Running into a surname issue.

[Drunken Irishman]

I'm looking up my paternal grandma's family and I'm running into some surname issues. I've found Cook County Census information for the family and my grandmother's grandmother is only listed as having the family surname in this data and not her maiden name. I've tried searching for her first name in New York Census (where she was born), but there are just too many listings. All I know is that her first name is Della and her middle (maybe maiden) initial is T and that she was born in 1871. Outside of that, I have no idea where to go, since I don't have her parents name or the city she was born in.

Anyone have ideas on what I can do next? Thanks!

[Bitwit1234]

1. Well first you can do an exact search on

her first name and middle initial and the exact date she was born in the state. Then if too many pop up put the county you think. If you find a Della an some of the people in the family you know it is her.

I'll do a first search and see if it is too much of a problem.

[Bitwit1234]

2. Give me the family surname and I'll run down the people in New York.

[Cybergata]

13. You can find people in New York?

This is from the 1850 census for Erie, Pennsylvania:

Mathew Cole Sr. 68 M Carpenter
Sabrina Cole 48 F
Mathew Cole Jr. 19 M Farmer
Ira Cole 14 M

All Born in New York state

They were in New York at least in 1836 when Ira was born. I have no idea what Sabrina's last name is.

[Bitwit1234]

3. Did this

Could not find a Della T. But I ran Della born 1871. Found 37 and could eliminate all but 20 because they had middle initials other than T. But what you could do is list the first names of any of the children and I could check those 20 out. Looking at the father, mother and sister's first names. If you have several that match you might be sure this was her surname.

Then you could join the rootsweb genealogy list for that particular county in New York. Post the suspected name of your relative and see if any body has info to if she lived there, and if she moved to Illinois. My husbands, and sons couple of times great moved from Clinton County New York to Minnesota in 1850. I tracted him down that way , because they named the children the same as brothers in New York. He had a unique first name Ira but I found 20 Iras. And the childrens names found him for me.

[Drunken Irishman]

4. Thanks.

I did the same, but it seems so hard to tell. Firstly, I don't have a county she was born in, only the state, and New York is so freaking huge that it's very difficult finding anything out on her.

What I do have, however, is that her kids were:

Charles C Reetz
Albert E Reetz Jr.
Beatrice G Reetz
Ralph S Reetz

Now there are two Della's in the 1880 New York Census with fathers named Charles, Della Brainerd of Clinton, NY and Della Patchen of Schuyler, NY. But neither of them have any brother or sister that matches her kids' names.

Of course, that's assuming Della even lived in New York in 1880. She was only 9 then and it's possible the family moved.

Now it's possible the family moved to Illinois from 1871 to 1880, I do not know. The 1880 Census there shows 76 results, however, none were born in New York. Blah! Thanks for your help! :)

[Drunken Irishman]

5. Ok, so I found something else out.

Their first born was born in New York, or so says the 1900 Census. I also seem to have found the brother-in-law to the head of the house, with a surname of Masten. But there is no Della Masten born in 1871. And a search of Harry Masten only brings back one direct result to Della and her family. The 1920 Census shows that the son born in New York was still living with the family. But it does not give a city or county. I guess next I'll check birth records and New York Census results from the time he was born.

[Drunken Irishman]

6. Hm, could this be something?

I found a Delaphine Masten, the same surname as her supposed brother living with them in the 1900 Census. Della could be short for Delaphine (Delphine), since both share the same birth year and were born in New York. Since her brother was listed as being born in 1887, the 1880 Census which I'm looking at would not have listed him.

Of course, if this is her, it also lists that her relationship, along with the other kids in the house, are "other"...so with my luck, they were adopted.

[Bitwit1234]

8. That is sometimes...confusing.

My great grandfather was living with his daughter and her second husband and he was listed as other....but I knew it was him. And sometimes they are listed as boarders. So when you check remember this. I knew because I knew the relationship. But if you don't know the relationship to the head of household, it throws you off. That's another thing that makes this so interesting.

I kick myself when I think I didn't go into this 20 years ago. My father, mother and all my aunts and uncles were living and I could have gotten so much information.

[Bitwit1234]

7. I found a Della Jacoby born 1871

in Steuben, New York. Her father was Jacob and her mother was Elizabeth. It was in the 1880 New York census. I mention this because she was born 1871 and New York. There was another Della born 1871 Della Lamont. The rest of the others did not fit. This may not be a connection but it could be something to check out.

You know I love to work on these things when there is a mystery. It bugs me when I can't find something so I go on.

I had a Josephine Wright age 62 listed in the 1910 census with my great great uncle Thomas Smoot as sister in law. Well he had been married twice once to a Sarah Welch and then to a Roberta Fletcher. I have checked for 4 years and can not find a Josephine Wright...I checked all the Welch names for Josephine and all the Fletcher names for a Josephine. And to top it all she had a daughter Mary. I am still looking. When I get bored I go to the computer and search.

Before they posted all the stuff about bush on line. I went and checked down to find way back to his 5X great grandfather. When I feel like it I am going to search down Barbara Bush's cousin, President Franklin Pierce to see what he sprang from.

[fudge stripe cookays]

9. I ran your Della...

with last name Reetz in the IRAD database here:

(http://www.ilsos.gov/GenealogyMWeb/idphdeathsrch.html), and here's what I got:

REETZ DELLA T N/S UNK 0001570 1938-05-11 COOK - -

So what you can do is order her death certificate from the State of Illinois (she's in Cook County, which sounds promising), and it should give you her parents' names. It may only give you the state, but may include the city where she was born too. You can at least see if she's the right one.

Good luck!
:hi:
fsc

[Drunken Irishman]

10. Thanks for that.

So I was right about the T being the middle name. I'll have to see how much it costs and send for it, however, right now, I can't.

Grr, damn these people for not putting their maiden name there!

[fudge stripe cookays]

11. Honestly, the maiden names don't often appear in censuses.

You have to do workarounds to get there. I've gotten used to it. But death certificates are your friend.

Here's another idea. Ever use Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness? It has been a godsend to me while writing my book on my Smiths.

http://www.raogk.com/illinois.htm

Go to this link, then go down to the Cook County volunteers. Lois Hanley says she can get obituaries. An obit might provide some of the same information. In larger cities, sometimes the obits are a little more abbreviated, but it's worth a try.

[Drunken Irishman]

12. I'll have to try that link.

I've ran into problems with last names, but have been able to work around them. This, though, has been difficult. I wish it had been a smaller state they were from, not a major one like New York. I've looked through the 1880 Census, which would be around the time she was a girl in New York, narrowed it down to results showing parents born in New York, but still can't make much of a connection.