Note: Burial date is shown in Death field.

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Minnie first came to my attention when I was trying to locate the parents of Fred J Pratt whom I now believe was her younger brother. I had found Fred in the 1870 Census in San Francisco with his 2 brothers, but no parents:

Wm Stelling: 24, b Prussia; Cigar-Maker
Minnie L Stelling: 17, b Maryland
Chas H Pratt: 6, b New York
Gustavus D Pratt: 12, b New York
Fred Pratt: 8, b New York
G L Merritt: 39, Male, b New York, Engineer

I was perplexed to find such young children living on the opposite side of the country without their parents. I continued researching Fred and found his basic life story fairly easily. Then I moved to Charles and did the same thing with the same results (but with many more children). And then I got to Gustavus (Augustus) and am in the process of creating his Memorial.

But researching the 3 Pratt brothers didn't yield any clues as to who their parents were except for where they were reportedly born: their father was born in England and their mother was born in Ireland; But still I had no given name(s) to work with.

So I researched William Stelling and this is where I made the discovery that pushed me to an assumption based on what I've found in other searches where young children aren't living with their parents. I discovered Minnie's birth name was PRATT. This came from a listing in The San Francisco Examiner of F 10 Sep 1869, p 10. That page carried sections of Births, Marriages, and Deaths. In the "Married" section I found Minnie's marriage information:

"In this city, September 7, William Stelling to Minna Louisa Pratt".

Short but clear. At age 17 Minnie was a married woman. Far too young to be the boys' mother, but she seemed a little too old to be their sister. However, having found many women in the 1800's and early 1900's bearing children regularly over a 20 year span, I see now there was only a 5 year gap between Minnie and Gustavus per the 1870 Census. Very possibly there had been a sibling between the 2 who had died or possibly was living elsewhere.

I had also found a Memorial for William Stelling but he was linked to another woman as a spouse: Agnes Schultheiss. Her memorial contained meager information including "Burial Unknown".

FILLING IN MINNIE'S LIFE STORY

After more research and communication with the man who created Minnie's memorial, I'm now able to document more about Minnie's life.

1860 CENSUS

I'm quite sure I've found Minnie in the 1860 Census, named as Mary, along with her 3 brothers (Gustavus, Charles, and Fred) where they are living with their parents and another older sister named Alice.

That Census was taken in Brooklyn (9th Ward), New York on 8 Sep 1860 and records the household as follows:

-- C S Pratt: 32, Male, b Maine (~1928), Sea Captain
-- Delia Pratt: 29, Female, b Ireland (~1831)
-- Alice Pratt: 11, Female, b Maryland (~1849)
-- Mary Pratt: 9, Female, b Maryland (~1851)
-- Charles Pratt: 7, Male, b Pennsylvania (~1853)
-- Augustus Pratt: 3, Male, b New York (~1857)
-- Frdrk Pratt: 7 months, Male, b New York (Feb 1860)

This Census also shows C S Pratt owns land valued at $1000 and personal assets valued at $500, not small sums considering the time and place.

Here also is found Minnie's older sister, Alice, born about 1849 in Maryland like Minnie. I have yet to research Alice.

This Census also shows Charles as only 2 years younger than Mary (Minnie) and the oldest of the 3 boys. I now believe the Enumerator of the 1860 Census for this family incorrectly documented Charles' age: he wrote 6 when it should have been 16. I had wondered why the children were listed in non-birth order in the 1860 Census, but here one can clearly see Charles was born about 1853, not about 1864. (It appears Charles took advantage of this as he consistently reported himself in later Census records as born about 1862.)

SEARCH FOR MINNIE'S PARENTS

Based on Census records I'd found for the 5 children, the family had lived in the following states during these time periods:

Maryland: 1849 - 1851
Pennsylvania: 1853
New York: 1857 - Sep 1860

Since Minnie died so young, she left few records. I therefore started my search for her parents using records records related to her brothers. Both Gustavus and Charles had records indicating they were born in Brooklyn, NY. (Gustavus' birth location comes from the Death Certificate of his son, Augustus J, while Charles' birth location is mentioned in his obituary. Charles' birth location, however, is likely mis-remembered by him based on the 1860 Census showing him born in PA.)

I have not yet researched in Maryland where I hopefully will find the family in the 1850 Census. But having found them in Brooklyn, NY in the 1860 Census, I at least had names to work with.

MINNIE'S FATHER: C S PRATT

I spent about 3 hours one evening seeing if I could find "C S Pratt", Minnie's father. The 1860 Census reported him as: age 32 which equates to the birth year of 1828; born in Maine, and working as a Sea Captain which is a first for me as far as occupations.

I found MANY men with these initials or with the name Charles S Pratt in various records (esp 1870 Census), but few showed Maine as a birthplace. Some even had a Charles and Delia Pratt, but seemed very unlikely to be this couple based on living in the Midwest or elsewhere on the East Coast and non-matching birthplaces.

The one record I found for a Charles S Pratt born in Maine was a Civil War Draft Registration record. Dated 1 July 1863, this would be after the birth of all 5 of his children. It shows him born Maine about 1824 (making him about 39), and living in New York City. Certainly all of these factors match or "fit" with the 1860 Census with the exception that he is 4 years older. (The age difference could well be him trying to exempt himself from military service due to age.) And this record gave further detail regarding his residence, showing he lived at Madison Street and Marcy Avenue.

Simply finding the above makes it seem more certain he was born in Maine, living in Brooklyn in 1863, and born somewhere in the 1820's.

I finally latched onto the idea of trying "Sinclair" as his middle name (for initial S). I found this as as a middle name of his son in a few records but I evidently did not print a copy to remember where I found it. But the records I did keep for the son show he used 2 initials for his middle name (Charles H S Pratt), and I remembered the Sinclair name.

Adding Sinclair to the search for Charles Pratt brought a match that fits well based on his 1860 occupation of Sea Captain. The record comes from a set of Citizenship Affidavits of US-born Seamen at Select Ports, 1792 - 1869. These records, per descriptive information on Ancestry where I found it, were originally used by early American seaman to prove they were American and not British in an effort to "protect" American seamen from being "pressed" into service on British ships. After about 1815, that need ceased, but these records continued into the latter 1800's as a form of identification.

The record I found was for Charles Sinclair Pratt dated 24 May 1851 at the Port of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It shows Charles' birthplace as Baltimore, Maryland and his residence as Philadelphia. The Witness who "verified" Charles as an American citizen is John McAdam. I wouldn't have thought again about this name, but Ancestry's description notes that often it was family members who were the witnesses verifying that the applicant was indeed an American citizen. Given his name, I wonder if he might be related to Charles' wife/Minnie's mother, Delia.

-- stopped here 9 PM -- F 9 Apr 2021 --

-- continue here --

7 April 2021: Memorial transferred to me; started draft bio
8 April 2021: Updated with 1860 Census data
Vicki Edwards
Los Angeles