This “How I Solve It blog involves Erin Harris of RootsFinder and how she had to research both online and offline resources to piece together the parents of her 2nd great grandmother.

With 12 siblings confirmed, she needed definite proof of who the parents were to be approved into a special genealogy society in her hometown. See how she worked with numerous resources to pull everyone together.

My “How Did I Solve it” mysteries involves one of my favorite elusive ancestors, my 2nd great grandmother, Katie (Clemens) Klump. It all started when I found her name listed my grand grandmother’s death certificate. It was the first time I saw this name. Previous research led me to believe that her mother was another woman (Julia Ramby) who her father married after Katie’s death.

What was I looking for?

Katie died in 1888 at the age of 33. She is the oldest documented child according to initial research. How did she die? Where was she buried? What’s her story? Because of her young age and dying in 1888, records were minimal and online searches for her records were coming up empty.

My research started online with ancestry.com and would on occasion take me over to Familysearch.org. However, it got to the point where online resources were becoming scarce with the information that I was trying to find. Both websites agreed that she died in May of 1888, was married to Joseph Klump and listed her children. However, her parents, siblings and any information in between just wasn’t there.

I knew the information was out there, but I didn’t know where to look. Knowing where she lived, I started at Calvary Cemetery that holds probably about 85-95% of my family members on my father’s side of the family. I thank them often for making some of this fairly easy.

The online cemetery database told me that she was buried with a family with the last name Clemens. Clemens was the name listed on my great grandmother’s death certificate.

Within this family plot are many children, including one with the last name of Klump, a possible set of parents and siblings. I located her actual headstone on a trip to that cemetery and found that her headstone contained minimal information: Kate Clemens Mother 1855-1888.

The second place I looked was a listing of online obituaries for the local newspaper. From the listings, I contacted the newspaper for a copy. This obituary is not what we commonly see today with a list of relatives and a brief description of a person’s life. This obituary was more of a vital records notice for everyone who died on that specific day (first initial, last name and then a tallied list of causes of death).

No names were listed with the causes of death so it was a process of elimination to determine how she died. Two lines of this refer to complications during childbirth; apoplexy (bleeding of the brain) and puerperal mania (childbed fever). Given the date of death and the date of birth for her youngest child, I determined that she passed away three days after the birth of her last child which makes me assume that she had one of these complications. Later research confirms that she died of puerperal mania.

Joining a Genealogy Society

In 2015, I joined the Montgomery County Ohio Genealogy Society. With my membership, I learned that within the society, there is a group called the “Settlers & Builders of Montgomery County”. In order to be included in this group, you must prove your lineage to someone who lived in the area from 1850-1860. I was always frustrated because of a lack of attention she received. I thought this would be a perfect tribute to her.

This is When the Real Digging Started

With needing to prove my lineage, I needed to prove who Katie’s parents were and to ensure that they were residents of Montgomery County before 1860. While I knew where she was buried at the cemetery and surrounded by her possible parents and siblings, I had no concrete proof of the relationship.

Researching Other Family Members

Jacob, Father

After I ran out of resources to find information on Katie, I stopped my research specifically on Katie and moved onto her father, Jacob.

Jacob was pretty easy to research. He was a prominent figure in the Dayton area from when he arrived from Bavaria in 1848 and until his death in 1903. His obituary was even showcased in the newspaper as a featured article. However, when it came to listing his children, the article listed that he had 12 children, 5 of whom were still living and proceeded to name his living children. Katie had since passed away so she wasn’t mentioned.

I then scoured city directories that were available on ancestry.com dating back to 1850. I found one listing for Jacob and his wife but no mention of Katie. Katie had her own listing with the same address as Jacob but this wasn’t going to be enough proof for my application. While it was as fascinating side journey learning about my 3rd great grandfather, it didn’t help my original mission.

This is the point where I decided Katie was a huge brick wall that I was going to tear down one way or another.

  • The 1860 census listed her living with her parents but the last name was incorrectly spelled and was not going to be enough for my application to be approved.
  • She could not be located in the 1870 census
  • In the 1880 census, she was married and living with her husband, Joseph Klump and her children.

Clara, Sister

At this point, I had found out everything that I could about Jacob so I moved on to her sister, Clara.

Clara was a few years younger than Katie and died at age 48. I obtained her very detailed obituary that gave me information on how she died and what her husband did for a living. When it came to listing her relatives, I saw almost the same line from Jacob’s obituary that stated she had 11 siblings, 4 of whom are still living and it proceeded to name her living siblings.

Martin, Brother

Moving to another sibling named Martin. I was able to obtain a real obituary from the local newspaper. His obituary mentioned his family and that he had 11 siblings. No names of the living or the deceased. Now I’m frustrated and really not willing to give up and admit defeat but I’ve decided that researching her siblings was not the way to go.

Contacting Churches

Knowing what I now know about the family, I contacted two local Catholic churches directly. I explained what I had in terms of rough birth and death dates with an idea of what I was looking for and anything they had would be greatly appreciated.

The Emmanuel Catholic Church was established in 1837 and was able to send me a large packet of baptismal and marriage records taken straight from their archives for anyone with the last name of Clemens that they could find. Katie’s baptismal record that tied her to her parents, Jacob and Elizabeth (Reisberger) Clemens, was included.

I’ll be honest, the thought of contacting the churches was somewhat intimidating. I am not Catholic nor a member of either church and I thought they may not take me seriously or would think I was weird for asking for such records. I even worried that they would tell me that I could not obtain the records for whatever reason. Once I finally contacted the churches, this was not the case whatsoever. Everyone I communicated with was helpful, polite and seemed more than happy to help me with the research.

Finally, just before the New Year started, I had everything that I needed to prove my lineage back to Katie Clemens through her father Jacob to be approved as a Settler & Builder of Montgomery County. My application was approved in March 2017.

One More Discovery

There were a lot of things that I learned through researching offline resources and one thing always led to another. One major discovery is that Katie didn’t have 11 siblings, she had 12. Katie had a sibling that was born in 1851 and died 11 days later. This baby is never mentioned in any public tree or record that I found on ancestry.com or Familysearch.org and is not listed in the cemetery database.

Summary of Information Found Using Offline Resources

  1. The parents of Katie that includes extensive details about her father Jacob.
  2. The names of each of Katie’s 12 siblings, one who was discovered only through an unknown church baptismal record.
  3. An exact birth and death date for Katie.
  4. The cause of death for Katie, one sister and brother.
  5. A child of Katie’s that died early in infancy that was only found in the cemetery records.

Resources Used

  1. Ancestry.com
  2. FamilySearch.org
  3. Dayton City Records
  4. Dayton Ohio History Books Online
  5. Calvary Cemetery Find a Loved One Database
  6. Dayton Metro Library Obituary Search
  7. Emmanuel Catholic Church, Dayton Ohio
  8. Archdiocese of Cincinnati
Erin Harris

Erin Harris

Originally from Dayton, Ohio but currently living in Denver, Colorado, I'm an avid genealogy researcher and when I’m not working on my family history, I am a freelance marketing professional where I help small businesses with website development, SEO and other marketing projects.
Erin Harris
Erin Harris

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