Max Baerecke: Lady Elgin Shipwreck Survivor

Max Baerecke (1827-1904) my great-great-great grandfather, was born in Germany but immigrated to and raised his family in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Baerecke is such an unusual surname, that sometimes I search databases just looking for anybody with the name. This was the case when I searched for "Baerecke" is the massive Genealogy Bank historic newspaper website. 

There was a hit for a Max Baerecke in the September 1, 1880 Milwaukee Journal of Commerce.

Here is the headline:

Lady Elgin disaster? What's that? I immediately Googled it. Turns out it was a shipwreck on September 8, 1860. This piece was about a memorial commemorating the 20-year anniversary of the disaster.

The article was 1 1/2 columns long. I scanned the page until I zeroed in on Max Baerecke. He was listed as a survivor at this memorial event.

Wow. My third-great grandfather was a shipwreck survivor? I searched online for other articles and information about the disaster. Here is a September 12, 1860 New York Times article on the subject.

What I did not find, was Max Baerecke's name on any other list of survivors. Ship-wrecks.net didn't have his name. Nor did the book from which the list apparently came.

So how do I process this information? If Max Baerecke was a survivor of the Lady Elgin disaster, why didn't  his name make it into the book? Then again, why would he show up at the 20th anniversary memorial if he wasn't on the Lady Elgin?

What I do know is that this Max Baerecke from Milwaukee is my Max Baerecke. There was only one Baerecke family in 30 years of Milwaukee City Directories and it was mine all mine. This family went back and forth between Chicago and Milwaukee. He was in the Civil War, but not Irish like the majority of ship passengers. He ended up serving in a unit with other German immigrants. He was also poor and did not speak English.

Was he looked over as a survivor? Did the author of the Lady Elgin shipwreck book miss this Milwaukee Journal of Commerce article when conducting research?

Maybe I should share this article with some of the people and historical societies that may be interested in the subject and let them utilize it as they see fit.

What's next on this subject? I'll be making a bee line for the FGS 2013 session "They Went Down With the Ship" about Great Lakes shipwrecks and led by Elizabeth Kelley Kerstens, CG. It's like FGS added this session just for me!

I'll let you know how it goes. Until then I'll just try to process the fact that if Max hadn't made it off the boat, there would be no We Tree Genealogy Blog.

P.S. Here is a video of the Lady Elgin as she rests today.

The Short Life of Harry Baerecke

Yesterday I discussed how I was using city directories to put together a timeline of the short life of my great-great grandfather, Harry Baerecke. I thought my family might be interested in said timeline, so I'll post it here.

1868 - Age 0: Born in Granville, Wisconsin

1870 - Age 2: Living with family in Granville, Wisconsin

1880 - Age 12: Living with family at 416 State St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin

1883 - Age 15: A clerk living at 327 State St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin

1884 - Age 16: A clerk living at 327 State St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin

1885 - Age 17: A clerk living at 327 State St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin

1886 - Age 18: A locksmith living at 430 5th St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin

1887 - Age 19: A machinist living at 430 5th St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin

1888 - Age 20: A lineman living at 430 5th St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin

1889 - Age 21: A lineman living at 430 5th St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin

1890 - Age 22: An electrician living at 430 5th St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin

1891 - Age 23: Married Amelie Schmitz (aka Mollie Sutherland) in Milwaukee. Working as an electrician, living at 19 Armitage Ct., Chicago, Illinois.

1892 - Age 24: Only child Gertrude (aka Buster's mom) is born. Working as an electrician, living at 19 Armitage Ct., Chicago, Illinois

1893 - Age 25: Can't find him in the Chicago or Milwaukee directories

1894 - Age 26: An electrician living at 1106 N. Kedzie, Chicago, Illinois

1895 - Age 27: Can't find him in the Chicago or Milwaukee directories

1896 - Age 28: Died of pulmonary tuberculosis in Milwaukee. Buried there in Union Cemetery.

These snippets were pulled from censuses, city directories, marriage records and death records. I have digital images of the marriage and death records. Everything else can be found online at Ancestry.com. Let me know if you want anything or have trouble finding these records online.

Harry Baerecke had one child who went on to have one child. That means that the only known living descendants of this man are my dad and his siblings (3 people), their children (6 people) and their grandchildren (8 people so far). Seventeen people. That's not too many.

Well, there's my ancestor's life in just a few lines of text. There's more to explore in the property records, associations, newspapers and wills, but that will have to wait for another time.

One More Rung on the ProGen Ladder

Today was the January chat for my ProGen 3 peer group. The topic was evidence analysis. The assignment was to collect and analyze the records you have for an upcoming proof argument. It's a future assignment. All we had to do this time was list the records, talk about their validity, credibility, etc. This was a good lesson for separating the puzzle pieces and analyzing each one.

My records have to do with a research issue I plan on using for my own proof argument down the road.

My great-grandmother's death certificate says she was born in 1892 in Chicago, Illinois, and that her father was H. H. Baerecke, born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. My issue: trying to find the identity of H. H.

I have found documentation of a Harry Baerecke that fits this age range and location. I have numerous city directories that show Harry Baerecke/Barecke/Barrecke in Milwaukee and/or Chicago. Harry is never in both directories at the same time, except for 1891, the year he supposedly got married. I have a marriage date (1891) and death date (1896) by Ancestry.com index only. I have a couple newspaper clippings about an H. Baerecke. The occupations in both Chicago and Milwaukee records say "electrician" or something related.

Here's the deal: in my own research, I feel very strongly that my H.H. and this Harry are the same person. So much so that I dropped the cash for his father's military pension file. Harry isn't in it because he died before the document was filed. He's not listed as living descendant of Max. BUT he's listed in the 1897 Milwaukee directory as deceased, and part of the Clara Baerecke house. Clara is the daughter of Max.

Here's the other deal: for a proof argument, these records are weak sauce. Hunches and gut feelings don't fly. There is a gap between my H.H. Baerecke and the Harry Baerecke in all the records. The 70 year-old baby book I have that says H.H. is Harry Baerecke won't cut it, because the lady that filled it out never met the Baerecke family. I need more, better, stronger information and some vital records would help, too. This is one of those cases where the 1890 census--if it was available--would have really come in handy.

I'm still trying to get marriage and death records for Harry. The films are on order. Apparently Harry is buried in the Baerecke family plot in Milwaukee, but the person that told me that says the cemetery is not in a good area. Sooooo.....I need to find someone who doesn't mind an inner-city adventure and is willing to take a picture for me.

I don't know if I will have a case for my proof argument. I have a lot of indirect evidence, which is like a bunch of puzzle pieces that fit together nicely along the outside, but the whole center portion is still missing.

And that, folks, is the status of my ProGen day.