I did notice one of the main characters in today’s story in a document I looked at yesterday.  However, it was not until I started searching for a person to write about for today that I decided to use that same document for this post.

Let’s start by looking at that document.  It was shared in yesterday’s post as the baptism record for Emma Ernestine Brandes.  However, right underneath her record, you will find the baptism record for Alma Lydia Hemmann.

There are two things I would like you to notice about the above image.  First of all, in the 3rd column from the left, which is where the date of the baptism is listed, you will see that both of these babies were baptized on August 1, 1886.  Secondly, if you look at the 2nd column from the right, which shows the name of the mother, you will see that both mothers have the maiden name of Thauwald.  Ernestine and Caroline Thauwald were sisters.  That means that these babies that were baptized on that date were cousins.  I don’t know if there is a term for cousins that are born on the same day, but I choose to call them “Cousin Twins”.  Emma and Alma were only one day away from being Cousin Twins.  Yet, they did become Cousin Baptism Twins, being baptized on the same day.

Alma Hemmann, as you can also see on the above image, was born on July 24, 1886, so she is today’s birthday girl.  She was the daughter of Martin and Caroline (Thauwald) Hemmann.  That also made Alma a granddaughter of the prolific J.G. Hemmann who has been mentioned so often on this blog because he had so many descendants.  Alma is found for the first time in a census in 1900 at the age of 13.

There were a couple other similarities between these two cousins.  One of them was the fact that both of these girls were married in 1907.  Alma’s husband would be a young man by the name of Otto Joseph Goehring.  Otto was born on May 18, 1883, the son of Joseph and Clara (Schmidt) Goehring.  He was baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg.  Below is his baptism record.

When Otto is found in his first census in 1900, he was no longer living with his parents.  He was a farm laborer in the household of Charles Grebing.  The census record says Otto was 8 years old, but that cannot be correct.

On September 22, 1907, Otto Goehring married Alma Hemmann at Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown.  Their marriage license is shown here.

We can also take a look at the church record for this wedding.

The first census record after this couple was married shows them living in Cape Girardeau.  Their first of 4 children had been born before this census.  Otto is called a teamster for a brewery.

Three more children, all girls, were born in the 1910’s.  We see the following household in the 1920 census.  Otto had a moving transfer company with his own truck.  In addition to his four children, Otto’s brother, Herbert Goehring, was living in their household.

Fred Lynch published an old photograph showing the Otto Goehring moving truck in his blog back in 2018.  The photo shows both Otto and Herbert.  I cannot display it here because of copyrights, but you can see this amazing photo by clicking on the link below.  I urge you to do so.

https://www.semissourian.com/blogs/flynch/entry/67745

A tragic event brought Otto’s life to an end in 1922.  His death record below says he died of a homicidal gunshot wound of his chest.

An article describing this event was printed in the Perry County Republican.  Here is a transcription of that story.

When I published Otto’s death certificate in a previous blog and asked for help in finding details about this homicide, Fred Eggers sent me some information that was later published in a Sikeston newspaper after this case had been through three different trials.  It’s a little confusing, but I think you can get the gist of some of the details in the case.

Alma Goehring can be found in two more census records.  In the 1930 census, we find this household.

Then in 1940, we see this entry.  Alma and one of her single daughters were living with another one of her daughters, Flora Suedekum, and her husband.

Alma Goehring died in 1950 at the age of 63.  Her death certificate mentions cancer of the breast.

Otto and Alma Goehring are both buried in the New Lorimer Cemetery in Cape Girardeau.

Both Emma (Brandes) Rubel and Alma (Hemmann) Goehring spent a major portion of their lives in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.  I have to wonder whether these two cousins had opportunities to get together for social visits.  Perhaps they got together to celebrate their birthdays.  There are records from both the Rubel and Goehring families in the books of Trinity Lutheran Church in Cape Girardeau.  I suppose there is also a chance that these cousins attended church together.

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Carla Jordan mentioned in her post recently that a lot of work has been taking place in our museum’s basement.  Carla, Lynn Degenhardt, and Gerard Fiehler have been very active in getting our artifacts organized.  I will show you a gallery of photos that display many old books that are part of our collection that are much better organized now.