The Orphan in My Family Tree, Part 8
This is Part 8 of The Orphan in My Family Tree. It is the true tale of my ongoing search for the parents of my great great grandpa Fritz, who was orphaned in New York City in the late 1870s and sent, at the age of seven, to live with a foster family in Bow Valley, Nebraska. The Thing About Research: Sometimes it is slow. In December, I wrote about a newspaper article that seemed full of promise and exciting clues about the orphanage from which Fritz was possibly sent to Nebraska. Ironically, my last post included the statement, “I can’t wait…
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The Orphan in My Family Tree, Part 7
This is Part 7 of The Orphan in My Family Tree. It is the true tale of my ongoing search for the parents of my great great grandpa Fritz, who was orphaned in New York City in the late 1870s and sent, at the age of seven, to live with a foster family in Bow Valley, Nebraska. Breaking News! The first six posts in this series are both a summation of and reflection about the past decade I have spent winnowing through records and learning about the orphans and neighborhoods of 1880s New York City, the organizations involved in placing out those…
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The Orphan in My Family Tree, Part 6
This is Part 6 of The Orphan in My Family Tree. It is the true tale of my ongoing search for the parents of my great great grandpa Fritz, who was orphaned in New York City in the late 1870s and sent, at the age of seven, to live with a foster family in Bow Valley, Nebraska. Finding Fritz a Mom Frustrated at not finding proof linking Fritz further to the Five Points House of Industry, but even more determined than ever, I started to look at other records from New York around 1880. I searched for Fritz and his possible parents…
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The Orphan in My Family Tree, Part 5
This is Part 5 of The Orphan in My Family Tree. It is the true tale of my ongoing search for the parents of my great great grandpa Fritz, who was orphaned in New York City in the late 1870s and sent, at the age of seven, to live with a foster family in Bow Valley, Nebraska. Pictured above: Sue, Hilaria, Ray and Lawrence Brandt in 1926 at their father Fritz’s funeral. 1880s New York: City of Orphans In the last post about Fritz’s Adult Life in Nebraska, I relied on records to confirm some of the basic details of Fritz’s life. I…
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The Orphan in My Family Tree, Part 4
This is Part 4 of The Orphan in My Family Tree. It is the true tale of my ongoing search for the parents of my great great grandpa Fritz, who was orphaned in New York City in the late 1870s and sent, at the age of seven, to live with a foster family in Bow Valley, Nebraska. Fritz’s Adult Life in Nebraska Reaffirming the details of Fritz’s adult life through census records, marriage records, birth certificates, and other church and county records provides a picture of his family life in adulthood and (I’m hoping) potential clues to his earlier life, before he…
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The Orphan in My Family Tree, Part 3
This is Part 3 of The Orphan in My Family Tree. It is the true tale of my ongoing search for the parents of my great great grandpa Fritz, who was orphaned in New York City in the late 1870s and sent, at the age of seven, to live with a foster family in Bow Valley, Nebraska. Young Fritz Arrives in Nebraska I first jumped into Fritz’s story as many of us jump into family histories — backwards. I am fortunate that my mother, who after her “first retirement” became a certified genealogist, has always been interested in family history and is…
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The Orphan in My Family Tree, Part 2
This is Part 2 of The Orphan in My Family Tree. It is the true tale of my ongoing search for the parents of my great great grandpa Fritz, who was orphaned in New York City in the late 1870s and sent, at the age of seven, to live with a foster family in Bow Valley, Nebraska. What’s in a Name? One of the challenges of beginning to search for records for an ancestor is determining what names your ancestor might have been called, and determining what spellings of their name may have been used by the different people recording or transcribing…
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The Orphan in My Family Tree
I’d like you to meet Fritz. He is my great great grandfather on my mother’s mother’s mother’s side. His parents are a mystery in my family tree, and I love a good mystery. Family lore informs us that Fritz, whose real name was Frederick, was born sometime in the early 1870s in New York City. According to family stories, Fritz had parents who grew sick and died in one of the many epidemics that swept through the tenements of Kleindeutschland, on the lower east side of Manhattan, in the late 1870s. He may have stayed with a grandmother for a…
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Dog-eared & Overdue 