I am calling Georg Gottlob Seibel today’s birthday boy, but there is a little confusion about his date of birth.  There are conflicting church records.  Based on Gottlob’s baptism record at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg, Missouri, he was born on February 28, 1865 and baptized on March 3rd.  Gottlob was the son of Jacob and Caroline (Rabold) Seibel.  I will add a few extra tidbits concerning Gottlob.  First, he was the baby of his family.  He had 8 older siblings.  Second, one of those older siblings was my great grandmother, Wilhelmine Seibel.

Let’s return to the issue of Gottlob’s baptism record.  When he was baptized, Rev. J.F. Koestering was a relatively new arrival at Trinity, Altenburg.  He has a reputation among our researchers as a pastor who was not the best record keeper.  However, at least he did write down baptism records during his tenure.  I now have discovered something else about some of the Koestering baptism records.  First, let me show you the baptism record for Gottlob Seibel.

 

There are some irregularities in this record.  First, the name was originally written as Gotthold and then crossed out and changed to Gottlob.  Also, some additional sponsors were added at the bottom of this record.  Those names are written with a different pen and look like they may have been added by a different writer.

Now let’s zoom out and look at the whole page upon which this Seibel baptism record is located.

Right under Gottlob’s record, you will see the record of Martin Schmidt.  He was the character in yesterday’s post, and he was born on July 4, 1865.  Above Gottlob’s record are two records for babies that were born in December of 1865.  In other words, these records are not listed in the order of the births.  I looked back to other records for that year and found them to skip all over the place with respect to the dates of birth.  They were definitely not chronological.  Then the light bulb went on in my head.  I noticed that they were more or less in alphabetical order.  With that being the case, I had to come to the conclusion that Rev. Koestering must have waited till the end of the calendar year to place the baptism records in the official church records.  I figure he must have had them recorded in some other book first before putting them in alphabetical order as he put them in the church books.

We find Gottlob in his first census in 1870 as a 5 year-old.  It looks like there is another Gottlob who was 19 years old, but his name was actually Gotthold, not Gottlob.

Gottlob was no doubt confirmed at Trinity Lutheran Church, probably in 1879, but that was the era when we experience the “Koestering Hole” in those church records.  I wish we had that record to confirm Gottlob’s birthday as February 28th.  We find Gottlob in the 1880 census as a 15 year-old.  The Seibel household extends over two census pages.

The next church record we have for Gottlob is found in the books of Christ Lutheran Church in Jacob, Illinois.  A record there says that he became a voting member on November 29, 1888.  Not only had he moved across the river to Illinois, but from here on, we find him called George, not Gottlob.

Before we look at Georg Gottlob’s marriage, let’s take a look at his wife’s history.  Anna Amalia Vogel was born on February 21, 1877, the daughter of Heinrich and Amalia (Palisch) Vogel.  In contrast to Gottlob who was the last-born, Anna was the firstborn child in the Vogel family.  When I told this to my wife, she commented that there would be a wide range of ages among the cousins from the Seibel and Vogel families.  The Seibel cousins would, for the most part, have been older than the Vogel cousins, especially since Anna was 12 years younger than George.  I would have never thought of that observation.  My wife is brilliant.

Anna was baptized at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna, Missouri on February 28th of that year.  So, even if Gottlob’s birthday was not February 28th, I could still justify writing this story today because of Anna’s baptism birthday.  Here is the image of Anna’s baptism record.

Anna is not found in a census until the one taken in 1880.  It was about that time that the Vogel family moved from Perry County, Missouri to Jackson County, Illinois.  We find this family living in the Fountain Bluff Township across the river.

On April 21, 1895, George Seibel married Anna Vogel at Christ Lutheran Church in Jacob, Illinois.  The marriage record shown below is a document that displays George’s birthday as being different.  It says he was born on March 7, 1865.  This record is one that was written by Rev. Ph.S. Estel, the pastor at Christ, Jacob, who had his roots in Perry County.  His thorough and neatly-written records bring smiles to many family researchers.  I will let you decide which birthday is correct for George.

We have the wedding photograph for this couple.

George and Anna had 4 children.  They started with a son, then had a set of twin boys, followed by a daughter who was not born until 1911.  A previous post was written about the twins titled, Selfsame Seibels.  The three sons can already be seen in the 1900 census.  This is the only census which describes George as a blacksmith.  The others say he was a farmer.

Another church record indicates that George and his family were released from membership at Christ Lutheran Church in 1905.  They then became members of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Murphysboro, Illinois.  All the other censuses we can view show the Seibel’s living in Somerset Township of Jackson County, which is located just north of Murphysboro.  Here is the census for 1910.

In the 1920 census, we have some new additions.  George and Anna’s daughter, Lillian, is found in this census.  In fact, it is the only census in which she is seen.  Also, Arthur had gotten married in 1919, and his wife, Ethel, is included in this household as a daughter-in-law.

Lillian Seibel was probably confirmed in 1924.  We have her confirmation photo.

In December of 1924, Lillian died.  She was buried in the Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery in Murphysboro.

We see the Seibel couple with with just one remaining son in the 1930 census.

Their son, Otto, was between his two wives.  His first wife, Bertha, died in 1924, the same year that Lillian died.  In fact, if you look in the background of Lillian’s gravestone, you will see the one for Bertha.  Otto would marry again in 1932.

The last census for us to look at is the 1940 census, in which we see the Seibel’s with an empty nest.  However, right under their names, we find the Martin Seibel household.

George Seibel died in 1951 at the age of 86.  Anna died in 1973 at the age of 96.  We have the obituary for Anna.

George and Anna Seibel are buried together in the Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery in Murphysboro.

There are several photos that come from this Seibel/Vogel family that I am going to place in a thumbnail gallery.  You may click on the thumbnails to enlarge them.