Sunday, April 20, 2014

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #16 ~ Frederick Samuel Zaugg or What Can Be Found on eBay

Written for Amy Johnson Crow's Challenge 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. (click on the icon in the sidebar for details at Amy's blog)



First just the facts:

Name: Frederick Samuel Zaugg
Born: 09-Jun-1871, Salt Creek Twp, Wayne County, Ohio
Married: Julia Maria Evemeyer, 03-Sep-1902, Christian County, Illinois
Died: 17-Oct-1941, Wooster, Wayne County, Ohio [Find-A-Grave memorial]

 
Relationship: Frederick is my 1st cousin 4 times removed.


I realize that in my post about the Zaugg Book I said I was going to write about Jacob Sr's children and I'm totally veering off course with this post,  but I think it's justified.

Recently there was a link on Facebook to a treasure trove of items for sale on eBay for some lucky family in Meigs County Ohio - pictures and other family history memorabilia.  I have ancestors from Meigs County, but not one name was familiar.  After I was done drooling over the Meigs County items, I did a quick search for anything Zaugg related.  I decided to pass on the $1,800 "Rare antique Swiss neck cittern (Halszither), bearing the original label by the maker: Johan Zaugg, im ??? ???, Signau ???, 1829." However as I continued to scroll through the offerings I was amazed when this popped up:


It's a small aluminum "pin tray" that looked to be in remarkable good condition.  Before I decided to actually purchase this item, I needed to make sure that the Reverend Zaugg and I actually had a connection.  I seemed to remember seeing something recently in one of my sorting frenzies that mentioned a Rev Zaugg, and sure enough I found the following obituary in my collection:

Lizzie is a sister to my Emma Zaugg and you'll notice at the end it mentions, "Rev F. S. Zaugg, a cousin of the deceased is conducting the funeral service." Anyway,  a little more research revealed that Rev Zaugg and I are indeed related so I am now the proud owner of this piece of Zaugg memorabilia.

Incidentally, this obituary is another one of those items that someone in my family, probably my Grandma Ritchie, carefully cut out leaving no indication as to the newspaper it was published in.  It's a reminder that I need to make a list of all of these, with death dates, for my next trip to Wayne County.  My working theory is that they all come from the Wooster Daily Record but I'd like to verify that.

So, I hope I can be forgiven for this detour in my Zaugg postings after finding this wonderful keepsake.

3 comments:

  1. Well first of all totally jellie of the pin tray!!! So cute it might make one reconsider like geology :) but I can't believe you passed on the $1800 Swiss neck cittern! Really?!

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  2. and of course, i want to know if the photo of the right reverend zaugg is depicting him smoking a pipe, or if his fake mustache has come unglued?

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  3. What an awesome piece you found! It's nice to get trinkets from the past. I ended up with my grandfather's wallet (he died in the 1940s) and rosary beads from both my great aunt and grandmother. Great job!

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