Finding Veronica Part 2

1851 Census Waterloo County Ontario

A few days ago I wrote about finding Veronica Schiebel, my husband's 3rd great-grandmother, on a ships' passenger list from France to New York in 1844.

My search extended to finding Veronica's parents, George and Anna Schiebel, who I knew had settled in the Waterloo area of Ontario Canada. To sum up, as of two days ago I had found Anna, a widow, in the 1861 census of Bruce County Ontario but I could not find the family in the 1851 census.

I had no idea when George Schiebel died, or where. I was able to narrow his date of death to sometime after his arrival in New York in 1844 and his wife Anna appearing on that 1861 census as a widow.

USING WILDCARDS IN SEARCHES

Well, more creative searches today turned up the family in the 1851 census. And I do mean "creative"! Using wildcards (*) on Ancestry.com, I searched for SCH*B*L*  That would pick up misspellings such as Scheibel, Schebel, Schebelle and so on. But Anna was not found.

So I began searching just under her first name, Anna. I added a year of birth +/-5 years, and keywords "Germany" and "Waterloo" Then I began scrolling through the results looking for anyone who might be Anna Schiebel. Bingo! Anna Scheffeb looked like a good possibility! Time to check the image and read the name for myself. Wow, what a mess!

The family was not only misindexed as "Scheffeb", the census taker apparently could not understand their German accent (or he could not spell at all). The family name on the image is clearly "Sheffel" but it is the correct family. Six of her known children are there with her, recognizable even with mangled first names.

ANOTHER CLUE = ANOTHER MYSTERY TO SOLVE

The exciting part of this genealogical find is that not only is father George Schiebel there alive and well (on the previous page), his 76 year old mother is with them! Now I have a whole new mystery to track down - when and where did his mother arrive from Germany and did her husband accompany her?

This find also narrows the death date for George. He died between the 1851 and 1861 census reports. He likely died in Ontario although it is certainly possible he died elsewhere. Since deaths were not registered until 1869 I will have to hunt for church records or a gravestone. Luckily for Ontario researchers, the family's religion is given on the census so I know to look in the Catholic records for the area where the Schiebel family lived.

And now I'm off to hunt for George's mother Katrine Schiebel on a passenger list. Here's hoping she arrived via a USA port because ships' passenger lists to Canada did not have to be kept before 1869.

Finding Veronica

My husband's 3rd great-grandmother was Veronica Schiebel. Veronica was born in 1835 in Germany but came to Ontario Canada sometime before 1851. She settled with her family in the Waterloo area and married John Kirsch in 1854.

All that we knew before today about Veronica was what we had found in the Canadian census records for 1851, 1861 and so on. But I have not found her parents in these records as she was a 17 year old servant in 1851 and not living with any family.

But today I found her arrival in New York on board the ship Louis Phillippe from Le Havre France on 16 April 1844. She was 9 years old and traveled with her parents (Johann George Schiebel and Anna) and 7 siblings.

The family group is listed as George 52, Anna 28, Philippe 22, Plasius 15, Martin 14, Anna 11, Rosina 10, Veronika [sic] 9, Carolina 5 and Maria 1/2 (meaning 6 months)

The youngest child was only 6 months old! How brave was Veronica's mother Anna! Imagine that journey with eight children. The passenger lists states they intend to settle in the USA and that intrigues me. Did they lie? Or did they settle in New York before venturing on to Canada?

I think my next step will be to hunt for a land record for Veronica's father and find out (if one exists) exactly when he settled in the Waterloo area. He may not have owned land which will make that research avenue non-viable but it's worth a try. My first step will be to check the CLRI (Computerized Land Record Index) for Ontario.  If I don't find him there I will hunt for Assessement and/or Tax Records.

Of course there is always the possibility that he did not make it to Ontario. He may have died in New York or shortly after arrival in Ontario. Since Ontario death records were not required to be registered until 1869 it may be difficult to find anything on him. 

But I do plan to revisit the earlier census records for Ontario to try once more to find Veronica's family. I know her mother was alive until 1876 (she died that year in Bruce Co. Ontario) so I should be able to find her in 1851, 1861 and 1871

Wish me luck! And if anyone knows of this family please do leave a comment or contact me.

UPDATE 4:30 p.m. May 6th: Just found Veronica's mother Anna Schiebel living in Carrick Township Bruce Co. Ontario in 1861 census. She is listed as a widow so now I know Johann George Schiebel died between 1844 and 1861, location unknown.