"Grampa Claus Died!"

A few years ago, Adele and I were doing some research on our Schmitt lines (my wife and I are second cousins, once removed). We had found a grand father, Nicholas (Claus) Schmitt born in 1691 whom we had become very fond of. It seems that in the records of Schoenau, Alsace - Claus was popping in everywhere on the records. It was almost as if he was sitting on the court house steps to be a witness for any event. As he was a fisherman by trade, we didn't know where he could get the time for this. He would sign his name, Claus, very large and it would stand out in any record. Being easy to look for it was a landmark for us and we got to know a lot of families in the town. We traced Claus through his birth, marriage and the births of his eight children through the years and he was always known to us as grampa Claus. One night at the LDS FHC in Evansville I was looking through some Artolsheim films and Adele was into the Schoenau films in another room. After a while Adele came in to the room I was in and just sat down in the chair next to me looking a little upset. Trying to take in what could be wrong, for a bit, I then asked her what the problem was as I thought maybe the film broke. She then gathered herself, looked me in the eye and said, "Claus died". I thought, "Yeah, right, 300 years ago!" Then I felt it, as she did, and we both felt a loss that night. When searching through, your ancestors can put that kind of feeling into you... then you really are into genealogy.

- Written by Gilbert Schmitt

From My Email Box - "1930 Census on Footnote.com"

Gilbert Schmitt sent me this:

Hey John,

Enjoying the blog. Here is something for it.

I went to Footnote to try out the free census deal for August. I don't belong to any paid genealogy sites but will try out their special offers. I wanted to look up my parents and step father and make some copies for mom.

My father showed right away but was living with someone called William Dietty and his wife that was illegible as the note said. Going to the census page and zooming in a few clicks I could see that it was transcribed wrong. The lines clearly state the name Deitz and the wife's name Wilhelmina was clear. Both became very good family friends while still alive. Also the transcribed estimated birth dates for dad were two years off.

Looking over the entire page, as other relatives lived near them, I found 14 transcription errors of the names from what was actually written compared to what notes were showing as the cursor moved over the lines. That's 14 errors on just one page. I had a lot of trouble in Henderson Co., KY for this same reason. In my opinion the 1930 census at Footnote.com is worthless. Gilbert

[Has anyone else experienced similar error problems with transcription of the 1930 Census on Footnote.com? - JGW]