Parents # 2 Now Most Likely

Well, there has been a bit of a lapse since my last post, but for good reason. I took a day off to travel to Bellville, Austin County, Texas to obtain copies of the various marriage certificates and naturalization papers on file there. Instead of just requesting the ones that I was focusing my research on (Carl Bastian and Charles Bastian), I decided that it would be advantageous to obtain all possible documents for the Bastian family in these two categories. I did not look for birth or death certificates on that trip. This was also my first research trip to a records vault, and it was a bit daunting.

The first documents received were the naturalization papers for Charles, Gustav, and Frederich Bastian. I was fairly certain that these three individuals were related, but I was unsure of how. The Declaration of Intent for each was filed on the same day (July 19, 1852). Those documents provided the same arrival date for all three as well (October, 1851). I began looking for ships that came into Texas in that month, and found a record on the Galveston Immigrant Database (Bastian Family Arrival). This link shows a family of six, including Frederich, Gustav, and Charles/Carl. They arrived on the Ammerland from Luebeck, Germany. I have not yet found the departure records, but I feel confident that I am on the right trail now.

With all of the marriage certificates from Austin County, I began building the tree with these individuals. I have only one person that I have not been able to link yet: Veronica Bastian. I am confident she is related as well, but that may take a bit more time. Every other Bastian in Austin County is related to the Frederich Bastian family. Most of them are also buried in New Ulm Cemetery in New Ulm, Austin County, Texas.

To further strengthen the argument that Charles and Carl Bastian are indeed the same person, I looked for the death certificates for as many of the children as I could find. Several of them listed Carl as the father with either Sophia Helms or Fredericka Waige as the mother. Since Carl's marriage certificate shows he married Sophia, and Charles' shows he married Fredericka, I am not confident that they are the same person. The names seem to be used interchangeably.

So, I believe that my initial quest has been solved. I will continue to pursue the Bastian family genealogy. I have determined that there are four groupings of Bastians, at least in terms of where they are buried. Those are the Austin County group, the Bastrop group, the Austin, Travis County group, and the Dallas area group. I am going to work to find the links between these other groups and to find the departure records of Frederich Bastian's family from Luebeck, Germany. Should anyone be interested in copies of the marriage records I obtained, please let me know. I am only too happy to share!

Stacey