Carl Kropp's Death Information - County Record and Obituary

I'm researching Sophia Meinzen Kropp's family with the hope of finding other sources that connect Sophia and my great-grandfather Henry Carl Meinzen as siblings.  Carl Kropp was Sophia's husband.

County Death Record
This image comes from Jefferson County, Ohio, Probate Court Records of Deaths, available at FamilySearch.

Pages.  526-527
Record of Deaths, Probate Court, Jefferson County, Ohio, 18 1906

Date.  1906 May 29
Number.  340
Name in Full.  Kropt Carl
Date of Death.  1905 May 30
Condition.  Married
Years.  71
Place of Death.  Steubenville
Place of Birth.  [blank]
Occupation.  Laborer
Father.  [blank]
Mother.  [blank]
Color.  White
Disease.  Old Age
Place of Residence.  [blank]
By Whom Reported.  [blank]

Obituary
published in The Steubenville Daily Gazette, Wednesday, May 31, 1905

CARL KROPP.
   Carl Kropp, a well known German
resident of West Market street, enter-
ed into rest at the homestead, Tues-
day evening, May 30, 1905, at 6 o’clock,
aged 70 years.  Mr. Kropp was in
his usual health until four weeks ago,
when he took a heavy cold which de-
veloped into pneumonia, causing his
death.  He was born in Germany in
1835 and came to America in 1887, lo-
cating in this city.  He was a shoe-
maker by trade and found work in
the shoe manufactory of August Floto,
where he was a fine artisan and pop-
ular fellow workman.  Later he moved
to West Market street to a farm and
turned his attention to gardening and
farming and was quite successful in
his work, which he industriously pur-
sued until his last illness.  He was a
man of many kindly traits of charac-
ter, a good citizen and a member of
Zion’s Lutheran Church.  He married
Miss Sophie Minsinger in Germany,
and was a kind husband and father,
and leaves his wife and four children
to mourn his loss.  They are Minnie,
wife of Henry Shutti; William, Henry
and Sophie, wife of John Spahn.  He
is also survived by one sister in this
country, who lives in Brazil, Ind., and
one brother in Germany.

Notes and Comments
It's interesting that the date on the left column of the county death record gives "May 29" with ditto marks for the 29, but Carl's date of death as recorded several columns over is "May 30."  Was the record transcribed from elsewhere?  Was the clerk inattentive about the dates and by habit used the ditto marks?

The spelling "Kropt" is an interesting variation.  Is it a suggestion of how the name was pronounced?

The obituary presented several items of interest to me.

• Carl was specifically identified as a German resident.  I haven't checked contemporary obituaries to see if others were identified by their country of origin.
• Carl's wife's maiden name of Minsinger offers one more surname variation of Meinzen.
• If Henry Carl Meinzen and Sophie (Meinzen) Kropp were siblings, the physical distance between them (with the Kropps on West Market street and the Meinzens as far east as New Alexandria/Mingo Junction and then later on Eighth) could have been distant enough for them not to have seen each other often.
• "Shutti" is a third name variation for Minnie's married surname.

Had this obituary been for my own great-grandfather and had I known nothing about him, I would have been thrilled to learn his death date, birth year, immigration year, occupation and place of employment, location of his farm, his wife's maiden name, and his children's names including their spouses' given names.

As it is, neither the death record nor obituary, in and of themselves, help further my search to connect Sophie and Henry as siblings.

The search continues.

--Nancy.

Copyright ©2016 Nancy Messier. All Rights Reserved.
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