Thursday, August 4, 2011

Julius Koehl Address Study

Below is a list of addresses given for Julius Koehl in Brooklyn, New York from 1870, when I was first able to find any mention of him (on the 1870 census), to 1907, when he died. I have also listed his place of birth for all instances when it was mentioned. Early reports are very general, but Julius’ death certificate cites Meisenheim as his place of birth (the informant was probably his oldest daughter Josephine Koehl Glashoff), and that location was also given by daughter Magdalena Koehl Tonjes on the 1920 census as her father’s place of birth. The addresses are consistent; from 1870 to 1880 it was 12 Union Street, and from 1892 to 1907 it was 125 15th Street. The street view image from Google Maps shows the building currently located at a nearby address for 125 15th Street.




The next set of images show the locations of the residences of Julius Koehl’s eight surviving children at the time of his death in 1907. The first image shows the list of children with addresses from the probate papers; the second and third are the map and list I created for “My Places” on Google Maps. It looks very much like there are only six place markers, but in the Borough Park area (where my husband grew up) two markers are obscured by a third one: oldest sibling Josephine Glashoff, my husband’s great-grandfather Harry Koehl, and Magdalena Tonjes all lived within a block or two from one another. The northernmost two addresses belong to Julia and Augusta Kern, who probably married brothers.




7 comments:

  1. Greta, I love maps and this is a great way to visually track your ancestors. I've been attempting to do that with my rural ancestors. Thanks for sharing.

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  2. Greta, in total agreement with Lisa. Love the maps in tracking families. I have used maps on a larger scale, but never one that gives a rather microscopic view of the family. Thanks for not only an interesting post, but a great idea.
    We should have a list: Greta's Great Ideas!!

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  3. Maps AND spreadsheets in one post! Terrific job, Greta.

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  4. Greta - I love this! I've done a lot with tracking people in city directories and house directories from year to year, but I haven't thought about the visual aspect. Thanks for the great idea!

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  5. We all seemed to love the same aspects of this post! Really nice visuals and maps to help the story along. I always enjoy your informative articles.

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  6. Lisa - It took me a while to figure out that I need visual help in picturing my ancestors' lives, yet I'd known for a while that I was a visual learner.

    Joan - You should see my office (I think of it as my Genealogy Central) - the walls are starting to fill up with maps!

    Susan - Thanks. Yeah, I like spreadsheets, too.

    Cynthia - I've really lucked out with Julius Koehl. Once I really dug in, he wasn't elusive at all - he's all over the place!

    Cheri - Thank you! I'm another big fan of visuals; most of my posts don't have them (and I'm aware that can be a shortcoming), but I figured this would be something I could come back to and use to "organize my thoughts."

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  7. this is a great idea. I'm going to use it!

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