2014.05.27 Tuesday
At the Osborne county courthouse, I focused on photographing all
Tract Indexes for Range 11 west, Townships 7, 8, 9, and 10 south. (In this county the indexes are called Numeric Indexes, and until about 1970, the presentation uses the four quarter-section layout.) The records encompass 8 volumes for the range, and I was able to photograph the first five volumes by noon and the last three volumes by 2:30. At times my 3rd cousin, Jeff Reinert, was helping by holding pages flat, at other times he was chatting up staff in the various offices in the courthouse. We both had a nice chat with a woman who I found to be missing in my data on the descendants of Nick Reinert: Ann Reinert-Hawks, one of two daughters of Peter G. Reinert that my data was missing.
Some two dozen families are of interest in these three townships. Corinth township has the fewest, through 1917 (shown here): Becker, Junk, Pottberg, Gradig (spelled Grady here), and Mergen (spelled Merten here).
Bloom township has the most families of interest. Since the township occupies two divisions (T9S and T10S), the section numbers need to be identified with "N" or "S" for north and south. The families Junk, Becker, Brummer, Bach, Riedel (spelled Reidel in section 9N), Braun, Cordel, Thummel, Jacobs, Boden, Streit, Pahls, Ohnsat, Gengler, Muths, Simeon, Reinert, Kohn, Schmitt, Hake, Gasper, Ellenz (spelled Ellens in section 36N), Schandler, Schroeder, Kohn (spelled Kahn in section 8S, Ottley, and Hobbie owned land here in 1917.
Delhi township has relatively few families of interest, considering its size. The families Ehlers, Riedel, Reinking, Hobbie, Gradig, Gasper, Heinen, Fueser, Pottberg, and Beck owned land here in 1917.
The Register of Deeds office closes from noon to one o'clock, and I had arranged to spend the hour at the
Carnegie Library, which now houses the Osborne County Historical Society library. They have a relatively huge amount of information. Of special note are the originals of the Assessment Rolls and the Real Property Tax and Personal Property Tax Rolls. With the close work between the courthouse staff and the Carnegie Library, Laura McClure of the library allowed me to carry four volumes of these rolls to photograph them at the courthouse, those for 1888-9 and 1904. I forgot to ask whether they have indexed the plat maps and state censuses, but they do have a county-wide index of gravestones.
I checked the available probate records and photographed about 8 probate files, with the help of Jeff Reinert. He replaced the loose pages as I photographed them on the floor.
I had time for a short out-and-back ride on
county road 181, which is closed to through traffic because of a bridge replacement in Downs. Good to get some exertion in to balance all the strange poses necessary to turn pages of the big index books. I had tried to encourage John McClure of Blue Hills Bicycles to ride with me, but he had other priorities today.
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| Paul Reinert, 2014 |
I closed the day with an interview of brothers Paul and Mike Reinert at the home of Paul's financée, Lisa. They at first were afraid their information was too limited, and not of an early generation. (They are roughly contemporary to me.) But the joint interview allowed them to jog each other's memory of their parents, uncles and aunts, grandparents, and further extended relatives.
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| Mike Reinert, 2014 |
I had a late dinner at a pub they suggested would still be open. Did they know that their niece was working the bar? She asked about my reason for being in Osborne when she saw me reading "The Early Day People of Tipton, Kansas." Then she volunteered that her mother is Ann Reinert-Hawks. The day had come full circle.
