Time Flies When Having Fun

My Monath research has taken me on quite a few twists and turns, hence the 7-year hiatis from blogging. What have I been up to? Well, since you asked......

Public trees are helpful from the standpoint of clues. That is my 'word to the wise' for all new researchers. What I find I back up with court documents: birth/baptism/marriage/death records, deeds, wills, orphan court documents. Even these may have inconsistencies but when I back these up with newspapers clippings and sites like Find A Grave.com I put the clues together to form my conclusion. 

Another 'word to the wise' is this - research and join select societies that can provide you with the links and documents needed to back up your trees not to mention worthwhile informational webinars and seminars. My most valuable resource was a German-American who had subscriptions to German databases. I shared with him what I knew yet needed to confirm and he sent me the German church records with translations! Having this important starting point solidified what I was reading on public trees. 

Skipping ahead to the end of 2022 my binders are full, my external drive is filled to capacity, and I have enough data to begin writing in 2023 about this intriguing family.

More later in 2024. Happy hunting and let me know if we are related.

Walter Augustus Monath

Sergeant, U. S. Army; 19th Field Artillery Regiment, 5th Division

 

Born Aug 1897 in Carroll County, Maryland, USA

Parents were Augustus and Laura Monath and Hallie, stepmother

 

Walter died on 26 Sep 1918 in France while serving his country in

the U.S. Army during World War I. 

He was about 21 years old.  He was my great grandfather George's nephew. 

 

Photo courtesy of the St. Mihiel American Cemetery, Thiacourt, France.

 

 

 

 



 

 

Little Lesson Learned

I have a saying that I used over and over with my kids, and it is worth repeating, 'You just never know.'

There is a point in time when one must admit that they need help.  I hit that point a few weeks ago when I became frustrated trying to find my ggg grandparents.  I joined the Mid-Atlantic Germanic Society (MAGS) for a mere $15.  What I got in return was worth the money spent!

Christoph, wife Dorothea, and their three children arrived in New York in July 1852.  I found naturalization papers for their son Christian in 1860.  With the help of MAGS, I now have evidence of the parents, Christian and his wife and newborn son Christopher living in Baltimore, Ward 1, Maryland. (Images of the 1860 US Federal Census reports are below.)  I know when Christian moved to Manchester, Maryland, but the search continues to learn where Christoph and Dorothea are buried and when they died.  Does the search ever end?!

Lesson learned ... do not overlook any US Federal Census reports.  This is where my research stalled.  If a particular year, 1890 excluded, does not show up in your search, do an Internet search for the report(s) by year and state, and search the report line by line.  There are some US Federal Census reports that ARE NOT indexed and do not pop up in Ancestry.com or Family Search. 

Christoph Monath was listed as Morratt on this Census. 

Christian, too, is shown with a last name of Morratt. 

Best of luck on your genealogy journey.  All roads taken will eventually turn something up for you.  You just never know!

American Cemeteries Memorializing U.S. Soldiers

My research of the Christian Monath family has been an interesting yet time consuming, adventure!  Not that I am complaining, but maybe my husband has thoughts on this.  I spend too much time on the computer and driving to places to spend more time than I find information.  But that is research, right?

Last Friday he and I visited the Maryland State Archives.  After several hours on their database, we came home with about eight death certificates.  Yes, just eight.  There is a saying, all good things take time.

When adding the death certificate information to my database, I looked closer at my great uncle Augustus Monath's life.  I learned that his youngest son, Walter August Monath, died while serving in the   U. S. Army during the First World War. Needing to know more, I checked Ancestry.com and then did a Google search.  The search led me to a website that features records of approximately 200,000 U.S. servicemen who were killed or missing in action during World War 1, World War 2, and Korean Conflict and buried or memorialized on foreign soil.

Walter served as Sergeant in the U. S. Army, 19th Field Artillery Regiment, 5th Division and is buried in the St. Mihiel American Cemetery in the St. Mihiel American Cemetery, Thiaucourt, St. Mihiel, France.  His grave site is noted down to the row and plot. He was born in August of 1897, and killed in action on September 26, 1918.  

I came another step closer to learning about my Monath family. 

Social Media and Genealogy Research

I violated the one social media rule that I lived by when I worked, and it was regularly making updates to blogs.  My Monath family genealogy blog was severely neglected, and, honestly, I have reasonably sound excuses.

• After one false alarm and the real deal, we became grandparents to our 5th grandson.
• Helped two sons move into their new homes.
• Our home vegetable garden is now done for the season, and weeds pulled where they once rooted in my flower gardens.
• Most importantly of all, I am realizing that the Monath family descendants are slowly dying out and difficult to find.  

I began and started this project so often, and this past July got serious enough to stick with it.  While preparing my research list for a trip to the Maryland Archives, I took another look at the newspaper clippings (obituaries), and to my surprise found a living Monath descendant on Facebook.  So I sat and deliberated over 'do I or don't I contact this lady' and 'will I regret not contacting this person later'?

So, I will take a chance and hope that this person is also researching her family roots, and will contact me when she sees this picture that I found among my parents' photos.

This is one picture of my mom and dad's photographs that I thought was really cute!  On the back, the name Phillis (aka Phyllis) M. Monath is written with the date of 24 April 1938.  That is all that I knew for a long time.  Until today.

Using U. S. Federal Census reports and newspaper clippings that were found at the York County Heritage Trust, I am 99% sure that her name is Phyllis M. Monath-Emgee, daughter of William Wesley Monath and Mary Elizabeth Sullivan-Monath.  Grandparents would have been William H. Monath and Ida May Yingling.

So, I think that I will sit on this for a bit and hope that the lady who is on Facebook might see this and make the first move.  I by no means am posting this photograph for no other reason but to make a connection. 


Finding two bits of information, no matter how small or insignificant, makes for a satisfactory day of research.

Thanks for reading!

Psalm 90.12

"So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom."

The Bible reference above was noted in the Death Church record for my g-g grandmother, Maria Monath in the last column of the page below.  I am not familiar enough with the ways of our German immigrants and am finding interesting things like this in my research.

The church record was found in a collection for the Trinity United Church of Christ, located at 3229 York Road in Manchester, Maryland (a.k.a. Zion Lutheran Church, 1760, for German Reformed and Lutheran congregations). 

As I continue to research my Monath family, I plan to continue to learn about this practice.  Should you have clues to this mystery, I would love to hear from you.  Just send me a quick email message. 

I hope to hear from you.

Sailing the Ocean Blue

 

 

In July 1852, the vessel Orleans arrived into a New York port with a crew and passengers, several of whom are my ancestors.  On one particular document, I found it interesting to learn that Christian was a man servant, perhaps to pay for his voyage to America.  (This is one of several loose ends that needs to be clarified.)

 

 

According to the documentation below Christian, his parents, and several siblings traveled to America.  I cannot read the first sibling, who was age 17 at that time.  When I began researching this family, I found evidence of a brother George and three sibling sisters, Elizabeth, Susanna, and Dorothea.  Again, this needs further research before I can go any further with this research.

  

 

 

 

Before I travel to New York, I hope to find answers to my questions at the Maryland State Archives.  Because, if what I found is true, the family largely lived in Baltimore, Maryland. 

 

 

So, many questions and loose ends need to be tied before I accept any of this as gospel.  I hope that social media will help connect me to families with connections to Johann Christoph Monath, Christian, and all his children.  So, I invite readers to comment on what you may know about this family.  My personal email is staubmk@gmail.com.  Hope to hear from someone.  Thank you for reading about this Monath journey.