Trautvetter Military Photo Arrives

 It arrived!

The Trautvetter photograph taken in Aurich, Germany, in 1866 which I purchased on Ebay has made its way to me from France.

I have already written about the picture here--so that commentary won't be repeated.

The illustrations in this blog post are made from photographs that I took once the image had arrived. 

I've still got some work to do in order to learn more about the Trautvetter man shown the photograph.

I don't have many pictures dating from the 1860s and this one is small, perhaps 1.5" by 3."

It survived the trip from France to the United States. 

And it also survived several wars in Europe between 1866 and today.

Missed Records, Misconceptions, and Why Mom?

World War I Draft Card for John Julius Trautvetter, Adams County, Illinois;
digital image on FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org)

This World War I draft card for my great-uncle is one of those things that I simply never got around to locating until it came up easily on a search at FamilySearch.

And it got me to thinking about several things.

Was the mother the preferred "nearest relative?"

I have done no statistical analysis, but I seem to recall seeing the mother being frequently listed as the nearest relative, even when the father was alive. In this case, the father (George Trautvetter) is even listed as the employer--no doubt nineteen-year old John worked on his father's farm. I'm not opposed to mothers being listed as next of kin, but my recollection is that I've only seen the father listed when the mother was deceased. This might be an interesting item to pursue further as my only evidence is anecdotal and that sort of evidence is not always proof of anything other than anecdotes.

Are there assumptions that are not true?

I was always told that John's middle name was Michael and that this John (my great-uncle) had been named for his grandfather John Michael Trautvetter. I never really questioned the fact that his name was John Michael. His sister, my grandmother Neill, apparently thought her brother was named for their grandfather. It turns out he wasn't John Michael, he was actually John Julius--the John coming from his grandfather and the Julius coming from his sponsor at his baptism.

The difference is more than academic. My grandmother Neill did not care for her brother John. The reasons (and there are some) are not germane here. My mother, unrelated to any of these people and unaware of the Grandma's opinion of her brother, wanted to name me John Michael--John for my maternal grandfather and Michael because she liked it. Grandma Neill would have no grandson of hers with the same name as her brother, so Michael John was my name.

Is that address right?

I initially jumped on that address as being "wrong" or at least misleading. The Trautvetters lived in Keene Township, Adams County, from the mid-1910s and on, or so I have assumed. The family farm is near the town of Loraine and is still owned by family members. John's card is dated 12 September 1918 and indicates a rural route Mendon, Illinois, address. Thinking about this address reminded me that I don't actually have a copy of the deed of purchase for the farm, which would provide the date of aquisition. It might be that the family lived in Adams County, Illinois, at the time of the registration but not on the farm near Loraine--which was where they were in 1920 for the census.

The end game is that I still need to research when my great-grandparents purchased the farm near Loraine. In the writing of this blog post, I am pretty certain where great-grandpa Trautvetter got the money to make at least a sizeable down payment on this property. His father's 228 acre farm in Hancock County was sold at auction at about this same point in time and my great-grandfather would have received a one-seventh share. Those deeds I have--so I know how much great-grandpa would have received.

See, writing is good for your research!

German Find on Google Books

A search for Adam Trautvetter on http://books.google.com turned up a result from a

Jahrbuch der Deutsche-Amerikanischen Historischen Gesellschaft von ...: Volume 3

It mentions his membership in a church near Hamilton, Illinois, and a few other details that I need translated. Just a wonderful find. Makes me think I need to do even more searches on Google Books.

Communion in Tioga, Illinois, 1867

This list of communicants from 1867 is shorter than some of the other lists at the Tioga Evangelical Church in Tioga, Illinois [now Bethany United Church of Christ]. Number 9 is my great-great-grandmother. Number 6, "Vater Trautfelder," probably is John George Trautvetter, as three of his sons also lived in the vicinity and at the time of this were in their late twenties. John George had two brothers in the area as well who could have attended the same church, but those siblings had no children, so it seems likely that the reference to "vater" would be to the one with children.

I really need to review the material I copied when I was at the Family History Library. I made copies of stuff and think I promptly forgot I even made the copies.

Louis and Ida (Trautvetter) Henerhoff children

This is but part of one page from the guardianship of the children of Louis and Ida Etta (Trautvetter) Henerhoff who died during the 1918 flu epidemic. Their guardianship was chock full of genealogical information, some of which I already knew. This guardianship is but one in a series of documents involving the farm of John Michael Trautvetter, father of Ida Etta.

The Henerhoffs will be featured in an upcoming "Casefile Clues" column which will analyze the several documents that explained the children's inheritance and how it impacted others in the family.

The children's guardian was their other grandfather, August Henerhoff. He died before the guardianship was over and that estate became intertwined in the guardianship as well. Before it was all said and done, the children were heirs of their parents and both their grandfathers.

This guardianship comes from the Guardianship Case Files in the Hancock County, Illinois, Circuit Clerk's Office and were obtained on microfilm from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.

1930 Census Mary Trautvetter and her neice

I've been doing a little playing with Footnote.com this month while they are offering free access to their 1930 census. This entry is for a family that will appear in an upcoming "Casefile Clues" column.

Maxine's guardianship over ten years before this census was contested all the way to the Illinois Supreme Court. There were so many documents in the file that I had to stop scanning them when I was in Salt Lake at the Family History Library due to time constraints. Mary Trautvetter is a first cousin to my great-grandfather, George Trautvetter (1869-1934).

Google Books Finds My Ancestor in Harvard Library Book

It probably is just his name and address or city, but I darn near fainted. A search for "erasmus trautvetter" turned up an EXACT MATCH on http://books.google.com/

Problem is there is no scan of the book.

In a little experiment, I mentioned this on Facebook, Twitter, and I'll mention it on Genealogywise in a minute. This experiment is to see if these sites actually help me get a copy of the book.
Otherwise, I'll see if it will interlibrary loan, but I tend to doubt it.

I NEVER find exact matches for Erasmus Trautvetter (my 4th great-grandfather).

Deed Indexes in Public Land States

This is part of a deed from 1920 in Hancock County, Illinois.

It makes an excellent point of why it is important to search for the names of all relatives and not just the direct line. George and Ida Trautvetter are my great-great-grandparents. This deed is part of the settlement of his father's estate. Had I not looked for the last names of his siblings I would have overlooked it. Because the deed lists Louisa Mundy first, that is how it appears in the grantor index. Deeds with multiple grantors (as many "heirship" deeds are) are typically only indexed by the name of the first grantor.

This deed comes from Hancock County, Illinois Deed Book 177, page 579. More discussion of this record will appear in an upcoming "Casefile Clues" column in Dick Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter.

You Are Always Going to Forget Something

My list for the next trip to Salt Lake keeps growing.

What I thought was going to be a short project keeps growing. The probate records of John Micahel Trautvetter (died in Hancock County, Illinois in 1917) mention a mortgage on his farm and the approval of interest payments on the mortgage. The probate records make no mention of paying off the mortgage and any such payments are not included in the estate's accountings.

I thought land records would answer my question and they partially did. Turns out I also need the guardianship records for four of John's grandchildren and that may only answer another part of the question. These grandchildren were orphaned when their parents died in the Flu epidemic of 1918, less than a year after their grandfather Trautvetter died.

An upcoming column in "Casefile Clues" in Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter (paid edition) will discuss the records and proces used to see what happened to John's farm after his death.

Death Bed Care in 1869

This image comes from part of an expense submission by John Herbert to the estate of Michael Trautvetter, probated in Hancock County, Illinois, in 1869. Herbert's wife was actually Michael's niece.

Herbert was allowed $4.50 per day for taking care of Trautvetter in his final illness. I'm not certain if there was a table of rates the court used or not. Interestingly enough, just for comparision, the refreshments at the wake were $4.75--just about the same as the per day allowance for care.

So to put that in modern terms, the refreshments at the funeral cost about as much as a one-day stay in the nursing home (smirk).

Note: this image comes from the scan I made while viewing the file at the Family History Library in Salt Lake.

Clues in Receipts

Last year in Salt Lake, I scanned several complete estate files and to be honest...I haven't looked at them completely until now.

This is a receipt for the inheritance George Trautvetter received from the estate of his brother Michael Trautvetter, probated in Hancock County, Illinois in the late 1860s early 1870s.

It is signed by George Adolph Trautvetter ,"atty in fact for Geo Trautfetter[sic]." There are several reasons why George Adolph might have signed for George (George Adolph was the son of George. In this case though, it helps provide me with a clue as to when George (the father) returned to Germany.

Pays to read the entire file.

the Flu, Guardianships, and Court Records

I discovered a court case that was appealed to the Illinois State Supreme Court while searching on Google books. I have included part of the summary here in this post. The parents died within ten days of each other in 1920. I am not certain what they died from, but will have to add getting death certificates to my list of things to do. The mother is a first cousin of my great-grandfather Trautvetter.


My great-grandfather Trautvetter's sister and her husband died during the 1918 flu epidemic and their children were raised by family members after the parents died.

Have you considered if the 1918 flu or other epidemics impacted your family members? Leaving minor children with no parents created a problem and in some cases those problems might have resulted in court or other records.

Another great-grandfather had a sister and brother-in-law who died during the flu. Now I'll have to get on that and research that family as well.

The image in this post was from:

Reports of Cases at Law and in Chancery Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Illinois
By the Illinois Supreme Court
Published by Supreme Court, State of Illinois, 1921
Item notes: v. 297
Original from Harvard University
Digitized Aug 15, 2007
located on http://books.google.com/

Boolean Searches of OCR Text at Genealogybank.com

I don't know why I never tried it before. Now I have numerous searches to perform all over again at Genealogy Bank.


The screen shot in this blog entry shows part of the screen from a search I just conducted today for good old Philip Troutfetter.


It is much easier when one enters Boolean search terms in the keywords box. I do not know why it never dawned on me to use those before.

With all the variants of trautvetter, this was a much easier search to perform. The word "taylor" was added as it was the last name of an alias Philip used. The ? as a wildcard operator was used in Troutfetter to catch some variant spellings. I need to modify it though as sometimes the two "t"s at the end get read as "l"s. However, this makes my searching much easier.


I wanted to find references to the last name of Troutfetter, etc. withinn 4 words of the word Taylor. This is why the "near4" command was used.


We will be playing (err.... experimenting more) with the searches at Genealogy Bank and letting you know what we find.

Death and a Bible Verse

While in Salt Lake City last May, I copied several records from the Bethany United Church of Christ in Tioga, Hancock County, Illinois.

The image on this post is the death entry for Franciska Trautvetter, who died on 15 January 1888 (wife of Michael Trautvetter). The entry indicates she was 36 years, 5 months, and 21 days old--and also indicates a date of birth of 22 July 1851.

The pastor even provides the funeral text: Psalms 102: 24-25.

Some translations of verse 24 refer to being taken in the "midst of my days," a likely reference to Franciska's age at the time of her death.

I always thought they were Short

It seemed to me that most of my branch of the Trautvetter clan were not very tall. It appears now that I was mistaken. In looking at the Illinois "old men's draft" cards available on FamilySearch Labs, I found my great-grandfather's brother, Henry Trautvetter.

The first image here is the front of the card, providing information on his name, place of birth, and employer.

The back side of his card indicates he was 6 foot 4 inches tall---a height I was not expecting. I didn't think any older members of this family were that tall. And his weight was only 140 pounds. Thinking there might be an error and that he was actually 5 foot 4 inches tall, I decided to view his World War I draft card.

Sure enough, that card, while not providing a specific height, indicates he was "tall." The image at the bottom of this post is Uncle Henry's World War I draft card. It is a little difficult to see, but his height is marked in the upper left hand corner of the back of the card (right half of the image) as being tall. So the entry on the World War 2 draft card likely is not an error.

I won't comment on the fact that he only weighed 140 pounds....

Henry is a brother to George Adolph Trautvetter (1869-1934), my great-grandfather.

Playing with Family Tree Maker's websearch

I have been playing with the websearch on Family Tree Maker 2008. The websearch is best used for locating new clues or easily capturing things you have already located. I NEVER automatically upload a "hit" from the websearch. The image should always be viewed if available and the information analyzed to determine if the correct person has been located.

That said, I am still playing with just a few of my ancestral families to see the matches FTM 2008 gives me. One was potentially helpful.

I had forgotten (or maybe never even knew in the first place) that my Grandma Neill's brother had lived in Keokuk, Iowa, during the 1920s. FTM2008 pulled up the reference to Elmer Trautvetter in the 1925 census, which I had not thought to search for myself.

The 1925 Iowa State Census provides places of birth for the parents, their ages, and their place of marriage. Grandma's mother (Ida Sargent) is one of my brick walls and this was another location to potentially obtain a clue as to her origins. Interestingly enough, the listing shows her mother as "Ida Sargen." I'm still pretty certain her maiden name was Sargent; however, this provides me with a potential clue as to how the family pronounced her name and an additional spelling variant. Her age is off by almost ten years as well.

Phillip Troutfetter Acquitted

While it's not news anymore, it is news to me. I've been writing about and researching my relative Philip Troutfetter who was involved in some goings on in Colorado, Cuba, and Columbia in the late 1890s and early 1900s.

The only "legal" trouble he apparently had stemmed from his mother-in-law. This article appeared in the Valley Falls Vindicator, Valley Falls, Kansas, 21 August 1903 and is on worldvitalrecords.com. We will continue to post more about Troutfetter's affairs as we discover them.

This was discovered on World Vital Records website today--still in their free section. Their recent databases are free for a short time--try them out.

Are You Checking all Online Newspapers?

Like many genealogists, I use the online newspapers at:
World Vital Records
Genealogy Bank
Ancestry.com

However it is worth remembering that these newspaper collections are sometimes incomplete and that other sites may have newspapers on them as well, in some cases for free.

The Quincy, Illinois, Public Library is a good case in point. They have scanned old Quincy area newspapers from the microfilm, and created a digital database that can be searched. The interesting thing is that I KNOW I have searched this database for the last name Trautvetter several years ago and already viewed all the small number of hits. Today a search for that name again (on a whim) resulted in two new hits, including the one that is shown in this post. I would have remembered seeing this reference.

The Quincy Daily Journal from Quincy, Illinois 22 March 1918 listed those who had taken their teacher exams for second and third grade. A surprise to me was the listing of Luella Trautvetter from Mendon, Illinois. I never knew my great aunt had taken the teacher exam. She would have been 17 and a half years old at the time she took the exam.

If not for the digital version of the newspaper, I would never have located this reference.

The digital archives of the Quincy [Illinois] Public Library can be found on their site.

Dan Patch Two Step

I have known about this score for some time, but just recently found it digitized and placed on the internet at the Indiana Historical Society. It is amazing what a google search will turn up.

The "Dan Patch Two-Step" was published by the International Stock Food Company in Minneapolis in the early 1900s. Dan Patch was a world famous race horse and the song was written in his honor.

I'm still trying to find out who H. G. Trautvetter was. I do not think he is a member of "my" Trautvetter/Troutfetter family which settled in Hancock County, Illinois, and who were descendants of Erasmus and Anna Gross Trautvetter of Thuringen, Germany. I'm of the mind that all the Trautvetters are related, it is just a matter of making the connections.

Maybe I'll get someone to play the song and we'll place the tune on on the site.

Picture of Philip Troutfetter

We finally have located a picture of Philip Troutfetter, who spent part of the 1890s and early 1900s travelling through the US, Cuba, Columbia, and perhaps Jamaica avoiding his former mother-in-law, associating with some involved in the Neely Rathbone Affair, and working in mining.

We'll continue to post additional information on Philip as information is uncovered. This has proven to be a most interesting study.

Philip was born in Warsaw, Hancock County, Illinois, in the 1860s and died near Colby, Kansas in the early 1900s.

His first cousin is John Michael Trautvetter (1839-1917), my great-great-grandfather. John Michael was in court too, but he was not the globetrotter his cousin was.