Photoessay #2925 - Morris Baumann/Maier Baumann

I want to play a bit higher level genealogist here.  I'm not detail oriented and have trouble with spatial organization so I tend to play fast and loose.

So I might come up with a whole darn story and then somebody will ask for my citations, what supporting documents do I have?

What?

But here's a good story for making just that kind of judgement.  Those who read my blog know that I've been writing about this for several days.

Here's the question:

Is Morris Baumann (1857-1937) my great grandfather of New Haven CT the same person as

Maier Baumann (1857 ) of Schmeiheim Germany listed in the Feibelman and Schmeiheim family histories on Ancerstry???

Here's some supporting evidence:


From a family history that I wrote in the early 1970s with my grandmother Regina Weil Baumann.  This is what she said about the background of her husband's family:

In a small village located in the middle of the Swartzwald, Greta Baum was married to Isaac Baumann in 1836.  They lived in Schielhiem and had nine children the youngest of whom was Morris, born in 1857.

His father was in the cattle business but at the age of 14, Morris served as an apprentice in a hardware store in Mannheim.  In 1885 he came to America as a traveling salesman selling rubber balls for the rubber company in Mannheim.  On account of not be able to get prompt delivery of these balls he decided to make them here.  He started manufacturing at Naugatuck, CT and a few years later moved his factory known as the Baumann Rubber Co. where it flourished for 45 years, sometimes as many as 150 people.  

Here's a document from Ancestry

US Passport Application 1795-1925

with a source citation of
Source Citation: National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C.; Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 - March 31, 1925; Collection Number: ARC Identifier 583830 / MLR Number A1 534; NARA Series: M1490; Roll #: 2080.

Name:	Morris Baumann
Birth Date:	10 Dec 1857
Birth Place:	Schneheim, Germany
Age:	64
Passport Issue Date:	10 Aug 1922
Passport Includes a Photo:	Yes
Residence:	New Haven, Connecticut
Father Name:	Isaac Baumann
Father's Birth Location:	Germany
Father's Residence:	Deceased

These two items give a birthdate, his hometown, his parent's name

So come now the family trees.  Of the two, the Schmeiheim seems to have better citation but the citations tend to come from Ancestry items and not from original German sources.

From the Schmeiheim family tree

Maier Baumann

Birth 10 Dec 1857 in Schmieheim, Baden, Germany

 

Parents:

 

• Isaak Baumann 1802 – 1874
• Gutel Levi Baum 1813 – 1887

 

So we have exact birthdate, exact town name, same parents (with some spelling variations).  The new name (Morris) starts with the same letter and clearly anglicized.

I think we have it.  Same guy.

I thought I had a young Morris picture; I well might but take this 1920 picture instead.  Morris Baumann on the left...he's in is 60s

then
Clara Lederer Baumann
My grandfather Irwin Samuel Baumann holding my aunt ruth as a baby
Regina Weil Baumann
Robert Baumann? on right
Seated is my great aunt Gertrude with her first husband who nobody knows who he is.  Definitely not Uncle Mel.  My Rosenberg cousins are trying to figure it out but they don't have much to go on.