Theodore King or should I say Theodor Konig?

Theodore King was my paternal 3rd great-grandfather.  I decided to take a look at some research I had done a while ago and see what new information I could find which turned out to be…very little.

I know that Theodore King shows up on the 1850 US Federal census as living on the 2nd day of August 1850 in Brooklyn Ward 6.

Theodore is listed as being 35 years old, born in Germany and his occupation is a ‘Carter’ (moving/carrying of objects in a cart)and he was able to read and write. 

His wife is Mary, age 34 was also listed as born in Germany with no occupation and she was marked as Unable to read & write.  Their children are listed as:

• Catherine, age 15, born in NY and apparently not attending school, or able to read & write.  (I did not know previously about Catherine).
• Jacob, age 11, born in NY and attending school
• Louis, age 8, born in NY and attending school (my 2x great-grandfather-see post Who was Louis Arthur King?)
• Mary, age 6, born in NY and attending school (I did not know previously about Mary)
• Caroline, age 4, born in NY
• 
  

In a 1855 NY State Census I find Mary, Jacob, Louis, Caroline and Mary living in the City of Brooklyn, Ward 12 with no mention of Theodore or Catherine.  Did Theodore and Catherine die during those 5 years?  Catherine would have been old enough to marry. So she may be listed under another name?

I have been unable to locate anything additional about Theodore King.  No passenger list information, no Naturalization record and no death information.

I researched the name ‘Theodore’ and found out is of Greek origin and means “God Given”.

I reached out on the German Genealogy page on Facebook and very quickly found out that the spelling of Theodore was probably written in German as Theodor.  I also found out that the German version of King was Konig (with 2 dots over the o).  Thank-you so much to the German Genealogy friends for such quick responses!  This will certainly help me as I start to go back to German records.

I did find a Theodore King listed on the 1840 US Federal census living in Brooklyn but based on the children and ages I currently know about I’m not sure this is a match.  There are too many items that don’t make sense to me unless there were others living with them, which is possible.

I found 2 ‘maybes’ as far as Naturalization records to do some research on.  And I’ll keep searching for a death record for Theodore.  Not sure what else could have happened for Theodore to disappear from the records between 1850 and 1855 and to see Mary as head of household and working as a Washerwoman in 1855.  I was pleased that school was important for the children but I wonder if Catherine at 15 in 1850 was working or sickly since she wasn’t attending school and no occupation was lsited?  What happened to Catherine?

So, I do have some new information-I now know Theodore King’s name in German was ‘Theodor Konig’ and I know about 2 daughters that I didn’t previously know about.  I have some possible leads to follow up on and then I will have to start searching through German records, which I have never done before.

If you have any corrections or additions or stories to share I look forward to hearing them.
Enjoy the journey,
Debby