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05 July 2017

Amazing What One Little Letter Can Do

Many years ago I started researching my husbands family tree.  It began with a simple chart that his father or someone on the line had done.  It was a great little chart and it definitely gave me enough to get off to a great start. 

There was only one little hitch - her name was Caroline Reusch.  Caroline was the daughter of Heinrich Augustus Reusch and his wife, Anna Mary Gunther (Gundern).  Caroline was born in 1825, but there was no death date given.  It was reported that she married a man by the name of Henry Dencer.   No information on Henry at all.   And that is how Caroline & Henry turned into one of my brick walls.

I had Caroline on the passenger list with her parents in June of 1834,  on 1840 she is one of the hashmarks on her father's census in Liverpool Township, Medina County, Ohio.  Then she appears on a marriage record 1 JUL 1844 in Medina County, Ohio. 

"Reusch Caroline - Donzer Henry, Vol. B - p65 1844 July 1, Louis Richter, Minister of the Gospel"

Notice the spelling of Henry's name as DONZER?   Yeah I did too!

She appears on the 1850, 1860, 1870 & 1880 as Caroline DENCER.  Then the family disappears.  What huh?  I checked Dencer, Doncer, Donzer, Denzer... I used I, E, O, U... I changed the C to S, C to Z...  I searched and searched, to no avail.   I even gave up (that's hard to admit!) for quite a few years, hoping that I would stumble across something, ANYTHING that might give me some clue as to what had happened.

And then one day it happened. 

I was browsing some images for the county where I thought maybe they had relocated to and I stumbled upon this.  The death certificate for Frederick DENTZER.  

The spelling immediately got my attention, and it just got even better when I noticed who the parents are...  Its Henry DENTZER and his wife Caroline Reusch.  Imagine that.

I never thought to put a T in the name, EVER! 

Thus goes the saga of one little letter changing the surname and putting off my quest to locate Caroline Reusch DenTzer and her family.   Now I know where they are buried, when they died.  I was able to locate more information on the children as well with the new spelling.   In all my searches, changing up the vowels and the C and Z did the DenTzer spelling ever surface. 

Somehow I wonder if this fits the "no one will be found until they are ready" thingy?

Either way,  I'm glad she's found and I can finally say I've identified and tracked down all of Heinrich & Anna's children.   Now for the rest of the descendants. 

Happy Researching!
  Karen



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