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With regards to my previous question, What happened to Gustav Adolf Neumann, 1859 immigrant to the US? and despite the very good answers, it seems like my ancestor, Gustav Adolf Neumann (born on October 27, 1824 in Leipzig, Saxony in Germany and who reached New York on Jan 17, 1859) is nowhere to be found, see more details in post linked above. He seems to have perished in the black of history.

I have found no traces in the 1860 census. Interestingly, the 1870 census offers a person, which - based on his birth year - could be the one. However, his name does not match entirely. Then, the 1880 census does not have again a Gustave Neumann in Missouri or any other close match.

I have checked for naturalisation, but they are very ambiguous as most (all?) of them do not show the birth year/birth date of the persons.

I checked several death/marriage databases all on familysearch.org, but to no avail.

I was searching on all databases for Gustav Neumann, Gustav Newman, Adolf Neumann, Adolf Newman, Adolph Neumann, or Adolf Newman with the birth years 1824 to 1825 each time.

Does someone has a clue, an idea where to look at? Was I rushy, did I overlook something?

Community
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Til Hund
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    Hello Till Hund- I see that you are using a fairly narrow birth year range in your queries on familysearch. I would suggest widening that to a 10-year window as I've found that ages in the census can vary greatly. – user5836 Mar 17 '17 at 21:01
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    I highly recommend that you watch this webinar which can be viewed for free through March 28, 2017: "Are You My Grandpa? Men of the Same Name". The presenter Rebecca Whitman Koford, CG, is a certified Genealogist; she shows case studies to demonstrate techniques on how to sort out different same-name people. Seeing how she does things may give you ideas for other record groups you can use to answer your question (and give you ideas for other questions). http://familytreewebinars.com/download.php?webinar_id=571 – Jan Murphy Mar 23 '17 at 04:14

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I found the Missouri Gustav in the 1880 census here.

There is also a marriage record, which is not the same Gustav Adolph, because the date clashes with the 1880 census info, but interesting because of the same name, and could be a relative.

Also another Gustav (or same?) in the 1850 Missouri census, and 1860 census, although not in St. Louis.

If you have access to Ancestry, his death record for 20 December 1898 is here. He died of a gunshot wound to the heart.

I didn't check out any others in great detail, but I would look into the one living in New Jersey and the ones in New York. Here's an example record of the New Jersey one (there are census records as well), and the New York one and New York two.

Hammy
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  • Thank you very much for your efforts. Unfortunately, I am not quite sure whether any of the mentioned here can be the G A Neumann I am looking for. The 1880 census shows a Missouri Gustav which is too young (1831 vs. 1824). 1824 is a confirmed birth date, so I really needs to be that year (or 1825 for reasons described in the other thread). The Gustav I am interested in cannot appear in any census prior the 1860 census because he reached the US through New York in 1859. Your two New Yorker records seems to fit better the profile, but I am still not quite sure. Thank you anyway for your help! – Til Hund Mar 22 '17 at 21:02
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    No worries :) Just keep in mind that the birth years in census records should be used more as a guideline. I've had some of my ancestors ages be more then 10 years off in the census, and some have had consistently wrong ages every 10 years (I suspect one of the women in my tree shaved a few years off her age each time the census man came around ;) – Hammy Mar 23 '17 at 13:13
  • Hi, Hammy. After reviewing my question and your answer, I guess that the most promising trace is the New Jersey death certificate you found of a Gustav A. Niemann for 1884 here. Did you find anything else to this person where I could double check whether it was the Gustav A. Neumann I am still looking for? – Til Hund Oct 18 '18 at 11:58
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Are you sure that your Gustav Nuemann was born in Leipzig? The guy you linked to in the 1870 Census reported his birth place as Prussia. I do not believe that Leipzig was ever considered part of Prussia and so I really doubt someone from that part of Germany would claim to be part of Prussia during that time period. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provinces_of_Prussia It would be like calling an American Southerner a "Yankee" despite the bitter history between the Northeast and the South.

Scott Mackay
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  • I am very sure of the data given in the other thread (see link above), so, yes he was born in Leipzig. No doubts about that. You are absolutely right about your observation. It might be that this finding is disqualifying this Neumann from the one I am looking for. However, out of desperation, I considered the given person as the closest correspondence to the Gustav Adolf Neumann I am looking for. – Til Hund Mar 22 '17 at 20:47
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    We do not know who gave the information in the US Census to the census taker. This should be taken into account when weighing the information from any census. – Jan Murphy Mar 23 '17 at 04:08