While I’ve spent much of this year breaking through walls on my wife’s family lines, this week I decided to turn the lens back onto my own tree. Specifically, I wanted to tackle the elusive parents of my Great-Great-Grandfather, Adolph Strahle.
For years, my research was stuck. We knew the basics: Adolph immigrated from Germany, and various U.S. Census records (1900–1920) suggested he arrived somewhere between 1876 and 1879. His marriage and death certificates provided names for his parents—Gottlieb Strahle and Fredericka Riechert—but that’s where the trail went cold.
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| The backside of the marriage certificate of Adolph Strahle and Christine Kass that shows the names of Adolph's parents. |
Beyond those two documents, Gottlieb and Fredericka were ghosts. No birthplaces, no arrival records, and no confirmation that they even lived in the United States.
The "False" Leads
Initial searches for "Gottlieb Strahle" were frustrating. I kept hitting three specific hints that didn't seem to fit:
- The German Baptism: A record for a "Gottfr Strehlau" and a mother named "Amalia." Close, but the names didn't match.
- The 1903 Death Certificate: A Gottlieb Strahle who died in Brooklyn. He was the right age and had been in the U.S. for 23 years, but the document didn't list any family relations.
- The 1889 News Article: A mention of a girl named "Annie," daughter of a Gottlieb Strahle. Since I didn't know if Adolph had siblings, I couldn't be sure this was my family.
Everything changed when I stopped looking for Adolph and started looking for a family group. I went back to that 1889 article about Annie. By digging deeper into local news archives, I found a second mention that linked Annie to a mother named Fredericka. Suddenly, I had a match!
I headed to the NYC Historical Vital Records and cast a wider net, searching for any "Strahle" deaths starting in 1880. That’s when I found Strahle, Albert. His death certificate was the smoking gun: it listed his parents as Gottlieb and Fredericka. I finally had a family group!
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| 1880 US Census |
The final piece of the puzzle came from a classic genealogy hurdle: The Bad Index. My mother found an 1880 Census record that I had completely missed in my research because the enumerator had recorded the family name as "Streling." Despite the spelling error, the data was undeniable. The household included:
| Role | Names Identified |
|---|---|
| Parents | Gottlieb & Fredericka |
| Known Siblings | Albert, Adolph, and Annie |
| New Discoveries | Frederick, Carl, William, David, and Freda |
The record also gave us a specific origin: Wurttemberg, Germany. To seal the case, I located Albert’s Naturalization Papers. He stated he arrived in the U.S. on October 3, 1879—perfectly aligning with the timeline we had estimated for Adolph.
What started as a search for two names ended with the discovery of an entire family unit of ten. I haven't just confirmed Adolph's parents; I've opened up seven new branches of the family tree to explore. The brick wall hasn't just been revisited—it's been demolished.
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