Brenda's Brick Wall - Wolfgram (Saturday Night 28th)

How sad is this? I have my mother's ancestory back to the early 1600's in Bohemia and farther back in Quebec and France. But, here in the USA I cannot find the grandfather of my father. I THINK I know.. but I cannot prove it.

Adding to this blog for the Saturday Night 'Special' of Randy's. ;')

Benhart Benjamin Wolfgram born 1904 d. 1979 is my father. His father is Amel / Emil Wolfgram, supposedly born in Wisconsin abt 1867. I found an Abel in the Dodge County Wisconsin 1870 census with August and Fredericke Wolfgram and going by one cousin's family lore this almost has to be the family. I have ordered every record known to man on this couple and a couple of their sons trying to prove or disprove this family and I cannot do either. Yesterday on Heritage Quest I found an 1880 census that, for some reason, I never hit upon, Oh, I know why! The name is again, spelled Abel and not Amel. But we all know the history of census takers being ever so 'accurate' in their writings! Not!

Amel/Emil ends up in settling down in Todd County, Minnesota and marries Matilda 'Tildee" Zacharias, whom had been married before and brought 2 children to the marriage, and Amel and Tildee have four of their own children. I have land records, vitals and any record I could find on the Minnesota connection but was never to find the connection to Wisconsin. All of his records point to Wisconsin as his birthplace. Abel on the 1870 and 1880 is the ONLY record I have seen that even comes close to Amel. Amel marries in 1884 (from memory) in Minnesota. I would discount this IF there was not a son of August by the name of Frank who became a judge and had a son that was in WWI who died young. Frank donated monies for a room at Weidner University and when Edward died in the military he donated thousands of elite type English books to the room, called the Wolfgram Library. This is a part of the oral stories from a cousin that lived in Minnesota and Iowa and had no way of knowing about Frank unless there was some kind of family connection.

If you are reading this and have any connection to this family please contact me at kingsley@aol.com.

I have all the data from the time Amel hit Minnesota but not his birth record or parents. I know they were of Luthern faith and that is the one thing I have not done is search the church records in Wisconsin.

Now, my commitment for FHC research: I have the 1870 and 1880 census of one person I thought was most likely to be my gr-grandfather so I need to try and disprove or prove this person again with new data I found. The spelling is Abel on the 2 records how likely is it for the census taker to make the same name mistake ten years apart and assumedly not the same worker. I had not found this prior as I thought Abel was a typo for _hopefully_ Amel. So, I need to find out what happened to this Abel.

Now to determine what might help me. I will aim for the 1890~ JUST KIDDING~~ okay the 1900 and 1910 and see if I can find this Abel. My Amel married in 1884 in Minnesota so if I find Abel with any of the family it will sort of disprove my _hoped_ theory of the mispelling.

I have check this set of records Index of births -- Monroe County, Wisconsin : 1850 through 1944 but not for Abel. I think this will be my first step. And I will have to send a request to the WI mailing list as the book does not left SLC. I am only seeing the 1905 census for Monroe County WI but I will order that. Will check 1900 on ancestry.com. When I order the 1905 I will order this film: Index to marriages in Monroe County, WI : for registration volumes 1,2, 3, and 4 from 1855 to 1907. This is the only films on vitals that are allowed to leave SLC so will work with this for now.

Thanks Randy, for keeping me on this line! I have exhausted so much that It really getting sad! But,
will start here. Maybe I can get to the library tomorrow if not they are open again Tuesday.

The saga continues