Funks and Grentzes: 52 Ancestors Prompt “Mistake”

Funks and Grentzes: My Research “Mistake”

While researching my great-grandmother and her family, I made a serious mistake based on a single census record. It took me a couple of years to correct the mistake, which crippled my research on a whole branch of my family tree.

My maternal great-grandmother, Lena Helena Funk, was born on February 12, 1869 to Charles or John Funk and a woman named Catherine or Catherina, whose surname was a bit of a mystery. All I knew for sure was that the family had moved to the Mankato, Minnesota area at some point prior to Lena’s birth, but I was struggling to confirm how many children the family had, and what happened to all the family members other than Lena.

My best piece of evidence was the 1870 census record, showing the Funks living near Mankato. The family was headed by father John, age 40, a cabinetmaker born in Prussia, and his wife Catherine, age 33, born in Ohio, who was “keeping house”. There are six children listed: William, age 12, born in Iowa, Sophia, age 10, born in Iowa, Mary, age 8, born in Iowa, Charles, age 6, born in Iowa, and 3-year-old Amelia and baby Lena, age 1, both born in Minnesota.

I dutifully added all these children to my tree under the surname “Funk”. I searched for them on later records, but poor Catherine and the three older children all disappeared. Father “John”, also known as Charles, appeared in the 1885 state census as a widower, so Catherine must have died. He lived with Lena and Charles, and I was able to find Amelia’s marriage records, so I knew she was alive. But I could find no trace of William, Sophia, and Mary Funk. Had they all died along with their mother, at some point between 1870 and 1885?

I was stuck until I found an obituary for Charles Funk, Lena’s brother. It had a wealth of information. First, it included his father’s death year, 1889. It also stated that his mother died when he was six years old, which would make her death year 1871. Third, it stated he was born in Burlington, Iowa, which gave me a location to search for records. And fourthly and most importantly, it stated he was survived by a half-sister, Mrs. Mary Gaffney of Redwood Falls, Minnesota.

I suddenly realized that the three “missing” older children weren’t necessarily missing. If they were half-siblings, they likely had a different surname than Funk. The census taker had mistakenly listed them as having their stepfather’s surname, and I had been searching for them using that erroneous information.

So what was the correct surname? I started researching Mary Gaffney of Redwood Falls, and eventually discovered her marriage record. Her maiden name was “Grentz”. She married George Gaffney of Janesville Minnesota when she was 17—he was ten years older. They had six children together.  

                                                            Mary Grentz Gaffney

I then backtracked to the Iowa records, finding a marriage record from Mahashka County, Iowa for C.N. Funk and Catherine Grentz dated November 21, 1863.  That led me to the 1860 census record for Louis Grentz, a brewer from Oskaloosa, Iowa, with a wife, Catherina, son William Louis, and daughter Sophia Grentz. The last Grentz daughter, Mary, was born in 1861 or 1862, around the same time that Louis Grentz must have died. I have yet to find death records for him that would give me a precise date.

I made the appropriate corrections to my family tree, so now William, Sophia and Mary are listed as the children of Louis Grentz, and as half-siblings to my great-grandmother Lena Funk and her siblings Charles and Amelia.

I managed to find Lena’s half-brother William Louis on the 1880 census. He was 19 years old, living in Mankato and working as an engineer. The census shows his surname as “Grantz”. I have found no further records for him under either Grentz or Grantz.

 I am still struggling to find any records at all for Sophia. Perhaps she died at the same time as her mother. But at least now I will be searching for her with the correct surname.