Hoping for someone's help
Hello. I've been searching for 50 years for the origins of my father's grandfather. Even with constant searching using FamilySearch, Ancestry, and DNA testing, I haven't turned up a thing. I now have a heart condition and a goal of finding his ancestry before I die.
Albert von Frank (July 1835 to 13 Dec 1905) emigrated from Germany in 1873, according to the 1900 US Census, and moved to Hawley, Penn. where he died Dec. 13, 1905, just before state recordkeeping began on Jan. 1, 1906. He married a woman 20 years younger, Maria Muller, in 1883, and they had eight children, including my grandfather, Albert von Frank, who had a son Albert also. (I'm thinking family name.)
Albert's obituary was short and gave only a location, with no family information, and Maria/Marie/Mary then moved to a tenement in NYC with a few of the kids, where she died. Albert has no death certificate because of the records. I've tried the local church, but its records were burned in a fire.
Albert's younger brother, Henry (1847-1924), also lived in Hawley. Henry's marriage certificate for a union with May Quick lists his parents as Lewis? (Ludwig?) von Frank and Agnes von Hochberg. Henry's death certificate does not list parents. I know they were brothers through a DNA connection with Henry's great-granddaughter.
I've also combed the local newspapers, from Hawley to Scranton. They turned up quite a few stories about Henry, but not about Albert nor anything of origins.
The only mention of either one's origin in the censuses, other than Germany, is that Henry notes being born in Berlin. I've found other von Franks there, but not them. Maybe they are using Albert and Henry, their middle names?
I haven't been able to find any evidence of an Agnes von Hochberg or a Lewis or Ludwig von Frank.
The family lore I was able to gather from my mother (my father's family was very stern and did not give information) was that very expensive gifts used to come from Lizt, and that there was somebody in my father's family who so impressed his shipmate that the other man copied his name (or vice versa?). She also said they tried to make the name less German sounding before or around World War I and may have dropped an "ee" sound. Early censuses in Pennsylvania spell the name "von Franse," so I've also looked for von Francesky.
I've searched through DNA and through relatives found at RootsTech, and none seem to come from that family, the von Franks.
Can anyone tell me how to break this brick wall, or help me? Or suggest where to go?
Albert's journey has been compelling me since I was a young teen.
With gratitude!
Answers
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That is quite the extensive search. Only thing I can think of is to see if you can get any information off an immigration, emigration, or naturalization record. I know that some that I've looked at are quite helpful while others seem to have no useful information to my question-of-the-day.
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This is the link to the PID for Albert von Frank https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/LKFP-762
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