William Sartorius in the Army in 1902-Regular US Army Infantry Regimentsrmy

I'm fairly certain the William A. Sartorius (number 26) on this U.S. Returns from Regular Army Infantry Regiments, 1821-1916 is the William A. Sartorius who was born in Adams County, Illinois, in the 1870s. There is still some research to do. The top image is from the top of the page and the second one is the part that shows the Sartorius entry.

The heading says May of 1892, but it appears that the person who filled the form out simply didn't change the form which apparently was pre-printed for the 1800s and used into the 1900s. The stamp indicates a year of 1902--so it looks like these enlisted men had their terms of service expire in 1902.

Those interested can search these infantry regiment records at Ancestry.com.

This record indicates Sartorius was in the 12th US Infantry. I've got more research to do on William and we'll have updates as details are located. I know the William I'm looking for was in Canada in the 1920s and on and I have copies of his homestead records which are being written up for an issue of Casefile Clues.

U.S. National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, 1866-1938 at Ancestry.com

Ancestry.com has recently added U.S. National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, 1866-1938 to their library of databases.

A quick search found my uncle Claude Sartorius, shown here in the roster for the hospital in Danville, Illinois. He was also listed in a hospital in Dayton, Ohio, for a while as well. This reference provided information on his enlistment in the army. I actually had not done too much research on Claude, but now that I'm armed with a little more information I might.

Estate Squabbles

One of the most genealogically relevant court case is one where heirs are fighting over an estate. It is important to search court records for this type of actions, even when a probate file or will has already been located.

I have had a copy of Ulfert Behrens will for years, but never thought to look for court action regarding his estate outside of the probate court. A search of the Quincy, Illinois, newspapers on the library's website brought up this reference. We are looking for more details of this case, some of which were published in an earlier newspaper article.

Probate mentioned in the Papers

A search of the online Quincy, Illinois, newspapers located this mention of my ancestor's estate in The Quincy Daily Whig of 14 Aug 1889. I already had seen the will, but there are a few things about this worth noting:

• in an earlier era, many newspapers published summaries of probate information--may be helpful if the courthouse can't find the record, burned, etc.
• more and more newspapers are being put online and can be searched via OCR. If I had not already had the probate information this would have been a neat way to locate it.
• if I did not have the probate information, I would want to contact the courthouse in order to locate it. This is only a summary of the information, the probate packet contains an inventory of the estate.
• Newspapers sometimes get things wrong--granddaughter Ricka Iders is actually Ricka Ideus.

I descend from three of the people mentioned: Ulfert Behrens, Trientje Satorius, and Ricka (Reka) Sartorius. Reka Satorius Janssen is my great-great-grandmother.