Major Rathbone's accomodation in Hannover

[chrishunter]

Hi Eva,

First, I want to say I'm in awe of the material you have found. To uncover that the Rathbones' bodies were not dug up and disposed of is a huge relief to those of us like myself who have taken as fact that their final resting place would be lost forever. I'm so grateful to you for looking deeper into this and I can't wait to see if you uncover more.

In regards to your reply, what I meant to when I referred to the "record" were the stories originating in 1883 by American media/press, not the city archives. Sorry if my previous post created the implication that I meant the German archives had started the chain.

I work in a press office and so when I refer to "the record" I use it in the on the record/off the record media context.

I still believe that the American press upon learning about Clara's death in 1883 first created misperception Henry's employment with the state dept and it has carried forward for the last 100+ years in some cases. I don't think it was intentional.

It may look sloppy but the press in the U.S. in 1883 would've gotten the reports via the telegraph and likely someone in the U.S. press would've had to expand a telegram containing the news of Clara's murder into a full blown news story.

I have copies of several 1883/1884 stories of the murder from various papers in the U.S. and because they are using a wire service to transmit the story of Clara's murder across the country they almost all read roughly the same with only slight modifications.

Before the murder there is no mention of Henry working for State at all in the American press which is strange since if he was appointed his appointment would've been news in Albany, NY where his family is from.

However several books written after 1883 that I've read relate that Henry was a consulate employee or ran a consulate. Likely they are relating what they've read in the 1883 articles. That's understandable.

Now, here's where some of my own background comes in since I was raised on a U.S. consulate and I currently work in Washington, D.C. with former State Dept folks.

The official record of his involvement with the U.S. Dept of State would be in Washington, D.C. not in Germany.

To become an ambassador or consulate general of a U.S. Embassy or Consulate that position would've had to be confirmed in Congress as his brother's position was.

I've seen records of a nomination to U.S. Senate for Jared, but not for Henry. The official record of nominations to the U.S. Senate are very easy to find. This leads me to believe that he was never nominated for a consular position.

He could not have just gone there unless it was a recess appointment, which for a position such as this would have been unlikely. Recess appointments would likely garner more press than an actual appointment since in the U.S. they are controversial, so I believe the media of 1883 likely got confused about Henry's role.

It was still uncommon at that time for an American just to pick up and move overseas so I think the 1883 American press was asking themselves why he was over there and did the best they could to report based on the info they had.

-Chris

(06-17-2013 03:50 AM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  

(06-16-2013 11:53 PM)chrishunter Wrote:  So how did this mistake get into the record?

Chris, it obviously didn't get into the record and I stated this in post #36.
To find out about the Major's position, I first contacted two archives, both in charge of preserving the city's historic documents, by email. The information I shared in the first post refering to this (post#31) was the exact and entire reply by email from the "Niedersächsisches Landesarchiv", but they did not refer to documents. (Nevertheless, at that point of time I had no reason to doubt this statement's credibility, so I shared it. The "Stadtarchiv Hannover" replied they generally filed assignments but I would have to come myself for specific research or to copy documents. So I did, and afterwards doubted my first statement myself:

(06-05-2013 02:48 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  It remains strange that in none of the documents Rathbone is referred to as a consul, but always as a retired Major. The archive had a register for consuls assigned but the documents of 1881+1882 were missing.The only confirmation he should have held this position was in an email from the State Archive of the State of Lower Saxony (“Niedersächsisches Landesarchiv”), but it’s like with the creation of secret service on April 14, by now no documents came up to prove.

After returning from Hannover I emailed the "Niedersãchsisches Landesarchiv" again, casting my doubts on their former statement and asking for documented evidence. By now I just got the formal answer they will double-check.