In a previous post titled, Brandes the Builder and His Beauties, it was pointed out that August and Ernestine (Thauwald) Brandes had 7 children, and all of them were girls. I branded these girls as the Brandes Beauties, and have since written a few other stories about some of those beauties. Not only were they all girls, but they also had something else in common. Each one of them, as is shown in the list below, was given the middle name of their mother (and grandmother), Ernestine.

I will tell the story of yet another of those beauties today. This time, you will read the story of the firstborn daughter, Marie.

Marie Ernestine Brandes is today’s birthday girl. She was born on August 8, 1879. All of the Brandes Beauties were baptized at Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown. An image of Marie’s baptism record from that congregation’s books is displayed below.

We have to look in the long-lost pages of the 1880 Union Township census to find Marie and her family. She was a baby at the time, and her father was a carpenter.

As it turns out, that would be the only census in which Marie appears as a single woman. She would get married right as the 1900 census was being taken, so let’s take a look at the man who would become her husband.

Michael Emmanuel Rabold was born on February 27, 1872, the only child born to Heinrich and Pauline (Hopfer) Rabold. Emmanuel was baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. We can take a look at his baptism record from that congregation’s books.

Not long after Emmanuel was born, his father died. It is likely that Emmanuel had no memories of his father. His mother married again in 1874. Her second husband was Heinrich Seibel. That couple has 12 additional children listed in our German Family Tree. We find Emmanuel as the only Rabold child in the household when the 1880 census was taken. Emmanuel’s stepfather was a farmer.

On April 22, 1900, Emmanuel Rabold married Marie Brandes at Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown. The church record for that event is shown here.

We can also view the marriage license for this pair.

We find this pair of newlyweds in the 1900 census. Emmanuel was a farmer in the Union Township.

Three children were born to this Rabold couple during the next decade, but sadly, none of them lived more than a few months. When the 1910 census was taken, we still see an empty nest for Emmanuel and Marie. If you look in the row for Marie, you will see two columns, one that has a 3 in it, and the next one having a 0. That indicates that Marie had given birth to 3 children, but none of them were living.

The only child born to Emmanuel and Marie that lived to adulthood was born in 1911. That child was a daughter named Wilma. We find this small family in the 1920 census. They were living with Emmanuel’s mother and stepfather, the Seibel’s. This time, under the occupation column, it simply says labor for Emmanuel, not farming.

In the story written about Marie’s father, who I called the Brandes Builder, it points out that sometime before 1910, August Brandes had moved his family to Cape Girardeau. It looks like Marie and her husband made a similar decision in the 1920’s. Although I could not find the Rabold’s in the 1930 census, I did find them in a 1930 Cape Girardeau city directory. It also describes Emmanuel as a laborer.

Marie Rabold died in 1935 at the age of 55 in Cape Girardeau. Her death certificate says she died of acute indigestion.

Emmanuel Rabold died at the City Hospital in St. Louis in 1939 at the age of 67. His death certificate indicates that he must have moved to St. Louis to live with his daughter, Wilma, after Marie died.

Emmanuel and Marie Rabold are each buried in the Cape County Memorial Cemetery in Cape Girardeau.

Now, you know another life story of one of the Brandes Beauties. Not only were these Brandes daughters unable to pass the Brandes name on to the next generation, but in Marie’s story, we also discover that this branch of the Rabold family tree is unable to carry on the Rabold surname.