My main objective is to find when and where my great grandparents August and Susan married. I think researching his first family life and times could help me and besides for years I've been curious about August, his first wife Catherine and their children. I don't have much to go on and I really feel lost when it comes to gathering information, but slowly my research looks like it is advancing.
Catherine isn't my great grandmother -- to me she is just August's first wife. His second wife Susan A. Fowler is mine. August and Catherine's children are my "half" great aunts and uncle. The grandchildren are then my half-cousins and so on with all the "removeds" and so forth.
By using the census, I have a basic idea of August's life in Illinois starting around 1850. The censuses show the migration route from LaSalle County to Chicago in Cook County. The story for August begins in 1850 when he's a farmer then becomes a machinist in 1860 and 1870, and lastly a boiler maker in 1880. [More on his boiler maker life in another blog post.] He had two wives, first one died before 1865 having bore two children (listed); the second wife by 1880 census bore three children (listed). Looking at the census gives me an overview picture to build on. August did father more children, but the censuses don't reflect that number. Several of Susan and August's children died very young and are buried in Rosehill Cemetery.
A TIMELINE (so far)
I am speculating August came to the US around 1849. There is one promising immigration index card for one August Buschick, but I haven't come to verifying it as my August Buschick.
[Sometime between 1850 and 1852, August married Catherine.]
1855 Illinois State Census - August was living in West Chicago, Cook County, Illinois and there was counted: 1 male 20-30 yrs old, 2 females 10 yrs & under, 1 female 20-30 yrs old
[This doesn't verify who the females are, but one might believe they are his wife and daughters.]
[October 1856 - Oswego, Illinois - August applies for naturalization.]
1860 US Census - with a little more information listed, the family is in the 5th Ward, Chicago, Cook Co., Illinois: August is a machinist, there is only one daughter listed and now there is a son
August 34 Machinist born Hamburgh
Catherine 42, born Scotland
Catherine 8, born Illinois, "deaf & dumb"
Stewart 4, born Scotland, "deaf & dumb"
[Did Catherine go back to Scotland and have the baby there? Or did the enumerator make a mistake?]
1865 Illinois State Census - August was still residing in Chicago, but there was no family listed with him. His name is indexed as A. Buscheck.
[Sometime between 1860 and 1870, wife Catherine and son Stewart must have died.]
1870 US Census - August F. 44, machinist, now shown as born in Prussia, living in the 16th Ward in Chicago
Catherine 18, at home, born Illinois, deaf & dumb
Edwin L. 5, born Illinois [my grandfather]
Anna A. 2, born Illinois
[Sometime between 1860 and 1870 August marries Susan A.]
[Sometime between 1870 and 1880 daughter Catherine gets married.]
1880 US Census - Shows August indexed as August I. Buschwick. He is still in Chicago living on Grant Place; he is a Boyler [sic-Boiler] Manufacturer, born Germany.
Edwin 15, son, at school, born Illinois
Jennie 8, daughter, at school, born Illinois
Carrie 1, daughter, at home, born Illinois
Inger Olson 16, servant, born Sweden
Up until just recently, I haven't had any luck finding August and Susan's marriage date. Knowing when August's wife Catherine died should give me some clue to a timeframe for searching, but Catherine's death date wasn't being found either. Even my time spent at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City yielded no information. Oh, there are so many questions to ask in order to move on in this family's history.
A LITTLE SERENDIPITY PERHAPS
A LITTLE SERENDIPITY PERHAPS
Not long after I published that posting, William and Lizzie's granddaughter happened to be poking around the internet and came across my blog post. She contacted me with a correction. I was happy I made that mistake because I wouldn't have learned as much as I did subsequently.
What luck! Gerry and I exchanged several emails; I asked questions; she answered best she could. In one email she mentioned her cousin David in Florida. She said he had more information on the family. She put me in contact with him. Next thing I know, a volley of emails were exchanged, questions asked, answers given.
To chronicle our emails would be too much for this posting. All I can say is David has been a godsend, a treasure trove of information on my "half-family." My comments and questions written between the censuses listings above were slowly being confirmed and/ answered. One thing leads to another.
THE ANSWERS
[Sometime between 1850 and 1852, August married Catherine.]
I was searching in that time frame because I knew their first daughter Catherine (Kate) was born about 1852 (calculated from the 1860 census). In my research I did find another daughter (not named) was born to them before 1855, but must have died shortly after (she is one of the two "females 10 years and under" in 1855 census above).
This is an entry in Kate's diary: "My father’s name was Augustus Ferdinand Buschick, He was born in Hamburg Germany on the 2nd of October1825. He was married to Miss Catherine Miller Wylie on the 15 day of April 1851 in Grand Rapids, LaSalle Co Ills. She was born on the 28th day of Jan 1818 in Glasgow Scotland. She died of disease heart on the 13 day of Nov 1862 age of 45 yrs [buried] in Rose Hill Cemetery in Chicago."
[Did Catherine go back to Scotland and have the baby there? Or did the enumerator make a mistake?]
Son Stewart Alexander was born September 1855 in Glasgow, Scotland. Was his birthplace really Scotland instead of Chicago? David checked Kate's diary which confirmed Scotland. It was entirely possible for Catherine to have gone back there when she was in early pregnancy and just stayed there until the baby was born. People didn't travel and go all that way just to be there a couple weeks like we tend to do today. I haven't found passage information to answer this question yet. Also unanswered: Why was she over there? Or does it matter since she isn't really related to me?
[Sometime between 1860 and 1870, wife Catherine and son Stewart must have died.]
Stewart died in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, March 1862. David repeated what was in the diary "He died of diphtheria in Milwaukee. His body was shipped to Lincoln Park Cemetery on Mar 10 1862 at the age of 6 years."
Lincoln Park Cemetery or City Cemetery was the cemetery where around the mid-1860s the interred were dug up and moved to other cemeteries (e.g., Rosehill, Graceland, and Oak Woods) for public health reasons. It is said there are thousands more who are still in that ground on the southern part of what is now Lincoln Park. I hope Stewart was one who was moved to the Buschick plot in Rosehill Cemetery. I have put information on findagrave.com.
MY MOST WANTED PIECE OF INFORMATION COMES
[Sometime between 1860 and 1870 August marries Susan A.]
[Sometime between 1860 and 1870 August marries Susan A.]
Half-great aunt Kate had the "remarriage" of her father in her diary, too! "My Father was married to Miss Susan Augusta Fowler again on the 15 day of May 1864." They were married 15 May 1864, but there was no place name. So, did they get married in Chicago? If they married in Chicago, the records might have been destroyed by the Chicago Fire of 1871. Or did they marry in Michigan where Susan's family was at the time?
The hunt will be on for church records, but I don't know what church if any in Chicago they attended...and were those records destroyed in the fire, too?
The hunt will be on for church records, but I don't know what church if any in Chicago they attended...and were those records destroyed in the fire, too?
[Sometime between 1870 and 1880 daughter Catherine gets married.]
Little by little I trudge on in the mire of genealogy and family history challenges. The scenarios are what keep me interested...answer one question only to create another. I love it!
