Ekke's Not Native Born

"...that I am over 21 twenty One year of age native born citizen of the United States."

Even though the writing was not the neatest, it was relatively easy to transcribe. Ekke Behrens indicated in an affidavit of 2 November 1886 that he was a native born citizen of the United States. There is just one problem.

Ekke was not a "native born citizen" of the United States. Census and other records indicate he was born in Germany and his homestead application even includes a naturalization record to prove his citizenship.

This is the only document in the entire homestead application for Ekke that uses the phrase "native born." It seems likely that the use of the phrase was simply an error.

Which is why one never wants to look at only one piece of information or record. Any one record can be wrong.

Source: This affidavit was obtained in Ekke Behrens' completed homestead file for the northwest quarter of section 8 in township 15 North 47 West in Cheyenne County, Nebraska.

Comments in Ekke's Margin

An affidavit in the 1892 homestead application of Ekke Behrens of Weyerts, Nebraska, makes several good genealogical research points and was recently discovered in  the Nebraska homestead records on Ancestry.com.

There is a naturalization record for Ekke Behrens in the homestead application of Ekke Behrens and on the surface I thought it was the naturalization for Ekke the homestead applicant. Upon closer reading of this affidavit, it became clear that the naturalization was for Ekke's father Ekke and not for Ekke the applicant. 

It always pays to read the entire file of any record and not to make assumptions. In looking at the naturalization record contained in the file, I thought that the naturalization year of 1867 seemed a little "off" to have been for Ekke the homestead applicant. I made a note about the seeming inconsistency in the date of naturalization given Ekke the homesteader's age but thought that the 1867 date was probably a transcription error on the part of the clerk since the naturalization record in the homestead file was not the original record. 

But...

This notation on Ekke's final application for the homestead explained the age discrepancy. 

It would be easier if parents did not name children after themselves. 

We'll write about this application in more detail in an upcoming issue of Casefile Clues.

Stumbling Upon Lubbe and A Migration Chain

In all honesty, I stumbled upon this record.

I was searching for Lubbe Albers in the Nebraska homestead records on Ancestry.com. My searches for him were not going very well and I decided to simply search for homesteaders with the first name of Lubbe in the records.

After all, there shouldn't be too many of them. There weren't. One of the entries was for a Lubbe Aden. Being related to some members of the Aden family, I decided to quickly review Aden's homestead for any clues that might have bearing on my research-or just something that would strike my interest.

Aden completed a homestead in section 20 of Township 14 N Range 1 East in Butler County, Nebraska. At this point, I have no idea whether he remained there after obtaining the homestead or whether or not he is related to the Adens in which I have a peripheral interest.

However, in reviewing the documentation in his completed homestead file, I ran across a copy of his naturalization from 1871--in Hancock County, Illinois. That's where many of my Ostfriesian families settled at about the same time Aden was there naturalizing.

It doesn't mean that this Aden is connection to me. However, people did migration in clusters and chains. I also know that there are homestead claims that are incomplete and currently unindexed by name. I know that these unindexed incomplete claims can be located on the Bureau of Land Management tract books. I can't look at the tract books for the entire state of Nebraska.

But....

I can look at sections of the tract books for those areas of townships where I know that other Ostfriesians settled in hopes of locating a few of my "missing" people in those records. Since Aden was an Ostfriesian with a Hancock County, Illinois, connection who completed a homestead claim. there may be others Ostfriesians with Hancock County connections who at least started a claim in the same location as Aden. The tract books will tell me that and provide me with the names of those individuals. The incomplete homestead applications are not online, but I can obtain them from the National Archives. 

I can also search based upon locations in the database of these Nebraska homestead records on Ancestry.com.  The patents can be searched geographically at the Bureau of Land Management website.  Both of these sites only search for those individuals who completed the homestead process.

My Genealogy Search Tip of  the Day  contained links to the tract books and the tract book guide on FamilySearch ("Guide to the BLM Tract Books"). There is more about my webinar on using the BLM tract books here.

Documenting Migration in Homestead Files

Affidavits in virtually any record can contain unexpected clues. 

This 1887 statement made by Renke Kaiser in the homestead application of Jurgen T. Ehmen of Dawson County, Nebraska, documents how long the men have known each other. Kaiser indicates that he has known Ehmen for over twenty years and that Ehmen lived in Adams County, Illinois, until 1870 and then in Knox County, Illinois, until 1880 and then in Grand Island, Nebraska, until September of 1882 and then on his tract in Dawson County, Nebraska.

I knew Ehmen was in Adams County, Illinois, and eventually ended up in Dawson County, Nebraska, but was unaware of his residence in Knox County, Illinois. Hopefully Kaiser's testimony is accurate and his knowledge of the information firsthand. Some witnesses' answers to this question are vague and not as detailed as Kaiser's answer is. Kaiser also does not indicate whether or not he lived near Ehmen in these locations, only that he has known him for over twenty years.

Note: this image was taken from "Nebraska, Homestead, Records, 1861-1936."

Note 2: Ehmen is a first cousin of Focke Goldenstein, my ancestor who also homesteaded in Dawson County, Nebraska.

Complete Homestead Claims Lead to Tract Books Lead to Incomplete Claims

A search of the "Nebraska, Homestead, Records, 1861-1936," located four completed homestead applications for section 12 in 11 North Range 25 West in Dawson County, Nebraska as shown below and as mentioned in a previous blog post:

As these results were created from the database Ancestry.com has for these records, there's always the possibility that something was coded incorrectly.

So I went to the Bureau of Land Management tract books for Nebraska to see what entries there were for section 12.

The BLM tract book agreed with Ancestry.com. Actually I should say that Ancestry.com agreed with the tract books as the tract books are the authoritative source, not Ancestry.com.

The tract books indicated that the only homesteaders in section 12 to complete their homestead were:

• Campbell
• Friesenborg
• Goldenstein
• Meyer

Those names are underlined in green in the tract book image below.

General Land Office Tract Book, Nebraska, Volume 22, page 28;
digital image from FamilySearch, 25 November 2014.

There are other homestead entries for section 12. Those all show in the tract book as having been cancelled (underlined in red in the image above). Those homestead files are at the National Archives as well and can have a great deal of information. It's not just about the completed claims. 

The only way to know if your ancestor had an incomplete claim is to search the tract books manually. I usually search the tract book for areas where relatives had completed claims in order to determine if other relatives filed claims in the same area that were incomplete. My relative's incomplete claim from the 1870s contained a copy of his declaration of intention to become a citizen--which I did not have before. 

My Genealogy Search Tip of  the Day  contained links to the tract books and the tract book guide on FamilySearch ("Guide to the BLM Tract Books"). There is more about my webinar on using the BLM tract books here.

Note: this image was taken from "Nebraska, Homestead, Records, 1861-1936."

Homestead Versus Homeplace

Words that have different meanings can confuse people. Homestead is one of those words. Sometimes it even gets confused with "homeplace."

For this reason, I've written this short "style-guide" for how I'm going to use "homestead" and "homeplace."

Homestead as a noun:

Homestead as a noun will be used in two ways on this blog. One is in reference to an actual parcel of real property acquired by someone via the procedure set forth in the United States under the Homestead Act of 1862 (and amendments). The second is in reference to that portion of an individual's real property to which they have certain rights as their residence. For those with farming ancestors, this concept of homestead usually refers to the residence and a portion of the farm, but not usually to the entire farm. A surviving spouse may also have some legal rights to the homestead portion of a farm, even if there are unsettled debts. The legal concept of homestead allows property tax relief in some states. State statute in the state of interest should spell out these rights more clearly than I am here.

Homestead as a verb:

When I use homestead as a verb it means to participate in the process of acquiring title to real property in the federal domain of the United States under the Homestead Act of 1862 (and amendments).

Homestead and homeplace have similar meanings. When I talk about the first farm my ancestors purchased from a fellow German couple in the 1880s in Illinois and where they lived their entire married life, I am talking about the "homeplace." They acquired it through direct purchase and did not "homestead" it. When I am talking about this entire farm, I'll use the word "homeplace."

Some may see it as a minor distinction, but we're going to make this distinction going forward. When the word "homestead" is used in the above two contexts, there may be records of that "homestead" (either federal land records or potentially local court action to have the specific property that constitutes the homestead clearly surveyed and marked).

And it is always about locating records!

This post is based in part on definitions obtained at:

• http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/homestead

Was He Focke or Fokke?

What name to "use" for an immigrant ancestor is often a dilemma for the genealogist. It can be made worse when the ancestor is a native of an area whose names are not readily "translatable" or for ancestors who decided not to change of Anglicize their names.

Such is the case with Focke J. Goldenstein. Sometimes he is Fokke, Focke, or Foche, and other times he is Frank. What name should be used as his actual name? Once in a while, we are told by our ancestors what they prefer to be called.

In an affidavit made in his 1880 era homestead application file for parcel of land in Dawson County, Nebraska, Fokke's preference is clear: Focke. 

The image above is part of an affidavit made by Focke J. Goldenstein in his homestead application for property located in Dawson County, Nebraska. Not all applications contain such statements, but there were irregularities in the transcribed names for Goldenstein in several of the documents and this affidavit was made in response to those inconsistent spellings. It is not often that affidavits clearly spell out exactly the name that our ancestor preferred. I'll have to go back and see exactly what is on his tombstone.

Of course, when transcribing documents the spelling on the document is used. One does not "correct" records when transcribing them. Notations or comments can discuss any irregularities on the document in regards to names.

I once had a genealogist tell me I was spelling "Focke" wrong and that  I should use "Fokke" instead. Based upon this record, I'm using Focke.

Was Cornelia Albers Under-aged When Her Father Naturalized?

Cornelia M. Albers was young woman when she made out this homestead entry in Nebraska in 1883. She also indicated that she was over the age of 21 and a citizen of the United States. There's a simple reason why the native of Ostfriesland, Germany does not have a naturalization record in Nebraska where this claim was filed or in Illinois where she and her family originally settled.

I'm betting her father actually is the one who naturalized, probably having done so in Illinois before the family moved to Nebraska. If Cornelia was under age when her father naturalized before 1883, she would have automatically become a citizen upon his naturalization.

My time is best spent looking for the naturalization of Lubbe Albers, her father, and determining how old Cornelia would have been at that point in time.

We'll be discussing Cornelia in an upcoming issue of Casefile Clues.

Why Would a Woman Declare?

One does not realize what is atypical until after one has seen many things that are typical. Women filing homestead claims is not atypical. Women filing declarations of intent is--at least in the United States in the 1880s.

This is part of the original homestead affidavit for Antje Albers in Dawson County, Nebraska. She states that she was the head of a family and had "declared my intentions to become a citizen of the United States." I'm not certain how "head of a family" is defined, but Antje was over twenty-one and single at the time this document was filed. She had grown children and grandchildren at the time.

To be eligible for a homestead, a claimant had to be the head of a family and, if not a citizen, have filed a declaration of intent. That declaration of intent is what actually interests me. Given that she was not born in the United States, Antje was not a native born citizen of the United States. At this juncture, it is not known if her husband naturalized before his death which took place in Illinois where the family originally settled.

If her husband had naturalized, she would have been a citizen via his naturalization. Pretty simple, but difficult to prove if his naturalization record was lost.

Antje is actually filing a claim for a homestead that her granddaughter had filed on initially in 1883. There were some issues with that claim and the granddaughter assigned her claim to her grandmother in order to complete it. Because Antje's claim was done in an attempt to "clean up" the granddaughter's claim, I'm inclined to believe that Antje actually did file a declaration of intent, if only to make her claim valid. If she were not a citizen and had not filed a declaration of intent, she could not file a homestead claim. And the neighbor who objected to the granddaughter's claim would have objected to the grandmother's claim based upon her citizenship status.

There were few practical reasons why women naturalized in the United States during this time period. Filing claims for homesteads was one of those reasons. Women could own property at this point in time without being a citizen.. Women could not vote, so that wasn't a reason for naturalizing either. Completing homestead claims was one reason women naturalized during this time period.

Stay tuned--there's more to this homestead claim. And, hopefully, we will find out if Antje filed a declaration of intention in Dawson County or not.

What Does It Mean That He Voted?

In July of 1888, Focke Goldenstein made his final affidavit in order to complete his homestead claim in Dawson County, Nebraska.

One of the questions he was asked was about whether he had voted in the last election and where he had voted.

Goldenstein indicated that he had voted in the precinct in which his land was located and that he voted last fall.

The homestead papers indicate elsewhere when Goldenstein began living on the property. This question also told me that he was a citizen in the fall of 1887, when he voted. If I had not known he was a citizen, this would have been a clue. As readers may know, only citizens could complete the homestead process, so Focke already had documentation about his citizenship in his application file. However, that still doesn't detract from the necessity of analyzing every statement for "hidden" clues that are underlying the actual statement.

Goldenstein's claim is digitized in The Nebraska Homestead Records on Fold3.com. 

Homestead Applications Include Proof of Citizenship

It will be a while before I get the entire file on the website, but I have posted one image from John H. Ufkes' homestead application from Franklin County, Nebraska.

The image included with this post is his Declaration of Intent filed in August of 1871 in Hancock County, Illinois, where John originally settled.

Of course, this is not a copy of the actual declaration, but rather a handwritten copy included in his pension file. If the dates are correct, John must have had a copy made the day he filed the intent as the "copy date" is the same as the date on the declaration.

Only citizens or those who had filed a declaration of intent could apply for homestead lands. John started the homestead application on 4 September 1872.

We'll be posting more from the file as time allows.