It seems Ancestry has added a bunch of wills from Missouri, and I found George Ferber’s family, that is, his parents and siblings. His father is, naturally, George Farber. Apparently one can never have enough George Farbers. His mother’s name is Margarethe, but of course her maiden name is not in the records. The George I’m talking about was born in 1817 and died in 1899, and his name changed from Farber to Ferber at some point during his lifetime, it seems.

From what I can make out in a record naming George junior administrator of his father’s estate, George senior died in January 1840, and at that time his name was Farber. It seems that in May 1846, George senior’s widow Margarethe wrote her will, but it is in German, and also very poor quality, so I can’t really read it except I can make out most of the names. The will went to probate in January 1858, so that would be when Margarethe died. So George and Margarethe’s children, still living as of May 1846, are:

• Margarethe, born about 1815, married to Jacob Peter
• George junior, born 1817
• Catharina, born about 1820, married to Adam Stephan
• Maria, born about 1825
• Barbara, born about 1827
• Johannes, born about 1828

I did a quick search for other records for them, but didn’t find much. I’m going to have to spend some time at this, because these names may not be exactly right. For example, I saw a record that looked like it was Catharina and Adam, but the last name was Stevens. I did find a record for John (Johannes) which said he was born in Germany, so it looks like the whole family immigrated together (in 1833 according to George junior’s citizenship papers). So the time fits, but George’s records say he was born in France, although sometimes the census says France and sometimes Germany; the borders did change and I’m not an expert on that for sure.

But now I know who those other Farber/Ferber people were, living in the household of George junior on some of the census records, his mother and his brother. There is also the will of George Ferber (1817-1899) and his wife Catherine (1822-1913). There may be other wills, but I haven’t looked for them yet.

Finding the administration record for George senior also answered another question. I thought I had found the 1840 census record for the family, but the numbers were not quite right. The 1840 census only lists the head of household name, and then just how many males and females in each age group. The name George Farber was right but there was no male of the right age for George senior. Now that I know George senior died in January 1840, and the census was in June 1840, and that George’s father is also named George, the George listed as head of household is George junior. That makes all the ages accurate.

But now I have to figure out if the birth records and marriage record for the family are available, and if so, are they French records or German records? Always more to find out 🙂

And by the way, hubby and I took the 23andMe test. We should get results in a couple months. I’m curious to see if the DNA results agree with my genealogical research!