Just over a year ago, on 5 December 2015, I wrote about a somewhat missing branch of my Molin family, a grandchild of Anders Molin and Sara Brita Krook and daughter of Hans Molin of Öved, Malmohus, Sweden. Anna Greta Molin was a sister of my ancestor, Johanna Elisabeth Molin who married my long time brick wall, Johannes Jensen, in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1842.

I knew that Anna Greta, six years younger than Johanna and the baby of the family, had accompanied her when she moved to Copenhagen in 1838 because of the Öved, Sweden moving out list.

I also was able to find the marriage record for Anna Greta Molin to Friedrich Wilhelm Schulte, a German man, at Trinitatis Church in Copenhagen on 23 October 1846. The birth of a daughter, Lucia Herminagarde, was recorded there on 4 September 1847. Their trail went cold until I found a family tree showing the births of three sons, Gustav Adolph, Carl Oscar and Karl Franz on 18 March 1851, 15 August 1853 and 23 December 1854 in Duesseldorf, Germany. The young Schulte family had moved to Germany.

Since I had no access to German church records and can’t read German script, I set the Schulte family aside on my future “to do” list in Salt Lake, where help would be available.

Last week, thanks to help from my friend Ruth at the library, I retrieved images of the civil birth registrations of the three boys, which, in turn, gave two addresses where the family lived. The first home was on Ritterstrasse and the second on Neustrasse. Ruth helped me locate the streets on a map and then pinpointed three possible Evangelical Lutheran churches where the family might have worshiped.

Because the FHL had filmed early civil registrations, they hadn’t filmed any of the church records from the 1850s. I was prepared to again set the Schultes aside, but, first, tried searching for further clues in FamilySearch and Ancestry, entering names of each of the family members.

To my great surprise, one hit came up for a “Carl Oscar Schulte,” born 15 August 1853 in Duesseldorf, Germany. The surprise was that he was listed in the U.S. passport applications collection in 1885! This man lived in Wayne County, Michigan, which is where Detroit is located.

Surprise #2 came when a marriage record turned up for a Lucia Schulte to a Christian F. Finkbohner on 29 December 1886 . . . . in Detroit, Michigan! The bride was 19 years old, which matched the age of my Lucia Schulte, born in Copenhagen. Mr. Finkbohner was German-born, but residing in Bloomington, McLean County, Illinois at the time of his marriage.

A search of the 1870 census was frustratingly negative. I couldn’t find the Finkbohners in Illinois, or anywhere else for that matter, nor could I find Carl Oscar Schulte, his parents or his brothers.

What helped me unravel all of this were city directories for Bloomington, Illinois, where Lucia and her husband settled, and Detroit, Michigan, where the Schultes lived.

From Danish and German records, I knew that Fred and Anna Greta had four children. However, in U.S. records, I have found no hint of Karl Franz, their youngest son, and I believe he likely died before the family emigrated to the United States or very soon after arriving.

First, although Lucia married in 1866, her marriage didn’t happen until the very end of the year. The family did not appear in the 1867 Detroit city directory. Either they arrived after the directory census was taken, likely in fall of 1866, or else they moved, missing the same directory census takers, who they might have canvassed their first neighborhood after they left one residence and canvassed their new neighborhood before the family moved in.

I happened to find Oscar and Anna in the Detroit directories in the early 1880s. I immediately began backtracking them until I hit 1867, where they were not  listed.

In 1868 and 1869, Frederick Schulte appeared as head of the household. I know he is “my” guy because the family was at the same street address in later years. (I have no images because I learned something in Salt Lake. I saved many of the directory images and then emailed to myself through Ancestry, which gave no option for me to name the files myself. Therefore, I have multiple city directory images which don’t have the year printed on the page or in the file name. Lesson learned for next time  and I let my Ancestry subscription expire a couple of weeks ago so can’t access the images myself at home at the moment.)

Anna was head of the household in the 1870 directory, so I used wildcards to search for her in the U.S. 1870 census:

Lines 3 and 4 – Ann and Adolph “Schultz”

The census was taken on 27 June 1870, so Fred likely died sometime in 1869 or early 1870, but he has not been found in the mortality schedule. I also haven’t located a death record for him, but death records for this time period are not common in Michigan.

By the time the 1871 directory was compiled, Anna was the widowed head of household in Detroit and is consistently listed in the directories through 1884. She may have died about 1885, but I have not found a death record for her either.

What happened to the Schulte children? As mentioned, there is no further record of Karl Franz, the youngest known child, born in 1854.

1. Lucia married Christian Frederick Finkbohner on 29 December 1866 in Detroit. The marriage record indicates that Christian was a resident of Bloomington, McLean County, Illinois. Quite maddeningly, I can’t find Lucy or Christian F. or Frederick C. (he went by both names, according to birth/marriage records of their children) in ANY census record before 1900. Christian F. Finkbohner’s gravestone is found at Evergreen Cemetery in Bloomington. His birth year is listed as 1832 and his year of death was 1904; he is not found in the 1900 census. Lucy, on the other hand, is found in Bloomington in 1900, listed as a widow. She reported having given birth to five children, four of whom were living. Furthermore, there is a marriage record for Mrs. Lucy Schulte Finkbohner to Christopher Rumpf in McLean County recorded on 5 November 1894. There is yet another marriage record for Lucy to William H. Baker on 24 October 1909, also in McLean County, but Lucy is again listed as the widow Finkbohner in the 1910 census.  City directories again told the story. The 1893 city directory must have been very embarrassing for Lucy, if she was able to read. She reported that she was a widow, but look who else is listed:

1893 City Directory, Bloomington, Illinois

We have sons Bernhardt, Emil and Frederick Jr. residing with their mother, Lucia, (wid F C), at 313 W. Front Street, but directly above the “widow” Lucia is Frederick C. Finkbohner Sr., living over 111 N. Main Street!

With a surname like Finkbohner, it would be very likely these people were all related and her friends could all see the lie she told. I assume that this couple divorced and that Lucia was not a bigamist, too.

Children of Lucia and Christian Frederick Finkbohner:

1. Bernhardt, born August 1868; died November 1912; married Margaret A. Miller, 28 September 1898, Bloomington, McLean, Illinois. It appears they had no children.
2. Anna, born 27 October 1870; died 22 December 1928, Hanson County, South Dakota; married John Amos Boulware, 7 November 1889, McLean County, Illinois
3. Frederick Jr., born 14 January 1873, Illinois; died 9 November 1902. Fred did not marry.
4. Emil, born 6 April 1875, Illinois; died 1956. Emil did not marry.

Of the four surviving children then, only Anna had children.

Children of Anna and John Amos Boulware:

1. Earl Hardin, born 29 January 1891; died 11 February 1949, Hanson County, South Dakota; married Iva Irene Lubker, 1914, probably in Hanson County, South Dakota. They had three children: Delmer, born 1915; died 1916, an unnamed infant, born and died in 1916 and Wallace H. born 25 March 1919; died 24 August 1986. Wallace married Lois Ireland, 1939. she was born 17 August 1918; died 25 September 2009. They apparently divorced, as she married (2) Morgan Pratt, 6 August 1960, Nashua, Iowa. Wallace and Lois had two children, so there are descendants through this line.
   
2. Tressie F., born 5 November 1892, Illinois; died 6 October 1967, Minnesota; married (1) George Thiel (1890-1928) (2) Charles Dilworth. Tressie and George had four children – Howard Arthur, Dale R., Mildred I. and Maurice H. Howard married and had children. Dale died in his teens, unmarried. Mildred and Maurice lived at least into their teen years, but I have been unable to find out more about them. At a minimum, there are descendants through Howard’s line.
3. Raymond Deloss, born 22 July 1905; died 11 November 1979, Ocala, Marion, Florida. As an adult, he went by DeLoss Ray Boulware. He married Clara M. Schulfer, August 1962, Dubuque County, Iowa as her second husband. She was born 1906; died 1993, Portage County, Wisconsin. Only one marriage has been found for this man and, if he only married once, then he apparently had no children.  However, it is not known for certain if there are descendants through this line.

There you have it – my missing Molin family branch, now mostly accounted for. I can’t say I ever expected to find them in the United States!