This surname does not exist, as far as I can tell. And, yet, it's the maternal surname written on Joseph Wormuth's death certificate. Father: Peter Wormuth, Mother: Harriet Barecolt.
And, we know nothing more about Harriet than that. Peter's wife is most often listed as Grace. We don't know what happened to Harriet.
I assume the name was written down as heard (clearly there was some issue with asking people to spell their names on many records). I've done searches and have found nothing on the name. Sounding it out, the name might have been any of the following: Burckhart, Burkhardt, Buckholtz, etc., so many possibilities. And, was Joseph, in fact born in the US or did he and his parents immigrate and, if so, when? If they immigrated, did Harriet make it to the US or was she gone before they arrived?
I have tried to find death certificates for Joseph's siblings and have not been able to do so, thinking that, if I could, we might find out her actual surname.
Another mystery.
This blog is a record of my family history research which is mostly in New York State with some overlap into Pennsylvania and New Jersey. My research includes ALL my maternal and paternal families: Beismer, Beesimer, Debeck, Flower(s), Hogancamp, Hendricks(on), Hulse, Mattice, Odell, O'Dell, Oliver, Platner, Vande(r)mark, Wormuth, plus some related families. The current blog image is the chimney of the Willowemoc Acid Factory, I'm told.
Bercault, Barclough, Biercoltz...yes, quite a few possibilities.
ReplyDeleteI just found out about an unknown 1st wife just yesterday. She apparently died before the guy married the woman I'm familiar with.
Off course, death certificates can be dismally wrong. In my German immigrant family, the birth dates on the DCs rarely matches the dates in earlier documents. And in my GM's DC, my GF, as the informant, didn't even remember his wife's surname let alone the names of her parents.
That poor GM! She had 14 children and on every document I find - BCs, wedding documents, SS applications, DCs - her surname is given differently. With one daughter who was married twice, she gave her mother's surname two entirely different ways. I have at least 30 options for her! And so far, I can't find her death certificate.
Good luck, though Barecolt may have to wait for the fullness of time to decipher.
Julia (seekerJay)