In today’s post, I will eventually get around to a birthday girl, but I have decided to begin with the man who would become her husband. This man had what I would describe as a very complicated and sometimes confusing early life. I hope I get it right, because I think there are several folks who have attempted to document his life who have gotten some things wrong.

Charles Frederick Edward Fassel was born on August 5, 1877. Fred was the son of Edward and Maria Elizabeth (Giesert) Fassel. There are several family histories on Ancestry.com that say Fred’s mother was Mary Christiane Friedenwald. In fact, our German Family Tree lists Fred as a son of Edward and Mary (Friedenwald) Fassel. I think the confusion comes from the fact that Fred’s father had 2 wives, both of them named Mary. However, I have concluded that Edward’s first wife died sometime around 1873. I am able to display a Perry County marriage record indicating the Edward Fassel married Mary Jones on May 24, 1874. These two were married in Wittenberg, Missouri by the Justice of the Peace, Joseph Weinhold.

There is evidence on Family Search that gives Mary the maiden name of Giesert. She had been previously married to a man named Jones, but he apparently had died prior to 1874. I have been told that Mary Giesert was from Illinois. Edward must have been living in Wittenberg at that point in time. However, Edward was likely not a Lutheran because Fred’s baptism record is not found in the books of any Lutheran church in the area. I reached out to a man who I consider the expert on the Fassel family yesterday. His name is Roy Fassel, and although he didn’t provide an image of a baptism record, he hinted at the fact that Fred was baptized at the Catholic Church in Apple Creek.

Not long after Fred was born, his father died in 1877. Somewhat surprisingly, Edward Fassel is buried in the Trinity Lutheran Cemetery in Altenburg. So, in the 1880 census, Fred’s mother was the head of the Fassel household, and Fred was the youngest child at the age of 2. Two older brothers of Fred were coopers. I suspect that they were working at Joseph Weinhold’s flour mill in Wittenberg. The 2 children, Magdalena and Frankie, in this entry are actually Jones children from Mary’s first husband in Illinois.

I do not know how Fred’s mother became acquainted with a man from Friedheim named Friedrich Kaiser, but in 1889, he married Mary E. Fassel. A marriage record for this event is shown below.

I will mention that some family trees on Ancestry.com say that the woman who married Friedrich Kaiser was Mary Friedenwald, Edward Fassel’s first wife. However, we definitely see a middle initial of E on the above document, indicating it was Fred’s mother. Perhaps the Fassel’s moved to the Apple Creek area to be close to the Catholic church, and that is how Mary met Friedrich from Friedheim.

Fred’s migration to the Friedheim area can help explain how he got to know his future wife. Her name was Johanna Friedericke Maria Oehl, who was born on October 16, 1875, so she is today’s birthday girl. She would be celebrating her special 150th birthday today. She would mostly go by the name, Annie, during her life, so that is the name I will use. Annie was the daughter of Friedrich and Nette (Pohlmann) Oehl. Annie was baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Friedheim. We can look at her baptism record below. When I found this document, I was surprised to find out that, even though she was born on October 16th, she was not baptized until Christmas Day of that year.

Annie’s mother died early in 1880, so when we look at that year’s census, her father was a widower. Annie was 4 years old. Her father was a farmer in the Whitewater Township in Bollinger County.

That census entry would be the only one in which we see Annie prior to her marriage. Fred Fassel married Annie Oehl on August 18, 1898 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Friedheim. The church marriage record for this wedding is pictured here. One of the witnesses for this wedding was Friedrich Kaiser, Fred’s stepfather.

We can also view a couple of civil marriage records for this event.

A year after he was married, Fred was confirmed at Trinity, Friedheim in 1899. Below, we see his adult confirmation record.

I think the Fassel’s had 7 children. The first child born in 1899 was baptized at Trinity, Friedheim.

When the 1900 census was taken, we find the Fassel’s living in the Apple Creek Township where Fred was a day laborer.

Next, we find the Fassel family living in Jackson, Missouri when the 1910 census was taken. Fred was a laborer at a tiling factory. Perhaps he was working at the Kasten Masonry Company. There were 4 children in their household.

Fred’s World War I draft registration completed in 1918, gives evidence that Fred had moved his family across the river to Jackson County, Illinois. He is given a DeSoto address. He was working on the Henry Friedline farm.

The 1920 census finds the Fassel’s still living in DeSoto. There were 5 children in their family at that time. Fred was called a farm laborer.

The 1930 census shows that the Fassel family is living in Hurst, Illinois, which is not far from DeSoto. Fred was doing odd jobs.

As you see in the map below, despite DeSoto and Hurst being so close to one another, the dashed vertical line shows that they are in two different counties.

In the 1940 census, Fred and Annie had an empty nest. Fred was working for the W.P.A. It says he was checking tools. Both Fred and Annie were in their 60’s.

Despite his age, Fred was required to complete a World War II draft card.

The last census entry we can view is the 1950 one. Neither Fred nor Annie, in their 70’s, had an occupation.

Fred Fassel died in 1953 at the age of 75; Annie Fassel died in 1971 at the age of 96. These two are buried together in the DeSoto Cemetery in DeSoto.

I want to thank Roy Fassel for leading me in the right direction in order to sort this story out. Perhaps if some folks on Ancestry.com look at the documentation I have provided, they might correct some of their mistakes. I understand now why those mistakes could easily be made. I know that I am also going to have a discussion with Lynn Degenhardt about some additions that may have to be made to our German Family Tree concerning today’s couple.

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Roy Fassel has now sent me an image of Fred’s baptism record from St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Apple Creek. It is not often that I see a Catholic baptism record, and even more interesting that it is written in Latin. I am so used to seeing such old baptism records written in German.