Adolph Scholz was my husband’s Great Grandfather. He appeared in the 1900, 1910, 1920 and 1930 census. His birth country was always given as Austria. Adolph is always in the top row.
1900 Census
1910 Census
1920 Census
1930 Census
I have even have Adolph’s arrival record in New York. It also said Austria. He had travelled with his friend Hermann Klinke.
His death certificate also said that he was born in Austria
You would think by now that he was born in that country. I believed it for a very long time, until one day it occurred to me that he was born in Schlesien (Silesia) which has nothing to do with Austria at all. We always knew his birth town, which was Schönwiese Kreis Leobschütz.
There are lots of villages called Schönwiese in Germany as well as Austria, may be even Switzerland. Europe was always unstable, many wars with lots of border changes, so I thought, may be Schönwiese was in Germany and then became part of Austria or the other way around. The answer has always been no.
Schönwiese is in the famous Meyers Gazetteer which tried to list every town and village in the German Empire (1871-1918). Meyers Gazetteer was published in 1912. The link for Schönwiese is here. There are twenty different Schönwiese listed in the Gazetteer.
I also have a copy of a postcard from Schönwiese which should have given me a clue a long time ago.
The description says Schönwiese Kreis Leobschütz, Oberschlesien which stands for Upper Silesia. Upper Silesia used to be in Germany.
Adolph’s wife came from the town of Hof in Moravia, Austria. The census was always correct.
Let’s look at a current map of where Schönwiese, which is now called Krasne Pole, is located.
Krasne Pole on the right located in Poland, which back in the day was Prussia, and on the left side is Cesko or Czech Republic which used to be Austria. Schönwiese was literally just a couple of miles away from the Austrian border.
Adolph’s future wife Rosina Mücke grew up only about a 45 minute drive from him in Hof, Moravia, Austria now called Dvorce u Bruntalv.
My husband and I are planning on visiting both villages eventually.
So what is the moral of the story. Don’t trust census records? Not really! Instead gather all your facts and locations you have for an ancestor. Try to figure out where they came from. Geography is a very important part and history as well. The problem can be a language barrier, however these days google and other translators can help with that.
The only question I have, why did Adolph lie? May be he was afraid that the German Empire would come after him, so he decided to just say that he was from Austria.
Adolph’s naturalization and passport application are not online. Those can be very helpful in researching the birth locations. He went back to Europe to visit his family in Schönwiese in 1910.
Adolph with his Mother, Franziska, and some of his siblings.
Do you trust the census? Have you found a discrepancy in your research?
Please leave a comment below!
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