Talk:Johann Bolda (1829-)

Discrepancies
Initial posting says :
 * Johann Bolda 1829
 * Wife: Marie ? 1844

First response was from "steamerday" and used material from a ship's manifest: "Johann Bolda (age 45, born 1829) arriving at New York City from Bremen, Germany on 27 May 1874 ... wife Anna (age 30, born 1844) and children Joseph (age 8), Marie (age 5), Marianne (age 3) and Anna (age 6 months)". Approx birth years of children would be:
 * Joseph 1865
 * Marie 1868
 * Marianne 1870
 * Anna 1873

Reply from original poster says she was aware of that but mentions 1880 census of Michigan: "Johann Bolda ... Age: 46 ... Spouse's name: Marie Bolda ..." and the people in the household were (with approx birth years in parentheses):
 * Johann Bolda 46 (1833)
 * Marie Bolda 50 (1829)
 * Johann Bolda 20 (1859)
 * Anna Bolda 18 (1861)
 * Mary Bolda 16 (1863)
 * Joseph Bolda 15 (1864)
 * Martha Bolda 2 (1877)

Birth year
Ship says 1829, census indicates 1833 or early 1834

Wife
Ship: Anna, born 1844; census: Marie, born 1829 or early 1830. The original posting "Marie ? 1844" seems to confuse those. Maybe young Anna had died and Johann had married an older woman by 1880.

Children
The only one the ship and census have in common is Joseph, born 1864 or 1865.

Census has no Marie (about 11), Marianne (about 9), or Anna (6) but it has three older children, not on the ship list, and a much younger child, born after the voyage.

The older children might have been part of the family and come on a different ship then rejoined their parents, but at ages about 14, 12, and 10 it is unlikely that they came without a parent or other relative; if ship records are not too incomplete, a search could be made for them. However, where were the younger "ship" children on census day? Possibly all dead, but maybe staying with friends or relatives and therefore likely to appear elsewhere in the census.

Tentative conclusion
Different families. There could easily be more than one Johann Bolda having a son Joseph born 1864 or 1865, despite what I presume is the rarity of the surname.

However, shipping records might produce children Johann, Anna, and Mary (ages about 14, 12, and 10 in 1874); and the census might uncover one or more of the missing younger children Marie (about 11), Marianne (about 9), or Anna (6).

— Robin Patterson (Talk) 07:20, September 14, 2010 (UTC)