I Wear Tight Genes

Wherein I attempt to relate the trials and tribulations of tracking down information on people who are dead, but bear some resemblance to me...when they were alive.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Baack in New York Times

It was just announced today that the New York Times is offering it's searchable archives from 1851 to 1923 for free. I couldn't pass that up, so I started looking for information on Baacks (searching for "Valley", as you may already know, is a bit of a fool's errand).

I've found a few obits so far, but this little bit from Jan 12, 1871, caught my eye:
"Judge Blatchford, of the United States Court, has granted the motion of the plantiffs in the case of the Manufacturer's National Bank of Chicago vs. EDWARD BAACK and EDWARD BAACK, Sr., of this City, for the appointment of a receiver and for an injunction, holding that the court had full jurisdiction in the case."
Interesting, eh? At the time, the Baack clan was living in West Farms, Westchester Co. (for the most part), and 2 years after this notice, Ed Jr. loses an election to become the county receiver of taxes. G.E. Valley Jr. did a lot of research regarding a family legend centering around the Baack dynasty: That H. Edward Sr. had gained quite a lot of money, but then lost most of it after the Civil War due to having sold bugles to the Confederates. His research eventually turned up nothing surrounding this legend, but this little hit in the NY Times may be some indication that the family was going through financial troubles anyway at around the same time period.

The internet is a wonderful thing, eh?

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