Now that I have posted my modest genealogy goals for 2014, in
the light of a new year I face the harsh reality of those mysteries and
stubborn brick walls that continue to haunt me. At the top of the list is the Nunn family.
Of German descent Joseph
and Catherina Kurz Nunn had ten children. With the parents both gone by
June 1900, all but one of the children were placed in St. Joseph’s Home,
Peekskill, NY. It remains a
mystery as to the adult lives of my grandfather’s siblings, Emma Nunn Dorn, Emilie,
Joseph, Katie and George, and last but not least the eldest child, Elizabeth Nunn Siebert and descendents
of her oldest child, Regina Siebert
Eberhard. Followers may remember (or maybe not) that three years ago a
comment was made on my blog from Martha
Eberhard, wife of Gerard, one of Regina’s sons. I was thrilled. I
immediately responded, but never heard another word and had no other way to
contact her. From an emotional
high, as time passed with no word, I was devastated. I don’t know what happened, though I suspect some family
crisis intervened, or the family does not want to be found. If I could have 30 minutes with one
person from history, it would be with Elizabeth Nunn Seibert. She
holds the key to what happened to this family. Her story is amazing.
Of Irish descent are the Conlons and Doyles. They, too, are a difficult bunch,
living in a small Manhattan apartment with any number of “cousins” moving in
and out. Patrick and Maggie Conlon Doyle had six children, only two that
lived. My grandmother was one, but
what happened to her sister Winnie? I never heard her mention a sister.
I have ignored my Wortman
family line over the past several years. It is time to focus on that line again.
So, my modest to-do list for 2014 isn’t so very modest at
all. I have a lot of work to do. I had better get at it.
