I recommend that you also join the Cook Co. IL list. Someone from the Chicago area may be able to assist you. Have you already checked the Illinois State Archives online? http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/databases.html they have marriage 1763-1900, deaths pre 1916 and 1916-1950 and they are searchable. Kathy -----Original Message----- From: Donald Feldbruegge [mailto:dhfeldbr@chorus.net] Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2006 4:58 PM To: GERMAN-BOHEMIAN-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [GERMAN-BOHEMIAN] First Message Hi, I understand that I should post a list of names/place I'm researching in this, my first post. The names I'm interested in are Reichl/Reichel, Bauer/Bauers & Dietz/Ditz. The places are Neudorf, Bohemia and Chicago/vicinity, Illinois. Let me give you a small bit of background. We are retired. Although I'm somewhat familiar with computers, I'm definitely not expert at web things. This is the first genealogy message list I've joined. I probably wouldn't have even done this if it wasn't for a recent bit of news in the most recent issue of "The Heimatbrief" regarding the Bauer family in Chicago. I decided to take a look at the GBHS web page and discovered familiar names and localities. What I'm doing is letting everyone know that I'm not very proficient at the new computer-based genealogy searches. My background is digging around in court houses, libraries, cemeteries, going to the local LDS, etc. It was about 18 years ago, that my wife commented that she knew almost nothing about her family, especially on her father's side. Her grandfather had died 3 years before she was born, and her grandmother had already remarried and removed everything relating to him from the house. Grandma and my wife's 2 aunts shortly moved to California, and communication became a birthday and christmas card. My wife's father had died young of a heart attack. I never even had met him. My wife basically didn't know anything about her father's side of the family. I decided to undertake a search. Boy, did I ever have a lot to learn. After about 6 years or so (1994, IIRC) I seemed to have run out of leads, and I also had located interesting information about her Mother's side of the family. So I wrote up the information I had, and abandoned her father's side of the family. In about 2001, I'd pretty much finished what I could about her Mother's side of the family and found the grandchildren and gardening were more interesting than genealogy. In other words, I haven't been doing any research in about 5 years. I've still been interested enough to continue reading and seeing what was going on. Toi summarize, not only am I unfamiliar with the internet-genealogy, my skills are very rusty. --------------------- On to my wife's paternal side. The Wenzl Reichl family arrived in Baltimore, MD, on May 8, 1878, on board the the SS Gener'l Werder. They were listed as coming from Bohemia. Wenzl (56) was accompanied by his wife Katharina (42) and children Theresia (15), Wenzl (11), Johann (9), Maria (7) and Anna (2). (My wife's father, Joseph, was born in Chicago on June 25, 1879.) Wenzl Sr. died on July 15th, 1879. I got very lucky on this one, the death was listed in the census death index. It even led me to the coronor's report and newspaper articles (he died of sunstroke on the hottest day in several years). I followed the (fatherless) family through the following years with the city directories, and the census. The 1880 census had one surprise for, a son named George (age 21) was living with the family. Where did he come from? Had he come earlier, as often was the case? In a few years, he disappeared from the directory listings and I was unable to find him again. I was able to follow Katherina with the city directories until the last listing in the 1905 directory, likely listing residents as of 1904. Until this time she had been living with her youngest child, Joseph, who married in 1904. At that point, nothing. No death certificate, not in a subsequent census/directory, just a dead end. Meanwhile, Theresa married George Bauers 17 DEC, 1879. He died 12 JUL 1889 & is buried next to Wenzl Reichl in Waldheim cemetery. His death certificate states he had been born in Neudorf/Bohemia, and was 34 years and 1 month old. George and Theresia had 3 children. Theresa remarried, to a man named George Kastner. They had no children. In 1992 we located and visted one of Theresia's granddaughters. She was living in Carol Stream, IL. We saw photos (and made copies) of my wife's grandfather. The first time she had ever seen his likeness. There were also photos of Wenzl, junior. This granddaughter was able to provide a great deal of other details. I'll mention it later. Wenzl Reichl (junior) never married -- he died in 1931, in the Cook County institution. It appears he had become a charity case. The death certificate was unhelpful. He was buried in Elmwood cemetery, in the "charities" are. John (Johann) Reichl married Katherina Dietz 04 May, 1889. Thanks to the genealogy, we were able to locate descendants of the John Reichl family, icluding an elderly daughter. The family members have stated that John knew Katherina back in Bohemia, and that he paid her ship passage to this country to get married. Catherina Ditz (19) arrived in Baltimore on the Hohenzollern on May 19, 1886, accompanied by Fransisca Ditz, age 27. Both listed their destination as Illinois. John Reichl died 01 JUL, 1927. According to the death certificate he had been born 27 FEB 1868, in Neudorf, Bohemia. Katherine Dietz died 27 MAY, 1955. For some reason, I haven't gotten a death certificate. Maria Reichl married Peter Weiss on 09 MAY 1891. The moved to Aurora (Kane County), IL. We had the honor of meeting/talking to their eldest daughter, Elizabeth in a nursing home, in Aurora, IL. She was 100 years old, but her mind was sharp. She clearly remembered that her mother had died on her wedding day, 26 NOV 1913. The death certificate stated she was born in Neudorf, Austria, on Sept 7, 1870 to Wensel Reichel and Caty Bauer. What a sad day for the daughter to be married. She said her wedding anniversaries were always so sad. She was able to provide many family details. Anna Reichl married Charles Braun (or Brown) in 1894. I don't have an exact date for the marriage -- I suspect they may have been married outside of the city of Chicago. I have no marriage record. They did subsequently live in Chicago. I'm afraid I've neglected this branch of the family. Several things learned along the way. All of the records indicated that the Bohemian locality they came from was Neudorf. Two death records state the mother, Katherina, had a maiden name of Bauer. The elderly descendants have all confirmed this. The elderly descendents informed me that Katherine (Dietz) Reichl, had died at the Peter & Marie Weiss home in Aurora, IL, and was taken to Chicago by train for burial. Nobody could provide an exact date as it was so long ago, but it appeared likely to have been sometime between 1904 and 1910. I have searched very hard for a death certificate, and can find none. ---------------- What am I "specifically" interested in: 1. Most important is the tie to Neudorf, Bohemia. When I first attempted to make this connection I was horrified to discover dozens of Neudorf villages. It was a hopeless task trying to discover which Neudorf they were from. The first clue I've ever discovered is from Gerhard Reichl, inquiring about a Ditz (Dietz) and a Bauer. This leads me to think there is a high likelihood that the Neudorf he refers to is the Neudorf I'm interested in. I can locate it on the map (well actually, that old map also shows another Neudorf a few miles further north), and it sounds promising. If Gerhard is monitoring this mailing list, I would definitely appreciate it if he could reply regarding any of the names and dates I've listed for our immigrant ancestors. Second, does he know of any reputable genealogist living near him who could do a search of the district and church records -- obviously, I'd pay them. It appears possible that the village may have been destroyed during the Russian era, but if you have any old or new photos I and my wife would dearly like to see them. Again, we are very willing to pay for copies. Please describe to us what the countryside is like. Anything about Neudorf is welcome. 2. On the United States/Chicago side, my most important desire would be to locate any death record of Katherina Reichl. I have searched in vain. Do any of you have any suggestions? There must be some way of finding the date and place of her death, and perhaps this internet age has revealed it. I'm reasonably sure it is in the 1904-1910 time period, and her descendants were very sure she died in Aurora, Kane County IL, and taken by train to Chicago. 3. I'd also like to find the death certificate for Katherine (Dietz) Reichel but I don't think that should be a problem, as I have a definite date and have even seen the headstone. 4. I obviously need to locate some more information regarding Anna's marriage, death, etc. Do any of you have any suggestions for "easy" internet type searches? 5. I suppose I should try to investigate this George Reichl who appeared so mysteriously as a son, and then disappeared again. Again, any ideas are welcome. I apologize for the length of this, perhaps one reason it has become so long is because I'm trying hard to reorient my own thoughts, having been away from it for over 10 years. The posting by Gerhard Reichl this last December rekindled my interest. I don't believe the names Reichl and Ditz (Dietz) are very common, and the association of the two names is very interesting, especially when from Neudorf, Bohemia Regards, Don Feldbruegge ==== GERMAN-BOHEMIAN Mailing List ==== Forgotten how to UNSUBSCRIBE? Visit http://www.rootsweb.com/~gbhs/mailinglist/mailinglist.html

Hi Kathy, At 05:25 PM 3/22/2006, you wrote: >I recommend that you also join the Cook Co. IL list. Someone from the >Chicago area may be able to assist you. Have you already checked the >Illinois State Archives online? >http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/databases.html they >have marriage 1763-1900, deaths pre 1916 and 1916-1950 and they are >searchable. > > >Kathy Thank you for the archives link. I didn't know of it -- as I mentioned, I'm not at all familiar with internet searching. I did a search before and after 1916 for Katherine Reichel/Reichl/Reich, and didn't come up with any death certificates. I did find Wenzel junior and John, which I already had -- so I know it works. I'll bookmark this for future reference, ie Anna and Charles Brown/Braun. As to the Cook County, IL list, would you by chance have a link for that? I might be looking for a long time before I found it. Thank you, Don Feldbruegge

Hi Kathy, At 05:25 PM 3/22/2006, you wrote: >I recommend that you also join the Cook Co. IL list. Someone from the >Chicago area may be able to assist you. Have you already checked the >Illinois State Archives online? >http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/databases.html they >have marriage 1763-1900, deaths pre 1916 and 1916-1950 and they are >searchable. > > >Kathy A follow-up. After doing some more death record searching, I discovered Kane County is only available for a few years (not up on the screen, but I think it ended in 1882). Then it came back to me after all these years, when I went to the court house years ago I was told they had lost all records for some reason -- possibly a fire or something. So there will be no death certificate. I guess I need something else. Maybe a cemetery index or burial index, but I don't recall these even existing. Yes, now the frustration I had felt comes back to me. Grr. Oh, I did find the marriage record for Anna Reichl and Charles Brown indexed. Will have to send to IRAD for that. At least one bit of good news. Thank you for your help. Don Feldbruegge