Saved by sounds-like spelling

So as with other branches of the family, I’m going back through record sets on FamilySearch to find more documentation on the people I already know about.  Today I worked my way back to the family of John Schenbeck (M; b. 29 Oct 1798, Hesse Darmstadt, Germany; m. Katherine Oesch; d. 24 March 1865) and further reinforced one of the reasons I like to search from FamilySearch…

For my search I put “Samuel Schenbeck” in the name fields and restricted the results to those who were born in the range of 1848 to 1850.  The first result on the list is one that I probably wouldn’t have found if it didn’t automatically look for names that sound similar:

Yeah, that says Chainbeck.  But since all of the names, ages and birth places line up with data I already had (except that I had Magdalena instead of Martha), there’s a pretty strong argument to believe that this is the correct family.

The birth dates as noted in my database for this family right now, based on research that Jennifer conducted, are:

• John Schenbeck – M; b. 29 Oct 1798, Hesse Darmstadt, Germany; d. 24 March 1865
• Katherine Oesch – F; b. 24 Jan 1812, Germany; d. 8 Aug 1879
• Daniel Schenbeck – M; b. 25 Oct 1832, Holmes County, Ohio; d. 14 Feb 1898, Allen County, Indiana
• Christian Schenbeck – M; b. 30 Jan 1834; d. 29 March 1907
• John J. Schenbeck – M; b. 22 Jan 1837; d. 19 Feb 1916
• Mary Schenbeck – F; b. 3 May 1839; d. 23 May 1913
• Anna Schenbeck – F; b. 5 June 1841; d. 29 Oct 1928
• Magdalena Schenbeck – F; b. 16 June 1845; d. 22 April 1867
• Jacob Schenbeck – M; b. 16 June 1845; d. 25 Jan 1923
• Samuel Schenbeck – M; b. 18 June 1849; d. 24 Nov 1864
• Katherine Schenbeck – F; b. 17 July 1853; d. 1 Feb 1888

This find adds some birth location data, but a couple of the ages in the census record are off by a year or two.  I’m still working through finding and using records on this line, so stay tuned for more as I integrate all the information into my database.  Then I’ll need to research more about the history of Germany from the 19th century and earlier.

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Sources:

• 1850 U.S. census, Holmes County, Ohio, population schedule, District 75, Prairie Township, page 22, dwelling 948, family 966, John Chainbeck household; digital images, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : accessed 16 April 2012).
• "1880 U.S. census," index, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : accessed 7 January 2011), Daniel Shanebeck household.
• "Ancestral File v4.19," database, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org: accessed 7 January 2011), Daniel Shanebeck household.
• Anna Klopfenstein Shanebeck obituary, (unknown newspaper), (unknown location), 5 January 1932 or 6 January 1932.
• Compiled genealogy by Jennifer Lamb.