familysearch trees

[kiterunner]

He is listed on ancestry in the New York City Births 1891-1902:

Frederick Lenhart

Link to page with information about database:
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/...bid=5157&enc=1

[Ann from Sussex]

Ah, I don't have Ancestry membership any more which is why I hadn't seen that. I think I may treat myself and send for his birth certificate although it isn't going to tell me anything I don't already know so is it worth it? I'll sleep on it!

[Kit]

This is all that is on Ancestry and includes the cert number:


New York City, Births, 1891-1902 about Frederick Lenhart
Name: Frederick Lenhart
Birth Date: 23 Aug 1899
Birth Place: New York, New York
Certificate Number: 33864

I don't know what are on US certs but it might be worth looking at seeing what is contained and ordering it if there is more than name, date and place of birth and paretns.

[Janet]

That from Toni and this website below may be all you need, Ann.

NYC Department of Records - online birth certificate request before 1910

EDIT: At risk of hijacking your thread, I just have to tell you that by idly having one more look for Frederick Lenhart, I happened across a web site quoting the existence of a Fred Lenhart working the circus who didn't seem to be yours at all, wrong dates. (And didn't you find a death for him at an early age, anyway?) From there I jumped to thinking how my mother had circus connections (secretary to the head of a merry-go-round manufacturer) and decided to see what I could find on her employer by putting in the name of the town on that circus history website. Lo and behold, what turned up was someone on a forum talking about people in the same town who trained live seals for circus acts, right across the Erie Canal from where I grew up. Aha! So now I have solved my longstanding mystery of those people my father took me to see when I was very, very little, who had trained seals in their backyard that played a tune on their horns for me. I wonder if my mother set that visit up? I remember the yard seemed very wide to me. Well, I found them on the 1940 census and it was two households of the same family in two neighboring houses. Obviously they must have had the seals in a facility that bridged the two back yards.

For anyone interested who can see it, look for the two heads of household with occupation Trainer and industry Seal(s) Business.
Trainer - Seal Business

You just never know what you're going to find!!!

[Ann from Sussex]

Thanks Kate and Janet. I still haven't done anything about getting Fred's certificate. I already have my grandfather's (Fred's eldest brother),ordered from that source Janet gives so know that New York certificates give place and date of birth, parents' names (including mother's maiden name), their ages, places of birth, address and father's occupation....all of which I already know. To be honest, I don't feel I can justify sending for a certificate which would only be for the sake of having it. What I would really like to know is, does he have any descendants? I have never found any descendants of my gt. grandparents, other than my sister and me and our children so it would be a wonderful thing to find we had cousins in America.

Oh Janet, I do wish the Fred Lenhart who worked in a circus WAS my great uncle. What a fantastic thing to be able to boast of!!! Actually, no, I don't have any proof of an early death for my Gt Uncle Fred. Familysearch just says he is deceased - highly likely since he would now be 114 years old. There is the fact that he isn't listed with the rest of the family on the 1900 census which might suggest he died in infancy. However, my gt grandmother is shown on that census as having given birth to 8 children, 5 of whom are still alive in 1900....but only 4 are on the census in the family home. My grandfather, the eldest, aged 20, is there and the next in age is 10 years younger than him, followed by two more who are 7 and 4 so there is a big gap. Who is and where is the 5th child? He or she is most likely to come between my grandfather and his 10 year old sister I think, suggesting that Fred had died.

I am glad my posting lead to you finding out more about your own family Janet. Isn't it funny how that can happen?

[Janet]

Well, there's someone looking for "great grandad, Frederick Lenhart, born about 1880" which is almost 20 years out but maybe she's wrong on her dob? She doesn't sound too terribly sure. Here are the two links I was looking at:

circus history - message board

circus history - Bandwagon

If he joined the circus, that would certainly explain why you couldn't find him around home again! It's intriguing if nothing else, but maybe just a red herring I'm throwing at you here.

[Ann from Sussex]

Thanks for those links Janet. I have just sent an email to the guy who posted that request back in 2008. It is a bit of a long shot but you never know...and it might just turn out to be the right Fred! I'll let you know what, if anything, comes of it.

[Ann from Sussex]

Ah well, that's the end of that line of enquiry. My email has just bounced back because "the recipient does not exist here". Not surprising after over 5 years I suppose!

[Janet]

Awww, rats, Ann!

[Janet]

Maybe you can play around with Googling, Ann. I just tried a long shot:

"name removed" gallan iowa

There are some potentially interesting hits there. I have to go out now, but maybe you can make something of it.

That's the name he signed on the board, and a fragment of the old email address, and Iowa (the state) because that's what the domain indicates. Maybe Iowa Telecom turned into some other company name? He could have gallan@something-else-that-it-turned-into for his email now.

EDIT: Oh, shoot, very sorry, Kite, and I always try to be so careful.