John C. Siggins' Death Certificate

Well, I ordered all these death certificates (and a marriage certificate) in a group, so they are arriving in a little flurry from the NYC archives. Today, I received John C. Siggins' Death Certificate. John C. Siggins is Sam and Gabby's great-great-great Grandfather. Once again, a lot of new information that I didn't know:

• He died on 6 September 1913 at St. Mary's Hospital in Brooklyn, NY.


• He was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery on 9 September 1913. (By the way, I googled Holy Cross Cemetery -- seems to be the main Catholic cemetery in Brooklyn. According to the description at internment.com, there are over 725,000 people buried there.)


• Most importantly, it lists his mother and father: John Siggins and Mary Code. These are Sam and Gabby's 4Great Grandparents and, until today, I did not know their names. (Because this is a death certificate, this is not rock solid info, but it is enough to go on to start researching the next generation.)

John C. Siggins Death Certificate (2 Pages):

Entrance to Holy Cross Cemetery:

Martin Hambsch Death Certificate

In the same envelope as Walburga Hambsch's death certificate was Martin Hambsch's death certificate. He was Walburga's husband and my natural great-great Grandfather. He died on 16 July 1918 in Brooklyn. Significant new items from his death certificate include:

• His death date (16 July 1918) and likely birthdate (2 Oct 1865 in Germany)


• Where he is buried (Holy Trinity Cemetery -- See the Walburga Hambsch entry for more on it)


• His father's name (Jenophin Hambsch)

Again, another disappointment: instead of his mother's name, his wife's maiden name (Walburga Algeier or Allgaier) is listed. It is common for mistakes on a death certificate because the person who is giving the information is usually distraught. This may be one of those cases (or a big coincidence).

Walburga (Allgaier) Hambsch Death Certificate

Another item from the New York City Archives showed up today: Walburga Hambsch's death certificate (she died on 2 October 1924). Walburga is my grandmother's natural maternal grandmother. It's a great source that provided me some significant new data on our family:

1. Walburga's death date (2 Oct 1924) and her likely birthdate (22 Feb 1866 in Germany).


2. Walburga's likely maiden name (Allgaier)


3. Walburga's likely father's name (John Allgaier, born in Germany)


4. Where Walburga is buried (Holy Trinity Cemetery, Brooklyn, NY -- don't rush to visit, supposedly this is a very bad part of Brooklyn these days).

There is one big disappointment: the word "Unknown" is written where Walburga's mother's name would be listed.

Walburga (Allgaier) Hambsch Death Certificate (2 October 1924)

Entrance to Most Holy Trinity Cemetery circa 1921

Albert Bongiovi and Loretta Siggins Marriage Records

Today's mail brought Albert Bongiovi and Loretta Siggins' marriage records. Albert and Loretta are my great-grandparents (or Gabby and Sam's great-great-grandparents). I had a certificate transcribed by the church they were married in, but the transcription was done in 1964, 42 years after the marriage, which cannot be considered a reliable source for documenting the marriage. Today, New York City sent me three items:

1. An affidavit, filled out and signed by Albert and Loretta, which was required for them to obtain a marriage license. They signed this on 2 June 1922. It contains great info such as their birthplaces, occupations, residences, and parents name (including their mother's maiden names). Again, although almost none of this is new information, almost all of it can be considered well documented in my research files.








2. Their Marriage License, issued on 27 June 1922. This mostly repeats what they filled out on the affidavit.






3. Their Marriage Certificate, filed by the Priest and dated 12 July 1922, their marriage date. Not only does this document their marriage, but it gives the marriage witnesses (probably the best man and maid of honor) and the priest's name.

(Don't forget to click on the images to see the full size record).

The Hambst Family in the 1900 U.S. Census

A few weeks ago I found the Naturalization Index Card from 1899 for my grandmother's natural grandfather, Martin Hambst (Hamsch, Humbsch). Tonight I was able to use the address listed on that card to find him and his family in the 1900 U.S. Census. I had been having problem because Martin and Walburga Hambst were not turning up in any of the indexes for that census year. It turns out there were two good reasons. First, they are listed as Kaumphs or Kamphs (I think they must have had heavy German accents as they only immigrated in 1889 and 1891 or 1892. The enumerator probably wrote what he heard). Second, someone later did some sort of annotations or notes on the actual census page that obscures the first names of Martin, Walburga and their son, who I think is Andrew. Luckily, Grandma's mother Theresa's name is clear. Also, all the other data matches data from other sources, so I am pretty confident this is them.

By the way, the 1900 census is great because it gives a reported month and year of birth while the others usually only have the year of birth or just an age.

Here's some of the detail from the census page listing the name, birth dates, and ages. Also, it shows that at this time (1 Jun 1900), Walburga was the mother of three children, two of whom were still living.

Source: Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2004. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. T623, 1854 rolls. Census Place: Brooklyn Ward 28, Kings, New York; Roll: T623 1067; Page: 23A; Enumeration District: 512.

Free Genealogybank.com access = no new finds for my research :-(

GenealogyBank.com, a research site specializing in historical newspapers, historical papers, and obituaries, has provided free access until Tuesday. I took a few minutes to search for the most likely of my family to be found in their databases. Unfortunately, I found absolutely nothing new. I will probably take a few minutes later today and see if I can find something using more generic searches, but I'm not very hopeful...at least it saves me the big subscription fee to find nothing new.

Naturalization card for Martin Hambsch

Found my first naturalization record today, which, much like finding an ancestor on a ship's passenger list, is exciting because it's a big step towards my goal of tracing all my children's ancestors back "to the shore" when they immigrated to the U.S.

Here's an image of the index card for Martin Hambsch born 2 Oct 1865 in German. I believe Martin is my Grandmother's biological grandfather.

Citation: Ancestry.com. New York Petitions for Naturalization [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2004. Original data: Soundex Index to Petitions for Naturalization filed in Federal, State, and Local Courts located in New York City, 1792-1906. New York, NY, USA: National Archives and Records Administration, Northeast Region.