The family story was that Charles and a sister, Barbara, came to the United States from Germany. The problem was, nobody knew anything else about Barbara!
In the summer of 2003, Ancestry.com had been adding
newspapers to their databases. It was
accessible by paid subscription and I had access to this information as part of
my subscription. One day, while searching
for anything related to the name of Pfeiffer, I ran across the obituary
for Charles William Pfeiffer from
1907 in The Elyria Republican from Lorain County, OH. The clues in the obituary sent me out on a
whirlwind internet trail to find his sister, Barbara.
Clue Number 1: The Obituary
From The Elyria Republican, Elyria, OH 2 May 1907:
Charles William Pfeifer was born in Wurtemburg,
Germany, August 13, 1832. He,
with his sister, Barbara, came to this country at the age of eighteen and
landed in Cleveland, where he made his home for several years. He was married to Sophia Rugger of Grafton,
Ohio, May 28, 1859. To them were born
nine children and thirty grandchildren.
One son and grandson died in infancy; one granddaughter at the age of
ten. He moved to Grafton Ohio in March
1863, where he lived on his farm for forty-four years. In the fall of 1896, he lost everything by
fire and since then began to fail in health.
He was a member of the Belden Methodist Episcopal church for thirty
years where he joined by letter. He
leaves a wife, six sons and two daughters and twenty-eight grandchildren, by
whom he will always be missed. A
peculiar coincidence is to mention the death of his sister, Barbara March 14,
and who was buried on the day of his death, March 16, 1907. The funeral services were held in the M E
church conducted by his pastor Rev. Thistle.
At the urging of my ever-present guiding forces, I went to
the Cleveland Necrology Files at http://www.cpl.org/LinksLibrary. Having used this website before, it was only
a hope and a prayer that I would find anything.
I only knew her first name – I had no clue what her last name was. So, I entered the name Barbara. Of course, there were many Barbara’s that
came up. The website allows you to sort
by date, so I proceeded to do that.
Well, that certainly helped – only two Barbara’s came up for March of
1907. One lived in Cleveland and one
lived in Louisville, KY
Id#: 0041543
Name: Bucher,
Barbara Ann
Date: March 12, 1907
Source: Source unknown; Cleveland Necrology File,
Reel #011.
Notes: Bucher-Barbara Ann, widow of the late Theodore and
sister of Mrs. Frank Mack, entered into rest after a lingering illness,
Saturday afternoon, aged 71 years. Funeral from her late residence, 7508
Carnegie ave. (416 E. Prospect, old no.), Tuesday at 10:30 a. m. Friends
invited. Burial private. Canton and Akron papers please copy.
This Barbara’s ages does not match the time frames
involved, nor are any of the names familiar.
Id#: 0177936
Name: Kerbel,
Barbara
Date: March 20, 1907
Source: Source unknown; Cleveland Necrology File,
Reel #044.
Notes: Kerbel-Barbara, entered into rest Thursday,
March 14, 1907, at 4 a. m., aged 80 years, at son's residence, 404-1/2 E.
Chestnut St., Louisville, Ky. Funeral Saturday morning from residence. Burial
private. No Flowers.
Aha, a BARBARA
aged 80 – well the age is right. Now that name, Kerbel - where have I seen that name? It is so very
familiar to me.
Clue Number 2: An old photo
A few years ago, a cousin, Janice Pfeiffer Sprenkle, gave me a scrapbook of pictures and other
information from her side of the family.
I had copied all the information and made my own scrapbook from that
information. There was a picture in that
scrapbook of two people, in KY and on the back it said “cousins”. I had no clue who these people were or where
they belonged, or if they indeed were “cousins”. But, as all genealogists know, no clue is too
small or too big.
I got out the copy of the scrapbook and found the picture
of LIZZIE AND CARL KERBEL of
Louisville, KY. Oh my gosh! Can this be related to the Barbara in the
obituary? Is it possible I may have
found her after 150 years? Don’t let
yourself get too excited; you have a lot to prove yet, I said to myself.
(On the back of this picture is
written)
Cousin Lizzie Kerbel & son Carl
At their home in Louisville,
KY Sept 4, 1937
During the flood, water was 5-½ ft deep on street –
government boats went up and down the street and took people supplies. Was shut in for about 2 weeks.
My aunt, Norma
Werner Kraps, had often said that her grandfather, my great-grandfather, Henry
Pfeiffer, son of Charles
William, made several trips to Kentucky to visit relatives in the 1930’s. He would take the train, but she never knew
whom he went to see or where he went. I
have seen pictures of Pfeiffers in a quarry type picture from Kentucky, but
there was no identification otherwise to the picture.
Additional clues from the Internet:
I went to Ancestry.com to see what I could find on the
surname of KERBEL.
1. Ancestry.com has a database of Kentucky death
records. In checking that out. I found:
Kerbel, Carl F (This may be Barbara’s grandson),
Volume: 61,Certificate:30421,
Death Date: 8 November 1971, Death Place: Jefferson, Age:
85. Residence: Jefferson
Kerbel, Charles J (Is this the son of Barbara),
Volume: 5. Certificate: 2461
January, 1929,
Death Place: Jefferson, Age: 67, Residence: Jefferson
Kerbel, Elizabeth M (Is this Lizzie-Carl J’s wife?),
Volume: 37, Certificate:18341
Death Date: 20 August, 1943, Death Place: Jefferson, Age:
082, Residence: Jefferson
Kerbel, Margaret (Is this Carl F’s wife?),
Volume: 18, Certificate: 8528, Death Date: 9 April, 1971
Death Place: Jefferson, Age: 67, Residence:
Jefferson
2. In a family tree
submitted to www.genealogy.com, there is a Carl
Kerbel born about 1884, that married a Margaret Zurfluh and appeared to have married in Louisville, KY. If I go back to the Kentucky Death Records,
we see that a Margaret Kerbel died
in 1971.
3. Going back to
the Cleveland Necrology files, I found:
Id#: 0177937 Name: Kerbel,
C. Joseph
Date: Jan 23 1929
Source: Source unknown; Cleveland Necrology File,
Reel #044.
Notes: Kerbel-C. Joseph, at the residence, 1322 1st
Street, Louisville, Ky., 10:15 Tuesday, morning, age 67years. Services at the chapel of Mass Bros., Louisville,
Ky., Thursday, Jan 24, at 2 p. m.
This is definitely looking promising at this point. Now, let me see if I can find a marriage
license in Cuyahoga County for Barbara Pfeiffer. Many Probate Courts are adding
information to their websites, and I knew that Cuyahoga County had an index of
old marriages.
4. By going to the
Cuyahoga County Probate Court records (http://probate.cuyahogacounty.us/ml/pa.urd/mliw1000.display),
I found the following:
PFEIFFER, BARBARA (Bride) HINDERER, HEINREICH(Groom)
Vol. 9, Page 189, Line 44
This says that Barbara Pfeiffer and Heinreich Hinderer
were married between 1810 and 1960. Does
this mean that Barbara was married to somebody else first? Another
possible mystery to solve?
Looking under the surname KERBEL, I found:
KERBEL, JOSEPH(Groom) BRESSMAN, MARIA T(Bride) Vol. 9, Page 189, Line 55
Since neither of these two marriage records showed the
spouse that I was looking for, was I to believe that perhaps there was a second
marriage for both? Or perhaps, were the
records not transcribed properly, as we note that both marriages are in the
same volume and on the same page, only lines apart from each other.
5. Meanwhile, in
the LDS records at www.familysearch.org,
I found:
KERBLE, Joseph married Barbara PFEIFFER on
December 5, 1858 in Cuyahoga County.
This record is documented with
Batch No M514233 and Source Call
No 0877914 V. 6-9.
This record has been microfilmed from the original source. Now, this seems more reliable.
6. Now, on to the
Census Records.
In looking at the 1860 Census for Ohio, in Cuyahoga
Co., I found: Charles
Pfeifer age 28 – no occupation – born in Wuerttemburg, with Sophia age 24
also born in Wuerttemburg, and Frederick 3 months old born in Ohio. But, I find no Barbara Pfeiffer or Barbara
Kerbel.
I cannot locate Barbara’s family on the 1870 Census.
On the 1880 Census in Cuyahoga County we find: KERPEL, Joseph, 54
Husband-Married-Laborer, born in Holland; his wife, Barbara age 53, born in
Holland; son, Joseph age 19 born in OH; and son Frederick age 16 born in OH.
Now, the only problem with this is that it shows Barbara
as being born in Holland as were her parents.
This is an error if this is the right family – and I am sure that it
is. It would also indicate that they
were most likely living in Ohio up to this time.
On the 1900 Census from New York, New York County I found:
KERBEL, Charles J
– Head , born April 1861 in OH, parents both born in Germany; Elizabeth, wife,
born February 1861 Isle of Guernsey-as were her parents; son, Carl born Dec.
1885 in OH; daughter, Madaline born April 1888 in OH. Again, no Barbara Kerble
is found
Charles is a Stationary Engineer. Elizabeth immigrated to the US in 1870 and
has lived in the US for 30 years. They
rent a house at 677 E. 134th St.
In the 1920 Kentucky Census I found: Kerbel, C. Joseph , Age: 58, Birthplace: OH,
County: JEFFERSON, Locale: 6-WD; LOUISVILLE; 37-PCT; Living at 1322 First – Louisville,
KY; KERBEL, C. Joseph – 58, Mary E age 58 and Carl age 33.
The information from the 1900 Census matches as to birth
locations. It states that Carl at 33 is
single. It also states that Mary E
immigrated in 1869 and is a Naturalized Citizen. C. Joseph is an officer for a Consumer Co.,
and Carl is a foreman in a machine shop.
To this point, my internet search has taken about 2 hours.
7. The next step
would be to order copies of the death certificates from the Commonwealth of
Kentucky. I put off ordering the death
certificates for various reasons until early in 2005. I ordered the death certificates of Barbara’s
son, Charles Joseph; Carl, his son; and Elizabeth Kerbel.
After speculating for almost 2 years, and waiting another 8 weeks for the death certificates, upon receipt of the death certificates, it indeed verified that Barbara Pfeiffer was the mother of Charles Joseph Kerbel.
After speculating for almost 2 years, and waiting another 8 weeks for the death certificates, upon receipt of the death certificates, it indeed verified that Barbara Pfeiffer was the mother of Charles Joseph Kerbel.
Barbara was no longer lost to the family. After 150 years, she was found.
The next confirmation of this was from a book of records
from the Emmanuel E & R Church in Valley City, Ohio compiled by Paul
Hartman. This church was established in
1838 and the index is for the years 1847-1920.
In 1869, this church was re-constructed and among the 40 members supporting
this was Karl Pfeifer.
In looking through the index of this church record, I found
that in 1860, the first son of Karl Wilhelm and Sophie Pfeiffer, Frederick, was
born and baptized. Barbara and Joseph
Kerbl were the second and third godparents. Sophia’s sister, Friederike, was the 4th
godparent. Sophie’s uncle, Paul Reutter
(Ruegger) was the first godparent.
Another confirmation that Barbara married a Kerbl (Kerbel) and was still in northeast Ohio.
As yet another confirmation that this is the correct Barbara
Pfeiffer, in September, 2005 I found the following newspaper article from The
Elyria Chronicle of March 20, 1907:
Mr. Will Pfeifer’s father died Saturday morning. He and his sister came to this country from
Germany some years ago and she lived in Louisville, KY. She was buried Saturday, the date of his
death.
There are still pieces of the puzzle missing, however. What happened to Barbara’s grand-daughter,
Madaline that appears on the 1900 Census?
What happened to Frederick Kerpel from the 1880 Census? Where are Barbara and her family on other
census records? Those are still puzzles
to solve another day.
So, never discard a photo, read the obituaries, scour the
internet and have lots of patience! You
never know what you will find or where you will find it. Perhaps even you can solve your family
mysteries.
Margaret Lance Cheney
Originally written 17 September 2005
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