How the U.S. Civil War still leaves its Scars upon Modern Genealogy

Question

Hi Wikitreers,

The U.S. Civil War was a tragic event and even more tragic for those of us who try to piece together our family genealogy where the scars of war and the damage may never be healed. 

In my particular genealogy of my 3rd great grandfather’s sister Christianna (Gibbs) Steenberge (1834 - 1873) her life seemed to reflect the tragedy of the war. Christiana was married to William Henry Steenberge (abt. 1834 - abt. 1865) who served in the 106th New York Company H. William was my 3rd great grandfather’s brother-in-law. He was discharged for disability on 10/14/1864 and it appears that he died shortly thereafter as a result of this disability leaving his widow and his two children Benson Steenberge (abt. 1858) and Mary Steenberge orphans. I haven’t created a profile for Mary yet and maybe it’s time to? 

I have the dna ancestry thrulines connection to map out a possible answer to what happened to the children as the mother also died when they were young. 

The genealogy dna chart goes like this for her sister Catharine (Gibbs) Young (1843 - 1865) correction not (Christianna)

Elvie E. Young 1865-1906 (the LNAB is Young? And date of birth is 1865? Did Christiana have another child? Who is Elvie E. Young (she has a nice image of her of ancestry)

Elvie is the mother of a Earl Martin Drew 1885-1958 who I believe has a memorial on FindAGrave see link https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/182129997/earl-martin-drew and is located in Oregon cemetery 

So I’d like to try and put together this broken vase of the past and the legacy of William Henry Steenberge and Christianna Gibbs that the war took from the pages of their genealogy 

Were her children adopted out to family?

The indenture source is interesting as well…

Thank you

Edit: I’d like to build the genealogy of Catharine and Christianna (she had the two children) 

Note: the thrulines does not show any genealogy match yet to The Children of William and Christianna Gibbs Steenberge

Update: Mary Steenberge profile created so that research can continue for her and her orphaned brother. See 1870 census for sourcing

Answer 1

Andrew,

You summed up the social impact of the Civil War. It made a lot of widows and a lot of orphans.  I've come across instances where a guy's wife dies leaving him to raise several children. Then the guy gets dies in the War. What becomes of all the orphans. Some cases they were taken in by relatives or kindly neighbors. But not in every case. So, we see young orphans becoming part of the work force. In the case where the father dies in the war, leaving a widow with children. Far too often the genealogical trail ends there. We cannot find what became of the widow and the children.

I suppose for many, the Civil War becomes a brick wall blocking their genealogical search.

Comments

The war divided my family (maternal and paternal) to the extent that my paternal grandfather's contemporary cousins, who achieved considerable notoriety, were not known or were at least not talked about. On my maternal side I have a brick wall or two where I have everyone in the same room 1850-60's. Woodfin, Miller Dalton and Pierce. Between willful destruction of personal and public record, I don't spend a lot of time looking, hoping and wishing that the records materialize.