Antoinette's Children

Picking up from yesterday's post, I'm following the family of Antoinette Halter Vollrath Kern. The New Orleans records keep revealing interesting connections and travels as I extend down this side of the tree.

Antoinette's first son, Philip Vollrath, married Mary Agnes Cary in 1897. He worked as a dairyman and laborer, and died on 16 May 1918. Antoinette's second son, Henry Vollrath, had an unexpected connection to Francois Halter (my wife's 4th-great-grandfather, and Henry's uncle). Henry married Catherine Myers in New Orleans on 4 October 1876. Francois witnessed the marriage, signing the license as Franz Halter (and also written by the Justice of the Peace as Frank Halter). The license was also witnessed by Filippo Ciofalo, first husband of Magdalene Vollrath, Henry's sister.

New Orleans Marriage Records, 1876.

Antoinette's first daughter, Magdalena Vollrath, married Sicilian immigrant Filippo Ciofalo on 17 November 1874. He worked for many years as a barber, but died without children on 1 March 1888. Magdalena remarried on 5 June 1893 to Charles Huber, a Swiss immigrant and sugar maker.

Charles appears in several travel records. He visited in Havana, Cuba in 1903. 

In 1911, Charles, Magdalena and Josephine Kern Zengel (Magdalena's step-sister) took a trip to Europe to visit Charles' ancestral home in Switzerland. The departed Le Havre on 30 September 1911, and arrived in New York on the S.S. Chicago on 10 October 1911. Josephine had married Frank Zengel on 16 September 1902. He was a prominent lawyer in New Orleans. He died on 22 October 1909.

S.S. Chicago arrival into NY, 10 Oct 1911

S.S. Chicago, 10 Oct 1911

Josephine's Swiss Emigration Form shows that she visited Altdorf in the Canton of Shaffhausen, Switzerland, along the Swiss-German border. Magdalena and Charles' Swiss Emigration Forms shows that they visited the village of Wynau in the Canton of Bern, Switzerland.

Frank and Josephine visited Havana, Cuba in February 1905. They appear on the ship manifest arriving into New Orleans on 2 March 1905.

Josephine married Henry Otto Smith on 12 October 1915 in New Orleans. I will have more on their travels in another post.

Magdalena died on 29 August 1939 in New Orleans without children of her own. Josephine died on 6 August 1940. 

Antoinette

Continuing with the Halter family in New Orleans, I'm shifting attention to Antoinette Halter, younger sister of Francois Halter. She was born in Bas Rhin, France in 1829. Antoinette immigrated to New Orleans, and first married Jacob Vollrath. They had three children:

- Philip Vollrath, 1852-1918

- Magdalene Vollrath, 1854-1939

- Henry Vollrath, 1859-1920

Antoinette later married George Kern, a German dairyman on 26 May 1862. They had two children:

- Joseph Kern, 1864-1907

- Josephine Kern, 1866-1940

Antoinette executed a will on 1 August 1887, naming George as executor and providing for her five children. She died on 21 October 1887. There is an extensive probate file available on Ancestry which provides substantial detail on her real estate and property holdings in New Orleans. I have pulled a few selections from the probate file to include with this post.

Source: Ancestry. Louisiana Wills, 1887.

 

The file provides a wealth of family history detail on Antoinette's family, mentioning her children, their husbands, her property, and containing signatures.

Frank Zengel, husband of Josephine Kern, provided his legal services as part of settling the estate. Antoinette's daughter Magdalene also chose to have her own counsel.

George Kern died on 24 May 1907. His will transferred some of the property that originally belonged to Antoinette down to his daughter Josephine. Joseph Kern, son of George, died on 20 June 1907.

My next post will follow Antoinette's children.

A Witness to a Marriage

I am continuing my look into New Orleans records, but shifting to the other side of the family tree. I previously wrote about my wife's 4th-great-grandfather Francois Halter in 2015. His signature appears on the marriage record of his daughter Louisa to Jean Baptiste Carbonetto (also spelled Carbonneti) in 1867.

New Orleans Marriages, 5 Feb 1867.

Like Francois, Jean Baptiste was also a gardener. He and Louisa appear in the 1870 US Census.

Source: Ancestry. 1870 US Census, New Orleans.

They had at least two children:

- Appolonia Pauline Carboneti, 1871

- Catherine Carboneti, 1875

Jean Baptiste died on 26 February 1895. It isn't clear what happened to Louisa.

Marriage Annulled

After looking into New Orleans Parish Marriages and news articles I previously missed, I'm taking one last recap on Marguerite Barba, first wife of my great-grandfather Harry O'Brien. After separating from Harry and returning to New Orleans (likely in 1909 or early 1910), Marguerite married Charles LeMore in New Orleans on 14 November 1911. Her sister Leonora was one of the witnesses (listed as Mrs. F. H. Jaubert).

FamilySearch. New Orleans Parish Marriages, 1911.

A problem was that Marguerite was still technically married to Harry. While the divorce had been filed in Illinois on 24 June 1911, the petition was not granted by the court until 28 November 1911. Marguerite did not learn of this until January 1913. By then her marriage to LeMore was also over, but she still had this problem to resolve. According to a news article in the New Orleans Times-Picayune from 22 January 1915, Marguerite petitioned the court in New Orleans to dissolve her marriage to LeMore.

New Orleans Times-Picayune, 22 Jan 1915.

Marguerite continued living with her mother, operating their home with rooms for rent. Her mother passed away on 28 June 1945.

Marguerite died in New Orleans in August 1982, almost 98 years old.

A Change of Name

I have been looking back through historic New Orleans records on FamilySearch, uncovering records that either were not previously available or records that I missed on prior searches. My latest search uncovered what happened to Leonora Barba, sister of Marguerite Barba. When I last wrote about Leonora in 2015, I wrote about her brief scandalous marriage to Frank Fuller in 1903, while she was living in New York City to be an actress. Leonora returned to New Orleans, and was living in the same home as her mother and sister at 708 Carondelet in the 1910 US Census. The 1910 Census record indicated that Leonora was divorced, but I didn't realize she had been twice-divorced by then. The FamilySearch scans of the Louisiana Parish Marriages, 1937-1957 revealed another previously overlooked marriage in 1908, which uncovered the rest of her story.

FamilySearch. New Orleans, 1908.

The image above shows the marriage of Berthold Marno Le Moult to Eleonor Barba on 23 September 1908. Berthold had only been in New Orleans for a year, as seen in this news clipping from September 1907 below.

New Orleans Times-Democrat, 8 Sept 1907.

This marriage appears to have been short-lived, as young Marno returned to Germany and remarried in 1911.

Leonora's third marriage stuck. She met Frank H. Jaubert, likely in New Orleans, and they married in Biloxi, Mississippi over Labor Day weekend in 1911. From this point on, she went by Eleonor (or Eleanor). Interestingly, their marriage record in Harrison County, Mississippi lists her full name as Leonor Barba Fuller and includes her signature.

Biloxi Sun Herald, 8 Sep 1911.

Eleonor appears on a list of US citizens returning from Cuba on the S.S. Atenas, arriving in New Orleans on 25 September 1916. I can picture them spending an anniversary trip in Cuba during the summer of 1916. Or perhaps Frank had regular business there. Frank appears on various New Orleans passenger records between 1916-1926, returning from trips to the Panama Canal Zone and Cuba.

Eleonor was listed on Frank's WWI draft registration card in 1917. This record shows them living in Shreveport, Louisiana. They appear together on a passenger list arriving into New Orleans on 7 September 1925 (see below), perhaps again for another anniversary trip. The S.S. Heredia departed Havana on 5 September 1925.

Source: Ancestry. New Orleans Passenger Lists, 1925.

Frank and Eleanor appear in the New Orleans voter registration records between 1935-1947. She wrote her name as Mrs. Frank H. Jaubert in the voter registration records (1935, 1939, 1940, 1945, 1947). In 1947, they were living in a stately home at 504 Chartres Street in the historic French Quarter. Eleanor's sister Marguerite later moved into the same address.

Frank Hastings Jaubert died in New Orleans on 28 April 1947. His obituary names her as Countess Leonor Barba Le Moult, which is interesting given how briefly she was married to Marno Le Moult.

New Orleans States, 29 Apr 1947.

Eleanor passed away on 10 November 1956. As far as I can tell, she had no children. It is nice to uncover this thread and highlight her story, even if it is tangentially connected to my own family history. I imagine my great-grandfather Harry had quite a few interactions with Leonora, later Eleanor, during his years in New Orleans.