The Quest for Michael Stumpf: Thorough and Exhaustive Search in Progress

 or,

I'm Stumped: The On-going, Thoroughly Exhausting Search for Michael Stumpf

An earlier version of this article was published in 3-parts in the Immigrant Genealogical Society's December 2021, January 2022, and February 2022 newsletters.  Presented here with a citation, minor adjustments, and minor updates.

As a curious novice genealogist twenty years or more ago, I was thrilled to have copies of the family papers my grandfather kept.  In those papers, on my great-grandfather's baptism record, are the names of his parents.  So, I have known the name Michael Stumpf as my great-great-grandfather for a long time.  I am still in the process of piecing together his life.  In this long blog post I will enthrall you, dear reader, with the fruitless efforts to track this Michael Stumpf down as an immigrant to the U.S.

Figure 1: Snip of father's information from a 1898 baptismal paper with: Stumpf Mikaly; Roman Catholic; living in Katalinfalva; born in Klekk; age 36 years old. Language is Hungarian and translated in this recounting.

Michael was born in the part of then-Austria-Hungarian Banat which is today Serbia.  I got a better picture of his life as I searched records (with the help of local researchers there) and family books.  As outlined in This Side of the Brick Wall of Johann Stumpf, I found a previous marriage before my great-great-grandmother as well as four children with his first wife.  I found Michael living with his family in different villages, leading a peripatetic existence, residing in Klek, Kathreinfeld, Lazarfeld, Rudolfsgnad, and probably Grossbetschkerek (the German names at the time, and not the current Serbian town names).  I was surprised when I found out he went to the U.S. in 1907.  At first I didn't believe it could be him.  I'm pretty sure it is though, and in looking for confirmation, I am not able to find him in the U.S. at all! Thus my quest for Michael Stumpf in the U.S. 

The Backstory:

Even in the "Old Country" he has been rather evasive, while at the same time I found quite a few things about him.  

Here are some things I know:

• He was married to Theresia Ritter and had a daughter in 1894, who died in 1896 and a son, my great-grandfather, in 1898 (also named Michael).
• Before Theresia, he married Klara Wolf in 1887 in Lazarfeld and they had four kids together in supposedly Lazarfeld and Rudolfsgnad.  His wife Klara died of TB along with their last baby in Rudolfsgnad in 1892.
• His parents are Johann Stumpf and Katharina Hoffman (known from the marriage entry with Klara Wolf) and I have been able to identify his five brothers and sisters, but not his grandparents.
• He was a day laborer/farm hand and doesn't seem to have had a trade.
• He went to the US in 1907 in his mid-40s, landing in New York City, stating his destination was Philadelphia.  His wife and kids did not go with him.

Things I don't know:

• I don't know his date and place of birth: He was probably born in Klek (most entries indicate this) sometime from 1860 to 1863, when there is a gap in the records. No baptism record has been found and no other record gives a birth date, only age.
• I don't know where his first two kids are born.  One sketchy source lists Lazarfeld, but their baptism entries were not there and have not been found.  One daughter indicated she was born in "Torontalvasarhely or Elisenhain."  So, his movements as a young man with his family may be more complicated than already determined.
• I don't know what happened to him after he got off the ship in New York City! Did he stay in the US? Did he move on to Canada? Did he return to Hungary?
• I don't know when and where he died. I found one of his sons with his first wife, Klara, in Budapest as a barber.  From this son's marriage record in March 1926, he indicates his father, Michael, was deceased.
• I also do not know what happened to his second wife, Theresia (my great-great grandmother).  I have no evidence that she immigrated to the U.S.  Her daughter and son moved to Bogarosch, so maybe she went with them there, but no death entry made it into the village family book.

Arriving in New York City

Michael Stumpf arrived in Oct 1907 in NYC on the Finland and claimed to be going to Philadelphia (Ellis Island passenger list). 

Figure 2: Michael Stumpf on passenger list.

• Age of 44 (I'm pretty sure that's a second 4, it doesn't look like the other 4's and it doesn't look like the other 7's; that would put his birth year as 1863), birthplace Grossbetschkerek, Hungary
• Male, Married
• Last place of residence is Grossbetschkerek, which is where his parents, brother, and other family were living
• Contact back home was his wife Therese Stumpf, living in Grossbetschkerek
• 5'5" tall, fair complexion with gray hair and blue eyes
• Intended destination is his cousin Mathias Brems at 6163 Glenmore Ave., Philadelphia

Figure 3: Destination listed on passenger list for Michael Stumpf

The Search Begins:

Michael is too old for the WWI draft registration, so he won't be listed there.  The alien registration records from before WWI have been destroyed for most every place except Minnesota.  He probably didn't remarry or have more kids, so not expecting him in marriage or birth records.  I'm going to have to try to find him in a census or death record or a newspaper article, possibly a naturalization record, but I think that is unlikely, or, something random.  The search features in Ancestry.com and FamilySearch will help.

I had another great-great grandfather who left the Banat for Philadelphia and I was able to track him down in censuses, the WWI draft registration (he was young enough to have to register), and a death record, so I know I can do this.

It makes sense to check Philadelphia for my Michael Stumpf, since that is where he said he was going.

Philadelphia, two Michael Stumpf possibilities

After not finding him in the census for 1910, I paged through the census for the address to which he was going.  I used SteveMorse.org to find the enumeration district for that address (Ward 40, ED 1040).  He was not there, nor was Mathias Brems, for that matter.  I then went to records of the time in Philadelphia to see if I could find Michael.  The Philadelphia city directory for 1910 lists two Michael Stumpfs.

Figure 4: Stumpf entries in the 1910 Philadelphia City Directory (online at Ancestry.com)

This first Michael is a blacksmith and lives at 1228 Nectarine with his brother, Johann.  From the 1910 U.S. Census, this Michael immigrated in 1887.  From his death record, he died 26 Jan 1924, single, his parents are John Stumpf, Sr & Anna Rednagle, and he was born 15 May 1867 in Hungary.

This is not our Michael Stumpf.  The quest continues.

The second Michael Stumpf listed in the city directory is an ironworker living at 1316 Germantown Ave #3. There is a marriage record in the marriage index and in the newspaper for a Michael Stumpf marrying Ilona Gyumolcs in 1908.  Thanks to a kind soul on the Philadelphia PA Genealogy Facebook group, the marriage record was consulted in the Parish register at FindMyPast, and it was confirmed that Ilona's husband is the Michael that lived at 1316 Germantown Ave.  This Michael "Stump" is listed in the 1910 census (age 29, born about 1882, Fireman at a factory, arrived in US in 1906) with wife Helen (Americanized Ilona) at 1415 N. American St. in Philadelphia.  He is also there in the 1920 Census (age 38) with Helen and daughter and 1930 census and he is age 48 (born about 1882).  This Michael is too young to be our Michael.  Furthermore, he was born in Lodz or Szooz, Hungary (from his naturalization papers).

This is not our Michael Stumpf. The quest continues.

Continuing the quest in Philadelphia

Because Michael claims to be going to Philadelphia, it made sense to continue to look for him there.  After not finding him in the census nor in the city directory, I tracked down the cousin Mathias Brems.  Now, I didn't recognize the name of Brems from the family, but I don't know Michael's aunts and uncles, so I pursued this lead.  

Mathias Brems went to the same address, 6163 Glenmore Ave., when he arrived in Jul 1907 and was the address of Anton Prinz, who is Mathias' brother-in-law.

In more than a dozen sources, I found lots of info on Mathias Brems and his brother-in-law Anton Prinz and his sister Barbara Brems both in Philadelphia and in Grossbetschkerek and other Banat villages, including marriages, the death of Mathias' wife, a 2nd marriage to a widow with the same first name as his first wife, visits to home, and their deaths.  A spreadsheet timeline and a written analysis were created.

In this extensive research on Mathias Brems, no record for or link to Michael Stumpf was found.
No actual cousinship determined to Mathias Brems or his first wife, but a possible familial link was pieced together:  Godmother to Michael Stumpf's son Michael Stumpf (born 1898) is Margaretha Bartole-Jägl.  Margaretha Bartole is married to Peter Jegl. (Egert, p108, J023)  Peter Jegl's sister might be Margaretha Jegl who married Dominik Brems/Bremsz. (Egert, p. 41, B182)  Dominik is brother to Mathias Brems who was Michael's "cousin" in America in 1907!  If Peter Jegl and Margaretha Jegl are indeed siblings then:

• Mathias would be the brother-in-law of the godmother's sister-in-law, or another way to say,
• Michael's son's godmother's sister-in-law's brother-in-law is Mathias Brems.

There are two marriages to get from Margaretha Bartole, the godmother, to Mathias.   That seems to be pushing the definition of extended family! If they all got together for parties, maybe it works?

It is possible that Mathias Brems was a contact in the U.S. that Michael could put down on his paperwork with little or no intention of actually going to Philadelphia or seeing Mathias.  Mathias may not have even known Michael was coming.  Or, if Michael did go to Philadelphia, he didn't stay long and moved on to someplace else.  Short of falling off the face of the earth - hopefully he wasn't mugged and knocked on the head upon leaving the ship! - where else would he have gone?

I am no closer to finding Michael Stumpf.

New Jersey

There is another Michael Stumpf (most likely some degree of cousin to our Michael) from Kathreinfeld who went to Elizabeth, New Jersey with his brother Nikolaus.  These two Michaels caused some confusion for the compiling of the Kathreinfeld family book (Egert, p. 272-273) and some of his info was misattributed to our Michael.  This Michael was born in 1870, the son of Johann Stumpf and Katharina Jenisch, and husband to Eva Beierle.  According to a great-grandnephew, he stayed in Elizabeth, NJ, earning enough money to bring his wife, but when she came, she missed home and went back, which is too bad because she ended up getting caught up in the post-WWII starvation camps of Tito's partisans and died in 1945 in the Lager Kathreinfeld.  This Michael lived with his niece and died in 1931, they say of a broken heart.  I checked the Elizabeth, NJ records to see if there was a second Michael Stumpf there, and see no indication there was.

The quest continues.

Checking broader New Jersey for our Michael Stumpf, I located one in Perth Amboy, NJ.  However, this Michael is born about 1868 in Hungary, immigrated in 1892, and was a saloon keeper.  He was married to Elisabeth and involved in the Church of our Lady of Hungary and the Hungarian Society.

This is not our Michael Stumpf.  The quest continues.

Pennsylvania

Picking up with Philadelphia as a place he indicated he was going, I went back to Pennsylvania records.  I found a Michael Stumpf's death certificate.  He died May 1910 by drowning and his body was  found 9 May 1910 in Raubsville / Williams Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania.  Apparently he fell into the canal in Easton, Northampton  Co., Pennsylvania.  The death certificate says he was born in Germany, age 71 and birth year of 1859 (which doesn't compute). Ancestry.com lists age as 51. He was either 51 or 71 in 1910. I am open to the possibility of an ethnic German from Hungary being assumed to be from Germany.  Americans aren't always clear on these things and immigrants might go with what works for them.

Figure 5. The Morning Call, Allentown, PA · Wed, May 11, 1910 · Page 5

Newspaper reports say this Michael wandered away from the home of Herman Woeppel of Easton, where he was living.  He was believed to be deranged, brooding the death of his wife killed two years earlier on the Central Railroad. They believed his death to be suicide.  My attempts to find documentation of a wife killed on the Railroad in the newspapers were fruitless.

Figure 6. Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) Daily Independent · Wed, May 11, 1910 · Page 10

This doesn't seem like the right guy. The 1910 U.S. census, which happily was taken in April for the first time instead of June, lists Michael at the home of Mr. Woeppel in Easton.  His age is 71, country of birth is Germany, and he immigrated in 1881.

This is not our Michael Stumpf.  The quest continues.

New York - Engineer & Train Derailment

Also found in the newspapers is a Michael F. Stumpf who was a train engineer from Watertown, NY who was killed 6 Aug 1912 in Camden, NY in a train derailment that was sabotage.  His death record is indexed as "Stumff."  He was born in 1862 and is the son of George and Mary, husband of Sarah.

This is not our Michael Stumpf.  The quest continues.

There is a different Michael F. Stumpf born about 1860 in Ontario, Canada, son of Joseph Stumpf and Catherina, married to Rose Foster, who died 31 Aug 1913 in Bruce, Ontario.  He is listed in the 1911 Canadian census with his wife and kids.

This is also not our Michael Stumpf.

Back to the Passenger List

In an attempt to figure out where else Michael might have gone, I revisited the passenger list.  Actually, I cheated a bit and started with an index.  Dave Dreyer and others have extracted the German Hungarians from the Banat from ship passenger lists and indexed them.  From this extraction, one is able to search by name, date, ship, etc.  I was able to get a list of Banaters that were also on the Finland with Michael in Oct 1907.  There are two from Klek that are going to St. Louis, one from Kathreinfeld going to Wyandotte, MI.  Checking the 1910 census for both St. Louis and Wyandotte yielded no potential leads. 

North Tonawanda, New York

While revisiting the 1910 U.S. Census for some hit for Michael, I suddenly got something!  Indexed as "Mike Strumpf" in the 1910 Census for North Tonawanda, Niagara County, New York.  He is age 46 (born about 1864), married 2x, immigrated in 1907, alien, he and parents born in Hungary, native tongue German.  All a match so far.  Occupation is listed as "none."

Figure 7: 1910 U.S. Census entries for the “Helakovsky,” Bebel, and “Nemnes” entries with Mike Stumpf in North Tonawanda, New York.

He is a boarder living with Rudolph and Catherina "Helakovsky", and another boarder Therese "Hemnes" (as indexed in Family Search).  Therese "Hemnes" is actually Theresia Nemesz.  She is listed on the Ship Data of Banat Germans with her 1909 arrival: "Born in St Georgen [next to Kathreinfeld].  [Second] Husband, Johann Nemesz, lives in Betschkerek. Going to join son-in-law, Franz Cseliteowski."  Rudolph, with whom she and Michael Stumpf are living, is the brother of her son-in-law, who lives next door with her daughter and son. 

I think this is our Michael!!

Many people on the census page, including Rudolph and Frank, work at the Organ Works.  It so happens that the famous Wurlitzer Organs, including the Mighty Wurlitzer, pianos and other musical instruments, were manufactured in North Tonawanda!  Wurlitzer bought out the North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory and DeKleist Musical Instrument Manufacturing Co. in 1908, so in 1910 it was a Wurlitzer operation.

In the 1915 New York state census, Theresia Nemesz was there with her son Nicholas.   Researching the sources of the Banat, her maiden name is Thom and her first husband is Biebel/Bebel.  She is in the death index for New York. She died in 1928 in North Tonawanda.  The Nemes family members are also listed in the city directories there. 

It seems very possible this is the right Michael since he is living as a boarder with people from his last home town.  So, I'll pencil in North Tonawanda in April 1910, but would like more evidence to confirm and also to find out what happened to him.

The index of deaths for New York state are available on the Internet Archive, thanks to Reclaim the Records.  There is no Michael Stumpf there, except the one eliminated earlier.  There was a Stumpf family who lived across the Tonawanda Creek in the city of Tonawanda that included a John who died in 1910 and a Mary who died in 1920, but they aren't related to Michael.  Michael was not in any of the state or other federal censuses with Theresia Nemesz' kids, nor in the city directories of North Tonawanda.  

I even searched North Tonawanda's The Evening News on the Fulton History website, a one-man newspaper digitization project.  I did find Teres Nemes advertising for a position to do housework or washing "by German woman" in March 1910.  That was all I found.

Another dead end.  Where would this Michael have gone, even if he is not my Michael?

I reached out to the deputy historian in Niagara County to check their resources and nothing was found.

Niagara County is across the border from Ontario, Canada.  Searches in Canadian records have not yielded potential hits (not already eliminated).  He may have even gone back home after earning some money.  This was not uncommon then. "Birds of Passage" they are called, returning home with the intention of buying land or improving their living conditions there.  There are no passenger lists leaving the U.S. nor arriving in Europe.  I would have to find him in the records wherever he ended up.  The city of Grossbetscherek has a complete family book, and he is not listed.   

The quest has stalled out.

Next steps?

Dear Reader, as you can see I have been most throrough, and I regret I do not have a resolution to this search to share with you.  We have gotten to know several Michael Stumpfs.  Who would have thought there were so many Michael Stumpfs out there!  I still long to know the fate of my Michael Stumpf.  Where, dear reader, do I go from here?

I started a list of potential Michael Stumpfs from some of the large genealogy databases that included residences or indexed deaths in places like Pittsburgh, Chicago, Syracurse (NY), Springfield (OH), St. Louis, St. Paul (MN), Detroit, and Milwaukee.  Do I track each of these leads down to eliminate them?  Just like with the gaps in the Banat records, there are some records that are not easily available and accessible in the U.S. and not everything is in these databases, so I might still miss him.  New York death certificates, for example, are vaguely indexed, but the certificate needs to be ordered, paid for, and waited for to determine if the information is useful in more than eliminating another candidate. 

Or, do I assume he returned to Hungary and refocus on finding a death record for him in the Banat?  How would I even do this?

To be continued...?  (Hopefully)

Citations

I chose not to make citations or hyperlinks for all the info in this article, beyond what I described in the text and captions.  Since the information was used to eliminate candidate Micaheals, I felt like it wasn't super critical, and because I did describe where the information was found, so can hopefully be discovered easily, if desired.  I did however cite one book:  

Egert, Roswitha, compiler. Familienbuch der katholischen pfarrgemeinde Kathreinfeld im Banat: 1893/1895/1915-1947 (Teil 2). Villingen-Schwennigen: Herausgegeben von der Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Veröffentlichung Banater Familienbücher (AVBF), 2006.