Review is always a good thing.

The Rothweiler family’s earliest known interaction with my Trautvetter family was when George Rothweiler married Wilhelmina Trautvetter in St. Louis, Missouri in the 1860s. Little is known about Rothweiler’s origins before he married Wilhelmina. Not much had been done on Rothweiler before his time in St. Louis largely because the Trautvetter family’s origins were already known and Wilhelmina was a first cousin of the family of interest. Sometimes one has to draw a line in the genealogical sand somewhere.

That doesn’t mean one keeps one’s eyes shut.

Part of documenting the Trautvetter family was working on Wilhelmina’s immigrant aunts and uncles who spent some time in Campbell County, Kentucky, before heading west to Illinois and Missouri. Her uncles, Michael, Henry, and Adam owned small amounts of property in Kentucky and have been located in several land records.

Including this one from 1854 that was witnessed by a “G Brothweiler.”

The problem is that I’m left with the clerk’s transcription of the witnesses’ signatures. The name of Snellbaker has no apparent significance (at least so far), but G. Brothweiler? The actual name of Brothweiler appears to be highly unusual  and I’m wondering if it could be an incorrect transcription of Rothweiler? Upper case “B”s and “R”s are similar, particularly if the script is difficult to read.

It’s suggestive that at least a Rothweiler was familiar with the Trautvetters in Kentucky. If the witness is a Rothweiler, there’s no guarantee that it is the same one who married Wilhelmina Trautvetter in St. Louis, Missouri.

But it bears some looking into.

And it serves a reminder that reviewing material is always advised–that migration connection may be longer than you think.