The bill from the “office of L. U. Albers” indicated that he was located in Keokuk Junct. and that the bill was dated 5 April 1875.
No state is listed on the document. That is not to confuse the reader over one hundred years later. It is because the information was not needed by the reader in 1875. The reader knew where Keokuk Junction was located. It’s also possible that Albers paid slightly less for his stationery since there were fewer printed letters on it.
Many records that genealogists use have “missing” details that we would like to know today. A significant number of those details were “obvious” to the creator and user of the document at the time it was created. They saw no need to state the obvious. They weren’t worried about some harried descendant five generations later analyzing every detail.
Note: Keokuk Junction is a reference to Keokuk Junction, Illinois. Today it is known as the village of Golden, Illinois.
4 Responses
My husband’s great grandparents were from the area a Golden. Ever hear of the Downing, Bates, Tipton, Young, Jones and Harrison families?
I’m not connected to any of those families–my people there were all members of the Ostfriesen immigrant group that settled there, including: Sartorius, Behrens, Goldenstein, Ufkes, and quite a few others.
Reading this, I quickly guessed “Keokuk, is/was in Iowa?” Wrong, and thanks for setting me straight!
That reminds me: We can improve our own genealogical research by including both counties– and countries– when typing in all locations. Place names that seem quite distinctive or unusual to us might be duplicated in another state– even in another country. Many US researchers are surprised to find a Baltimore in County Cork, Ireland and a Boston in County Clare. Might even be a clue to an immigration route?! My husband’s GLASSEL and HAAG families had branches in 3 different Jefferson Counties, towns, and cities, in WI, IA and SD, so place name accuracy is very important to us.,.
Yes–the accuracy is very important. All of us, myself included, have to constantly pay attention to this detail and not assume (which can be really easy to do).