Saturday, December 28, 2013

A Case for Syphilis? ...I hope not!

Syphilis - the bacteria, venereal disease you do not want to get if: a) you were born before penicillin; b) wanted or building a family; or c) do not have access to a sanitary environment or hygiene.  (Then again, even if you have penicillin, you still do not want this.)  Unfortunately for Eben William Osterndorff, he lived in a time with such conditions and may have had syphilis.  Since we do not have access to his remains nor a time machine, let us review the evidence.

The Father
The cause of death listed for Eben W. Osterndorff is paralysis with the date of death being 19 November 1891, aged 49 years, 10 months and 23 days.  Before the 20th (or even the 21st) Century, syphilis was rarely listed as a cause of death, usually due to the negative connotation associated with the disease and stigma to the family, but cannot be ruled out as a possible cause.  No other contributing causes are noted on the certificate of death.  Paralysis could have also resulted from botulism, multiple sclerosis, vitamin B12 deficiency, cervical spondylosis or motor neuron disease.  Without further historical medical records, oral or written family history, it is not possible to rule these others causes leading to paralysis either.  But what else do we know about the family?

For the majority of his adult life Eben was a coal dealer, a liquor dealer during the Civil War, a grocer and possibly a post master.  There have been no indications of poor health as would be noted on the US Federal Census (USFC): no blindness, deaf and dumbness, idiocy nor insanity.  There is also no notice of time being spent in a sanitarium or hospital but there is also no indication that he did not have a problem with alcohol, at least not one that was on public display.  Indeed, his life seems to be quite the opposite, being a member of a number of charity organizations and Episcopalian church groups.  His occupation allowed him to marry in his mid-twenties and almost immediately have two daughters, spaced two years apart.  In fact the coal and liquor businesses seem to do well enough to support three generations under one roof in a nice area of Manhattan just a stone's throw from Central Park. 

The Known Children
Unfortunately for us, Eben and his wife Margaret have their children in the early 1870s and the 1875 New York State Census for New York county is missing.  This means that when we catch up with Eben and his family in 1880, it is not possibly to ascertain whether they had more children who died young or were unable to have more children.  The only other option is to check if the baptismal records for the Episcopalian St. Michael's church still exist for the 1870s and whether they are accessible to the public, as this was the church in which Eben and Margaret married and where Eben had his funeral services.  Currently no record has been found, as of yet.  What we do know is that another daughter appears as a young adult with her unmarried sister in the 1900 USFC; the 1890 USFC being destroyed in a fire.  No New York State Census was taken in 1885, nor is there a microfilm copy of the 1892 OR the 1905 New York State Census for New York county, though there were taken originally.  The estimated year of birth for this third daughter is 1883, nearly 12 years after the second daughter!  If this third daughter is indeed a daughter of Eben and Margaret, why did they have more than a decade of hiatus between the daughters?  If we can rule out bad finances (see previous post on Eben W. Osterndorff), perhaps we can rule in a medical/biological cause.

The Mother
Let us consider Margaret Blohm Osterndorff, the mother, and her death.  Margaret's certificate of death reports that she died on 30 Jan 1898, at the age of 47 years, 11 months and 4 days, the chief cause being "asthenia - remittent malarial fever", with contributing cause being "malnutrition - extreme emaciation as result".  The fever is reported to have lasted 3-4 days and the asthenia to have lasted several weeks.  If Margaret had caught syphilis during her childbearing years, perhaps she passed it on through some of her pregnancies and survived when the infection went into its latent phase.  The latent phase may last up to decades and beyond the first years of this stage the illness is no longer transmissible, which means that healthy, non-infected children can be born.  Catching malaria may have prevented Margaret from progressing to the tertiary phase and possibly death, or maybe she was already in the final stage but the symptoms were not recorded when she contracted malaria.

Final resting place of Eben William Osterndorff,
Lot 14949, Green-Wood Cemetery.
Photo by Bob Collins,
published 31 Oct 2010 on FindAGrave.com
Possible Children
So here is an interesting bit!  Both certificates of death for Eben and Margaret list their final resting place as Green-Wood Cemetary, Brooklyn, NY.  This cemetery is large enough that one can perform an online burial search using variations of the surname: Ostendorff, Osterndorf, Osten, etc.  What we find with such a search is that Eben and his family are listed under Ostendorff, with family including Eben, Margaret, Emma, May/Mary, Eben's step-motherVeronica, his sister Dora and mother Maria (probably).  Thanks to the wonder of the internet and volunteer's with quirky interests, FindAGrave.com reports there are no headstones for the Osterndorffs buried in lot 14949, section 157.  What is important to note is that there are two unaccounted for Osterndorff women in this section: Maggie, buried 04 November 1875, and Henrietta, buried 26 July 1878.  Without headstones, it is not possible to immediately know how old any of these individuals were when they past; it remains to find the death certificates and/or orbituaries to determine more.  Could Maggie and Henrietta be syphilitic children born to Eben and Margaret?  Is the Dora listed in the burial list (buried 30 July 1883) actually Eben's sister or could she be a daughter with the same name?  Eben has been the only individual found with an obituary.

Conclusion

Given the evidence thus available, no resolution about the presence or absence of syphilis in Eben William Osterndorff's family can be made.  What has been found are more avenues of research to pursue and travel down.  A genealogical road map!  Then again, if The Doctor was available, we wouldn't have this or any other genealogical problems, brick walls, quandaries, concerns, etc.

But what is your take?  Did Eben contract syphilis and pass it on to his family?  Are there avenues (or even back streets/alleys) of research I have not considered?  Ones that a person with limited monetary resources could get to?  Feel free to leave a comment or questions below!


Happy Hunting!

Sources:
The Doctor, Time Lord, version 10

Green-Wood Cemetery Services.

Hall LA. ‘The Great Scourge’: Syphilis as a medical problem and moral metaphor, 1880-1916. Paper presented at the Courtaud Institute Symposium, 23 May 1998.


Mandal A. Syphilis Symptoms.


Osterndorff EW. State of New York Certificate of Death. 1891.


Osterndorff MB. State of New York Certificate of Death. 1898.


Paralysis Cause Possibilities


Rudy's List of Archaic Medical Terms

US Federal Census 1870-1880, 1900, All Manhattan

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Eben W. Osterndorff

'Building the American Dream' might be an apt subtitle for Eben William Osterndorff.

...But we should really begin at the beginning.  Eben began his life on 27 January 1842 in Hanover, Niedersachsen, Germany as the son of a peasant.  Little is known about Eben's early life in Germany except that he was originally called Eibehenni and was last living in Dorum when he left his home land at the age of 10 with his family in the late summer of 1853.  The sea voyage would carry his father H.W., 42, his mother Maria, 37, sister Friderica, 15, and sister Maria Dorthea, 6, across the Atlantic for six weeks on the 'Itzstein and Welker', departing from Bremen on ~17 July 1853 and arriving in New York's first immigration area - Castle Garden - on 30 August 1853.  If there were more individuals in the family, they either did not survive the journey or stayed behind; neither case has any substantial support/evidence.


Photo from CastleGarden.org
Roughly the next ten years are a bit obscured but it is enough time for Eben to grow into a young man, learn some English and a bit of business in the area of 110th St and Broadway.  Eben will remain in a ten block area surrounding this location for the majority of his life in New York.  The amount of formal education Eben or any of his siblings receive is unknown, as is whether the Osterndorff family met with any close relations upon their arrival.

Here is a view of Broadway just as Eben was probably getting his feet wet in the business world.
Stereoscopic view of Broadway, New York City, c 1860. Photographer: E H Anthony
(c) National Media Museum/Science & Society Picture Library
By 1862 Eibehenni has changed his name to Eben William, usually abbreviating it E.W., and appears in the tax records from 1862-1866 as a retail liquor dealer in Manhattan, New York.  By the end of 1866 Eben's business income equals $500.00 with a $25.00 tax and he had entered his application for citizenship to the Common Pleas Court of New York county.  There is some question as to whether this extra money was enough to temporarily establish himself elsewhere as the Post Master General of the new Bloomingdale (Essex county, New York) post office the following year.  What is strange about this is that the subsequent year, 1868, a 26 year old Eben marries an 18 year old Margaret Blohm on 02 June in St. Michael's Church (99th St and Amsterdam Ave, Manhattan, New York), an Episcopal Church that has been in continual service since 1807 and is located near his same place of residence he has maintained since 1862.  (Broadway being one street west of Amsterdam Ave and 99th - 110th St in the area currently referred to as the Upper West Side!)  But the question as to why he was in Bloomingdale, if indeed it is Eben Osterndorff, remains a mystery.

Their first daughter, Ida Margaret, is born in February 1869 and surrounded by extended family in her first year of life.  Indeed the 1870 US Federal Census (USFC) shows that Eben resides with his burgeoning family in Manhattan with his parents Henry and Mary, and much younger brother Harry.  Given that Harry is nearly 20 years Eben's junior, it is quite possible that Eben's mother Maria died young (possibly at 48 years old in 1864) and his father remarried a woman named Veronica Mary Schmults, as noted in Eben's marriage (and death) certificate.  Puzzling out this bit of history will have to remain until another post.

The Americanized Osterndorff family follow up this first daughter with a second in September 1871 to the name of Emma Mary.  Due to unavailability of state census records for New York county, the last time the Osterndorff family is found together in the records is the 1880 USFC.  At this time the patriarch of the family, Henry, has passed away and there are no more recorded children for Eben and Margaret.  Perhaps they did have other children who died young or were temporarily unable to have children.  Again due to lack of preserved records for the county of New York, the Osterndorff children are not encountered again until the 1900 USFC, when a new child enters the picture.  A one May E Osterndorff was said to have been born in Aug 1883, making for a 12 year gap between her and her sister Emma.  There is a small hint that there may have been two more daughters, if not perhaps more pregnancies.  Speculations as to possible cause(s) for the possible lack children in the intervening decade will be expounded upon in the ensuing post.  Having a majority of female children may not have come as a surprise to Eben's wife Margaret, though, as she was one of five daughters!


The church as it would have appeared in Eben's life.
In the decade leading up to Eben's death, 1880-1891, the city directories indicate that Eben hardly moved, remained in the coal business and even got his brother Henry into the deal for a while.  His life seemed also to be filled with at least four charity service works, not limited to the Charity Council No. 878, A.L. of H., Banner Council No. 48 and O.C.F. all of which seem to deal with social reform and support of poor families.

Sadly Eben William Osterndorff's ends at the rather young age of 49 years, 10 months and 23 days, with the primary cause of death being paralysis on the 19 November 1891 at 5 PM.  Funeral services were held at St. Michael's Church, with members of his charities groups invited to attend.  His burial was then received in Green-Wood Cemetery (Brooklyn, New York) on 22 November 1891, in the same lot and section number as some of his relations.

Note: Any comments, questions or points of error are welcome in the space provided below.

Sources:
Green-Wood Cemetery Services

Osterndorff EW. Certificate of Death. State of New York. 20 November 1891.

Osterndorff EW. Obituary. New York Herald. Sunday, 22 November 1891. Issue 326, pp. 24.

Osterndorff EW. Post Master. New York Herald-Tribune. 23 July 1867.

St.Michael's Church photos and building information at daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com

Trow's New York City Directory. 1883-1903.

US Federal Census 1870-1880, 1900. All Manhattan.

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Coming Soon!

Most genealogical research rarely progresses linearly.  Often times one has to work on side branches and a few known generations up the tree in order to better understand the generations closest to one's self.  And then some times you just can't wait to share some stories.  So if the next set of biographies/family history sketches seem a little out of place or think you have missed a generation's story, it's not you, I just have not written them yet.  I will try to link the posts with the corresponding family tabs and mini-profile.

Oh and if anyone has a preference on the font being used, one more readable online than the other, please let me know.  This type face is called "Georgia", the other is "Arial".  And to those that might be grammar nerds, putting the punctuation outside the quotes is a force of habit from studying Russian and I doubt it is going to change now.

In the mean time, enjoy this pretty picture of my favorite yarn: Patons Bamboo Silk in "Sapphire"


Monday, December 23, 2013

Moved to the Sunny Side!

The delay in posting has been the result of moving apartments and out of storage, not from lack of interest.  It has been the third apartment this YEAR and fourth movement of my stuff, as I finally got everything out of storage.  (I am exhausted just thinking about it.)  So my holiday will consist of doing nothing which requires extensive physical excursion.

This holiday season don't forget to date your photographs or ask those who might know before they pass.  Here is one holiday dinner party from the archives.

Holahan siblings, spouses and friends.