A 173 year old document

New old documents are still showing up online, see?  I'm not sure when Larry found this one, but look--it was signed the 13th of May, 1840--

173 years ago today.  Wow!

Johann Gerhard NABER declared his intention to become an American citizen, renouncing his loyalty to the King of Hanover.  But, you say, NEW ORLEANS??

Yes.  We're pretty sure great grandfather Gerhard Naber 

arrived in the port of New Orleans and came up the Mississippi to Iowa.

However, this man wasn't our Gerhard--

ours would have been 11 years old in 1840.

Early in our Naber research,

Larry found an account in an Iowa history book 

about a Gerhard & Elizabeth Naber traveling up the river on a paddlewheeler. 

Tragically, Elizabeth fell overboard and drowned.

Yes, we realized it couldn't have been my Gerhard 

or his Elizabeth (Rupipper), 

but it certainly was THIS Gerhard's Elizabeth. 

"All Aboard!"

Great Grandpa Gerhard Naber

Wow, Larry provides AGAIN--☺--When I first searched the Delaware Co Genweb site in Iowa, there was no mention of Nabers having lived there.  I added (on the search list) that I was interested in the family.  I haven't been back to the site in probably a year tho.  But this week Larry found that they've added grave stones from county cemeteries, Petersburg among em, and LOOK:

(Johannes Gerhard Naber was the father of mom's mom, Margaret).

You can orient yourself by looking for the U shaped "Welcome to Petersburg" sign.  Above, it's on the corner of the cemetery fence.

 No, I zoomed way in and couldn't see a  metal cross near the fence.  

It's okay tho, he's there.