Is it Harm or Habbe who Died in 1880?

The entry for Habbe Rolfs Habben in the funeral register of the Immanuel Lutheran Church in Hancock County, Illinois’ Harmony Township indicated that he was born on 26 August 1861 in Wiesens, Ostfriesland, Germany and died on 17 March 1880 at 1 in the afternoon of “lung fever.” The eighteen year old was buried on 19 March in the church cemetery.

The dates are consistent with a death certificate for Harm Hobbin that was returned to the Hancock County Clerk on 25 March 1880.

Each document should be transcribed as it appears. Transcriptions should not make alterations.

It is highly unlikely there were two separate eighteen year old men with the last name of Habben who died at 1 in the afternoon on 17 March 1880. The time of death being the same is key in determining that these are the same men.

There is a warning though. One must take care in immigrant communities not to assume that there could not be two individuals with names that may sound similar but are in fact different. In the ethnic Ostfriesen immigrant community, the last name of Habben is not that unusual. The first names of Habbe and Harm are not that unusual either. There could easily have been two eighteen year old men with very similar names living in this area that was heavily settled by Ostfriesen immigrants and those men could easily have not been related to each other.

The 1880 census only listed one family with the last name of Habben in Harmony Township–the family of Rolf Habben who was the father of the young man who died in 1880. There was another Habben family living in nearby Prairie Township, which shares a corner to Harmony Township. I should make certain that family did not have a son named Harm.

Why the probable error on the death certificate? While I’m not certain, it seems reasonable that the doctor (who was not of German origin) simply confused the names.

I should review the baptismal records of this family in Ostfriesland, their ship manifest, and their 1870 census enumerations–just to be certain and because a complete analysis of a family requires more than using just a few records.

I also should not assume that these two Habben families have to be related simply because they have the same somewhat uncommon last name. They are in fact not related to each other. The family in Prairie Township is that of Mimke and Antje (Jaspers) Habben–another set of Ostfriesen immigrants. Ostfriesen surnames are patronymical in original and the fact that Rolf and Mimke share a last name is due to the fact that they have a direct paternal ancestor whose first name was Habbe.

Rolf and Mimke are both related to me–but that has nothing to due to them having any relationship to each other and everything to do with the fact that members of this Ostfriesen immigrant community married other members of this community for some time after they immigrated.

Rolf Habben is my uncle by marriage–twice. His first wife was a sister to my third great-grandmother Trientje Elits Post and his second wife was a sister to my second great-grandfather, Johann Ufkes. Mimke Habben is third-great-grandfather.  Situations like this are one reason that I find charts helpful in organizing relationships.

Situations like this are also where it is important to:

  • gather as many records as possible–one could be wrong or not tell the entire story
  • don’t assume people have to be related
  • chart out relationships to keep you on track
  • learn about the naming practices of your ancestors–especially if they were members of an ethnic group with which you are not familiar

The death certificate of Harm Habben was discussed in a recent issue of Casefile Clues.

 

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