In 1854, when Maier Zunder had only been in the US for six years, he sent money back to Bavaria for the emigration of his mother Besla and his two sisters, Sarah and Getta. In the various records available on Ancestry, I could see Besla living in Maier's household. I knew that Sarah married Ernest Feuchtwanger and I could see her household in the census records.
But Getta? Where's Getta, couldn't find any trace of her. Did she even get to America? Did she die? What? A few weeks ago I found Besla, Sarah and Getta on a passenger list. So I knew that she did get here.
Then, when looking at Maier Zunder's will (I already wrote about this), in the paragraph about bequests to his siblings, I found a reference to a Bernhard Simon.
Remember, I asked, who is this guy?
So I'm going through all my binders of newspaper articles. And I find this article in my binders from 1892
Bella Simon ages 19, daughter of B. Simon and a niece of Mr. Zunder, died at the home of her parents 100 Church Street last evening of consumption. She had been an invalid some time.
There's that name Simon. Mr. Zunder's niece? How?
So I look in ancestry and on jewish gen, there's a record for Belle Simon with the right death date
Father B
Mother G
Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
Could the 'G' be Getta?
So I look for get? Simon
and guess who comes up
Getta Simon
In New Haven
I have her birth date as 1831, 1870 census has 1836. Married to Bernard Simon with a bunch of kids.
There she is, Getta.
I let my teacher know as this question has been mentioned in class several times over the course of the year. She's going to present it as yet another way of solving a mystery using a variety of sources.
Picture from "This is Connecticut" that I'm returning to the library today. Called Racing the Engine in 1872 from New Haven. The scan goes across the middle of the book. But a cool picture and just how things were in Maier and Getta's time.
No comments:
Post a Comment