Dear Listers,
I was barking, probably, up the wrong family tree. My great-grandfather was named Thomas
Jefferson Ziegler, and he was born ca. 1845, in Pennsylvania, maybe in Carlisle,
Cumberland Co., but maybe in Adams Co, and maybe even in Washigton Co., far away, near
Pittsburg.
I found a Thomas Jefferson Ziegler, born 1847, and could trace his family's movements
from Pennsylvania to Illinois. But, it turns out he is not my man. Close but no cigar.
So, I am back to square one. What I can say is that he married a woman from a Scots-Irish
background named Nancy Garrett Gibson in Washington Co. in 1866. His children with her
with named Margaret E.(born 1869), Matilda B.(born 1870), Samuel Edgar (born 1872), Lewis
Charlton (born 1877), Alice Isabelle (born 1879) and Harriet O. Ziegler (born 1885, my
grandmother). This much is absolutely certain.
The middle names Charleton and Orr may be related to family names of TJZ's mother,
since his wife's (Nancy Garrett Gibson's) mother's name was Thompson, but even
this is speculation, since Nancy's brother was named John French Gibson, and French
would also have been a family name somewhere.
If anybody has a clue as to the parents of my Thomas Jefferson Ziegler, I'd be
grateful. He was wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness in May 1864, received extensive
medical treatment and was discharged in December 1864, and returned to Pennsylvania, to
Adams Co., to Adam and Joseph Ziegler (uncles? cousins? probably uncles to judge from
their ages, as given in affidavits in the Civil War pension file).
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Jeff Richards
Muenster, Germany