The Snobby Sister Search - part 1

All my stories that I got on my Sulzbach side came from my cousin Ann Smith.  (see Sulzbach Pedigree Chart). She was my first cousin, my father's sister's daughter.  She was also my mother's best friend; Ann Smith set my parents up on a date.  Angelica Gertrude Stack Smith was named for her mother and great-grandmother; her family's nickname for her was Sis.  Ann loved her family fiercely; she drank a lot and ate little; was loud and inappropriate; lots of fun; an endless well of repeated stories that were long on enthusiasm and short on accuracy.   They were, however, so consistent that I can even repeat the tone of voice.

Ann's graduation from nursing school in 1935

"My grandmother, Arabella - OUR grandmother" - punctuated with inclusive hand gestures - "said her sisters looked down on her because their husbands made so much more money.  They were rich.  'But Grandma,' I said, 'You do all right.  Look at all this...the house, the maid...Pop Jake owns a factory!' "

I thought so too.  My grandparents were rich - the key point was having a maid.  But my father had monogrammed shirts and a silver monogrammed comb-and-brush set and a country-club membership that my mother said came from his early life.  My grandfather owned a factory across the street from his house - what could be more convenient?  They sent my father to private boarding school and all their sons to college and gave $500, a fortune, to the church in 1906.

" 'Oh no,' said Grandma. 'Their husbands did VERY well..they have a LOT of money, so much more.' " 

Ann about age 75 with her impish grin

When the Internet modernized genealogy, I decided to look for these wealthy snobbish sisters who looked down on our grandmother like she was Cinderella.  An 1870 census I had from previous research gave their names as Kate and Annie.

But with Internet research, I found censuses from 1850 through 1940.  Our grandmother Arabella actually had 5 sisters:  Amelia, Barbara Josephine, Alexandra, and Anna were older; Kate and brother Alexander were the youngest. 

1850

Here in the 1850 census, we have Theodore and Gertrude Seller, both age 25, and their children:  Amelia age 3, Barbara J 1 1/2, and Theodore 3/12 (3 months).

                                                                                1860

Here in 1860, we expect everyone to be 10 years older.  Theodore and Gertrude are 36 and 35, check. Amelia should be 13, she's 12, close enough.  Barbara J has turned into Josephine and she's 11, check.  Theodore should be 10, but he's missing, and there is a space where there is no 10-,9-, or 8-year-old, so he must have died.  There are 3 new children:  Alexandria age 7, Anna age 3, and our grandmother Arabella age 1.  

                                                                                1870

Ten years later, Theodore and Gertrude are 45, check.  Anna age 3 is now Annie age 13, check. Arabella goes from 1 to 11, check. There are new children:  Kate is 8 and Alex is 4. 

But the 3 oldest sisters are missing.  Amelia should be 23, Barbara Josephine 21, and Alexandra 17.   Did they die?  Have they married and moved out?

Looking in New York City for an Amelia age 23, a Barbara or a Josephine age 21, and an Alexandra age 17, married with any surname, resembles the proverbial needle search.  I did find an Amelia Windt and a Barbara Gladfelter I thought were likely suspects, and I added them to my tree as tentative.

At the time I was searching, New York City marriage and death records were scarce, and birth records were non-existent.  The Italian and German Genealogical Societies were transcribing records and putting them on their websites for free.  Even so, the records only gave name and date.  You can see that in 3 different censuses, our name is Seller, Zeller, and Jeller.  Add in Zoeller and Zoller, and you have endless possibilities.  Looking for a marriage or death of Annie and Kate proved equally immense.  The only record I could find for an Alexandra was for marriage, but at that date, the bride would have been only 15, so I left that one alone.  

The sister search would have to wait for better technology.