Month: March 2014

Discovering the Notebooms

My understanding of the Noteboom line of my family history ended with my third great-grandfather Walter Noteboom, who was born in 1845 in the Netherlands. That’s it – nothing more. The Noteboom line was an enigma… until recently. I had the fortunate luck of receiving some assistance from a visitor to this blog, Peter Miebies. He pointed me to a database for Dutch genealogy at www.geneaologie.nl.

On that site, I found a pedigree that included Walter Noteboom (though this pedigree listed his first name as Wolter). The Stamboom Dusseljee [Dusseljee Pedigree] was published by J. Lodewijks in 2008. We’ve exchanged preliminary emails and information – she’s sent me information from her database and I’m sending her information about what happened to Walter and his family in the United States.

I’ve been spending time going through all the information in her tree – it documents four more generations back from Walter. It’s a lot of data, and there is not a lot of source documentation, so at this point the information is largely anecdotal and/or unproven. However, there is a lot of really interesting information that will be fun to delve into.

One of the first things to pique my interest was the marriage 6th great grandparents Sjouke Sijes Noteboom and Jannetje Zweersen. Sjouke Sijes Noteboom was baptized in the Dutch Reformed Church on October 2, 1707 in Oenkerk, Friesland, Netherlands. As an adult, he was a master carpenter. He married Jannetje Zweersen on May 1, 1733 at the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam. Jannetje was born on February 8, 1713 in Zwolle.

According to Wikipedia, the Oude Kerk is Amsterdam’s oldest building from circa 1213, and its oldest parish church, consecrated in 1306. Saint Nicolas is its patron saint. It is situated on Oudekerksplein, the square in the main red-light district of Amsterdam. Following the Reformation in 1578, it became the home of the Calvinist Dutch Reformed Church.

Some interesting historical notes about the Oude Kerk:

Rembrandt’s children were all christened there and his wife is buried there.
The wooden roof vault dates to 1390.
The floor is gravestones. Citizens of Amsterdam were buried there until 1865 and there are more 2500 graves within the confines of the church.

Louis Schillinger Marries Louisa Bauer

Louis and Louisa Schillinger

Louis Schillinger and Louisa Bauer were married on 21 September 1885 in East New York. I recently acquired their marriage record from the New York Municipal Archives, and it contains vital clues to further research on the Bauer family. Previously, all I had confirmed was that Louisa Bauer’s mother was also named Louisa, as she shows up in census records as a widow living with her daughter and son-in-law. I did not know the father’s name or the mother’s maiden name. Now I do, thanks to this valuable vital record.

According to the Marriage Record of Town of New Lots, East New York:

Louis Schillinger married Louisa Bauer on 21 September 1885.
Both were residents of East New York at the time of their marriage.
Louis was 22 years old and Louisa was 20 years old (which would make their birth years approximately 1863 and 1865, respectively).
Louis was working as an architect.
It was the first marriage for both of them.
Louis’ parents were listed as Xavier Schillinger and Catherine Autetter. [These names were already known to me, but they are alternate spellings for his first name and her last name.]
Here’s the really exciting news! Louisa’s parents are listed as Anton Bauer and Louisa Hoefler.
The attestator [witness] was A. Nieman of East New York.

Louis Schillinger-Louisa Bauer Marriage Record

The Reilly & Douglas Families by the Numbers

I got this idea from fellow genealogy blogger History Repeating. I thought it was a really interesting idea, and using the Statistics report in the Legacy software that I use to track my research, I pulled together my own infographic about my family tree. Here is the Reilly & Douglas Families by the Numbers:

easel.ly

Albert Einstein & Wife Arrive at Ellis Island

By unknown photographer. Scientific Monthly: “Professor Albert Einstein, University of Berlin” [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

In honor of Albert Einstein’s birthday today (March 14th), I am writing about his arrival in the United States through Ellis Island in 1921.

Albert Einstein, a German physicist, came to the United States with his wife, Elsa, onboard the SS Rotterdam. They arrived at Ellis Island on March 23, 1921 – he was 43 years old and she was 45 years old at the time. The ship manifest asked a number of different questions that tell us a great deal about Einstein, his wife, and his purpose in travelling to the United States.

At the time of his arrival, he was a professor and a citizen of Switzerland, but his last known residence was Berlin, Germany. His birthplace is recorded as Ulm, Germany His final destination was New York, New York. His brother, Mr. R. Einstein, was recorded as his closest living relative in his country of origin. His brother’s address is listed as Haberlanstrasse 5 in Berlin. His wife had no recorded occupation and was also listed as a Swiss citizen most recently residing in Berlin, Germany. Her birthplace is recorded as Hechingen, Germany.

Einstein & his wife on the ship manifest. www.ellisisland.org

Einstein’s origins and closest relative in Germany. www.ellisisland.org

Both of them were listed as racially Hebrew, with the specifics of their appearance described as follows:

Albert was recorded as 5’4″, with grayish hair and brown eyes.
Elsa was recorded as 5’4″, with gray hair and blue eyes.

Friends: Zionist Organization of America www.ellisisland.org

He paid for his and his wife’s passage, and listed that he had not previously been to the United States. His U.S. contact was listed as “friends”, with the name and address recorded as the Zionist Organization of America at 55 5th Avenue, New York City. He planned to remain in the United States for five weeks, with no intention of becoming a U.S. citizen.

The ship’s manifest also recorded Einstein’s answers to a number of questions about himself and his wife, largely designed to make sure they were acceptable for entry into the United States. The additional questions are:

ever in prison or almshouse or institution for the care and treatment of the insane or supported by charity
whether a polygamist
whether an anarchist
whether a person who believes in or advocate the overthrow by force or violence of the government of the United States
whether coming by reason of any offer, solicitation, promise, or agreement, expressed or implied, to labor in the United States
whether aliens had been previously deported within one year

Einstein would return a second time to the United States, that time to remain permanently. In 1933, Adolph Hitler came to power in Germany, while Einstein happened to be in the United States. He chose to remain in the United States and never returned home to Berlin. He would later become a U.S. citizen in 1940.¹

1. “Albert Einstein.” Article. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_einstein: posted 5 November 2001, revised 13 March 2014.
Images of the ship manifest from the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation. The original passenger entry for Albert Einstein can be found here.

Hour Glass Chart for Louis and Louise Schillinger

I created a family hourglass chart to illustrate how the Schillinger generations go. I’ve also created a family group record as a .pdf file that has more information than last night’s post. To explain:

An hourglass chart shows both the ancestors and descendants of the couple at the center of the hourglass. In this case, I’m showing all the information about the known ancestors, but I have limited the descendants to 2 generations and blanked out the information on the one living person (my Pop) for privacy reasons.
A family group record is all the information about one family laid out in a very organized fashion and is a standard form in genealogical research. In this case, I’m only including the FGR for Louis F. Schillinger and his wife, which will include their children, but not their ancestors or their descendants beyond their children. I’ve only included notes from Louis and his wife.