Frederick Gumm and Anna Graf
Photo taken: abt 1900
Photo found: Big DC Flea, Chantilly, VA
Status: looking for family
By 1860, Frederick and Anna have a four month old baby, also named Anna, and the family live together in Paris Township, Edgar Co., Illinois. Frederick is working as a farmer, as many would in this part of the country.
In 1862, Frederick and Anna have a second daughter, Mary. Mary would go on to marry Charles Hains on December 14, 1887 in Paris, Edgar Co., Ill.
Son Edward was born in 1865, and he would marry Florence Mapes on November 23, 1887.
John, the fourth child, was born in 1867 and would later marry Lizzie Mays on August 28, 1890.
Another child, William, would be born in 1869. William would go on to marry Anna Bell Morris on April 17, 1892.
It was difficult at first to find the family in the 1870 census; a broad search on FamilySearch returned nothing, so I navigated to the 1870 Federal Census for Paris Township in Edgar Co., Ill, and I began looking through the pages, one by one. Luckily for me, there were only 38 of them.
Finally, I found them, on the 20th page - the "Grimm" family, a result of poor transcription. Interestingly, though, Anna's first name is written as "Grof" - certainly a reference to her maiden name, Graf. How this would have happened, I'm not entirely sure; perhaps a neighbor gave testimony to the census taker and misunderstood the question, supplying her maiden name rather than her first name.
In the 1900 Census, the family lived at 502 North Jefferson Ave, Paris Township, Illinois. The 1900 census tells us that Frederick and Anna have 9 children, only 5 of them surviving at that time. A few were living with them: daughter Anna (b. 1859) who married a Zeis, daughter Jennie (b. 1874) and Albert (b.1876) who, in 1900, was a medical student, and would go on to be the subject written about in "The History of Illinois and her People" mentioned above.
Frederick and Anna had a multitude of children, so let's recap:
Anna (1859)
Mary (1862)
Edward (1865-1922)
John (1867)
William (1869)
Jennie (1874)
Albert (1876-1934)
Interested in further details about the Gumm children, or thinking you might be related to one of them? Well, lucky for us, along with the above photo I also picked up two copies of photos of the entire family together. Needless to say, another blog post is in the works to give all these children their time in the spotlight.
Next: The Gumm Children
Photo found: Big DC Flea, Chantilly, VA
Status: looking for family
Research is easy when you have such a fantastic photo as this.
Full names, including maiden names, and dates of birth and death are provided on the back of this group photo which I stumbled across at the Big DC Flea - my first photo find of the day. When I asked the booth owner how much he wanted for it, he said, dismissively, that since it wasn't a sports photo like the other ones in his pile, it wasn't worth much.
Well, he didn't know he was talking to a genealogist!
The photo was so large - printed on hard cardstock - that I couldn't manage to fit the entire thing in my scanner. So, excuse the poor quality.
Although there are three couples posing together in this photo, let's start with the Gumm family - Frederick and Anna Gumm on the right - as I collected a few other Gumm family photos to go along with this one.
Full names, including maiden names, and dates of birth and death are provided on the back of this group photo which I stumbled across at the Big DC Flea - my first photo find of the day. When I asked the booth owner how much he wanted for it, he said, dismissively, that since it wasn't a sports photo like the other ones in his pile, it wasn't worth much.
Well, he didn't know he was talking to a genealogist!
The photo was so large - printed on hard cardstock - that I couldn't manage to fit the entire thing in my scanner. So, excuse the poor quality.
Although there are three couples posing together in this photo, let's start with the Gumm family - Frederick and Anna Gumm on the right - as I collected a few other Gumm family photos to go along with this one.
I first found mention of Frederick Gumm in "The History of Illinois and her People", published in 1927 by the American Historical Society. Though he and his wife, Anna, are only mentioned passively in reference to their son, Albert Gottlieb Gumm, a doctor, the book still provides a good introduction to the lives of Frederick and Anna:
"[Anna] came from Zurich, Switzerland, to the United States in 1851, being a girl of fourteen at the time. Frederick J. Gumm, in company with his mother, two brothers and three sisters, came to the United States from the village of Horn, Prussia, in 1848, first settling in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, later coming to Illinois."
We know the name of one of those siblings based on a maiden name included in the label of our photo: Mary Katherine Gumm Steibler.
Frederick and Anna were married on January 6, 1859 in Edgar Co., Illinois
By 1860, Frederick and Anna have a four month old baby, also named Anna, and the family live together in Paris Township, Edgar Co., Illinois. Frederick is working as a farmer, as many would in this part of the country.
In 1862, Frederick and Anna have a second daughter, Mary. Mary would go on to marry Charles Hains on December 14, 1887 in Paris, Edgar Co., Ill.
Son Edward was born in 1865, and he would marry Florence Mapes on November 23, 1887.
John, the fourth child, was born in 1867 and would later marry Lizzie Mays on August 28, 1890.
Another child, William, would be born in 1869. William would go on to marry Anna Bell Morris on April 17, 1892.
It was difficult at first to find the family in the 1870 census; a broad search on FamilySearch returned nothing, so I navigated to the 1870 Federal Census for Paris Township in Edgar Co., Ill, and I began looking through the pages, one by one. Luckily for me, there were only 38 of them.
Finally, I found them, on the 20th page - the "Grimm" family, a result of poor transcription. Interestingly, though, Anna's first name is written as "Grof" - certainly a reference to her maiden name, Graf. How this would have happened, I'm not entirely sure; perhaps a neighbor gave testimony to the census taker and misunderstood the question, supplying her maiden name rather than her first name.
In the 1900 Census, the family lived at 502 North Jefferson Ave, Paris Township, Illinois. The 1900 census tells us that Frederick and Anna have 9 children, only 5 of them surviving at that time. A few were living with them: daughter Anna (b. 1859) who married a Zeis, daughter Jennie (b. 1874) and Albert (b.1876) who, in 1900, was a medical student, and would go on to be the subject written about in "The History of Illinois and her People" mentioned above.
Frederick and Anna had a multitude of children, so let's recap:
Anna (1859)
Mary (1862)
Edward (1865-1922)
John (1867)
William (1869)
Jennie (1874)
Albert (1876-1934)
Interested in further details about the Gumm children, or thinking you might be related to one of them? Well, lucky for us, along with the above photo I also picked up two copies of photos of the entire family together. Needless to say, another blog post is in the works to give all these children their time in the spotlight.
Next: The Gumm Children
That’s cool. Frederick Gumm and his wife Anna Graf were my 3X great aunt and uncle.
ReplyDeleteMary Katherine Gumm Steibler was is my 2X great grandmother on my dads side.
Frederick and Catherine had two other siblings George and Maria. When their father George died in 1833 in North Rhine Germany, their mother Maria Elizabeth Harter married Johan Peter Pross in 1834 and that union brought 2 more children Anna Catherine Pross and Peter Pross.
They came to America around 1848 and made their way to Sheboygan Wisconsin and then to Paris Illinois in 1853.
Mary Gumm married Frederick August Steibler in Paris, Illinois on Nov. 18, 1856. In 1859 they moved to Nemaha county Kansas to become successful farmers where my grandmother and my father were both born.
It’s possible that the couple on the left are Frederick and Anna Steibler. Anna was 6 years older than Frederick and he had a beard like that until his death on Feb 7, 1922 at the age of 92.
Jennie Gumm was my fathers aunt.
Thank you for sharing!!