Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Wordless Wednesday

August Holzhaus, Civil War Veteran
My great-great grandfather

Born in Germany 07 July 1836 and
died on 07 June 1925 in Castroville, Medina County, Texas
Posted by Andrea Christman at 12:36 PM
Labels: , ,

5 comments:

  1. PaigeJanuary 15, 2009 at 2:34 PM

    I love this post!! Do you have more information about him? I would love to know the man behind the picture. I love your blogging.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Andrea ChristmanJanuary 16, 2009 at 8:12 PM

    Thanks! August is my great, great grandfather on my father's side. I love this part of my family tree because it is pure serendipity that I found out what know about him! I was looking through census records and the 1890 census was mostly burned, but there is a part of it that survived and that is where the part where Veterans or Veteran's widows had to be accounted. I looked for my hometown county in Texas and saw the veterans listed and there was August. Then I went to the National Archives and got his Civil War pension file! There was NO family stories about him being in the Civil War (in the North, no less!) and we had no idea he was from Ohio (having immigrated from Germany). What a FIND! I was able to find out his parent's names and possible hometown in Germany from that file. I discovered that he was a prisoner of war in Andersonville prison during the Civil War. Then this photograph was special because it is the only one that we found of him. We got it from August's granddaughter (who is still alive and living in my hometown). Amazing. Just think, I know someone who knew someone who fought in the Civil War! Is that cool or what?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Becky ThompsonJanuary 18, 2009 at 4:33 PM

    I lOVE this picture! So glad I found you---you just started following my personal blog. Thanks so much. Here's my genealogy blog too: http://beckysgraceandglory.blogspot.com

    Oh my gosh, I just read your comment about the serendipity of all this. That is AWESOME. Best story I read this weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  4. CindyJanuary 26, 2009 at 10:48 PM

    Great picture - it almost looks as if the chair is not quite settled there on the rocks. Love this shot.

    I grew up in Montgomery Co, left there about the time you arrived on the scene. I went to Watkins Mill ES, MVJHS, and G'burg high. We now live in the panhandle of WV. Who knew that one hour away could cause culture shock? We do love it here.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Andrea ChristmanJanuary 27, 2009 at 6:06 PM

    Yea--why in the world would anyone take a photo in THAT setting? I am just glad that they did, but this is the only one where we can see August clearly.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)