were mentioned. Daniel T. Lewis, who lived next to the Martins in the 1850 census, was petitioning as he bought the land they resided on from Deland, and a share of the purchase price was to go to the Martins. As mentioned before, Obediah was made legal agent in Thaddeus' bounty land papers, and his children at various times lived with either Obediah or his brother Hall.
2. Obediah's wife was Ruby Butterworth. One of the possible surnames for Lucy is Butterworth, based on the widow's declaration for bounty land.
3. Hall's wife was Laura Goodrich. One of the possible surnames for Lucy is Goodridge.

To anyone suffering with such a brick wall - don't despair! It may take four (or forty!) years, but something may come along. For me - it was in the form of an Ancestry hint.

Maybe a month or so ago, I received a hint on Thaddeus in U.S., Presbyterian Church Records, 1701-1970. I'm not sure exactly when the collection was added or exactly when I received the hint, but it was for a Thaddeus Martin born in New York in 1789. Diving in, he was specifically born 25 January 1789 and baptized in 1798 along with two siblings in Augusta, New York. An additional three siblings came along to the family in following years.

Where is Augusta? It is a town in Oneida County and, as it happens, only 12 miles east of Smithfield where Thaddeus and Lucy wed. They also married in a Presbyterian Church.

Looking further, I saw some mentions of Augusta parishioners transferring to the Smithfield congregation, which was new. 

I couldn't find what happened to his parents, but I followed all but one of his siblings along (Gilbert eluded me).

• Sylvia married David W. Smith and died in 1838. She is buried near Augusta.
• Aurelia married Eliot Hurd of Augusta and died in 1844. She is buried in Augusta.
• Marinda married Elias Peabody in Huron Co., Ohio (now Lorain Co.). I'm not sure how she ended up in Ohio. She died in 1877 and is buried there.
• Minerva married Robert C. Durkee of Augusta and died in 1858. She lived in Augusta in the 1850 and 1855 censuses and is buried there.

Except for Minerva, I had no indication that the Martin family ever left Augusta, but I found no real records of Thaddeus, Gilbert, or the parents after their early 1800s entry in the church book. The membership list indicated William and Experience were removed by letter (i.e., transferred to another church) in 1809, but by all accounts the family seemed to stay in Augusta.

Until I decided to reread Thaddeus' bounty land application materials, which indicate he was drafted into the military at Livonia, NY.

Livonia is over in the Finger Lakes region in Livingston County (then Ontario Co.). Looking at the 1810 census, there was indeed a William Martin living in Livonia. However, there was no child Gilbert's age nor a wife-aged woman.

But, we see his neighbor is David W. Smith, which is the name of Sylvia's husband. Based on ages, it could be Experience and Gilbert had died, and Sylvia was living next door with her husband while Thaddeus, Aurelia, Marinda, and Minerva lived with their father William.

Enter the Livingston County Historian's indexed records. Here, I find a William and Experience joined the Presbyterian Church in Livonia on 4 Jun 1809 (a few months after they removed from Augusta) and Mrs. Martin (wife of William) died on 28 July 1810. The 1810 census was taken on 6 August.

The consistent locations of this family along with a birth date of 1789 for Thaddeus have both myself and Daryl thinking we have a strong case that we finally found our Thaddeus (Daryl had separately been exploring William Martin of Livonia, but hadn't gotten the Augusta church records yet).

As important as finding the right family is, it's equally important to make sure we did not find the wrong families. There are two other contemporary Thaddeus Martins that I've seen in other family trees that I have eliminated.

1. A Thaddeus Martin born 1779 in Woodbury, CT. He is especially confusing because he lives in Avon, which is down the road from Livonia. I also suspect William and Experience are originally from CT. However, this Thaddeus married Mehetable Throop, whose family is well known and documented. This Thaddeus died in 1826. It is critical not to link Avon records (such as land records) with my Thaddeus, as the Thaddeus of Throop fame is more likely the one referred to there.
2. A Thaddeus Martin is listed as a son in the will of Ebenezer Gould Martin in 1828 in Sidney, NY (Delaware Co.). This is about 50 miles or so south of Augusta/Smithfield areas. While not close, because it was not too far away from Smithfield where Thaddeus married I did follow up. In his will, Ebenezer left his sons Sheldon and Samuel land, 20 dollars to his daughter Polly, and property divided between daughters Polly and Genett after his wife passed. To his son Thaddeus, he leaves one dollar and Thaddeus is the only child not preceded by "well-beloved" in the will. In keeping with a black sheep theme, there is a Thaddeus S. Martin in Delhi, Delaware Co in the county poor house, where he is listed as a pauper. This Thaddeus in the poor house always gave me pause to accept that Gould Martin could be my Thaddeus' father, plus the case for William and Experience is stronger in terms of the connections to Smithfield and Livonia.

Now to find Lucy...