Family Mystery

How-To Presentations & Companion Guides
Xaver Schillinger in the 1905 New York State Census

Xaver Schillinger in the 1905 New York State Census

I’m launching a new series of How-To Presentations and Companion Guides.  I was inspired by my recent experience looking and finding my 3rd great-grandfather Xaver Schillinger in the 1905 New York State Census.  Using my real world example, I take you step-by-step through the process I used to locate him – a difficult task since he did not come up in a routine search using FamilySearch.org’s search engine.  I ended up having to manually search for him in the census, because his name and those of his family members were butchered by the enumerator recording the census.  However, I was able to turn what would seem like an arduous task into something that was easily accomplished in a single evening in front of my home computer – no special trips to the National Archives, Sutro Library or Family History Center required.

So, without further ado, here is How to Search the 1905 New York Census.

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James Jackson Johns and Ellen Moore Parentage Research Report

I’ve been working on trying to answer the question about who are the parents of James Jackson Johns and Ellen Moore. I didn’t have a name for the parents of Ellen Moore, who is my third great grandmother, and reportedly one of the ancestors with Native American ancestry. James Jackson Johns, my third great grandfather, is often listed as the youngest son of Bartlett C. Johns, but I didn’t have anything to substantively prove that fact. So I set out to see what I could find in order to definitively prove who were their parents.

My research document is attached here, along with images of the records I used in this research.

James Jackson Johns – Ellen Moore Parentage Research Report

Pedigree Charts

Family Group Records

James Jackson Johns Confederate Service Records

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Name that Ancestor

I posted the below six pictures on Facebook, with this message to my family.

It’s time to play “Name that Ancestor”. I need your help – do you know who these people are? They were in with the photos I got from Pop. They may be siblings, cousins or close friends of Grandpa and Grandma Reilly (Lawrence Ambrose Reilly and Ethel Loretta Powers Reilly).

These were probably taken in the last 1910s or early 1920s.  Potential surnames include: Reilly and Powers.

Unknown 1 – possible Powers
Unknown 2 – possible Powers
Unknown 3 – possible Powers
Unknown 4 – possible Powers
Unknown 5 – possible Powers
Unknown 6 – possible Powers

The Missing Thomas

My 2nd great grandfather, Francis Theodore Thomas, went missing around 1902 or 1903.  He went swimming at Rockaway Beach in Brooklyn and never came home.  His clothing was found at the beach, but no sign of him ever turned up.  For years. I didn’t know anything about him really, other than his name.  Last year, when I went to Syracuse for my grandmother’s funeral, I found an entry for him in the family bible.  In that entry, I found the name of a brother and two sisters.

In the box my dad just brought home from his visit with my grandfather, I found a picture of my gg-grandfather – the only one I’ve ever seen.  In the photo, he is seated on Rockaway Beach in the year or so before his disappearance. Seated next to him is my gg-grandmother Anna Noteboom.  Pictured below is the photo as is and a cleaned up version.

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Francis Thomas and Anna Noteboom at Rockaway Beach, circa 1900

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Francis Thomas and Anna Noteboom at Rockaway Beach, circa 1900

St. Vincent de Paul, Brooklyn, NY – Another source for information on the Donnelly/Reilly Family
St. Vincent de Paul, Brooklyn, NY

St. Vincent de Paul, Brooklyn, NY

This is the church were my 2nd great-grandmother Sadie Donnelly married my 2nd great-grandfather John Reilly on April 30, 1893 in Williamsburg (Brooklyn), NY.

I have been unsuccessful in finding a lot of information about this part of my family.  Vital records searches in Brooklyn have turned up with nothing.  Now I found a reference to the church where they got married in some old records.  So I thought, if the City of New York doesn’t have any information, maybe the church as the information.

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