Over the years I have hunted (and thought I found) the ship list for my ancestor George Seitz. I discovered there were many George Seitz’ coming from Germany in the early 1800s. Each were young men coming to the US alone, from and to various ports. Some were coming into New York and some into the port of Baltimore. I had no additional information to know if any of them were MY George Seitz. The FAN (Friends, Associates, and Neighbors) method didn’t work either. Looking at each ship list. there weren’t any names that matched neighbors living in Washington City (DC) near George.
I knew George married in 1839 in Washington City (DC). From census records I was able to narrow down his date of birth to between 1814-1816, making him about 24 years old when he married. The census records also gave a variety of birth locations.
Remember census information is only as good as those providing the information and those recording it. Someone in the household who answered the door may not have complete information regarding everyone in the household. It is best to use a combination of the earliest record you can find, and a correlation of other documents.
Here is what mine looked like:
George’s naturalization record completed in 1852 was affirmed by him directly. This was a primary source with his affidavit of his place of birth in “the free city of Frankfurt.” The next page: “George Seitz, German – aged 32 yrs. old, arrived in US before he was 18 years of age and has continued residence, moved by John W Zekloff.” This was a secondary source but gave me a clue. George may have immigrated to the US no later than 1835.
When I finally decided to search in earnest to find George on a ship list, I thought about how families most often traveled together when they left their home abroad. I started with what I knew about his immediate family. Another distant family member and researcher found a newspaper clipping that mentioned my great grandfather Clinton Seitz. It tied my Seitz family members to the Wills (originally Vill) family.
The marriage record of Margerite and Johann Charles Vill was also tricky to find. She was listed as Margaret Sides and he as Johann Well. John Wills [Vill] married Margerite, George’s sister on 29 November 1834 in Washington City. This told me the family came from Frankfurt prior to that date.
This information led me to change my method of research. Instead of looking for George Seitz, I searched the archives for ship lists of those arriving in the US prior to November of 1834 naming Margerite Seitz, George’s sister. It took only minutes to find her. It wasn’t that Margerite’s name was uncommon but the definitive moment I found the correct record was seeing not only George’s name and his sister Margerite, but the man she was betrothed to, Johann Vill.
There they were listed together, arriving from the port of the sovereign state Bremen on the Brig Paoli. The Seitz family arrived at the port of New York, 29 May 1834, long before Ellis Island and Castle Gardens were established.
What I Learned
I am good at trying different strategies of research, but this was a narrowly defined type of record. I was able to narrow down the timeframe from other records, but a ship list is a ship list. I learned that in this case changing the search to another immediate family member provided another avenue of research for the same record type.
What brick wall have you overcome by changing your research strategy?
Love this! It’s so fun to discover more about family members.