Before I tell today’s story, let me share some news from our research library.  Recently, our museum received a few donations to our library.  One amazing new addition to our museum is shown in the photo below.  It consists of 5 new binders full of Leimbach family history.

The five binders in the middle (mostly colored blue) are the new additions.  There is also another Leimbach binder on the left that has been in our library for quite a while.  Plus, there are two more white binders on the right that were added to our library a few years ago.

So when I found that there was an Otto Leimbach born on this day back in 1889, I thought that he would certainly give me the opportunity to open up these new Leimbach binders and find him.  Well, it certainly gave me the opportunity to open them, but I did not find Otto Leimbach.  In the process of researching Otto, I learned something new.  I did not know that there was a Leimbach who came to America and settled on The Ridge north of Altenburg and another Leimbach who settled in Shawnee Township of north Cape Girardeau County.   Our new binders contain information about The Ridge Leimbach’s.  Otto Leimbach comes out of the Shawnee Township Leimbach’s.  His name can be found in the two white binders on the right in the photo above.  We may have to take some time later to investigate whether these two Leimbach’s are related to one another.

It also happens that Otto’s story intersects with another family that has appeared in several previous posts on this blog.  So today, I will attempt to tell you the story of Otto Leimbach who was born on March 5, 1889.  He was the son of August and Caroline (Mirly) Leimbach.  Otto was baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in New Wells, Missouri.  Below is his baptism record.

Two years later, Otto’s future wife, Lina Juliana Hemmann, was born on February 8, 1891.  She was a twin.  In fact she was part of a third consecutive set of twins born to the Gustave and Margaretha (Streit) Hemmann family.  That story was told in the post, Triple Twins.  Her twin brother was named Rudolph.  Below is the baptism record for Rudolph and Juliana from Immanuel, New Wells.

In 1902, we find that Otto Leimbach was confirmed at Zion Lutheran Church in Pocahontas, Missouri.

Then in 1905, Juliana was confirmed at Immanuel, New Wells.

On August 31, 1913, Otto married Juliana at Trinity Lutheran Church in Shawneetown, Missouri.  It appears that the Hemmann family had moved their membership from Immanuel, New Wells to Trinity, Shawneetown.  Trinity Lutheran’s first pastor began serving that congregation in 1908.  We have their marriage license.

We find an interesting situation in the church records from Trinity, Shawneetown.  There were only two marriages that took place in 1913.  The first one was the marriage between Theodore Koch and Margarett Hemmann.  Margarett was a sister of Juliana, and also one of another set of twins in that family.  They were married in April of 1913.

Later that year, Otto married Juliana.  Here is their church marriage record.

There is another possibility that enters this story at this time.  I have previously shown the photo below of the Gustav Hemmann family, which includes Juliana (She is called Julia in this photo).

I have previously speculated that this photo may have been taken when Gustav and Margaretha Hemmann celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary.  If that was the case, this photo may have been taken during the same year as two Hemmann marriages in Shawneetown.  It makes me wonder if this family had this photo produced when one of the girls was married during that year.

Another interesting photograph that can be found in our Shawneetown Leimbach family binder is shown below.  This photo shows Otto with all his siblings.  The caption says this photo was taken around 1916.

I find it interesting that we find photos of both Otto and Juliana taken separately with their families, but I could not find a photo of Otto and Juliana together.  Our German Family Tree lists 9 children born to Otto and Juliana.  One of their daughters married a Kieninger.  That couple had a daughter named Laverne, who married Barry Flachsbart.  We received those white Leimbach family binders from Barry Flachsbart.  Laverne and Barry come to visit us regularly as part of the Wittenberg Cousins, who have been mentioned on this blog in the past.  They will be blessing us with their presence again later this month.

I found a parcel of land attributed to August Leimbach near Pocahontas in a plat map made in 1930.  I do not know if this was Otto’s father or not.  Otto had a brother also named August.  This parcel of land is right next to a piece of Lichtenegger land that was mentioned in a Lichtenegger story that was written just a few days ago.  We know from census records that Otto was a farmer during his lifetime.

Otto died in 1974; Juliana died in 1983.  They are both buried in the Zion Lutheran Cemetery in Pocahontas.

This story gave me another opportunity to prepare for a Hemmann Reunion that I have been asked to attend later this summer.  There are certainly plenty of good stories that come out of that family.