The Missing Gahlau

We hope you enjoy this as it tells the story of weeks of research.

When we started the search for my Gahlau bloodline we quickly discovered that several other websites had Carl Ludwig and Caroline Gahlau (circa 1841) confused with August and Ernestine Gahlau (circa 1845). We believe that Carl and August might be brothers, but we can't prove it yet. We also believe that the parents of Carl and August are Carl and Wihlemine Gahlau (circa 1819), but we can't prove any of this yet because all the Gahlau's came to America at different times. Not to worry, we will figure this out and put it on this website as soon as we do.

But meanwhile, August and Ernestine Gahlau are the parents of the missing Gahlau in the Martha (Stevens) Hellwig family. (More on her shortly) This is where other websites have gone astray and connected the wrong Gahlau family to Martha. We have now proven that the missing Gahlau is, in fact, Frederick Ernest Gahlau—the son of August and Ernestine Gahlau.

First, we found that August and Ernestine Gahlau immigrated from Germany in 1872. Next we found them on a census for 12 Jun 1880: Delaware, Sanilac, MI. Their children, Fred, Emma and Harold, were with them.

Next we found they had moved to Detroit, via a 1890-1900 Michigan Directory. They were living at 1178 Bellvue Ave, and Clara was a new child.

We then found August and Ernestine on a census for 20 Apr 1910: Detroit Ward 15, Wayne, MI, living at 1178 Bellvue, but their children were gone, except for Clara.

And thanks to the Michigan Directory (1890-1900) we found that their son Fred was living with his parents at 1178 Bellvue Ave and was an upholsterer. You might think we're crazy for citing such simple little things such as occupation, but the census takers got people's birth years so scrambled that you have to make note of every little thing on a census form.

Since we were trying to uncover who the real father was of Martha's children, and since there are no less that 10 or more Freds, Frederick's, Frederick William's, William Fred's and the like, all within the Gahlau families, and they are all born during similar years, and the census takers were so amiss in taking the proper information, finding the right Fred was a real challenge.

We had Martha Gahlau's census for 18 Apr 1910 for Detroit Ward 9, Wayne, MI, and it showed she was the widowed mother of Agnes, Clara, Ella, Frederick E, Harold A, and Eleanor . . . and of course they were all Gahlau children. And literally, their name was mis-transcribed as Gahlan and not Gahlau, but after scrutinizing the census form, it was clear that it was Gahlau. This happens all the time. We took note of her address also, which was 473 Dubois St. And our curiosity was perked by Frederick's middle initial ‘E'. (Again, make note of everything on a census form.) And do you see a connection yet with the naming of Martha's children?

Then we found a 1917 WWI Draft Card for Fred Ernest Gahlua. The middle name keyed us to who we believed was his mother, Ernestine, wife of August. It was a Bingo moment for us, but we needed more. We got a bit more when we saw that his wife was Martha Gahlau, but it still wasn't enough because we still didn't know which Fred this was. From that draft card we made note that they were also living at 247 Grandy St, Detroit, MI, and continued the search.

We were trying to search for the missing Fred, and absolutely had to have the missing 1900 census, and used all sorts of spellings for Gahlau. And Morgan, our lead researcher, since she spent quite a few years in Germany, was able to vocalize about 20 different ways to say and spell Gahlau. She said she put herself in the position of a census taker talking to a German with a heavy accent and what they must've heard when the German family said their name. It was really quite amusing, but it has worked countless times before to find other families. But, no matter what trick we pulled, sadly, we couldn't find a thing on Fred and Martha for 1900.

Then one night Morgan did what none of us have the patience to do. She got comfortable at the computer, and started searching for Fred and Martha, using first names only. Do you have any idea how many Fred's and Martha's lived in Detroit at that time? And because of the year, Detroit was divided into Wards which meant checking all of them. It meant that she had to keep going through countless search windows. It was extremely time consuming, and eventually, even she gave up. Then she tried searching for the children's names and birthdates. Nada!

Finally, she gave up on the right way to search and opened the census search for Wayne county, MI, and went page by page looking for a familiar name. It took an entire night, and after looking and sounding out over a thousand names she finally found it. It was Agness Cahlau. Agness was misspelled, as it should have been Agnes, and Gahlau was now Cahlau. Boy, did she ever curse whomever digitized those census forms, and believe me, this happens time and time again. Anyway, on to the Pay Dirt census of the week!

Here's what we got from that one elusive census form: It was Fred Gahlau, born Dec 1873, matching an earlier form as 1872; he was born in Michigan, again a match; he was an upholsterer, a match to the Michigan Directory; and, are you ready for this? he and his wife and kids, Martha, Agnes, Clara, Ella and Frederick, were living at 473 Dubois. That was definitely a Bingo match!

So we did it. We proved that the missing husband of Martha, and the father of the Gahlau children was Frederick Ernest Gahlau, son of August and Ernestine Gahlau. But while we were all whooping and hollering, Morgan was still glued to the computer.

Now then, here's another one of those hidden threads Morgan is always looking for. She couldn't help but notice that next door to Fred and Martha, at 471 Dubois was a Stephan family. Again, she scrutinizes the heck out of a census form. She knew she had come across a similar name in her related research so she went back through all her notes . . . again. Other genealogy websites called Martha, Martha Stevens, and after doing more research on this Stephan family, Morgan discovered that it was Martha's parents and brother. But again, other websites got her dad and brother's name reversed, census data wrong, immigration data wrong, etc. But now that Morgan had the right spelling and all the family members she was able to pull all the data together for Martha's family, the Stephan's. So now we all had a double reason for being so excited.

We've told this story to help you understand the trials and tribulations of not only researching websites with hard cold documentation, but finding many family sites who have done a horrible injustice to a family's heritage. If you cannot prove something, then DO NOT put your assumptions on the Internet (or anywhere else) because it will only confuse and mislead others in their search for their heritage. And searching for a family's heritage should not be made more difficult than it already is. If you have data that you firmly believe is valid but it isn't, and you use it, make certain that you say it like it is, which is nothing more than an ASSUMPTION. Be honest! Then continue your search to prove your theory, or don't use it.

We have provided a list of the many spellings we found Gahlau spelled as, which is in the Articles section under "Name Spellings."

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