We all have at least one line that causes us untold grief. No matter where we look, what we check, or how we probe, nothing emerges. That family causes us frustration but somehow we just have to keep trying. The infuriating fact that we just can’t find him, or her, motivates us to try even harder.

For me, that line is my maternal grandmother’s line, Rosanna Sofia Goodman. My mother told me that she remembered sitting on her grandmother’s lap listening to stories about the wagon train to Iowa. My mother also told me that Sofia’s father was Isaac Goodman, a Polish Jew. For three weeks, I went to work early, spent my lunch time, and stayed late searching for Isaac Goodman in the census, any year would do, but to no avail. That third weekend, I drove to New Hampshire and confronted my mother. “Isaac Goodman never existed,” I told her. Her response was “Of course not, that wasn’t his real name.” I should have known from that moment that this line was going to be nothing but trouble!

My mother kept in touch with only one of her cousins, Dorothy Fellingham, who lived outside Chicago. At the time I started looking at my Goodman roots in 1995, Dorothy was in her early 90s. When I asked my mom what Isaac Goodman’s real name was, her response was that they didn’t tell her; after all she was only a child at the time. She suggested I call Dorothy. I immediately went to the telephone.

Dorothy had, what seemed at the time, lots of information. First, she said, “His name wasn’t Isaac, it was Israel.” Next was, “He wasn’t the immigrant, his father, Solomon, was the immigrant and he was from Germany, not Poland.” She also told me that Israel was from Pennsylvania and that Sofia was born in Ohio. She didn’t know any dates but at least now I had places to look along with correct names. Dorothy also suggested that Solomon’s original name was Gutman (or Guttman, Gutmann, Guttmann, etc.). Lesson number one: check all given names that begin with the same first letter and alternate spellings of surnames. You must remember that I’d only begun my genealogy in early 1995 so I didn’t have much experience at the time.

First thing Monday morning, there was Israel Goodman on the 1860 census in Iowa, along with wife Elizabeth, and children, including Sofia.¹ He’d moved from Ohio to Richland, Iowa. Now to locate him in the 1850 census in Ohio, simple right?

I looked in the 1850 census index for Ohio but there was no Israel Goodman listed so I checked Isaac, nothing. I also checked Goodmann, Gutman, Guttman, Gutmann, and Guttmann to no avail. I checked Gottlieb, Guthman, and other German variations of the name, nothing. What to do! Of course, I had no idea where he might be in Ohio. So I started reading the counties looking for Israel. Any idea how many counties there are in Ohio? Neither did I! In fact, there are 89 counties, all well populated by 1850. But I started reading them in alphabetical order, had a map where I crossed them off as I completed them and two months later, I was only up to Defiance County. Of course, working full-time didn’t allow me much time to read the census so it was slow progress. A volunteer, who had roots in the mid-west and had done quite a bit of research on migration roots, suggested that the southern counties were where the state followed the river and was a popular migration route and I should read those next. I did, without finding anything. Another volunteer offered to check Israel out in Salt Lake where she was going for a research trip the following week. She would be gone a month during which I checked the southern counties without success. She returned one week after I went back to reading alphabetically and found him in Delaware County. She’d also found him in the 1850 index under Godman! [Another lesson to check all variant spellings, even those you might not think of at the time. I learned about deleting and/or changing vowels with that one.]

The 1850 census, when I finally found it, gave me several more tidbits.² Living right next door to him was John Franklin Goodman, also born in Pennsylvania, also a mason. Contained in John’s family was a Rosanna Goodman, age 64, born in Pennsylvania. I’d found Israel’s mother! Now if only I could find his father.

I located the 1870 and 1880 census pages for Israel and family. 1880 was the first year to give parents’ places of birth. Miraculously, Israel listed his father’s place of birth as Wurttemberg.³ At least now I only have a section of Germany to search rather than the entire country. Of course, I still didn't have a name! Dorothy told me Israel’s father was Solomon but I’d been unable to find a Solomon or Samuel in any Pennsylvania census. One of the Pittsfield volunteers has German roots and suggested that Germans often had a religious first name, such as Solomon, and then a given name (middle name) which they used! Oh the possibilities just kept multiplying.

About 1999, another volunteer suggested searching the Family Tree Maker database. It searches all the Internet surname websites, all the Family Tree Maker cds, as well as all the Rootsweb message boards. There were about a dozen listings for Israel Goodmans, some weren’t mine and others were the censuses I’d already found. The very last listing was an e-mail message posted to Rootsweb in 1997. The person was asking if anyone had information on an Israel Goodman, PA>OH>IA, born 1822. I’m not very religious but I prayed hard as I wrote a response that Ostop hadn’t died or moved and changed her e-mail address!

The cousin I discovered is descended from Israel’s first son. Val has sent me copies of everything she’s found, mostly from Indianola, Iowa where Israel had a farm and where he died July 4, 1890.⁴ This included deeds, death indexes for Warren County, Iowa, and obituaries about Israel, his brother John Franklin, and his children. But, like me, she’s stymied in finding his father. And like me, she’d been told by older relatives that Israel’s father’s name was Solomon. She is active on the Goodman website and has corresponded with other descendants of Israel, and suggested the possibility that Israel’s father might be Jacob. Could I go in Pennsylvania? She discovered that there was an Israel Goodman in Marietta, Lancaster County. So, last year, on my vacation, I took a trip to Lancaster.

The Lancaster County Historical Society is a beautiful place. They have church records, tax lists, and newspapers, among other things. I found Israel Goodman, without much trouble, in the census records for Lancaster County, PA, in 1850 living with his father John H. and his mother Sarah.⁵ Like our Israel, this man was born in 1822/23 but he lived and died in Lancaster County, PA. Not our Israel. I checked the published German church records without finding a Solomon or a Samuel. I read the tax rolls without success. I checked the probate indexes and didn’t find anything. I also checked out all the Jacob Goodmans in Lancaster County and none of them were a possible fit for the father of our Israel.

When I got back, I e-mailed Val and asked where she’d gotten the information that Israel was born in Lancaster County. I also let her know that the Israel wasn’t ours. What a disappointment that was; to think we’d found him only to discover a second Israel Goodman! Val sent me a copy of John Franklin’s obituary which said he was born in Kutztown, Pennsylvania. Kutztown is in Berks County. Back to Pennsylvania!

Several months ago, I made it to Reading for an overnight trip. The Berks County Historical Society is also a beautiful building in an historic area of Reading. Unfortunately, there are just too many Goodmans in Berks County for us to be able to determine which could be ours. Before I went, I read all of Berks County on the 1820, 1830, and 1840 census and wrote down all the Goodmans so I knew where they were in the county. In 1820, there was a Samuel Goodman in Earl as well as two Jacobs in Reading and a Jacob in Ruscombmanor.⁶ In 1830, there was a Samuel in Reading (but he’s too old to be ours), and two Jacobs in Reading, one who had sons in the right age groups to be ours.⁷ Another Samuel in Hamberg didn’t have the right combination of children.

I felt that the Jacob Goodman in South Reading was probably ours. I went to Berks County hoping to confirm this. Knowing that Israel’s father was German, I checked German church records. The South Reading church’s records end in1809 and don’t begin again until 1830 so those were not useful. The Historical Society has indexed all the county church records on computer and the database turned up nothing for baptisms for Israel or John Franklin. We could also not find a listing for a marriage with a Jacob, Samuel, or Solomon and a Rosanna. I read the Kutztown Lutheran Church records but there were no Goodmans listed at all (or variant spellings). There were several citations for Jacob Goodman but none were any help. Again I struck out but wasn’t able to rule Berks County out as Israel’s birthplace.

What next, where else can I look? I’ve decided that my next vacation will be to Delaware, Ohio’s historical society. Perhaps I can work backwards and find a death record for Jacob, Samuel, Solomon in Ohio. I will also check for a death record and/or obituary for Rosanna. She was alive in 1870, listed in the newspaper as one of the oldest residents at age 84. Perhaps her obituary will give a husband’s name or maybe I’ll luck out and find a descendant of John Franklin’s who has more information than I do! Oh the possibilities!

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Endnotes

1. Israel Goodman household, 1860 U.S. Census, Mahaska County, Iowa, population schedule, Richland Township, page 53, dwelling 382, family 373, National Archives micropublication M653, roll 334.

2. Israel Goodman household, 1850 U.S. Census, Delaware County, Ohio, population schedule, Delaware Town, page 182, dwelling 1211, family 1215, National Archives micropublication M432, roll 675.

3. Israel Goodman household, 1880 U.S. Census, Warren County, Iowa, population schedule, Indianola Town, enumeration district 232, page 10, dwelling 105, family 105, National Archives micropublication T9, roll 368.

5.  John H. Goodman household, 1850 U.S. Census, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, population schedule, Marietta Town, page 411, dwelling 6, family 6, National Archives micropublication M432, roll 787.

6.  1820 U.S. Census, Berks County, Pennsylvania, population schedule, various towns and pages, National Archives micropublication M33, roll 99.