Barking Up the Wrong Tree: A Gast

10 April 2012

A Gast

Comments after the jump.

WILHELMINE H DORDEL Married 1879, Germany AUGUST GAST

B. 1852, Germany B. 1850, Germany

D. 1922, Wisconsin, USA D. 1907, Wisconsin, USA

RECORDS ATTACHED to Wilhelmine (partial list):

1870 US Federal Census

Living in LaSalle, Illinois, USA
Wilhelmina Gast (age 16)

The Gast household: Gottlieb (45), Mary (45), Emma (12), Riley (10), John (8), Betsy (6), Alte (2)

1880 US Federal Census

Waupaca, Wisconsin, USA
Wilhelmina Gast (age 29)

With husband and son: August (29) and Charles (6 months)

Baltimore Passenger Lists

Arriving from Germany in 1882
Wilhelmine Gast (32)

With husband and children: Edward (58), Christoph (9), Emma (5), Martha (3), Margarethe (9 months)

NOTES: This tree also has the 1900, 1910, 1920 Federal Censuses and the 1905 Wisconsin State Census listed as sources. All the federal records have the family living in Wisconsin and seem to match the 1880 Wilhelmine. From the 1870 census and the passenger list Wilhelmine is the only person on this tree, so for the purposes of this post I'm going to assume that the Wilhelmine in the 1880 census record is the "correct" person.

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So the 1870 census...
Since the person who entered the information thinks that the couple married in 1879 (there is no record attached) then they either believe that:

1) Wilhelmine married another Gast when she was younger

and was living with her in-laws but without her husband.

OR

2) They mindlessly attached records paying no attention

to the fact that a record from 1870 should

probably be a record with her maiden name on it

and probably shouldn't be a US record.

Anyone want to guess which one is correct?
This person also seems to think Wilhelmine left her husband and son, traveled to Germany, married another Gast, and returned to the US with the second Mr. Gast and 4 children all in just two years. At least they didn't enter Edward and the four children as family members. The correct passenger list was the first result when searching for her husband, August, in immigration records on Ancestry.com so it didn't take any digging at all to find them.

Baltimore Passenger Lists

Arriving from Bremen, Germany in 1879

August Gast age 28 born in Prussia

Wilhelmina Gast age 27 born in Prussia

Back to the family on the 1870 census...
Since it looks like the family is two parents with their children I did a search on FamilySearch.org assuming that the Wilhelmine in the 1870 census was born a Gast. I entered Wilhelmine's given name and left the surname blank. For her father's name I entered the head of household's name from the 1870 census. That lead me to the index of an Illinois death record:

Wilhelmina Bruehl

B. 23 Mar 1854, Germany

D. 5 Dec 1933, Earlville, La Salle, Illinois

Parents: Gottlieb Gast & Marie Grey

Anyone with Wilhelmine Dordel in their tree on Ancestry.com will most likely have the wrong passenger list and the wrong 1870 census show up as a shaking leaf on their tree. So because people do not bother to read and process information, the cycle will continue. Sigh.

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Why?

Researching our family histories we are bound to make mistakes. Hopefully we are quick to correct them. Unfortunately some people refuse to read or think before adding information to their family trees. Some trees have been abandoned so the errors are there for eternity. Here we will laugh, mock and shake our heads at the carelessness, stupidity and/or ignorance of those errors.
All examples are taken from trees published online.
I'll also post tips occasionally, though the messed up trees are a great example of what NOT to do.
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