Finding & Learning about Great Grandpa Joseph Hartmann

Yesterday I decided to go to the Mesa Regional Family History Center to take advantage of their subscription to Ancestry. I had decided I wanted to find something on my Great Grandfather Joseph Hartmann. All I knew was he was born in Germany, was married twice and had 6 children. I usually never have any luck finding any thing when I go to the Family History Center but new things are coming out all the time so I went with hope of success.

The family history class I have been taking reminds us to always start with what you know and move to the unknown. So I picked my Grandfather George Hartmann who was born in 1891 and looked at the 1900 US Federal Census. And there he was as clear as day! You ever wrote that census pages had a beautiful clear handwriting and I thank you for that. George is circled in red.



So George was at the top of the page and I turned back one page to find my Great Grandpa Joseph. Here he is circled in red. I found out a couple of things I didn't know. I had his birth as about 1865, here it is as Sept 1845, he is a widow in 1900. I still don't know when his wife died, but at least I know it is before 1900. His youngest child was 6 and he had 5 kids at home as a single man. This also confirms all his children were from his first wife.


Here is some more helpful information, he immigrated in 1868, he has been in the country 32 years and he is Nationalized. So now I have a lot more clues to find out more about my Great Grandpa. So say the less I'm excited and looking forward to finding more out about him. I guess his age to be 23 when he came to this country.



I also found him in the New York City directory for 1890, his occupation was listed as brewer and my distant cousin Fred's letter had told me he work at a brewery.

Some of the interesting and things that bug you are on the 1910 census, Hartmann was spelled with only 1 N. I won't tell you how many times I have told people 2 Ns please. Anyway he had a servant named Katie Whitenheimer, my cousin Fred told me his second wife's name was Katie Wyland or Wieland, she was a widow at this time. One census had the mother of the children born in Germany and one had her born in New York. I had her birth place as Germany. I didn't find him on the 1920 or 1930 census. I will have to go back and see if I can find Katie. I did find my Grandpa & Dad as a son on those last two census. I didn't find Joseph on the 1870 or 1880 census. So I hope to go back one evening this week and see what else I can find and check to see if I have enough info to apply for some Nationalization papers. I also need to check for some State Census.