By Eileen Matzek Davis, Osage County Researcher
New and renewing members of Osage County Historical Society are encouraged to make comments at the bottom of the membership form. These are all interesting, some complimentary, and some that really give me something to think about. Recently, one of our members pointed out that we often do stories about one of the many immigrant groups who settled in Osage County, particularly after the Civil War. She found this commendable, but stated that we had neglected the folks from Germany.
Well, I thought to myself and then to other volunteers, there just wasn’t that many of them. (Remember, I am not a native of Osage County and, after 25 years, I am still learning.) They hastily corrected me and listed names of people still living in the area that were obviously Germanic. And, of course, they were correct.
So I launched into a very unscientific study by using census records. I did this by telling Ancestry.com that I wanted a list of all the inhabitants of Osage County who had been born in Germany in a particular census year and location. (Ancestry.com obliges by providing a complete list of names, the township they lived in and even breaks it up in groups of 50 per page and then the exact number.) This would include men, women and children, of course, but I thought it would be a fair comparison and I used that same rule to check out numbers of people who had been born in Sweden, France and Italy. So here are the results of my very unscientific survey.
I was pretty certain that the Swedes would top the list, but compare Germany and Sweden in 1880 and 1885. I was surprised to say the least. Last of all, I decided not to use the Welsh or Irish because I thought their numbers would be way up there also. I used only those from continental Europe because their boundaries were close.
Many thanks to Nathalie Crew for her insightful comment and my inspiration.
P.S. to Nathalie: I took a quick look at a Stockman family in our vertical files that I had researched some years ago. I learned in the 1900 U.S. Census that Christian Stockman, born in Germany in 1819, immigrated in 1882, was living in Junction Township and that he was buried in the Vassar Cemetery. I also found Gustav Stockman, born 1853 in Germany (Saxony), immigrated in 1881, and lived in Fairfax Township. Were they father and son? Wilhelm’s wife’s name was Meta and one of Gustav’s known children named their daughter Meta. As usual, research always begets another mystery. Perhaps you know the answer. Thanks.
The Research Center of Osage County Historical Society
Did you know that in addition to our huge collection of county, township and city records and family histories, that we also have access to genealogy forums online? And that members and walk-ins are welcome to use our wi-fi to do their own research or we can help them with our computer and microfilm reader. Here’s an example of how this might work for you.
I recently found under a large table on the floor of the research room, a funerary memorial card, all in black with gold print with this information: “Alexander Thomas, died Dec 9, 1918, Age 42 Years. Gone but not Forgotten.” I thought it may have fallen from a scrapbook of World War II letters, articles and mementos collected by a young woman of Scranton. These articles and letters were from classmates and friends. The album was in disrepair and I enclosed it in an archivally-safe box, which would keep other items from falling, and put it back on the shelf.
But that card created more questions as usual, so I used Findagrave.com to learn that Thomas had been buried in the Scranton Cemetery and it listed his parents, his siblings, his wife and one child. The information on this website is provided by volunteers and this one included his obituary which had run in the Burlingame Enterprise, Dec. 12, 1918.
Then I used Ancestry.com and learned that he was the son of Alexander Thomas who had been born in Richmond, Va., and died in Burlingame in 1931. Alex Sr. was the son of Edward Thomas, who was born in 1810 in Cornwall, England, and died in Placer County, Calif., in 1850-51, the Gold Rush years! Edward was the son of William Thomas, born 1781 and died in 1858 in Ilogan Downs, Illogan, Cornwall. William’s father was also William, born about 1735 and died in 1803.
All these facts were learned in about 30 minutes of research time and because I am always curious. If you have a brick wall, if you haven’t looked at your family history in forever, or if you’ve thought about looking at your history, come see us, call us, or email us. We would love to help.
For more information, contact the Osage County Historical Society at 785-828-3477 or 785-220-3839, osagechs@gmail.com, or visit at 631 Topeka Ave., Lyndon, Kan.
GERMANY SWEDEN FRANCE ITALY
1875 199 385 44 1
1880 116 599 104 18
1885 611 104* 165 136
1895 397 840 286 402
1900 362 711 170 115
