The Borrowed Name

The claim
In my novel, the protagonist lives for a time as an Amish millwright named Jacob Roth. The name comes from a real man: my great-great-grandfather, Jacob Roth (1849-1932). His family's trail ran from Bern to Alsace, across the Atlantic to Ontario, then through Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, Nebraska and Idaho.

What the record shows
Jacob was born in Shakespeare, Ontario. His father, Joseph, a farmer, was born in 1822 in Dornach, Alsace, and crossed from Le Havre to New York in 1835 with his family before settling in Ontario. Joseph and Jacob both ended up in the American Midwest and West, and both are documented in census, church and civil records.

What my family told me
Joseph left Iowa and returned to Canada because he was a conscientious objector and would not fight in the Civil War. The family spoke German until my great-grandfather's generation.

What I kept, and what I changed
Kept: the name, the Amish Mennonite world, the Canadian birth and a German-speaking home.
Changed: his trade. The real Jacob was a farmer, and I made him a millwright. I also wrote him with Low German, but the documented roots in Bern, carried through Alsace, point to a Swiss-rooted dialect instead.

What I can't tell you
I haven't found a draft record that confirms why Joseph left Iowa, and I haven't confirmed his citizenship. I also don't know why a second immigration is listed for Jacob in 1884.

How I'm treating it
Documented: Joseph's birth in Dornach and death in Indiana; Jacob's birth, residences and death; the Roth line's roots in Bern. [Cite the originals in the archive file.]
Family testimony: Joseph's reason for leaving Iowa, and the family's German.
Unknown: Joseph's draft record, his citizenship, and the 1884 entry.

Open the file
The full record, with the registers, the crossing and the land records, is in the Humanities Archive.
FILE 001-C-006 // Life of Jacob Roth

FILE 001-B-004 // Life of  Joseph Roth