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 Tuesday, February 12, 2013
I think I've got it!, or, Cluster Genealogy Works!
Posted by Diane
A couple of weeks ago, I posted about my
third-great-grandmother's hard-to-read maiden name in her divorce
case file from 1879 to 1881. Many of you offered suggestions
for searching for her family in the 1850 and 1860 censuses—thank
you!
I tried those searches and I kept examining the case file for clues
... and I'm 98 percent sure I have the maiden name! It shows that cluster
genealogy works. Here's how it happened.
I saw this in my third-great-grandmother Mary Frost's testimony:
Her oldest child—my great-great-grandfather—George, stayed with
Mary's sister (unnamed here) and worked for the sister's husband, George Hartke, in his
grocery store.
I searched for George Hartke on Ancestry.com and found this in an 1878 city
directory for Covington, Ky.:
I then found his family in the 1880 census, under "Harke":
My great-great-grandfather is listed in the household as "nephew."
Interestingly, he's double-enumerated in his mother's household in
1880:
I turned my focus to George Hartke's wife and Mary Frost's
sister, Elizabeth. Death records often name parents, especially in
the 20th century (Mary's doesn't, though), so I looked for
Elizabeth's. Lo and behold:
Let's take a closer look:
Elizabeth's Oct. 22, 1931, death certificate reports her parents as
Henry Wolking and "Eliz." Evers, both born in Germany. I did some more census searching and believe the
informant, "Mrs. Henry Harke," is Elizabeth's daughter-in-law.
I still haven't found the Wolkings for sure in 1850 and 1860
census records. My best candidate so far is this Wolkins family in 1850:
The father's name doesn't match, which isn't great but also isn't a
deal breaker—he could've gone by his middle name or the census
taker could've talked to a neighbor, or Mrs. Henry Harke could have been wrong on the death certificate. This family does have a Mary,
Tilda (the divorce records refer to Mary's sister Matilda) and Lizzie of the right ages.
Learn more about how to use cluster genealogy in your research from
our on-demand webinar, Using
Cluster and Collateral Searches to Beat Brick Walls, presented
by Thomas MacEntee. It's available in ShopFamilyTree.com.
Originally posted at the Genealogy Insider blog.
Ancestry.com | census records | Female ancestors | Research Tips | Webinars
Tuesday, February 12, 2013 11:48:11 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00) 
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