Today, I will tell the tale of a marriage between a Kern and a Weber. It is not the first post written about a Kern man who married a Weber woman. A previous one was the post titled, Orphan Girl Marries the Tin Man. However, that Kern/Weber couple was from a different generation, and I found no close connection between those two and the ones you will read about today.

Edgar Julius Kern was born on March 9, 1895, so he qualifies to be today’s birthday boy. Today would be Edgar’s 130th birthday. I confess that I got a kick out of seeing several documents that called him Edgar J. I couldn’t help but think of a famous J. Edgar Hoover when I saw it. Edgar was the son of Nicholas and Caroline (Hundertmark) Kern. Finding Edgar’s mother’s maiden name turned out to be a chore. Since I was unable to begin with to find a family tree on Ancestry.com that included her maiden name, I went to view Edgar’s death certificate. It indicates that his mother was Caroline Hundredmark. I searched for that name and discovered that her surname was actually spelled Hundertmark. Edgar was born in St. Louis and is found in his first census entry in 1900. He was 5 years old, and his father was a porter in St. Louis. I also now notice that this entry also includes Caroline’s mother, and her name is given as Hundertmark.

I also found this photograph of Edgar’s mother.

Next, we find Edgar in the 1910 census at the age of 15. This time, his father is called a salesman of hides. Two of Edgar’s older sisters were also part of the work force.

Edgar had his World War I draft registration completed in 1917. This document says that Edgar was working as a molder at the Gravois Foundry.

Edgar did serve his country during that war. A copy of his military record is displayed here. He served overseas for almost a year. He was part of an ambulance unit.

A later application for a military headstone indicates that Edgar was called a wagoner. He was involved in transporting the sick and wounded from the battlefield to a medical facility.

Edgar is found in one more census prior to getting married. In the 1920 census, Edgar was back to working as a molder at an iron company. His father was a clerk for a fur company.

Now, we will take a look at the woman who would become Edgar’s bride. Her name was Flora Anna Frieda Weber, who was born on February 17, 1903. Flora had a twin sister, Lydia. The parents of these twins were Adolph and Maria (Rodewald) Weber. The twins were baptized at Christ Lutheran Church in Jacob, Illinois. We can view their baptism records from that congregation’s books.

I was unable to locate a photo of Flora for this post, but I did find one of her twin sister, Lydia. If these twins were identical, perhaps Flora looked a lot like her twin.

Flora is found in the 1910 census at the age of 7. Her father was a farmer in the Fountain Bluff Township.

In the 1920 census, Flora was a teenager. Flora’s sister was said to be a housekeeper for a private family, but Flora had no occupation listed.

Edgar Kern married Flora Weber on October 4, 1924 in St. Louis. The St. Louis marriage record pictured here says they were married by Rev. Wilk. He was the pastor at Messiah Lutheran Church in St. Louis.

Based on subsequent census entries, I believe the Edgar and Flora had 2 children, a boy and a girl. When the 1930 census was taken, we see the Kern’s with just their son, Melvin. Edgar was still a molder for a stove company.

In the 1940 census, we see that the Kern’s had moved to Illinois. They had both children in their household, which was located in Mt. Vernon, Illinois. Edgar also had a different occupation. He was called a news dealer for a newspaper.

When the 1950 census was taken, we find the Kern’s back living in St. Louis again. This time, Edgar was a mail carrier for the post office. Their son, Melvin was an accountant.

Edgar Kern died in 1973 at the age of 78. His death certificate below says he died at the Lutheran Hospital in St. Louis.

Flora Kern died in 1992 at the age of 89. She died too recently to view her death certificate. Edgar and Flora Kern are each buried in the Sunset Memorial Park in Affton, Missouri. Edgar’s grave marker recognizes his military service in World War I.

You may have read Denise Hellwege’s post a few days ago that made mention of the fact that yesterday’s post was the 3000th one published on our website. I noticed this morning that this one will be the 2800th one written by me. I did some math. I know that a typical post written by me is about 900 words. So, after 2800 posts, I have written about 2 1/2 million words. If you have read all of those posts, you can claim that you have read that many words.