Conrad Slideshow for my Flickr photos

I just saw this on someone else's website and was immediately excited by the possibility of being able to pass along my old family photos in such an accessible format. This first one is my Conrad photo set. To visit the photo set itself Conrad Family Photos


Created with flickr slideshow.

Finding the Coonradts

I recently went back to link to my research into the Coonradt family and I realized that I wasn't satisfied with what I had originally written. To remedy that, I'm going to do a recap.

So, it started way back when I first asked my Grandpa Conrad about his family tree. He told me that the family name hadn't always been Conrad. It used to be "Koonradt" he said and that it had been changed to Conrad when the family came west to Iowa. Over the years I had looked for this name online but never found anything to connect to my family.

At some point in 2009 I got onto one of my regular genealogy kicks and I was looking at new sites. I believe I was newly on Geni.com and I started searching on variants of Koonradt. When I did, this Coonradt page came up at a different site, WeRelate.org. Naturally, I followed the links at the bottom which promised more detail on the Coonradt family tree. Did they ever deliver! A treasure trove of Coonradt family names. Naturally, I read through all the names on each page to see if any looked familiar. I paid particular attention whenever a Harry or Henry came up since I knew my great great grandfather had been Harry Conrad.

Under the Willhelm Coonradt family, I found the following grouping:
F.3. Daniel Coonradt, b.1830 Grafton N.Y., CIVIL WAR.
G.1. Edgar Coonradt, Moved to Iowa where he raised a large family. (History incomplete)
G.2. Harry Coonradt, (No history)
G.3. Clarence Coonradt, Harkimer, N.Y.

It was so lucky that someone knew enough about this family to know that the boy named Edgar had gone to Iowa. More on Edgar later. But the other details all seemed like a good start - I knew my great great grandfather Harry Conrad had to have been born around 1860 and it seemed likely that his father was born in 1830.

So I went off to Ancestry.com. Quickly, I want to tout Ancestry.com and what they've done with the US Census records. There you can very quickly find the relevant record using their search function and then look at the actual handwritten census document. Extraordinary! So try it with Daniel Coonradt, born 1830 and you'll find the same thing I did: in the 1860 federal census, this family appears in Luzerne, Pennsylvania:
Daniel H Coonradt, age 30
Cordalia Coonradt, 26
Clarence Coonradt, 5
Edna Coonradt, 3
Hendrick Coonradt, 1

This family certainly looks pretty close, other than the location. Always look at these census records carefully, though. On the second page, it lists the individual's place of birth. For Daniel Coonradt: New York. Exactly the same age, same place of birth and with at least one son with the same name. I wasn't concerned about Edna being missing because I'd noticed that the Coonradt page included very few female names. And Hendrick/Harry - a nickname? Seemed pretty likely.

Two other records also come up in the search results on Ancestry: two civil war records, one for Daniel Coonradt from New York, and one for Daniel H Coonradt of Pennsylvania.

So the next things to check on was to follow this family in the census records and see where they turn up next. Daniel doesn't appear in any of the other census records after 1860. What about Cordalia? So type "Cordalia Coonradt" into the search engine at Ancestry.com for my next revelation. You'll find if you look through all the search results a pension record for Daniel H Coonradt where the dependent is listed as Cordelia Coonradt. Underneath her name is the name "Bailey, C.S." with the notation "Gdn" - I took this to mean "guardian". Below in the detail, it lists two dates of application: February 26, 1866 on the line "widow" and December 18, 1867 on the line "minor". Sadly, now we know why Daniel doesn't appear in the 1870 census - he died in the war.

But what about this Hendrick Coonradt? I started on Ancestry.com with Hendrick Coonradt and then Harry Coonradt but quickly became frustrated. I couldn't find either one matching the family I'd found above. However, if you search on "Harry Coonradt born around 1860" the records for Harry Conrad out in Iowa start popping up pretty quickly, matching up with the information my grandfather had given me - lived in Waterloo, Iowa, wife named Grace, etc. That's my Harry Conrad, all right.

At some point I left Ancestry and entered "Hendrick Coonradt" into Google. You have to use all the resources at your disposal, after all. Lo and behold, the following page came up in the search results: http://www.pagenweb.org/~luzerne/orphan1.htm It's a listing of children at a Civil War soldier's orphanage. You find not only Hendrick Coonradt, born in 1859, but also Edgar C. Coonradt, born in 1861. Blammo!! Can you hear all the pieces falling into place? Hendrick and his younger brother Edgar were "orphans" - young children whose mother had just lost her husband in the war.

I made two other connections through Geni.com. The first was Dave Young, who is a Coonradt descendant on another line. After I told him some of what I'd discovered, Dave said that all of this sounded right, and that I should compare notes with another descendant named Dick Conrad. Dick is the great grandson of Charles E Conrad. As it turned out, Hendrick Coonradt wasn't the only member of the family to change names upon coming west. His brother also made the change, from Edgar Charles Coonradt to Charles Edgar Conrad. Not only did he give me this information, Dick also had a letter from Harry to brother Charles in 1914. I have transcribed that letter here. The letter doesn't contain any revelations, but it does tie the family together nicely, including Cordelia's remarriage to Charles Rosengrant and the two half-brothers that Hendrick and Edgar grew up with. Following these folks through the subsequent census records was a project that occupied me for several days.

Dick also sent me the portrait of Daniel Coonradt in his Civil War uniform that you see above.

The People I Met in My Genealogy Research, Part 3

My grandfather’s story is probably all too common in genealogy research. Grandpa was born Leighton Clay Conrad, but he always told us that the name Conrad was an Americanization of what he understood to be a German name, Koonradt. That’s the spelling I remember him telling me, anyway. The way I remember it, he told us that the Koonradts had come to the Midwest through Pennsylvania, which might suggest that they were Pennsylvania Dutch. In any case, Grandpa didn’t know how far back the name had changed. When he helped me fill out my first family tree, he could remember back only two generations, through his father Leo and grandfather Harry. I still hope to one day research the Conrads further back from Harry, but I know it will be difficult since they lived in the rural Midwest, whereas I live in California. Some day… (see below for update!)

Grandpa’s other side is even more interesting and even more clouded with mystery. Apparently, Grandpa’s mother Daisy Murray had kept a secret throughout her entire life – she was half Indian. Grandpa’s twin brother Harlan discovered this fact only after Daisy had died. From there, the story gets muddled and garbled by distance and poor communication. As you might remember me mentioning earlier, Grandpa didn’t get along too well with his twin brother, at least by the time I came along. And whatever information Harlan had only came to me secondhand through Grandpa, so there isn’t much there and I’m not real sure of any of it.

Grandpa was sure of one thing, his Indian ancestry had been from what he called the Iroquois tribe. According to Grandpa, his grandmother, Louisa, whose maiden name I do not know (see update below), was a full Indian and her ancestors had come across North America through Canada past the Great Lakes and then down into Iowa. Which of the five tribes of the Iroquois did we come from? I don’t know. Where did they live? What were their Indian names? Don’t know, don’t know. My mom suspects that her Uncle Harlan probably had quite a bit more information, but he’s long since died and she hasn’t had any contact with his family since she was a kid. Such is genealogy research. I hope to find Harlan’s progeny one day and compare notes.

Unlike his mother, Grandpa was extremely proud of his Indian heritage once he was aware of it. He often sent part of his small Social Security income to Indian charities back in the Midwest. I have often wondered if his remembrance of the information on his Indian heritage was a colorful exaggeration, as many of his stories seemed to be over the years. But I’ve got little else to go on for his family tree, so I hope his stories are at least partly true. I know that finding a trace of Louisa will be a difficult task. It’s probably a job for more of a professional historian, but if I get the chance I’ll do the best I can.

If nothing else, I’m glad to be aware of my own Indian heritage, as small a percentage of my makeup as it may be. Now I find that my own daughter has what some call the mark of the Indians – two blue spots on her bottom (also known as “Mongolian Spots”). Of course, these spots originate on her mother’s side but I still look at them with pride, our shared Indian background.

Update, as of 2009: I have made some great headway on this part of the family tree. I found the Koonradts that Grandpa had told me about, but it was actually spelled "Coonradt". The change came when young father Daniel Coonradt was killed in the Civil War, leaving behind three sons. Two of those sons came west to Iowa, taking on different names along the way - Hendrick Coonradt (pictured above) became Harry Conrad and Edgar Coonradt became Charles Edgar Conrad. The pictures I have online of Daniel Coonradt and Harry Conrad both come from Charles' descendant Dick Conrad, another great friend that I've met over the internet through genealogy. In fact, I haven't updated my Rootsweb family tree with this information, only my Ancestry one. I'll try to do that before too long to make sure everyone has access to this information.

I also have new information on the Murray side of the family, where I have filled in one additional generation of Murrays and a couple more generations of Louisa's family, who turned out to be named Thoroman (or Thoroughman). I have yet to locate the Indian background however, nor have I made contact with any of Harlan's descendants. I am fairly certain that the Indian background is not on the Thoroman side since this family is well documented. It would be more consistent for it to be the Murrays, who came to America from the Montreal area. Intriguingly Montreal is part of Iroquois country, and Joseph Murray, Daisy's grandfather is listed at times as fur trader. Though my cousin Scott Conrad and I have both researched these families, so far neither of us has found convincing evidence of the Indian story. Something for later, I hope.

Ancestry.com if you have an account there: family tree starting place

If that doesn't work for you, start at Rootsweb here: Starting place #2. For more detail, click on "Display pedigree in text format".

Virtual Cemetery for all my ancestors

So, family and friends, yet another project to let you know about. I have created what's called a "virtual cemetery" at a website called Findagrave.com. This is a listing of all the memorial records for my ancestors that are located on that site.

Many of these records already existed on the site and I have simply located them. But I have added many others. I also have added photos from my personal collections to many of the records. For my family, the most immediate interest will probably be the records for each of my grandparents, all of which I added.

Let me know if you have anything you want to add to any of the records.

The People I Met in My Genealogy Research - Part 1

In 2004, I got the idea to collect my own family history and genealogy stories into a book, and decided to give the book to my family as a Christmas present. I am going to post this story piece by piece here on my blog. I'll also update the stories as much as I possibly can. These stories are also posted on my home page. I'll include links to those stories as well. Here's part 1:

Perhaps some teacher I had way back when should get the credit for getting me involved and interested in genealogy and family history research. My introduction to family trees was through a school project when I was ten or eleven years old (my memory is hazy now and I don’t recall which teacher assigned this project). I was handed a couple of blank family tree outlines and told how to get started. Place your own name in the first blank on the left side of the page and list your date of birth and place of birth in the proper places. Then your parents’ names go into the next two positions to the right of yours, and so on. “Fill out as much of this page as you can, kids,” I can imagine my teacher saying, “Ask your parents to help you, and your grandparents, too, if you can speak to them.” So I did. In fact, I still have the original form that I filled out and turned in to my teacher for that project (completed in erasable pen!). Ultimately, though, I don’t believe it was the project itself that piqued my interested in genealogy. Instead, what fascinated me and inspired me were the conversations that I had with my grandparents while I was filling out those forms. The people they were, the stories they had to tell and the mysteries that were sometimes left behind after our conversations were complete provided the fodder for decades of interest in researching the histories that they’d introduced to me.

Initially, it was my grandfather’s storytelling that captured my interest the most. Grandpa Conrad (that’s what we called him) became an accomplished yarn spinner in his grandfatherhood. He would keep his many grandchildren fascinated for hours with stories from his youth and young adulthood in South Dakota. Fighting prairie fires, playing with Indian kids on the Sioux reservation nearby, cutting down dead bodies from trees while assisting an undertaker, these were all part of his repertoire. Grandpa told me that the Conrads had been Pennsylvania Dutch and had moved out to the prairie in the 1800’s. “Originally the name was Koonradt,” he said, but the family had changed the name to make it more American (as so many families have done over the years). He also reveled in telling us that he was part Indian, Iroquois, he told us. He was a quarter Indian, so that made us one-sixteenth Indian. I used to tell people when I was a kid, “Yes, I’m mostly white, but I’m also one-sixteenth Indian.” It was a point of pride for all of us (more on that later). What went somewhat unsaid, but which still managed to come through in my grandfather’s storytelling was a lingering resentment and estrangement from his family back in South Dakota. He never hesitated to mention that his twin brother Harlan was a nasty ol’ son-of-a-gun and how they didn’t get along. These were some of the parts of the package that made my grandfather fascinating to a young boy who’d never been outside of suburban California and whose family was happy and free from resentments (or so I thought).

By contrast, Grandma Conrad was quiet and reserved. She let her husband do most of the talking, only scolding him occasionally to let others speak and telling us kids to make sure to finish our helpings of her famous three bean salad. I don’t recall my conversations with her or her storytelling much at all. I feel a bit sad about that now because Grandma was one of the most loving and appreciative people I’ve ever been around. The pride she felt in her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren was the dominant feature of her character in my memory. When she spoke of cousin such-and-such who had a successful new job in a new city, her face would light up and the glow would shine through. And when new great-grandchildren were born… well, you can imagine her beaming smile for yourself if you knew her. I’m sad she didn’t get to enjoy that pride in my daughter when she was born. I know how happy this little one would have made her. At the same time, now I regret that I didn’t make more of an effort when she was alive to make sure I heard her stories, because I know she had them – we all do.

Grandma Edie had her stories as well. They came in two types. There were the stories of her youth and the stories of her family history. These seemed to be completely separate in her mind. The stories from her youth mostly revolved around the Thacher School in Ojai, California and what it was like to grow up there in the early parts of the 20th century after both her mother and brother had died. It seemed a lonely youth, even though Edie Thacher grew up surrounded by cousins and uncles and aunts. On the other hand, there was the pride of her family history – particularly that of the Shermans. We were all aware from the earliest age that one of our ancestors had signed the Declaration of Independence. This was a point of tremendous pride for my grandmother, and became one for us as well. It seems like everyone has one, doesn’t it? Anyway, Edie was serious about family history – we all knew that. She had pictures of her ancestors on the wall in her hallway at home. One was a very serious looking man in profile. Beneath the picture was a caption: Thomas A. Thacher, Professor of Latin, Yale University. It gave the years, too, but I don’t remember them. There were other pictures, of course, but that’s the one I remember. Edie was fairly somber when she talked about these ancestors, like they were important, but not “loved ones.” I think her reverence made these historical people seem intriguing – their histories tied up with our own, but not at all like my grandfather’s firsthand stories (or yarns, depending on your perspective). In any case, my grandmother’s background of educationally oriented ancestors made a major impression on us - virtually everyone in our family has an advanced degree. These pictures left me curious. Who were these people? What made them important?

Ultimately, all of my grandparents’ stories got me started on a journey of genealogical and family research that has led to this book that I’m writing. The book combines portions of my family tree, as much as I know of it, with my own personal stories of genealogical and historical discovery. I will tell you about these things as I remember them, so those who read these pages will almost certainly disagree with me on the details (my memory isn’t that good). I make no promises as to the accuracy of the genealogical information I present here, or on the stories I recount. I am not a professional researcher, and I recognize that I have not cross-checked many of the “facts” I will list here either in my stories or in my family trees. I treat them as a roadmap to our family history rather than a textbook. Hopefully the information here will help other family researchers and the book will provide a fun read for both my family members and anyone else who happens to read it.

The first page of my family tree that I will print here is pretty close to what was on that original sheet that I turned in for that school project so long ago with one exception. The Dane sections, beyond Francis S. Dane I and Annie Edmonds (which I later discovered was spelled “Edmands”), were not filled in. I place the full first page of that project here as the starting point for my genealogy. I think that is as it should be.

The best starting point is at Ancestry.com, but you have to have an account there. If you do, start here: family tree starting place

If that doesn't work for you, start at Rootsweb here: Starting place #2. For more detail, click on "Display pedigree in text format".

Search on Ancestry.com finds relative at Spadra

So I was searching for the siblings of my grandfather Leighton Conrad in a fruitless search to find a piece of information on another relative. Anyway, I found Leighton's parents Leo and Daisy out in San Gabriel, California in 1930. I had originally thought that they'd come out from South Dakota perhaps to be near my grandfather, who I understood had come out to California when he was about 21 or so.

But, wait a minute, didn't they have another daughter Marcella who was only 8 in 1920 when they were all back in South Dakota? Okay, so putting the name Marcella Conrad into Ancestry.com search. Oh, here she is! 1930 Census she's in a place referred to as Pacific Colony, Spadra near Pomona in Los Angeles County. In the record she is listed as "inmate." Inmate!! Okay, maybe it's not her. But... how many Marcella Conrads were born in South Dakota in 1912? I'm guessing only one, this must be her. So I go searching through the census all the way to the beginning of the Pacific Colony/Spadra records and the first several people have titles that sound very hospital-like: nurses and doctors and such.

I look up this Pacific Colony a bit further and here's one of the descriptions I found: http://www.dds.ca.gov/Lanterman/History.cfm "Pacific Colony - Thinking "feeblemindedness" to be a menace, the California Legislature created Pacific Colony as a Southern California facility to detain the "feebleminded". People with developmental disabilities were "inmates", needing to be locked away from society forever because of their "insanity". The present location welcomed it's first 27 "inmates", on May 2, 1927."

Now, time for Kyle to theorize. My grandpa came to Southern California right about 1927. His parents also came here some time between 1920 and 1930. I know that in later years, Grandpa's brother Harlan also lived in San Marino. It's not a huge stretch to think that one by one, the family gravitated to this area because of Marcella. It's certainly suggestive of a family narrative that revolves around this relative who was "locked away".

Letter from Harry Conrad to Charles Conrad, 10/24/1914

This letter was passed along to me by Dick Conrad, who is a descendant of Charles E Conrad. It was handwritten by my great-great- grandfather Harry W Conrad (who was born Hendrick Coonradt). It and came along with two photographs, which I will attach to this posting if I am able. The letter is addressed to his brother Charles Conrad (who I believe was born Edgar C. Coonradt). I will include footnotes at the end because there are several family references that I’ve been able to identify but who were typically identified by Harry only by their first names.


HW Conrad, 49 North Hartman St, York, PA, 10-24-15

C. E. Conrad
Waterloo Ia.

Dear Brother:
Received your letter a day or two ago but am too busy days and too tired nights to write as I am getting pretty good again but will never be able to walk as I did before altho I can walk better than I did when I came here. As you will see by the card I am with a new concern here and shall put them on the map as I did Pullman and when I do shall have stock in the business. The Doctor who pulled me back from the brink of eternity is a part owner in The Bell Motor Car Co and it was thru him that I came here with the firm. We have moved over two miles from where we were so as to be near the office so I can walk to my work in the morning and back after dinner in about seven minutes and they take me in a car the rest of the time. Of course Grace (1) has to take a car when she wants to go to town but everything is brot to the door or she can order it by phone and we are very nicely located. I knew that you had attended to the papers as Joe (2) sent them to me to have me get Verna (3) to sign them as he don’t know where Bert (4) is and they did not know at Tunkhannock (5). Father (6) said that he had heard that Bert was in York State with another woman but he did not know where he was and seemed to feel terribly hurt that Bert had left him to shift for himself and did not seem to appreciate that Leon (7) and Allie (8) was giving him a good home. Of course I did not enjoy the trip as well as I would have as I was so weak and a Nervous break down unnerves one so that I thot the old man (6) would drive me mad. He seemed to think that I came purposely to see him but you just can’t make him hear a word. Went to mother’s (9) grave and found her buried just back of the old Brick burying ground in a piece they are adding on. He had put some small Granite head stones up but I thot if he missed her as much as he said he did that he might at least have kept her grave clear as it was grown up with weeds and little red sumach that you could hardly see it. As I was not able to do anything I just broke down and turned away. We are enclosing some small snap shots which Allie took while we were there. I don’t look as if I had fallen away much and even did not show it much when I first got around again but I never expect to be so near deaths door again and live.
I very much appreciated Clarence (10) signing the release as I felt that we owed that much to our poor old mothers memory and while I felt that you would cheerfully do so I did not know how we felt about the matter. Leon signed it and I have sent it to Verna and when she returns it all that will be left is Bert and I told Joe that he must look after Bert himself. All he seemed to think of was to paw over poor old mothers things and take what he wanted but he did have our own fathers (11) letters written to her when he was in the army which I brot away with me. Leon told me that I should look her things over and if there was anything I wanted to take it but I was not much interested in life then so did not bother them but Allie brot me the letters and asked me if I wanted them so I brot them home.
I well remember what you said when you came back from the east how much Leon had improved when I met him as he is a steady hard working man and certainly has done fine with Allie to keep them all together.
I saw by the Courier that your odd fellow gathering was there last week so presume you were pretty busy. Hope you had a good time. Grace is all worn out from moving and trying to get settled – in face she never has got rested up since I was sick as we just could not keep a nurse. I was irrational and wouldn’t have her around so it made it hard on Grace altho we had a man from the factory nights and all other times we needed help. Grace sends love to all and she will write when she feels better.
Love to all. Ever your Brother, HW Conrad.

Retyped by Kyle Dane, March 12, 2010.

(1) Harry’s wife Grace V (Greene) Conrad
(2) Joe appears to be the lawyer that handled their mother’s estate
(3) Verna is Laverna Rosengrant, the wife of Bert Rosengrant (see 4)
(4) Bert Rosengrant is Harry and Charles’ half brother
(5) Tunkhannock is a small town near Scranton, Pennsylvania where the Rosengrants and Harry and Charles Coonradt had lived when the boys were growing up.
(6) “Father” and “the old man” here refer to Harry and Charles’ stepfather, Charles Rosengrant
(7) Leon Rosengrant is Harry and Charles’ half brother and Bert’s full brother.
(8) Allie Rosengrant is Leon’s oldest daughter. Reading between the lines here, it appears that Leon’s wife died unexpectedly and Allie had to take over the mothering duties for her younger siblings.
(9) Cordelia Bailey is their mother
(10) Clarence Coonradt is Harry and Charles’ oldest brother.
(11) Daniel Coonradt, who was in the 107th Pennsylvania Infantry in the U.S. Civil War and died in a Confederate prison after being captured.

The attached snap shots
Harry and Grace:


Harry, Aunt Cass, Allie, Grace:



Allie, Aunt Cass:

One of my major projects in the last year was to scan and upload a bunch of old photos. I'm going to post some here. Let's see how this goes.



This is my grandmother, Edith Thacher on her wedding day (to Francis Smith Dane II), September 18, 1937.



This one is Leighton Conrad and Maude Sutton, my maternal grandparents. I don't have a date on this one.



Duke Dane (Francis Smith Dane II), my paternal grandfather. In his college years at Bowdoin, so late 1920's.