Is 'Habroken', or something similar, a town or place name in the USA?
The first two letters on my hand-written document (a birth
certificate)of this place are barely legible, so they could be
different although the first letter is most likely 'H'. The last 6
letters are clearly legible, so that it is unlikely to be 'Hoboken'.
However, the first 2 or 3 letters could be any of a number, although I
think it is not likely to be 'E', 'O', 'U', 'Y', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'M',
'N', 'Q'.  The town was in existence in 1880, and is where Scottish
records state that a Scottish couple were married then, and if
possible I would like to get a copy of any wedding certificate if such
is likely to have ben kept. But even if no certification is likely to
be recoverable now, if there is a likely location it would be of
interest.

---

Request for Question Clarification by till-ga on 09 Sep 2002 05:12 PDT

Although trying very hard to find an answer Iīm giving up now. The
information you provide is not enough to give a reliable answer.
I can tell you that there is no place called Habroken in the USA.
Trying out some possible variations I found some places:

Camroden 
Hoboken, AL in Barbour County
Hoboken, AL in Marengo County
Hoboken, CA
Hoboken, GA
Hoboken, NJ
Hoboken, NY
Hoboken, OH
But without further information I canīt provide an answer.
Could you please scan the document you got the name from and post a
link where it can be seen ? Maybe this would help.

If thatīs not possible I wish all the best luck to one of my
researcher colleagues.

till-ga

---

Clarification of Question by frankatkidory-ga on 09 Sep 2002 06:20 PDT

I am trying to trace the predecessors of a Thomas Addis who was born
in Scotland in 1881 and whose birth certicate indicates that his
parents were married in this indecipherable place in the USA on 1st
May 1880. This is really a search for Thomas' ancestry.

I will post a scanned copy of the certificate some time in the next
few days; please stand down at the moment.

Thanks

Dear frankatkidory,

I have done some really extensive research and I came to the
conclusion that the word "Hobroken" on Thomas Addis' Birth certificate
is a writing error and the correct town name would indeed be "Hoboken"
in the US state of New York. Please let me explain what makes me think
so:

I have found a genealogy website which mentiones that a Thomas Addis
was born on July 27, 1881 as son of Thomas Chalmers Addis and his
wife, Cornelia Addis (born Beers Campbell). This alone would, of
course, not prove anything since that Thomas Addis could be someone
totally different than the one you have in mind.

But as further research on the website revealed, Thomas Chalmers Addis
and Cornelia Beers Campbell have married on May 1, 1880 in New York
State! It would be far too much coincidence if both the birth year of
a different Thomas Addis and the exact marriage date of his parents
would match the corresponding dates of "your" Thomas Addis.

The implications are coactive and logical: Thomas Chalmers Addis and
Cornelia Beers Campbell married on May 1, 1880 in Hoboken, a city in
the US state of New York. Their son, Thomas Addis, was born on July
27, 1881 in Edinburgh, Scotland. But the British official writing the
birth certificate was not familiar with the name "Hoboken" and wrote
it the wrong way. Officials are, after all, only human.

So Thomas Addis' ancestry would look the following:

Thomas Chalmers Addis (b. July 30, 1847 - d. Jan. 24, 1918) married
Cornelia Beers Campbell (d. March 8, 1901) on May 1, 1880 in Hoboken,
NY.
Their first Child, Thomas Addis is born on July 27, 1881 in Edinburgh,
Scotland.
They have a second son, Francis Campbell Addis, who is born Aug. 11,
1882, and later a third child, William Robert Addis, born on April 24,
1884.

You will find the Addis ancestry leading to Thomas Addis and his
brothers in much more comprehensive detail on the Frank Thorburn's
genealogy pages listed below as sources. But please note that these
websites are stored in Google Cache, so the hyperlinks won't work; you
will need to open the pages seperately and browse them by scrolling.

Additionally, I managed to find out that this Thomas Addis, son of T.
Chalmers Addis and Cornelia Beers-Campbell was indeed the one to
become the famous nephrologist mwalcoff-ga mentioned. I found an
extensive online biography of Dr. Addis, providing the information
that his father, T. Chalmers Addis, was a presbyterian minister and
that he did not become a US citizen before 1917. In 1913, he married
Eleza Bolton Partridge, which fits with the genalogical data provided
by F. Thorburn.

In case you need even more specific data concerning the marriage, I
recommend an inquiry at the competent New York State office:

New York State Dept of Health
Vital Records Section
Empire State Plaza
Albany, NY 12237
(518) 474-3077
(518) 474-3038 Information
Fax: (518) 432-6286

Sources:

Genealogy Data, by Frank Thorburn, 2000 (in Google Cache)
://www.google.de/search?q=cache:Adxq9X8UvXgC:home.swipnet.se/~w-10723/genealog/dat53.htm+%22thomas+addis%22+1881+parents&hl=de&ie=UTF-8

Genealogy index for surnames beginning with A, by Frank Thorburn, 2000
(in Google Cache)
://www.google.de/search?q=cache:kdREcg0cyKQC:home.swipnet.se/~w-10723/genealog/idxa.htm+%22Addis,+THOMAS+Chalmers+%22&hl=de&ie=UTF-8

Genealogy Data, by Frank Thorburn, 2000 (in Google Cache)
://www.google.de/search?q=cache:fKIOJFu2hOgC:home.swipnet.se/~w-10723/genealog/dat51.htm+%22addis+thomas+chalmers%22&hl=de&ie=UTF-8

Genealogy Data, by Frank Thorburn, 2000 (in Google Cache)
://www.google.de/search?q=cache:4TT98kcyu50C:home.swipnet.se/~w-10723/genealog/dat52.htm+%22addis+thomas+chalmers%22&hl=de&ie=UTF-8

Nat'l Academy Press, Biographical Memoirs (1994), 1.Thomas Addis
http://www.nap.edu/books/0309049768/html/1.html

Search terms used:
"Thomas Addis" 1881:
://www.google.de/search?q=%22Thomas+Addis%22+1881&btnG=Google-Suche&hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1
"thomas addis" 1881 parents:
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=%22thomas+addis%22+1881+parents&meta=
"addis thomas chalmers":
://www.google.de/search?q=%22addis+thomas+chalmers%22&hl=de&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&filter=0
"hoboken ny":
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=%22hoboken+ny%22+&meta=
"cornelia beers campbell":
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=%22cornelia+beers+campbell%22&meta=

I hope, I was able to give you the information you were looking for.
Regards,
Scriptor

---

Clarification of Answer by scriptor-ga on 09 Sep 2002 11:26 PDT

Please allow me to add that, according to this document I found,
Thomas Addis' mother, Cornelia Beers-Campbell, was obviously born on
May 29, 1844 in the Orleans Parish, New Orleans, Louisiana. Her
parents were William P. Campbell and Caroline Elisabeth Smelt Beers.

1844 Orleans Parish Birth Index, submitted by Debbie Fremin to
rootsweb.com
http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/la/orleans/births/index/1844bi.txt

Regards,
Scriptor

---

Clarification of Answer by scriptor-ga on 09 Sep 2002 12:17 PDT

A last addition: I managed to find out that Hoboken, NY is located in
Otsego County, New York. For finding out in detail about past
marriages in Otsego County communities, it might prove useful to
contact the Otsego County Vital Records Office:

Otsego County Vital Records Office
Otsego County Clerk
197 Main Street
Cooperstown, NY 13326-1129
Phone: (607) 547-4276

Source:

Vital Records Information - New York Counties (N-R)
http://www.vitalrec.com/nycounties3.html#Otsego

Best regards,
Scriptor

Sorry, the only populated place in the USGS Gazeteer that ends in
"roken" other than places with the word "Broken" in it is Asharoken,
NY, which did not exist in the 19th century. (There are also two
places in the Marshall Islands, but that's not really the U.S.)

Are you sure the record-keepers in Scotland did not make a mistake?
Perhaps they meant to write "Hoboken."

Are you looking for information on Dr. Thomas Addis, the well-known
nephrologist, who was born in Scotland in 1881? See a short biography
at (http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/128.html). Perhaps Stanford
Universi

Sorry, my comment got cut off. It was supposed to end:

"Perhaps Stanford University has his papers?"

One note to Scriptor's excellent answer: Hoboken is in New Jersey, not
New York state. It is just across the Hudson River from Manhattan.

Dear mwalcoff,

There is also a Hoboken in the state New York. It is located in Otsego
County, as you might see on this website:

PlacesNamed.com - Hoboken
http://www.placesnamed.com/h/o/hoboken.asp

"Hoboken, New York, United States [Place] is in Otsego County;
location is 42°37'37"N 75°19'22"W"

Have a nice day.
Scriptor

There's a Hoboken in New York AND in New Jersey, the former being up
near the Hall of Fame.  I guess it's an open question as to which
Hoboken is the one where the Addis' tied the knot.

Well, since the wedding has, according to the genealogical sources,
taken place in New York (the records on Mr. Thorburn's websites always
mention the US state), one should assume that it is Hoboken, NY.

Greetings,
Scriptor

OK, but an entry for "Hoboken, USA" is far more likely to mean
Hoboken, NJ than anywhere else. Hoboken, NJ is right next to New York
City, while Scriptor's Hoboken, NY is way upstate, nowhere close to
NYC.

That might be so, mwalcoff. In this case, however, the sources
available clearly show that the marriage took place in New York STATE
- NYC is of no interest in this context, and also not how far awy from
or close to New York City that Hoboken, NY is.

Greetings,
Scriptor

I do not wish to argue, but I think it's only fair to the questioner
to present my case as to why the marriage must have taken place in
Hoboken, N.J.

Hoboken, NJ is a sizable city. Hoboken, NY is an unincorporated
crossroads without its own government or post office. There are
thousands of such places in the U.S., and most of them only exist only
in things like the USGS gazeteer. While it is possible that there was
a Hoboken, NY, post office in the past, the paucity of references to
the town on the Internet indicates to me that it was never a
well-known place. If a couple was married there, they would probably
think of the location as Pittsfield or New Berlin. It appears that
just about all of the "Hoboken NY" references on the Internet actually
mean Hoboken, NJ. You can tell because many of them include the (New
Jersey) ZIP code. Hoboken, NJ is so close to New York that such a
mistake is easy to make.

Because Hoboken, NJ is a suburb of NYC, it may often be thought of as
being "in New York," much as people think of the Pentagon being in
Washington, DC. If I were to call someone from Hoboken, NJ, I'd
probably say "I'm calling from New York." Perhaps the couple put down
"New York" on one form and "Hoboken" on another. This would not be
that unusual. My birth certificate gives the name of the town just
outside Philadelphia where I was born, but the birth certificate of my
brother, born in the same hospital, says "Philadelphia."

I am not saying that it is out of possibility for the Addises to have
been married in Hoboken, NY. However, I think the questioner should be
given the contact information for Hoboken, NJ records as well. For New
Jersey marriage records, contact:

New Jersey State Department of Health and Senior Services
Bureau of Vital Statistics
P.O. Box 370
Trenton, NJ 08625-0370

See the National Center for Health Statistics at
(http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/howto/w2w/newjers.htm).