An Altered Entry-She's Their Niece Not Their Daughter

This 1906 baptismal entry comes from the records of the Immanuel Lutheran Church (921 N County Road 1900, Carthage, Illinois). It is interesting because there is an apparent correction made nearly fifty years after the fact. The first image shows the entire entry and the second two images are enlarged versions.

We'll have a complete transcription in a later post, but I'm going to let interested readers try and make an attempt to read the entry for Elisabeth Maria Goldenstein (#19). Armed with a knowledge of the family and the area, I'm able to read the entire thing.

But it is easy to see how someone unfamiliar with the names might incorrectly transcribe the notation made in 1955.

 Obviously the pastor mixed up the two Goldenstein families in his congregation.

And it makes one wonder how many errors never got caught because no one went back and requested a "copy."

Note:

These records were microfilmed by a forerunner of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and are available in digital format at Archives.com. Archives.com incorrectly indicates this church is the "American Lutheran Church" in Carthage, Illinois, probably a reference to the former Lutheran national church body of which the Immanuel Lutheran Church was a member before the American Lutheran Church merged to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Archives.org incorrectly identifies the congregation in several instances. Based on the author's extensive personal knowledge of the families in the area, these records do not appear to be those of either of the other Lutheran congregations in the area--Trinity Lutheran Church in Carthage and the former Zion Lutheran Church in Carthage. The records of the former have never been microfilmed and the records of Zion are not extant.

Signatures of the Mother and Nine Children

My uncle, Henry Goldenstein, died in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1921. A single man, he left no children and, based upon what I was lead to believe, there was little estate to probate. 

I almost didn't even bother to look for a record of his probate, but came upon an index entry to it while attempting to review estate information on his parents. On a whim I decided to view the file from Adams County, Illinois.

As I suspected, there was not really too much in the estate packet.

However, there was this little gem which was signed as a part of the record:

The signature of my great-great-grandmother and her nine children who survived after Henry's death. My great-grandmother, Tjode Habben, also signed the document.

Not earthshattering, but a neat discovery from the estate files of Adams County, Illinois, in 1921.