Braunhart Mania - Part 3 - Immigration

I began to flesh out Sara’s family – her husband Aaron Bernstein never appeared in America – so the assumption was (and still is) that he most likely died before Sara immigrated. And I found Sara’s children – Ernestine of course, and her siblings – Amalie and Cecelia and Hattie and brother Max. Sara had seven children in total and as of the 1900 census 5 were still living – the aforementioned.

I was interested in when they all immigrated and for most of them found that info, except for Max.

TIP – SEARCH FOR IMMIGRATION INFO

Through ellissisland,org and castlegarden.org and ancestry.com, a mountain of information can be found regarding the travels of immigrants across the seas. Where they are from including the city - who they were going to live with when they landed – their ages and traveling companions - even how much money they had in their pockets at the time of their voyage. Lots of great information to tie people together.

Over the next few years through various searches I found a Carl Gustav Braunhart and a Sara Selma Braunhart. Martha and Jakob Braunhart arrived in 1904 and Anna Braunhart arrived in 1909. And there was a Leslie B. Hart whose father’s last name was Braunhart. There was a Lucie Braunhart who traveled to America. And an Alex Braunhart who was mentioned as Anna’s father in her immigration manifest. Yet another reference to an Alex Braunhart who traveled here twice – in 1881 and 1882. Who were these people and were they related?

So Carl, Lucie, Leslie B. Hart, Anna, Jakob, Martha, Alex and Sara Selma all became know to me as the Braunhart stragglers. I suspected that Samuel’s nephew Jacob, mentioned in his death notice might be the same as Jakob who immigrated in 1904 – but I had no proof!

TIP – IF YOU DON'T HAVE PROOF - IT DOESN'T EXIST

I can’t say this more strongly – if you think it might be true but don’t have proof via some type of source material – IT ISN’T TRUE! I have seen many a Family Tree in the trees available in ancestry.com where there is no source documentation. Use that information to lead you to possibly do some research – but do not view it as gospel. There are many sloppy “genealogists” out there. They aren’t really genealogists – but like you and me are interested in their family history. And they are easily persuaded to accept fiction or innuendo as fact. Do not believe them unless and until you have source material that backs up your assumptions. You will be glad you took a rigorous approach to this. Wild goose chases are sometimes exciting but are never satisfying.