Looking for any ancestors of Frank Joseph Fochler and Filomina Folsner of Altoona, PA

Question

These are my 2nd great grandparents and I would love to have a connection to them in Altoona, PA and hear their story.

Comments

Heidi, please provide some approximate dates for these folks so we can better help you.

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Frank was born in 1841 in Austria and Filomina was born in 1845 in Austria. I am really looking on information on their parents

Answer 1

Heidi, do you have access to Ancestry.com? (If you don't have an account, you may be able to access it through your local library.)

I found there the family of Frank Joseph Fochler and Filomena Folsner.

If the user-contributed family tree there is accurate (and that's a big IF), he was born 27 Oct 1841 in Ehrenwalde, Germany, and died in Altoona PA in 22 Apr 1925. Filomena was born 7 Jul 1845 also in Ehrenwalde, and died in Altoona 9 Mar 1913.

Comments

That is probably my tree that you are looking at. I am really trying to find info about their parents.

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The family tree on ancestry says they were born in Ehrenwalde, Germany. I couldn't find a town by that name in either Germany or Austria. (There is a Fahrenwalde near the Polish border.)

Do you know when they immigrated? (I couldn't easily find them in any passenger lists.)

Do you have their death certificates?

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I have Frank's place of birth as Vienna, Austria and Filomina's as Einsidel, Austria. Frank immigrated in 1897, according to his naturalzation record at Blair County, PA. They were married in 1868 so assume they came over together, maybe not.

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Well, I can't find Einsidel, either. And Vienna is a big city. What do you know about their religion? The LDS has microfilmed many records; here alone are the church records:

https://familysearch.org/eng/library/fhlcatalog/supermainframeset.asp?display=topicdetails&subject=498918&subject_disp=Austria%2C+Nieder%26%23xf6%3Bsterreich%2C+Wien+-+Church+records&columns=*,0,0

I was unable to find them on passenger lists. You, too, I presume?

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Do you have their 1900 census record? it has his birth as May 1842 and hers as July 1846, and their immigration year as 1891 (which is one year before Ellis Island starts).  Couldn't find them on Ancestry immigration records either (except for the naturalization that you already have)

Trying to find their passenger list information, which, dependng on when they came over, MIGHT include more information about their origins.

You didn't answer about their death certificates. Have you tried to get those?

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I do know they are buried in St. Marys Cemetery in Altoona, PA, wonder if that is a Catholic cemetery. Also, their mutual headstone has what I presume to be Austrian. Above Frank's name "HNER RUMERT" and above Filomena "OEIN VEIB". I have not tried to get their death certificates yet. Thank you so much for all of your effort!

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OEIN VEIB is probably "Ein Weib" - a woman; not sure about HNER RUMERT.  Ah, I just looked at an image of the gravestone (http://www.usgwarchives.org/pa/blair/tsimages/stmary-altoona/a-f/fochler-frank1.jpg) , it's "Hier ruhert" which is a variant spelling of "Hier ruht" -- "Here Lies" And it's SEIN VEIB "his woman"... (variant of "his wife")

St. Mary's cemetery records were not filmed by the LDS; neither, it appears, were any Catholic church records from Altoona. St. Mary's cemetery was associated with St. Mary's Catholic church. You might be able to contact them about funeral records which may or may not list the place of birth of either Frank Joseph or Filomena. See http://stmary-altoona.com/.

Mm... interesting not any old Catholic records from Vienna were filmed either. In fact, the list of "church records" from Vienna filmed by the LDS are very odd looking-- mostly military-related. Time to find someone with more experience in researching Catholic church records--in Altoona and Vienna. 

Also one thing I've learned: my ancestors' death records (in Buffalo, NY) called their place of birth the largest nearby town. When I checked its records they weren't there, but I found them in a small town nearby. Might be the same with "Vienna".

Good luck; I think I've reached the extent to which I can help you.

 

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You have helped me more than you can know. I thank you so much again.

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Just one more little piece of info....I believe Frank's father's name was Franz, born abt 1820 in Niederdorf, Klagenfurt-Land, Karnten, Austria. I do not know if this is anywhwere Austria but it may be a place for me to start. I don't know for sure where I got this info but who knows....

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Well THOSE church records HAVE been filmed; you might want to rent them at your local LDS family history center:

 

Taufen 1583-1798	FHL INTL 1646479 Items 6-8
Taufen 1784-1924 Heiraten 1583-1811 Tote 1774-1802	FHL INTL Film  1646480
Tote 1803-1811 Heiraten 1799-1924 Tote 1585-1924	FHL INTL Film  1646481
Tauf-Index 1583-1989 Heirats-Index 1583-1989 Toten-Index 1585-1989 Firmungen 1878-1923	FHL INTL Film  1646482
Familienbuch 1610-1910, 1800-1924	FHL INTL Film  1646483 Items 1-2