The Crown Bridge

Several years ago, there was quite a flurry of piecing together my Crown genealogy, which is to say identifying five branches of children whose parents were Richard Crown and Sarah Meehan. We found DNA matches with descendants from four of the five branches, and then added family history notes that had been handed down to those descendants and which served to confirm knowledge of the other Crown sibling branches. It has been exhilarating to understand the Crown story better and to share it with modern-day researchers.

Now, in the course of corresponding with various Crown relations, I must share a little detail that has recently emerged. Here is an excerpt from a recent contact who described visiting her elder Crown relation last summer and going on a driving tour with him to the areas where the Crowns used to live. She wrote:

[he] brought us on a tour of the family locations in Leitrim - including a visit to tiny Crown Bridge (who knew we had a bridge named after our family?)

This brought to mind a correspondence I had in 2016 with a contact who belongs to my Crown family group:

[he] related a childhood memory. When he was a youngster ….. they would walk the 200 yards or so from their home to look at the night sky from a nearby bridge. It was known as Crown Bridge.

Could it be the same bridge? I asked Contact #1 for a photo, which was then forwarded to Contact #2 unlabeled to see if there was any hint of recognition. There was. There is indeed a common memory in both family groups of this same place, this unremarkable little wall that was built over a ditch and which today displays a small road marker: LM-R280-011.  See it from Google Earth.

For whatever reason, this bridge and its story move me in a way that locating records cannot. The Crown Bridge now represents to me a small portal into the time and place of the lives of several Crown families and generations. Descendants of those families are now scattered across the globe, but as we find each other now and attempt to look back, the roads leading to this little bridge can give us all a glimpse into the Ireland that our Crown and Travers families called home.

Nohn Schaefers

To review the family group of my 3rd g-grandparents, namely Johannes Schaefer and Margaretha Gipp, they had 10 children: one likely died as an infant, one became a priest, three remained in the Boppard area to raise their families, and four emigrated to the USA. That leaves one unaccounted for, Elisabeth, born 1828 in Udenhausen. I've never spent any time looking for her simply because I have come to some acceptance that a certain number of females in any given family simply vanish in time and space.

But the recent discovery of the Adams family from Wisconsin lead to an Ortsfamilienbuch that covers families who lived in Nohn, a place found in the Eifel mountain range of west Germany. That source has revealed more than just a passing reference to Elisabeth Adams, daughter of Josef Adams and Anna Maria Schaefer. It also mentions Elisabeth Schafer, a daughter of Johannes Schaefer and Margaretha Gipp! Unbelievable, but here is the missing daughter in our family group. Elisabeth Schaefer apparently married one Christopher Mueller in Aremberg in 1861, and she died in Nohn in 1888. So far I have not found any reference as to whether she had children.

So now we have accounted for all the children from the Schaefer family group which produced our ancestor who emigrated to America. But there is something more in that Nohn Ortsfamilienbuch. There is an entry for Margaretha Gripp (Gipp) which indicates that she was married to Johannes Schaefer who worked in Udenhausen, and they were the parents of Elisabeth who was born in Udenhausen. Wow. Now we have a whole new viewpoint in a whole new landscape.

Now that I'm looking, there indeed seem to be several links to Nohn in our Schaefer family.  Gerhard, the one who became a priest, preached at a church in Nohn.  Joseph, the youngest, became a teacher and taught for several years in Germany before coming to America. One of the places he taught was in the Eifel.  And now, we have discovered one daughter, Elisabeth, and a granddaughter, Elisabeth Adams, who ended up in Nohn or the surrounding area. The question is whether the family patriarch, Johannes, was originally from Nohn or Udenhausen. The two places are roughly 33 miles apart, as the crow flies. I suspect there must have been some kind of Schaefer family connection in Nohn, some good reason for both Johannes and for some of his children to be found there.

Perhaps all this explains why we have never been able to account for what happened to either of our 3rd g-grandparents.  Even more interesting might be the possibility that this is also telling us something about the previous Schaefer generation. A place called Nohn, no place like Nohn. Thus begins a new avenue of research, and yet more unraveling of our Schaefer family story.

The Adams Family

DNA matching has once again lead me to explore an apparent relation that I could not explain. It's one thing to find a fairly close and inexplicable match to me — that would be challenge enough. But it's quite another thing when my Schaefer first cousins share the same inexplicable match. That makes it Game On.

With very little to go on, I jumped into researching a family from Merrill, Wisconsin, and with some persistence, I was able to determine that one of the immigrants from that family group was from Germany, one Gerhard Adams. It's not hard to recognize that Gerhard is a name of German origin, but Adams? I never would have thought that Adams is a German surname, and surely if the family was German, then the surname Adams was an Americanization of some kind. But Nein. I was able to piece together the following clues:

• In an American record, the birthplace of Gerhard Adams was listed as Boffard, Germany. I've been doing this long enough now to recognize a possible if not probable mistranscription of old script handwriting. Given that my Schaefer family is from the Boppard region of Rheinland, the chances seem good that a DNA match to me could also have the same origins.
• A quick search for Gerhard Adams from Boppard produced a baptism record from a Roman Catholic church in Boppard for Gerhardus Adams, born in 1856 in Boppard, parents (in Latin) were Josephus Adams and Anna Maria Schaefer.  I would call this Deutsch Bingo.
• It so happens that our progenitors, Johannes Schäfer and Margaretha Gipp, had a daughter, Anna Maria, born in 1835 in Udenhausen. She would have been the right age to have been married in the mid-1850s and to have begun having children.

Further research has produced a Boppard Familenbuch, which not only names Josef Adams and Anna Maria Schaefer and most of their children along with all corresponding dates, but also the parents of both Josef and Anna Maria. For our interest, Anna Maria's parents were Johannes Schaefer and Margaretha Gipp of Udenhausen, my very own 3rd g-grandparents.

So now we welcome yet another Schaefer relation who pioneered in early America. But why did Gerhard Adams come to Wisconsin specifically, a place about midway between modern Minneapolis and Green Bay? Surely he had a reason, and perhaps it was familial. The bottom line is that the story of settling in early Wisconsin had its own tales of hardship and adventure. Gerhard Adams, son of Anna Maria Schaefer, traveled across the ocean and halfway across the US continent to Wisconsin where he married a Polish woman, and raised his family.  All their descendants are a part of the Udenhausen Schaefer legacy.

More Klein Cousins

Pauline Grimm, our 2nd g-grandmother from Strasbourg, and mother of our Marie Klein, had several other daughters, one of whom was named Emily (born Emilie Luise). The story of Emily's life has been a bit of a mystery because in 1910 she was living with her mother having the surname Locanthi. If we add to that memories from our Schaefer elders who remember Aunt Emily being with somebody named Bernie but with no memory of Bernie's surname, we are still left with mystery. Apparently Bernie and Emily had a couple of children, one of whom was associated with firefighting. Who exactly were Aunt Emily's family? Some answers are finally surfacing.

On 21 Jul 1909, Emily Klein married William B. Locanthi. What became of Locanthi or his marriage to Emily, I have found no trace.

However, I was able to locate a newspaper death announcement for Emily's sister Agnes who died in 1935. According to the article, Agnes was survived by a sister, Mrs. B. Austin. Sure enough, in the 1930 and 1940 census, we find Bernard Austin with a German-born wife named Emily, and two children, William and Sarah (also known as Mildred). So far, I have been unable to trace William Austin, but Mildred married Thomas Vincent Carney, who was a NY firefighter. Mildred and Thomas had one son whose children are our third cousins.

Bernie and Emily both died in the same year, 1954. They are buried at Greenfield Cemetery in Uniondale, Nassau, New York.

Vierling Sisters

As we know, I try to do an annual sweep of our family tree to see if anything new can be found with regard to my open questions, and at the top of that list is the question of whatever became of our 2nd g-grandparents, Peter Schaefer and his wife Maria Magdalena Vierling. There's still nothing new about Peter Schaefer --- it's almost certain that he died in Murray, Iowa and was likely buried in an unmarked grave there. But maybe a few more clues have popped up about Maria (aka Mary), who returned to Brooklyn and was last seen there in the 1900 census.

When reviewing yet again Maria's family, we know that she came from Dorndiel in Hesse, her parents were Georg Vierling and Maria Magdalena Boll, and that several of her siblings also came to America. Because the males are always easier to track, I've already spent some time looking at Maria's brothers, Adam and John Vierling. Adam spent his life in Brooklyn, and John eventually moved to Rhode Island. I thought surely that if Maria came back to Brooklyn as a widow with little kids, not only would her brothers have helped her out, but likely she might have been buried with one of their families when she died. The last time I was in NY, I visited the Most Holy Trinity Cemetery where Adam Vierling's family is buried (Most Holy Trinity is also where Maria was married to Peter Schaefer), but the cemetery records don't indicate any Mary Schaefer buried in that plot. I haven't checked RI cemetery records, but I have my doubts that our Mary would have been there when she died (some time after 1900 census).

This time around, however, I took note of Maria's arrival to NY on 7 May 1866. She was 16 years old, and she was accompanied by her 21-year-old sister, Catharina. I'm thinking if there was a closeness between siblings, it would have been between these two sisters. So what happened to Catharina (also spelled as Katharina)?

Catharina Vierling became the wife of Carl "Charles" Deckelman(n). She had several children, but those who survived to adulthood were Mary Louisa (Schultz), Eva (Fay), Katharina (Ostendorff), Frank J., and Adam. Catharina died in 1891 at the age of 47, and she was buried at St. John's in Middle Village. This was the clue I was looking for --- perhaps our Maria is buried at St. John's? The interment records for St. John's are now online, but whether our Maria is there is not sure (not knowing when she died is a bit of a problem). But this clue still calls for more investigation.

Meanwhile, it's somewhat uncanny how much the trail of Schaefer and Deckelman descendants have in common:

• From 1889-1892, we find Mary Schaefer living at 277 Devoe, just a few doors down from 271 Devoe where the family of Charles Deckelman was found. But Charles was a saloonkeeper, and after her sister died, I think Mary decided she needed to relocate. 
• From 1897-1899, we find Mary at 100 Bushwick. I'm wondering if she got there by way of Charles Deckelman's brother, Philip Deckelman, who lived at 125 Bushwick at that time. But Philip was in the same line of business as his brother, so I think Mary was still looking for a different residence. 
• The last we see of Mary Schaefer is at 895 Grand St. in Brooklyn where she was enumerated in 1900. This is the exact address where her nephew, Frank John Deckelman, lived for over 20 years starting some time just before WWI. Probably not a coincidence. 
• From 1920-1930 (about), Charles Schaefer lived with his family at 401 Seneca Ave. in Queens. After that, our grandfather, George Schaefer, lived at 1703 Palmetto St. in Queens before moving to Avenue W. Before 1940, Charles Schaefer's first cousin, Frank John Deckelman Sr. had moved from 895 Grand St. to 586 Senaca Ave. in Queens, and subsequently moved to 1665 Palmetto St. Up to WWII, these Schaefer-Deckelman cousins were never far from each other.

I've been thinking alot about sisters lately. Their bonds and their impact on their family's direction can be and has been and will always be significant. In this case, our 2nd g-grandmother, Maria Vierling, who was only 16 when she came to America, married at age 20 and traveled half-way across the continent, only to return to NY 10 years later as a widow. Maria had several Vierling siblings in Brooklyn, but it was her sister, Catharina, who Maria sought out. But their Sister Support System could not hold up to the world of grief still ahead: in 1890, Georg Vierling, the family patriarch, died in Germany; in 1891, Maria's beloved sister Catharina died, followed a few years later by Catharina's husband, leaving the youngest Deckelman children as orphans, and in 1893, Maria's oldest son, 22-year-old Louis, also died. How did Maria endure?

I have to close my eyes for a moment of quiet to fully appreciate the strength of our gg-grandmother's character. In 1866, two young Vierling sisters had come on their own to a country where English was not their native language and to a city that was bursting with both opportunity and deadly misfortunes (disease, unemployment, World Wars). Neither Vierling sister lived an easy or a long life in America, but it seems clear to me that in having each other, they together instilled the drive to move forward in the next generation. Without one sister, the fortitude of the other could not have been the same, which, I am convinced, enabled the surviving children of both sisters to find their way into a better future.

Our Clancy Clan in NY

I have often wondered what inspired Patrick Crown to come to NY when he did, thinking there might have been some Crown relations who preceded him there. But as has often turned out true throughout our family history, it was not just the male side of the family that effected change, it was also the female side. Indeed, it turns out that some of Ann Clancy's siblings were in Flatbush, NY before the American Civil War, and the rest of Ann's immediate family, including her mother, Jane Gilroy Clancy, came over after the war in the mid-1860s. In fact, our Ann might even have been the last in her immediate family to come to America (we're not sure when her brother Lackey arrived, some time before 1875).

Learning about our Clancy family is a work in progress, but here's what I have gleaned so far:

• Joanna "Jane" Gilroy, 1814-1894, married to Charles Clancy in Ireland, and was apparently a widow by the time of the 1857 Griffiths Valuation in Barr of Farrow, Cloonclare, Leitrim, Ireland. She probably arrived in NY in 1865 when she was in her early 50s, accompanied by her youngest daughter, Margaret, 18.
• Catherine Clancy, 1833-1892, married an older real estate dealer, Roger Clancy (we don't know yet if he was related); she did not have children who survived her.
• John Clancy, 1837-1898, married Mary Clancy in NY (again we don't know yet if she was related); they had 8 children.
• Mary Clancy, 1840-1903, married in NY first John Collins who died by 1875, they had 4 children; married second Robert Martin. Supposedly Mary's first child, Mary, was born in New York in 1858, which would mean her mother emigrated before that, thus implying the earliest date of our Clancy family in America (so far).
• Ann Clancy, 1842-1888, married Patrick Crown in Ireland in 1860, arrived in NY just before 1870. As we know, they had 9 children.
• Malachy Clancy, 1844-1896, also known as Lackey as well as by his Americanized name of Alex or Alexander, married in NY to Ann Murphy in 1876; they apparently had 4 children, none of whom survived.
• Manus Clancy, 1845-1914, a real estate dealer, never married.
• Margaret Clancy, 1847-1910, married in NY to Thomas Rooney, they had 7 children.

There's a possibility of other children who belonged to this family group, in particular one James Clancy, born abt 1831 who married Catherine Murphy. James died in Ireland, but his children also later came to America and seem to have ties to this family group. Research is ongoing.

Meanwhile back in Brooklyn, in 1881 Patrick Crown purchased property on East New York Ave. from his sister-in-law, Catherine Clancy Clancy, who had just been widowed at that time. Patrick paid $600, and so far, that transaction is the earliest deed record I can find of Crown-owned properties in Brooklyn. There's no question, however, that our Crown legacy in Brooklyn got its start from our Clancy roots.

The Non-Existent Crown Child

I've heard stories about how some genealogies contain names of people who never existed, and I always wondered how that could even be possible. But now I think I just caught myself in the very act! Here's how.

As I have long stated, Patrick Crown and Ann Clancy had six children before coming to America, among them two sets of twins, the last set born just before the emigration to NY. How do I know that? From the 1870 census of Flatbush which shows the six Irish-born Crown children: Richard, 10; Sarah, 6; Charles and Kate, 4; and John and Patrick, 1. Other interesting notes of this census are that Mrs. Clancy, 60, (probably Ann's mother, see previous post) seems to have been head of household, and Ann's husband, Patrick Crown, does not seem to be accounted for.

But now that many of the Irish records are coming online, I've been able to look up the birth records for those six Crown children born in Ireland, and lo, I found only five: Richard, Sarah, Charles, Kate, and John. Especially if John was a twin of Patrick, then the two would have been baptized and registered at the same time. But no, only John. How strange.

Going back to NY, I remembered that the Crown children who died young were named on the family gravestone at Holy Cross. Sure enough, there are the names Margaret, Catherine, John, and Manus "who died young." No Patrick. There is no doubt in my mind that if Patrick and Ann had a son named Patrick who died young, his name would have been included on that gravestone.

So! No birth record in Ireland for Patrick Crown born in 1869, nor mention of him on the family gravestone in Brooklyn. I am coming to the conclusion that there was never a child born to Patrick and Ann named Patrick. In that case, who was the Patrick Crown, age 1, enumerated on the 1870 census? I have no explanation other than error by the census-taker. Patrick Crown, the adult, was probably not home at the time of enumeration, but his name was mentioned. And with so many kids running (or crawling) around, were there five or were there six? The census said six, but there really were only five. Lesson learned: every single genealogical record found needs to be corroborated in some way.

So for our family record, I am removing the name of Patrick Crown, b. 1869, from the family tree of Patrick Crown and Ann Clancy. May this non-existent child RIP.