Went to SOUTH America, not North America
I recently found an official notice in a German newspaper concerning my great-great-grandmother going to court claiming abandonment by her husband. Their chilldren's marriage records had referred to him having "died in Amerika" or even "died in China," but that wasn't much to go on.
This new clipping says she reported to the court that her husband "born in Schönfeld, the former master brewer Friedrich Moritz Rost, who stayed in Brießnitz near Dresden until September 12, 1871, but on that day left that place to move to Buenos Aires, and from there also last gave news of himself in 1872, but his current whereabouts could not be determined."
What?? It never occurred to me that he wasn't heading to North America! There had been some talk of Louisiana in "family lore," but no results there.
Can you point me in the direction of where to look for traces of him there? Any passenger lists for ships arriving in the port of Buenos Aires? Any records available in Argentina that would document his presence there? I've never found him definitively on any passenger lists leaving Germany. Maybe he later went to China, but for now I'm taking it one step at a time.
By 1884, another news of record clipping reports a guardianship in absentia set up for him by his step-father was dissolved due to "credible news of his death."
He's been a mystery man, so this is a breakthrough, to find a trail to South America.
Thanks,
Elda
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Hello Elda,
There is a searchable database:
Where is says Apellido, enter his surname. Good luck!
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Thank you! This looks like a great resource. Unfortunately, when I tried it, nothing under the name ROST came up. I tried RAST, too - an occasional mis-spelling.
Do you know if the site accepts wildcard symbols, like R%T? I didn't see anything that clarified that.
So the mystery continues. I keep trying various other ports he might have passed through, especially since I now have a credible date for when he left Saxony. His wife re-married in 1886, so he must have been declared dead between 1872 (last time he was heard from) and 1886.
The other option is that he went to China. Two of his children's marriage documents say he died in China (instead of "America"), one specifically: "died in Amoÿ, Cochinchina." Another researcher pointed out to me that Cochinchina was a name for Indo-China, but Amoy is now Xiamen on the coast of mainland China.
I'd be grateful for any other suggestions!
Thank you,
Elda
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