The Power of Review

While preparing to write a Life Story on my grandmother, Emilie Stark Schachtschneider, I reviewed some of the documents that I had collected. What power there is in review of what you already have! I was looking at the New York ship manifest (which gave me a reminder that Emilie came through Ellis Island) when it came to my attention that Emilie was not traveling alone. Listed with her was an Edmund Stark, age 26.

This made many things go through my head. Of course, the first thing was, who the heck is Edmund Stark? I had never heard of him before. Then I thought, is this the correct Emilie? Could this be a husband and wife instead of my grandmother and potentially a brother? The one notation that made me continue to think that this was my grandmother was the destination of these two Starks: Edgerton, Wis. What are the odds that two young people from Germany would specifically say they were going to the exact small Wisconsin town that they lived in for years afterward? So my next step was to figure out who this Edmund Stark was.

I started research on Ancestry.com and found an Edward Stark, married to an Amelia, with children. But, is this my Edmund Stark? Another thing that confused me (besides the slight change in first name) was that on his naturalization records he said that he immigrated in 1890, while the ship manifest was dated 1893. I was able to find a death date but nothing that connected this Edward Stark to my Emilie Stark Schachtschneider. A trip to the Edgerton Public Library was in order.

At the library I consulted an Obituary File that they had for the Wisconsin Edgerton Tobacco Reporter, a weekly local newspaper, and found an obituary for Edward Stark. That gave me answers to all my questions and gave me some new information that I didn't know.

In the obituary it explains that Mrs. August Schachtschneider (Emilie) was Edward's sister, but it also lists his other siblings (Albertina (Mrs. Maves), Ida Louise (Mrs. Herman Dallman), August, and a brother and sister still in Germany).

Interestingly, upon review of the Hamburg passenger list for Edward and Emilie, it does list Edward's name correctly. Review, review, review!

Reference

Obituary, Edward Stark, The Wisconsin Tobacco Reporter, Edgerton, Wisconsin, 12 January 1939, page 4, Column 2. Available at the Edgerton Public Library.

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