Tuesday, August 31, 2010

A new branch for the Josephs!

I was on the FamilySearch Labs website yesterday (eventually, at least. I think it was down for a bit). On a whim (or perhaps, more than a whim) I thought I'd do a search for my 3rd-great-grandfather, Ludwig Joseph and see what I could find. There weren't all that many hits, so I thought I'd scrool through and see what they showed me. Imagine my surprise when one of the hits listed Ludwig and his wife, Justine Witt! I opened the record, and it turned out to be a death record of Heinrich Joseph, son of Ludwig and Justine. My semi-distant-cousin Jim Joseph had told me there was a Henry Joseph in that family (as well as some other siblings I haven't been able to find records of yet), and this was proof! I love it when historical documents and family stories tell the same story.

Excited with my new find, I went off to Ancestry.com and found Henry Joseph living with his family in Chicago, Illinois. Best of all, his son Albert was living with him. This same Albert was living with Tina (Joseph) Levick in 1920, but had only been identified as a lodger. I now know that Albert was her nephew, son of Tina's brother Heinrich. Albert worked as a smelter in Montana in the 1920 census, and was a handyman at a steel mill in Chicago in 1930. It's puzzled me for years who that Albert was, and now I know!

Now I need to go back and see if I can round out the info on Henry/Heinrich and his family. I've got his wife Emilie and at least one son Albert. He was living next to an Edward Joseph and his family in 1930, and Edward does happen to be the perfect age to be a son of Henry. So this Joseph family, which stymied me for SO LONG at least seems to be coming out of the woodwork. Can't wait to see what else I can find!

No comments: