One of my New Year’s resolutions this year is to post more to this poor neglected blog. So I’ve decided to start a weekly post, This Week in my Genealogy, highlighting some of the people in my Conrad-Todd-Garrison-Carman database.

And to show how far behind I am in updating the web version of that database, I am going to start with two people who are not even on that site, along with their brother whose information is way out of date. Georg Peter & Johannes Hornef were born December 28, 1824 in Otterberg, Germany and are one of the few pairs of twins that I have in my database. They were born to Georg Peter Hornef & Katharina Cherdron. I found them through the FamilySearch Record Search pilot. Their older brother, Jacob Hornef, was my Great-great-great grandfather who emigrated to Philadelphia in the 1840’s. He was born on January 2, 1819 in Otterberg. I’ve already posted about my Hornef discoveries through Record Search, which is also where I found Jacob’s birth information, so I won’t go into it much here.

From some of my newest finds, to one of my earliest. Actually this wasn’t my find at all, but my grandfather’s. When I first became interested in genealogy, my grandmother brought out some papers of my late grandfather’s research into the family history. Included were the Civil War pension file records of his grandfather James B. Garrison. One hundred fifty years ago this week, on Jan 1, 1859, James B. Garrison married Emma M. Ireland in Bridgeton, NJ. The image below is from those pension file documents. Click on it to see the full-sized scan.

I came across Katharina Horneff’s obituary by accident. I wasn’t expecting to find it. Horneff¹ is one of the few unique surnames I have and I search it on any new database I find. In this case it was in GenealogyBank which has the Philadelphia Inquirer from 1834-1922. In my results was an obituary for Katharina Horneff from 1911. It stated that the funeral would be at her grandson, Jacob Carman’s house. Seems cut and dry, but I still had to check to make sure it was my Jacob Carman since there were two of the same age in Philadelphia at the time. It took me awhile to be convinced, too, despite the unique name and the grandson being named. The truth was I thought I would never find Katharina Horneff. Indeed, I didn’t even know that was her name.

My grandmother’s grandmother was Catherine² Horneff Carman and she passed away in 1913. I had no luck in finding her on the Census records³ before she married and only her father was listed on her death certificate. I thought her mother had therefore passed away long before and Catherine’s family had either not met her or had forgotten her name. Not only had they known her, she had passed away only two years before her daughter!

Another new genealogy site, FamilySearch’s Record Search Pilot, brought me more on Katharina Horneff. I found her death certificate which listed her birth date and her parents’ names (Leonhard Faber & Eva Huber). And then, I hit a gold mine. The family I thought I would never get anywhere with, led me straight back to Europe for the first time in my genealogical research.

Record Search has indexed church records from Otterberg, Germany and like a clichéd plot device, that is exactly where my Horneffs happened to be from. I found the Marriage record for Jacob and Katharina Faber Horneff which listed both of their parents. I found Katharina’s christening record with the same birth date as on her death certificate. I found Catherine Horneff’s christening record listing her parents Jacob and Katharina, as well as her full birth date. I had had only the month and year before. I was certain that these were my ancestors.

The Fabers were a bit of a dead end, but the Horneffs were all over the place. I found Jacob’s parents (Georg Peter Horneff and Catherine Cherdron) and grandparents (David Horneff & Susanne Weber and Johann Philipp Cherdron & Margarethe Port). And I found siblings of them all as well.

After doing some googling, I found a book called 300 Jahre Auswanderung aus Otterberg which I was able to get through Interlibrary Loan and which informed me rather mysteriously that Jacob Horneff and his wife and daughter, and later Eva Faber and her son Carl, had emigrated “secretly” from Otterberg in 1846 and 1850 respectively.

This gives me some hope my other dead ends as well: Nicholas & Catharine (Emmering/Emmerling?) Conrad, Joseph & Frances Funston, Charles & Caroline (Brill) Carman, Samuel & Lydia (Burch) Garrison, and more. There will always be dead ends. May they all be temporary.

1. Horneff was also found as Hornef
2. Mother and daughter, Katharina and Catherine, were found as Katharina, Katherina, Kathrina, Katherine, Catherine, etc. I settled on Katharina and Catherine to help keep them straight.
3. I have since found the Horneffs on all the applicable censuses.

More cousins. I came across an obituary for Louise V. Funston who was the wife of Walter F. Funston. Walter was the son of John H. Funston who was the brother of my great-grandmother, Anna May Funston Carman.

Thankfully, it was not a Philadelphia obituary in which you are lucky if it lists a spouse. The obituary was from the Times-Leader in Wilkes-Barre and listed not only her spouse and children, but also her birth date and place and her parents names. So, I was able to find her in the 1900-1920 censuses with her parents and siblings.

See Walter, Louise & family in my database.

JACOBSON: 1900 Census: PA Philadelphia
15 Ward, p1A, 01 June 1900

1540 Wallace Street
10 10 Jacobson, Frank E. Head         W M Sept 1860  39 M 13     
                   IN NC   PA Trav. Salesman (Drugs)
                Julia E. Wife         W F Jan  1864  36 M 13 5/2 
                   PA Germ PA
              Rebecca S. Daughter     W F Nov  1891   8 S        
                   PA IN   PA
              Charles H. Son          W M Apr  1894   6 S        
                   PA IN   PA

JACOBSON: 1910 Census: PA Philadelphia
32 Ward, p5A, 18 April 1910

2022 Diamond Street
89 89 Jacobs, Frank  Head         W M 49 M 23 7/4    IN IN   PA  
                 Own Income
              Julia  Wife         W F 45 M 23 7/4    PA Germ PA
            Rebecca  Daughter     W F 18 S           PA IN   PA
           Hastings  Son          W M 14 S           PA IN   PA
             Louise  Daughter     W F  8 S           PA IN   PA
              Frank  Son          W M  7 S           PA IN   PA

JACOBSON: 1920 Census: PA Philadelphia
32 Ward, p8B, 10 January 1920

2022 Diamond Street
154 206 Jacobson, Frank E.  Head         W M 58 M  IN NC      PA  
                     Clerk Drug Wholesale
                  Julia E.  Wife         W F 55 M  PA Bavaria PA
                Rebecca S.  Daughter     W F 27 S  PA IN      PA  
                     Saleswoman Dept Store
                Charles H.  Son          W M 25 S  PA IN      PA  
                     Advertising Auto Tires
                 Louise Z?  Daughter     W F 18 S  PA IN      PA  
                     None
                  Frank D.  Son          W M 16 S  PA IN      PA  
                     Clerk Insurance Of

Certificate of Death
25 Ward, Philadelphia, 2091 E. Somerset
Joseph Funston

Sex: male

Color: white
Widower
Date of Death: 1 – 1 – 1921

Date of Birth: Nov 28th 1850
Age: 70 yrs, 1 mth, 3 days
Occupation: Boxmaker
Birthplace: Philada
Father: Joseph Funston
Father’s birthplace: Philada
Mother: Not reported
Informant: John H. Funston, 4619 A St.

… Cause of Death:
(Ill?) Gas Poisoning
probably accidental
(signed) Wm. H__ght, Jr.

Former or usual residence: Amber & Somerset, 25 Ward

Place and date of burial:
Greenmount Cemetery, Jany 4 1921