The poll continues…

Posted on February 25, 2011 by Ann

Just in case you haven’t checked the results of the poll lately that asks the question: Does our TRARES ancestor look an awful lot like my husband, Mark?

Here are the results:

  • NO: 1 VOTE – So far, only one person doesn’t see any resemblance…I wonder if that single lone NO vote is Mark’s mom, Sophie? 🙂
  • MAYBE: 3 VOTES – We have several people in the “MAYBE” category. Personally, I think if I could have found a photo of a younger Mark to post the resemblance would have been more pronounced. Mark has put on some weight after more than five years of eating my cooking. He was rail-thin when he was the age of his TRARES ancestor.
  • YES: 4 VOTES – Numbers don’t lie, folks – we have more “YES” votes than anything else. And in her email comment, even our newest TRARES “cousin” (Clare Myers) sees it, too! Check out her comment!

If you haven’t voted yet, I suggest you scroll back to the poll and get your shot at expressing YOUR opinion!

And thanks to Clare for the correction and I hope you cast your vote, too!

Posted in Family History, Photos, Polls, Trares | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Henry H. KNAPP (1883 – 1923)

Posted on February 24, 2011 by Ann

Henry H. KNAPP was born 30 Sept 1883 in Randolph Township, Portage County, Ohio. He was the son of John KNAPP and Elizabeth SCHROEDER – and the great-grandson of our immigrant ancestor, Franz Adam KNAPP.

You can click this link to take a peek at the KNAPP family tree if you’re wondering where Henry “fits.”

Henry grew up on a farm in Randolph Township, Ohio. He was also a twin!

Henry KNAPP, along with twin brother, Willie, is listed on the 1900 Census as being 16 years old and living on the family farm with their parents, John and Elizabeth KNAPP.

Sadly, two other siblings, a sister, Mary, born in 1870, and a brother, Francis, born 28 Oct 1879, had both died young, during the month of June 1881. I haven’t found their death certificates yet, but I suspect their deaths were probably due to some infectious disease that was making the rounds of the area at the time. Little Francis, age two, died 17 June 1881, and his older sister, Mary, followed him on 29 June 1881.

Henry’s twin brother, William Bernard KNAPP, was born on 30 Sept 1883 and lived in Randolph Township, too. “Willie” married Mabel Louisa MAY on 19 June 1906. Together, this couple had seven children: Marguerite, Mildred, Stanley, Clement, Maurice, Mercedes and Kathleen. “Willie,” as he is named on the 1900 Census, died 20 Nov 1950, at the age of 67 of a coronary thrombosis (blood clot/heart attack).

By 1920, Henry was still single – in fact, he never married. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons he had extra time to devote to being a member of the St. Joseph band.

He is shown on the 1920 Census as living on the family farm with his widowed mother, Elizabeth. His father had died in 1915 after a six-month illness due to cancer. John KNAPP was buried on Christmas Eve in St. Joseph Cemetery in Randolph. His wife, Elizabeth, would pass away on 28 Dec 1929. She, too, is buried in St. Joseph Cemetery.

Sadly, William’s twin brother, Henry, did not fare so well as his twin did.

By 1923, just 2o+ years after this photo of the St. Joseph Band was taken, Henry KNAPP was dead.

On 17 June 1923, Henry fell ill and was admitted to Akron City Hospital. Doctors suspected appendicitis and decided to operate. Apparently, the surgery was too much for Henry, and he died on 19 June 1923 at 1:00 a.m.

The cause of his death is listed on his death certificate as “surgical shock following an operation for obstruction of bowels, with the contributing factor suppurative appendicitis.”

Apparently, Henry’s appendix had become severely infected and inflamed – and he did not have it removed in time to prevent his death. It had already turned septic and may have even burst, spreading toxins throughout his body.

Remember: this was 1923 –  well before the development of antibiotics. Penicillin didn’t become available until sometime during WWII. Henry didn’t have a chance against septic shock following a burst appendix.

Henry KNAPP was only 36 years old.

He was laid to rest in St. Joseph Cemetery in Randolph on 21 June 1923.

Posted in Family History, Knapp, Local History, Schroeder, St. Joseph Band, St. Joseph Randolph | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Lewis Joseph KNAPP (1862-1933)

Posted on February 22, 2011 by Ann

Lewis Joseph KNAPP was born on 19 Dec 1862 in Randolph, Portage, Ohio. He was the son of John Adam KNAPP and Agnes TRARES.

You can see how he is related by clicking on this link to the Knapp family tree.

Lewis Joseph KNAPP married Mary M. MAY, the daughter of John MAY and Mary Ann AREHART on 30 Oct. 1888 at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Randolph, Portage, Ohio.

The couple had seven children:

  • Eugene J. KNAPP (1890-1894)
  • Clotilda E. KNAPP (1893-1918) – I wrote a posting about Clotilda, who died in the 1918 Flu Pandemic.
  • Beatrice M. KNAPP (1895-1931) Unfortunately, I don’t have much information about Beatrice.
  • Hubert Joseph KNAPP (1896-1975) I wrote a posting about Hubert, too, because I found a photo of him in his WWI doughboy uniform.
  • John Lewis KNAPP (1898-1955) – I wrote a posting about John, who was my husband’s grandfather, and who had an interesting career working at the Fageol brothers’ company, Twin Coach.
  • Estella H. KNAPP (Abt. 1901-1965) Stella, as she was known I am told, married Harry Miller and had four children: Wilbur J., Bernadette B., Alma and Michael.
  • Raymond Henry KNAPP (1906-1922) I know very little about Raymond Henry, but if anyone has any information they are willing to share, drop us a line at KnappNotes.

Lewis Joseph KNAPP died 5 July 1933 in Randolph, Portage, Ohio. He was buried in St. Joseph Cemetery in Randolph, Portage, Ohio on 8 July 1933. You can see a photo of his tombstone (along with a lot of other KNAPP relatives’ tombstones) by visiting a website called Find a Grave. Click the preceding link to view a photo of his gravestone – or view other graves.

There is in existence an old, velvet-covered photo album that was in my father-in-law’s possession that features several pictures of Lewis J. KNAPP. One is a photo of him looking very dapper in a straw hat, while another is another photo of him with a musical instrument. Apparently, he was very talented musically.

That album is currently in the custody of one of my father-in-law’s brothers. We are hoping someone in the family may be able to identify some of the people in the photos.

Next up: Henry H. KNAPP! So stay tuned!

Posted in Family History, Kline/Cline/Klein, Knapp, Local History, May, Photos, Portage County, St. Joseph Band, St. Joseph Randolph, Trares | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

St. Joseph Band

Posted on February 22, 2011 by Ann

Pictured at left is a photo of the St. Joseph Band, taken in the early 1900’s.

You can click on the photo to see an enlarged version – which I recommend if you wish to read the annotations listing the names of the band members.

One of the band members shown, the dapper-looking fellow with the mustache, who is seated second from the left in the first row and is holding a clarinet, is identified in the picture as Louis KNAPP. However, I believe him to be Lewis Joseph KNAPP, my husband’s great-grandfather and father of John Lewis KNAPP.

It is interesting to note that almost all of the band members, with the exception of two, are probably related to the KNAPP-KLINE clan in some fashion.

Only Conrad Weigand and John Palm are not related to either a KNAPP or a KLINE – at least as far as I know.

This photo is featured on the front cover of a book entitled, Randolph, Atwater & Rootstown Revisited: Includes New Milford & St. Joseph, published in 2000 by Heritage Publications of Brady Lake, Ohio. This company published a series of books about local history, featuring great photos and interesting articles about surrounding communities in Portage County, Ohio.

During the next few weeks, I will try to figure out what happened to each of these gentlemen – and share their stories with you. I will also explain exactly how they are related to the KNAPP-KLINE clan (if they are related).

It will be interesting to see what kind of surprises may turn up – so stay tuned!

Posted in Family History, Horning, Kline/Cline/Klein, Knapp, Local History, May, Photos, Portage County, Wise | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

What do the Knapps and the last empress of Russia have in common?

Posted on February 7, 2011 by Ann

Empress Alexandra of Russia

I have often commented on what a small thing the world really is…especially so now with the technological advances that we all now enjoy – and too often take for granted.

One such advance (this thing called the Internet) allowed me to learn that the Knapp family has a connection (a tiny one!) to the last empress of Russia -Empress Alexandra Feodorovna Romanova, wife of Nicholas II, the last emperor of Russia.

What’s the connection?

Well, Empress Alexandra wasn’t always a Romanov – nor was she a Russian by birth. In fact, that’s where the connection to the Knapp clan comes into play.

Before Empress Alexandra married Nicholas II, she was Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine. She was born on 6 June 1872 at the New Palace in Darmstadt as Princess Alix Viktoria Helena Luise Beatrice of Hesse and by Rhine, a Grand Duchy that was then part of the German Empire.

Princess Alix grew up in Hesse-Darmstadt – the same part of Germany where Franz Adam Knapp was born. Franz Adam Knapp left Germany for America in 1831, some 40 years before Alix’s birth.

But it was Alix’s grandfather, Louis I, Grand Duke of Hesse, who was the reason for Franz’s departure from Germany. Grand Duke Louis I of Hesse was closely aligned with Napoleon and presided over a large territorial expansion during the Napoleonic wars. Franz Adam had lost at least one brother to war – he left Germany for the freedom of America. I guess he felt he would rather take his chances on the American frontier than wait around for Louis I of Hesse (or his son, Louis II) to conscript him.

Princess Alix was the sixth child among the seven children of Grand Duke Louis IV of Hesse and by Rhine, and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, who was the second daughter of Queen Victoria and Albert, the Prince Consort.

Baptized a Lutheran, Alix had some pretty heavy hitters (historically speaking) as her godparents: Prince and Princess of Wales, Tsarevich and Tsarevna of Russia, Princess Beatrice of the U.K., the Duchess of Cambridge and Anna of Prussia.

But her lofty connections to European and Russian royalty did her little good against a deadly bacterium.

Bacteria don’t care who they infect – whether the victim has a royal title or not matters little – especially before the age of immunizations, antibiotics and modern medical treatment: diphtheria.

So when, in December 1878, diphtheria swept through the house of Hesse, Alix, her three sisters and her brother Ernst all fell ill.

Only Elisabeth, Alix’s older sister, who had been sent to visit her paternal grandmother in England, escaped the outbreak.

Princess Alice chose to care for her sick children herself rather than  let doctors do it. But Alice herself soon fell ill and died on the anniversary of her father, Prince Albert’s on 14 December 1878, when Alix was only six years old.

Alix, Victoria, Irene and Ernst survived the epidemic, but sadly, the youngest princess, Princess Marie, did not.

Alix went on to meet Grand Duke Nicholas II, heir to the Russian throne, in Russia when Alix went to visit her elder sister, Elisabeth, who had married Nicholas’ uncle, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovitch. The couple fell in love and had to overcome a lot of familial resistance in order to marry.

Alexandra is also known for being one of the most famous carriers of hemophilia, the blood disease. Her only son and heir to the Russian throne, Alexei, suffered from hemophilia.

The Russian people never accepted Alexandra. Her life ended prematurely when she and her entire family were executed in 1918 during the Russian revolution. It was many years before their bodies were discovered, identified and reburied.

Alexandra, Nicholas and three daughters were re-interred in the St.Catherine Chapel of the Peter and Paul Cathedral at the Fortress of St.Peter and St.Paul in St. Petersburg in 1998, with much ceremony, on the eightieth anniversary of their execution.

In 2000 Alexandra was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church together with her husband Nicholas II, their children and others including her sister Grand Duchess Elisabeth.

Posted in Darmstadt, Hessen | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Joseph Kline

Posted on February 7, 2011 by Ann

Joseph Kline

Ravenna Record-Courier, 1962

JOSEPH KLINE

Joseph Kline, 64, of 410 King St., Ravenna, died at Robinson Memorial Hospital at 4:55 p.m. Monday after a long illness.

Born in Rootstown, June 14, 1897, he had lived in Portage County his entire life and the last 39 years in Ravenna. Until his illness, Mr. Kline was  a truck driver for the Portage County Highway Department.

He was a member of Immaculate Conception Church, Ravenna Lodge 1234, Loyal Order of Moose, and Ravenna Aerie 2164, Fraternal Order of Eagles.

Surviving are three daughters, Mrs. William Kline (Barbara) of Rootstown, Mrs. Robert Starkey (Rita) of Brady Lake, and Linda Kline of Kent; eight sons, Sylvan and William, both of Kent, Robert of Rootstown, James of Houston, Texas, Vernon of Shalersville, Kenneth, Joseph, and Gerald, all at home; a sister, Mrs. John Knapp, of Kent, two brothers, Ervin of Bucyrus, and Gus of Rootstown; and several grandchildren.

Mr. Kline’s wife, Helen, died in 1951, and a sister, Mrs. Grace Gray, of Ravenna, died on May 29, shortly before his last admission to the hospital.

Requiem mass will be held at 10:00 a.m. Thursday at the Immaculate Conception Church. Burial will be in St. Mary’s Cemetery.

Friends may call at the Wood Funeral Home, Ravenna, anytime after 2:30 p.m. Wednesday.

================================================================

If anyone knows the maiden name of Joseph Kline’s wife, I would appreciate it if you could drop us a line here at Knapp Notes. I don’t have that information – yet.

I have also located a copy of the Joseph Kline’s WWI draft registration. You can click on the thumbnail image below to see a larger version of this document.

WWI Draft Registration card for Joseph KLINE

Posted in Draft Registration Cards, Family History, Kline/Cline/Klein, Obituaries | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Peter J. Trares – 1st photo of a Trares ancestor!

Posted on January 18, 2011 by Ann

I ran across a family tree on ancestry.com the other day that featured the first photo of a TRARES that I have run across during my research.

I showed it to Mark and he saw the same thing I did – this gentleman’s face reminds me of Mark’s – mostly around the eyes…

The photo is of Peter J. TRARES, born 24 Aug 1859 in Suffield Twp., Portage County, Ohio to John Lewis TRARES and Nancy Maryann KNAPP. You can click on the photo to view a larger version of this image.

He married Susan KNAPP, daughter of John R. KNAPP and Margaret M. ENGLEHART, on 31 Aug 1857 in Portage County, Ohio.

If you’re wondering where he fits into the KNAPP family tree, you can click this link to view a family tree, which will give you some perspective on where he “fits” into the big picture.

TRARES_Peter_J_Family Tree

Peter and Susan TRARES had the following children:

  • Augusta TRARES: She was born in 1883 in Portage Co., Ohio and died 9 Dec 1966 in Akron, Summit, Ohio. She married Austin Francis JACOBS. Francis and Augusta had 8 children. I won’t list all of them here, but I do have their names.
  • Victor John TRARES: He was born 10 Jul 1886 in Suffield Twp., Portage Co., Ohio and died 12 Jan 1959 in Alton, Madison County, Illinois. On 14 Jan 1908, he married (1) Bertha Johanna Hildegard STOLZE in Illinois. Bertha was born 14 Jan 1885 in Edwardsville, Madison County, Illinois and died 2 Jan 1978 in Alton, Madison, Illinois. I believe they must have divorced, because Victor married (2) Carmen COURTNEY on 28 Nov 1935, location unknown.  Note: Edwardsville, IL should ring a bell because that is where John Sebastian TRARES moved to establish his pharmacy. [Read more about him in some of my older posts.] In doing some additional research, I located Victor’s WWII draft registration card, which lists a Jerome TRARES as a contact. Jerome TRARES is Victor’s son and died in 1995.You can view a larger image of his WWII draft registration card by clicking on the image below.

Victor also had a daughter named Helen TRARES. It is also interesting to note that Victor’s uncle, Henry TRARES, migrated to Edwardsville, IL to work with HIS uncle, John Sebastian TRARES, in his pharmacy. So we have a whole western branch of the TRARES clan!

  • Alphonse Henry TRARES: He was born 19 Dec 1889 in Portage County, Ohio and died 2o May 1961 in a long-term care facility in Holmes County, Ohio. He married Grace A. BOOSINGER. Note: And a big thanks to Clare Myers, a granddaughter of Alphonse TRARES and Grace A. BOOSINGER, for confirming Grace’s maiden name in a comment sent Feb. 25, 2010. Thanks, Clare!
  • Joseph P. TRARES: He was born 22 May 1892 in Suffield Twp., Portage Co., Ohio and died in 1957.
  • Clara TRARES: She was born in 1895 in Suffield Twp., Portage Co., Ohio.
  • Mary A. TRARES: She was born in 1897 in Suffield Twp., Portage Co., Ohio.
  • Florence TRARES: She was born in 1898 in Suffield Twp., Portage Co., Ohio.
  • Hilda TRARES: She was born 3 Aug 1883 in Suffield Twp., Portage Co., Ohio and died 9 Dec 1966 in Cuyahoga Falls, Summit County, Ohio.

If any of the western branch of the TRARES family wishes to share more information, please feel free to comment on this post – or send me an email via Knapp Notes.

Posted in Family History, Genealogy How To's, Germany, Hessen, Knapp, Photos, Polls, Portage County, Trares, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

The bridge from Germany to the U.S.

Posted on January 16, 2011 by Ann

One of the sites that was made known to me through a Google search is called The Birkenhördt Project. It is a non-commercial site devoted to documenting all genealogical relationships in the Southern Palatinate and the French district of Bas-Rhin. A group of people located in mostly Germany and in the U.S. has made it their mission to document the emigrants from this area of Europe – and also their descendants in the country they emigrated to from Europe.

That’s a pretty ambitious undertaking – but I think it’s a great idea.

The Birkenhördt Project serves as the “bridge” for many of us between our immigrant ancestor back to the “old country.”

As of Sunday, January 16, 2011, the site has information about:

  • 138,343 individuals
  • 51,305 families

Click this link to read more about The Birkenhördt Project’s history. Note: you have to scroll down the page past the German to reach the English translation of the German text.

The site features a database that allows you to search by:

This is very valuable, since the Knapp ancestors seem to have left Germany in a group, along with many of their friends and neighbors from Hessen. They maintained these close ties to their fellow countrymen even after they reached the United States. If you look through the family tree information, you keep on seeing the same surnames over and over again: May/Mai, Antes/Anthes/Andes, Trares, Paulus, Kline/Klein, Wise/Weiss, etc.

Sites like this help genealogists bridge the gap between the New World and the Old Country. Perhaps by using this site and actively contributing to the exchange of information, we can forge a link between the Knapps that chose to go to the U.S. – and the ones that stayed behind in Germany.

I have often wondered what happened to these people during the two World Wars. It would be wonderful if we could establish some kind of contact with their descendants.

In case you’re wondering about the bridge picture, it is the bridge over the northern part of the Darmstadt Main Train Station, in Darmstadt, Germany. An old water tower is in the background, with the view looking eastward. Enjoy!

Photo attribution: By Uploader. (Own work (Own picture).) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Posted in Genealogy How To's, Germany, Photos | Leave a comment

Don’t speak German – not a problem!

Posted on January 12, 2011 by Ann

I just love living in the age of technology!

For example, I am to the point in my genealogical research that I need to start looking at German records. Unfortunately, I don’t speak German, despite being half German myself.

I can only blame the time period for my lack of skill with the German language. My mother’s family emigrated from Germany in the mid- to late-1800’s. German was spoken in the home, of course. My mother has told me that whenever her Grandma and Grandpa didn’t want the grandkids to hear what they were talking about, they would switch to German.

Then along came World War I…

My great-grandfather’s younger brother, August Henry Speer, never came home from that war. In fact, they never even found his body. Missing in action…or at least that’s what the telegram said that they sent to my great-great-grandmother.

There is a marble plaque mounted on the wall in a war memorial in France with his name on it.  You can view a website that describes what the Meuse-Argonne Cemetery looks like as it is today in France.

Before the first World War, I had another German member of the family who was a traveling tinsmith. He traveled back and forth between the U.S. and Germany plying his trade along the way to pay for his trips to the U.S. to visit family members. My mother gave me a tin cookie cutter that he made for my great-grandmother.

His travels ended, of course, with the war.

When WWII came along, even my mother, a young child at the time, was drawn into the conflict. She was given strict orders from her parents that whenever she was asked what nationality she was, she was to respond, “I’m an American.”

She was instructed never to tell anyone that she was German-American.

The day finally came when the teacher did ask her what nationality she was. Of course, with a name like ‘Speer,’ it was pretty obvious that mom was German. But even as a little girl, she stuck to her guns. She insisted she was American when the teacher asked the question.

Now, I am sure that my grandparents were afraid of what the U.S. government had done to the Japanese who settled in Hawaii and California. Visions of spending the war years in an internment camp must have haunted their dreams at night. I can’t blame them for leaving their German identity behind and clinging to their new American roots.

But it did mean that I would never have the opportunity to learn how to read, write or speak German.

Note: I do happen to speak some Spanish, but that isn’t much help when you’re trying to read German genealogy records.

However, I did manage to learn the German equivalents of: born, died, married, etc. That helps when you’re deciphering a German tombstone, but not when you’re trying to translate a German website…

And then along comes the Google translation capability!!!!!

With a single mouse click, you can ask Google to translate a web page for you – what an amazing tool!

That capability allowed me to find the following information on a German website recently:

Marlies

In the weekly paper for the district of Dieburg 02.17.1840 thank some emigrants from the agent Schomerus Rotterdam for their kind treatment and care. The letter is signed by the elected leaders of the emigration:

Georg May America Ohio State
Martin Mischler Heppenheim
Georg May Heppenheim
Johannes May Heppenheim
Martin Bauer Kirschhausen
Mathes Trares Kirschhausen
Friedrich Anthes Kirschhausen
Peter Klein Sonderbach
Adam Hohnadel Erbach
Gerhard Breier Erbach
Ignaz Kämmerer Heppenheim
Wilhelm Koll Heppenheim
Peter Koob Heppenheim

Apparently, it was not uncommon for people to place advertisements and letters in the hometown papers back in Germany – just to let their family, friends and relatives know that they had arrived safely to their destinations in the U.S.

Some of the names above should be familiar to you: May, Trares, Anthes (Antes, Andes), Klein (Kline), Hohnadel….all of these surnames appear in the Knapp family tree. And the following hometowns in Germany should ring a bell with you, too: Heppenheim, Kirschausen and Erbach.

Isn’t it amazing what a little technology can do?

Happy ancestor hunting!

Posted in Genealogy How To's | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Genealogy is a lot like fishing…

Posted on December 20, 2010 by Ann

Sometimes, I do Google searches on the list of family surnames when I have a spare moment – and don’t have a specific research goal in mind.

It’s kind of like fishing – you get a bite, but you don’t know what’s on the other end of the line – until you reel it in, that is…

This morning, I had such a moment and typed in “TRARES” to Google and up popped a document about a Suffield Twp. road paving project on Trares Road. I am still amazed that there are so many roads named after Knapp Family ancestors in this area.

Of course, the majority of them were farmers, and I guess it was just more convenient to name the roads after whoever had settled there and had a farm on that particular stretch of county road. So there are roads named:

You can click on the links above to see a Google map of each road, in case you aren’t familiar with where each roadway is located.

Check out the photos of Trares Road by clicking the link above. If anyone recognizes a landmark and wants to share their thoughts, please post a comment.

Happy holidays!

Posted in Family History, Genealogy How To's, Local History, Maps, Photos, Portage County | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment