The Budnick brick wall - Part 1

A multipart series:  passenger list cluster and disproving Martin as father of Albert

In the process of researching my ancestors, I’ve run into a number of the proverbial “brick walls.”  This is when you can’t find or prove the parents of an ancestor, so cannot go back on that family line any further.  This series of posts I’m doing on the Budnick brick wall will show all the research I’ve done to try to break through this brick wall.  Spoiler alert – I haven’t been able to break through yet, but I’ve connected more family members that hopefully will help in the long run!

A little background:  I’ve talked about my Great Great Grandfather Albert Wilhelm Budnick in a past post – he is from a little town in Poland that used to be called Poblotz that I visited in November 2021.  I have yet to find Albert’s parents’ names.  He immigrated to the US in 1863 as a 22 year old man.  No documents that exist in the US records have either of his parents’ names.

Part 1 of this series is focusing on using the passenger list from his immigration to determine if he traveled with any family members.  This is an example of using “cluster research” to find out more genealogical information.

Albert traveled on the SS Adler, arriving on 22 June 1863, with 23 other people from the town of Poblotz.  The section of the passenger list showing Albert is below:

I first transcribed all the names, ages, and occupations into a spreadsheet.  One thing I will point out here is that many people have identified Martin Budnick, listed just underneath Albert’s name, as Albert’s father.  However, I’ve ruled out Martin for the following reasons:

1.   Martin has three children that he is traveling with – Hermann (17), Johanne (14) and Albert (11).  It is unlikely that Martin has an 11-year old child named Albert and a 22-year old child named Albert.
2. The typical way that these passengers lists were done was that parents were listed first, then the children. Albert is listed before the Martin Budnick family.

There is a family listed above Albert, but their last name is Burbott – and are too young to be Albert’s parents.  There are no other Budnicks on this ship that are old enough to be Albert’s parents.  My conclusion is that although Albert may have traveled with family, he did not travel with his parents.

Where possible, I tracked the Poblotz passengers from the SS Adler in the US to determine where they settled.  Following is the summary of that investigation:

Budnick: Albert Wilhelm – Kent County, Maryland

Budnick:  Martin, Constanze, Hermann, Johanne & Albert – Cook County, Illinois

Burbott: Friedrich, Charlotte, Albert & Auguste – Kent County, Maryland (next door to Albert Wilhelm Budnick)

Drusch: Ferdinand & Henriette – Gasconade County, Missouri

Drusch:  Johann Friedr & Dorothea – Brown County, Minnesota

Krause: Ernst, Constanze & Hermann – Gasconade County, Missouri

It was interesting to me that Albert Wilhelm Budnick, my GG Grandfather, lived next door to the Burbott family – more to come on this connection in Part 2 of the series, which will focus on the DNA research.