Dorothy Luhman Schlaphoff Gravestone - with my search with my little tips

My great great grandmother Catharina Margarethea Luhmann Meyer was a sister to Dorothy [nee] Luman SCHLAPHOF. Dorothy Luhmann married Johann Heinrich Christoph Schlaphoff October 18, 1843 at Eichdorf - Dahlenburg or Nahrendorf church. This post is about finding her living location in America at Elmwood Precinct and burial at Murdock, Cass county, Nebraska.




Henry and Dorothy Schlaphoff Gravestone - Ancestry.com: "Emanuel"

Isn't that Schlaphof tombstone of Dorothy Luman, a wonderful find?
I tell you it means a lot to me. If it weren't for the find of it around year 2002- 3, it might have taken me longer to find Dorothy [Luhmann, Luman] Schlaphof in Amerika. I had decided to search graves for each of my great grandmother Luhman's sisters. In Herr Luhmann letter he said two brothers and sisters of his great grandfather went to america. So I started with some sisters, and found Dorothy. I never finnished the list, come to think of it. [I know, I know, I follow a different beat of the drum]

Note to self: Finish finding the other brothers and sisters Luhmann on the list.

Since, I ran across the grave of Dorothy Luman, the next step was to look into the Census and see if there was any confirmation of name and dates of birth and location of Murdock at Cass county Nebraska. Since I already had vital information on Dorothy, it was much easier to look her up. Area of residence was acatually Elmwood precinct of Cass County. I probably had previously looked for her, but had too many results. I needed to see how much emigration had occured. And I was pretty sure that I was on the right track.



If I hadn't had a subscription to Ancestry.com, only some information would have been availble for viewing. I would have to work hard to find the information another way. I suppose another source than Ancestry. I would have had to rely on ebay publishing, and the Cass county local genealogical societies. had to do some letter writing. I would have had to write or call to make personal inquiries at to local government in Cass county for births, marriages, deaths of the Schlaphof relatives.

Confirmation from a family member is important:
1. to see if your on the right track
2. for further information.
3. sharing
3. documentation
4. just because you want to.

I also searched and posted at the ancestry board at the Cass county for any information on Murdock and Elmwood Precinct and Schlaphof[f]. I posted at the two surname boards. checked any Mailing list I could find. And at some point, I had already checked the Cass county and general Nebraska for indication that they lived there all her life or if there was a move to a new location. They had moved. Sometimes the city expands and the location on the census information makes it seem like they movedi. New district numbers and names just happen over time. Especially with a territory turning into a state. New counties springing up. There might be several counties today in existence that were not then formed and so they are listed together under one other major county. So you have to check maps and get familiar with History.


Photo: labeled Three Generations. Henry Schlaphoff (visiting Murdock NE from Germany) Carl Schlaphoff, John Schlaphoff.

Of course, I think I am a google master, but others are better than I, really. It is my life line, though. I survive because of it. I checked for local publications in book form, at ebay, and heritage publications such as in the local societies. I believe I had found something there as well. And now that the local societies and people have been so active there is so much more. I am sure I checked the cemeteries to see who is buried where and how many. Of course I did not know each family member yet, other than census. But I could use this information to compare census, dates, vitals, and any found queries, and future queries made. If I should find any or find a place to place them. Now thanks to Good jobs done by volunteers there are so many more sources on line to check for finding a grave. Thank goodness. For me who does nearly all my research online at night, I find is so important.[to many types of names for different states to mention.]



The boards postings were really showing positive results. I had left a few postings to Ms. Merten, who seemed to have the same family names in the right location.
My excitement was growing, as I realized I maybe had found the right person and maybe I actually was finding a living member of that family. That is the Then be sure to follow up checking published trees again. I am sure this had been done before the grave search anyway.

Lucky for me Ms. Mertens was an active researcher and responded practically overnight. Soon we were in touch with each other in private email.
That was an occasion for the Happy Dance. But well, in my own way.

I suppose Other people in my shoes might have called the other person. But I felt our emails were real enough. Maybe, if I had been less timid and more organized, I would have actually gone to see her father. Actually, I had not thought of seeing her father then. Instead I had dreams that weekend of meeting her in Martin county. As it turns out she wasn't there anyway. But I didn't get anything arranged mostly because I had made last minute decisions to drive down to see my mother and family.

The fact that Ms. Mertens father was living in Martin county struck me as one of those coincidental occurances that happens now and then. She said he would be staying at a retirement home in Sherburn. [That was the current city my brother lived. Sherburne is a little ways from Fairmont.] In fact the rural edge of town where he lived was right next to Theobalds. And Truman is another place where mother also stayed on and off after hospital visits. Also, my mother stayed in Trimont herself a few years later. That village is merely a few hops from Sherburn, Minnesota.

This finding of Dorothy Luman Schlaphof was a confirmation in a way of information by the way of associations in year 1983 by my mystery relative in Fairmont area. He had mentioned the name Theobald, but never really told me how they were related. Or I may have forgotten. Haven't you gotten Orphan names and places that way? I am sure many of you have gotten this kind of information. I could fill a page of names and places I got from him, but could not fill another page of who he told me they connected with. But I just might have that full page someday showing whom I found under those associations of names and places if I keep on with this good luck. So I will add Theobald to that page!

I can't explain enough what this meant to me at this time. But I will try. It was my first real find on my own. Okay, Ms. Mertins side of the tree was already done by herself and her father. But it was my own little success. In my way of celebration of the sucess I emailed Christi, who kept the family information, and informed her. She had publishing our family information to world connect. I was as proud of her work as if it were my own. okay, I might have acted as if it were my own. Everytime I had a success I would email Christi and she was as happy as I was. She had done a lot of research on her own part of the family and made a big contribution to the Johann William Meyer family data.

Note: As I said she found me and is responsible for my sucesses. She is a source for my sources. Later, she got super busy and withdrew from doing anything at world connect and ancestry. I bet you can find her work somewhere though, if you look hard enough. maybe family tree maker. We seemed to have lost touch after computer crashes, small problems, maybe misunderstandings, etc. I sure do miss her.
Now I have something super to share, I do so blogging here for all my readers.

My next task was to find out more detail from the archives of the church of Dahlenburg or Nahrendorf. Detail or documentation of Dorothy's names, dates and marriage. Herr Luhmann and his son were way to busy with the vast farm management to help confirm this. Maybe you can check in for further postings shown above this post for a follow up of this post about the finding of the Grave stone of Dorothy Luman Schlaphof [f] and family.

Source: Ancestry.com See link to Ms. Mertens tree. Ms Mertens work.

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