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.

Photos for the Fourth

I collected some of my favorite patriotic shots for this post:

My grandmother Edith Thacher (Dane), my Dad Francis S Dane (left) and uncle William Thacher Dane

These two are my grandfather Francis S Dane II, in 1916 and 1918 in his color guard outfits.

Civil War photo of Daniel Coonradt, my 3X great grandfather.

Grandfather "Duke" Dane, this time in his World War II uniform.

Old Family Photo Galleries at Flickr - Conrad

I wanted to make sure I had a link here to my photo galleries at Flickr.com:

The first one is a set of Conrad Family photos. Here's a good example:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kyleshistory/sets/72157624208609534/

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: