I’m trying to locate information on a “Harm Habbus” who apparently was in Clayton Township, Adams County, Illinois, in 1872 or so.
This is part of an 1892 newspaper clipping from the Quincy [Illinois] Daily Journal that references Habbus as the father of a baby born to Volke Behrens, daughter of Ulfert Behrens in Clayton Township. His last name may be a variation on Habbus. The newspaper is the only reference I have to Habbus. It is very possible that his last name was not really Habbus. Harm is a low-German name and hopefully correct.
Based upon the name, the location, and the fact that he was involved with an Ostfriesen girl, I’m guessing he was a native of Ostfriesland, Germany.
But whence Harm? He seems to go “poof” after he and Volke reproduce.
3 Responses
I wonder if some of Harm’s records aren’t turning up because of spelling or transcription errors. Those unusual names sometimes end up written or indexed so differently that a search engine like the one at FamilySearch still can’t find the record you want.
My ggg-grandmother LAKE ERIE’s 1850 census took me a long time to find. In 1860, she is indexed as “ERIC,” which FamilySearch found no problem; Eric is close enough to Erie. But in 1850, she is listed as “JAKE,” due to a transcription error (the census taker wrote LAKE). “Jake” isn’t going to come up at FamilySearch if you search for “Lake.” I located her record anyway…her sister Ida Dolly was in the same household. Turned out they were living with their married sister (I didn’t know she had a first husband!) in the next parish.
I figure Harm will turn up in a search if he’s indexed as Ham or Han, but not as Ian, Mann, or Nan….good luck!
Thanks. I’m going through a rather long list of variants. The fact that he likely knew little English didn’t help and it’s possible that he died before 1900 and since there is no 1890 census to use, finding him could prove to be even more difficult.
Good luck in your efforts, hope things turn out for the better.