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Anselmus Ostholthoff - Hamilton County, Ohio

Welcome back!  Yes, that was self-directed.  The entire month of January - it seems - was a bit of a wash, due to our upcoming move, a kitty health "cat"-astrophe, and overall craziness after the Christmas holiday season.  Our home is packed and all belongings are on their way to Virginia from Sicily.  The day of the pack-out, the movers did a fantastic job...but I was sweating bullets over my large plastic tote of genealogical files.  Of course I have scanned copies of the critical documents - but the remainder of the files represent hours of digging, printing, browsing through old newspaper archives online.  Buried stories resurrected with care.  Please, oh please do not let anything happen to my box of treasures! 

Yesterday, while the boys napped, I worked a bit on my #1 genealogical goal for 2015 - tracking down naturalization paperwork, passenger lists, and potential hometowns for my half-dozen "German" immigrant relatives.  For each family unit, I follow the same rule; track down all information on THIS side of the ocean before jumping across into German records.  I want to have all pertinent census docs, death records, addresses, etc. 

Today's post focuses on ANSELMUS OSTHOLTHOFF (1831-1876).  Previous post with information about New York Passenger Listings for the family of Anselmus Ostholthoff can be found HERE.

Context: Anselmus Ostholthoff is my 3rd great-grandfather on my mother's maternal side of the family.  My maternal grandmother's maiden name was OSTHOLTHOFF.

From at least 1870 (when he is listed in the US Federal Census for Hamilton County, Ohio), Anselmus and his family lived in the Cincinnati.  Until this weekend, I did not know exactly when he passed away - only that he was not present in the 1880 census; his wife, Maria Anna (Doepke) is listed in 1880 as a widow.  

Using the University of Cincinnati's Digital Records Collection, I finally located a death record for Anselmus:


Listed above, we have cause of death (encephalitis), age at death (46 years), address, place of birth (Germany), occupation (laborer), attending doctor, burial location (St. John Catholic Cemetery, Hamilton County, OH).

Death date mystery solved!

 



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