Saturday, January 16, 2010

Surname Saturday: Harney (Part 2)

I promised you that I would continue my search for Fredrick Harney.  This is Part 2, where I am continuing trying to break down this brick wall.  You can refresh your memory of what I've already found by reading Part 1.

The 1910 U.S. Federal Census:
Thanks to a comment left by Cynthia on part 1, I was able to find Fredrick Harney in the 1910 U.S. Federal Census. His household is as follows:

*Fred Horni - male, white, age 64, widowed, born in Germany, parents born Germany/Germany, immigrated to U.S. 1872, naturalized, black smith in own shop
*M. Foster - servant, female, white, age 54, widowed, born Germany, parents born Germany/Germany, immigrated to U.S. in 1884, housekeeper for private family

I knew Fredrick was hiding somewhere in the 1910 census. He is indexed as "Fred Horm", but when I look at the document, I see "Fred Horni", which is easy to confuse.

Immigration:
Based on the 1900 and 1910 federal census, Fredrick immigrated to America in 1872.  So I began my search on Ancestry.com, but I've been unsuccessful thus far.  I'm noticing that my difficulty is that I only have a possible year of arrival.  I don't have any idea as to what port he came into, what port he left from, who he was traveling with, or a date.  I am lucky in the sense that I have a possible year, but I also know that Fredrick is an ancestor who is good at hiding.

Did He Marry Again?
I find it to be unlikely that Fredrick married again since he was not married in the 1910 federal census and he died in 1911.  However, it is possible that he married again but I have not found a marriage record to prove that.


The Final Resting Place
Over the last week or so, I began asking my mom some questions about what she knew of the Harneys.  I knew that in the 1980s she had taken a trip to Indiana.  She told me that she has seen the actual stone with Fredrick Harney's name on it.  I got so excited that I immediately grabbed the closest pen and paper.


Then I hit a brick wall again.  When my mom had visited the cemetery, it was in the middle of a snow storm.  As a native Californian, she considered the weather too extreme.  When she went to see the stone, she stepped out of the warm car and snapped a quick photo.  She wasn't concerned with getting a good picture - she was concerned with getting back in the warm car!


I've found the pictures my mom has taken.  While a stone can definitely be seen, the picture is taken from too much of a distance to read the words on the stone.  So close, yet so far away.


Still Stuck...
While I moved a few bricks, this is ancestor is still a brick wall.  If you have any further suggestions or comments, I would be greatly appreciative of any help you can bring me.




4 comments:

Alice Dilts said...

I did a search on Heritage Quest and found a Fred Harney listed in the 1900 Indiana Lake County, Hobart Twp Census record. His name is 5th from the bottom of the page. It shows him as father and the mother is listed as Dorothy. Year of immigration is listed as 1860 though. His age is listed as 54, birthplace Germany.
Could this be him?

Elyse said...

Alice - I went onto Heritage Quest to look at what you were talking about. The image that I see where Fred is married to a Dorothy is on "Subpage A". However, if you look at the image, the last name looks like Hick and he is born in 1818. It looks like the index is messed up on this one.
But when you look at "Subpage B", you see the image that actually corresponds to the index - and that is the image that I am used to seeing.
But I really appreciate the help!

Dennis said...

As far as the headstone picture, how bad is it? familytreemagazine on youtube has a suggestion in their video "Grave Transformations". I might be able to do something with it in GIMP. This is probably a bad time of the year but have you tried RAOGK to see if there is a volunteer in that area for another picture or other documents?

leslielawson said...

Elyse, have you checked the sites that list transcriptions? Such as:
interment.net; or http://www.usgwtombstones.org/; or
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gs&

There are many more, but these are my top 3 'go to' sites!