Today’s birthday girl is Ida Wilhelmine Louise Mecker, who was born on August 26, 1894. That means today would be her 130th birthday. Ida was the daughter of Henry and Catherine (Bangert) Mecker. She was baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Perryville.

I have to take a little side trip now. In the course of researching Ida Mecker, Ancestry.com gave a search result the came from the Missouri Synod, U.S., Lutheran Church records, 1851-1973 collection. When I opened this record, at the top of the page, this was displayed.

Normally, you might see the name of the congregation or the name of the city from which they originated, but in this case it simply said “Not Stated”. Our German Family Tree says that Ida Mecker was baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Perryville, so it did not take long before I came to the conclusion that Ancestry.com now has access to the records of that congregation. Our museum does not have images of Immanuel, Perryville’s records. All we have are some transcribed records found in a binder that we have for that congregation. I have often displayed such transcriptions of records on this blog in the past. Today, for the first time, I am able to display an actual image of a baptism record from that congregation’s books on this blog. Ida’s baptism record is pictured here.

I took a bit of time just looking for other records that I knew were from that congregation’s books, and it confirmed that this group of records on Ancestry.com was indeed those from Immanuel, Perryville. Perhaps someday, Ancestry.com will better identify it on their site. I also took a look at what congregations did have their records in this collection. After having used this collection for a while now, it looks to me that Ancestry.com has now added quite a few new congregation’s books to this collection. So, if you are a researcher like me and have access to Ancestry.com, you might find this collection useful. I know that I have it bookmarked on my laptop so I can easily access it.

Before I move on, let me add that it looks as if Ida is one of those babies who got her middle names from her 2 female baptismal sponsors. That was done often back in those days by Lutheran parents.

Ida appears in her first census in 1900 at the age of 5. She was the last child born to her parents. Her father was a farmer in the Central Township.

Next, we find Ida in the 1910 census as a teenager. By the way, I also found an image of Ida’s confirmation class from 1908 in the Missouri Synod records collection.

I was unable to locate Ida in the 1920 census, although my best guess is that she went to St. louis to find work, so now I will turn our attention to the man who would become Ida’s husband. His name was Wilhelm Karl Martin Ludwig, who was born on March 13, 1892. William, as he was called, was the son of William and Amalia (Sittner) Ludwig. He was baptized at Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown. His baptism record from that congregation’s books is shown here. I will add that Grace, Uniontown’s books are ones that we have in our museum, but now they can also be found on Ancestry.com. William is another child that was given the middle names which were the first names of his male sponsors.

William is found in the 1900 census at the age of 8. The Ludwig’s lived in the Apple Creek Township where William’s father was a teamster.

In the 1910 census, we find the Ludwig family living in St. Louis. William’s father was called a freight handler for a brewery. William, at the age of 18, was a machinist at an electric company.

William had his World War I draft registration completed in 1917. He is called a bench hand and employed by Emerson Electric Company. My father worked for that company for 40 years.

William did get called to serve in the military during that war. An image of one of his military records is shown below.

In the 1920 census, William, at the age of 27, was back living with his parents and still single. He was called a packer for an electric company, which sounds like he was still working at Emerson Electric.

It must have been at about this time that Willaim Ludwig married Ida Mecker, but I found no documentation for their wedding. According to a family tree on Ancestry.com, this pair had 3 children. I located baptism records for 2 of these children in the books of Zion Lutheran Church in St. Louis by searching the Missouri Synod collection on Ancestry.com. When the 1930 census was taken, all 3 children were listed. This entry says that Ida had a job as a motor packer for an electric company, but I think they wrote that information in the wrong place. I think William was still doing that kind of work.

In 1940, we find the same household members, and William was called a laborer in a warehouse.

In the last census we can view in 1950, we find the Ludwig’s had relocated. They returned to Perry County, and William was a farmer in the Central Township. He and Ida had an empty nest.

Ida Ludwig died in 1957 at the age of 62. Her death certificate says that she died at the Lutheran Hospital in St. Louis.

William Ludwig died in 1971 at the age of 79. He also died in a hospital in St. Louis, but it says his usual occupation was as a janitor for the aircraft industry in Perryville.

William and Ida Ludwig are each buried in the Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery in Perryville. William’s grave site also contains a plaque recognizing his military service.

You can probably sense that my excitement in writing this story comes not from the story of William and Ida. I got excited to find some new Missouri Synod Lutheran church records on Ancestry.com. I especially enjoyed seeing records from Immanuel, Perryville. I look forward to using these resources in future blog posts.