The story today begins with the birth of Stella Bates on June 12, 1872 in Grafton, Illinois…or does it. Our German Family Tree says that she was born on June 12th, but after doing plenty of research on this story, I discovered that her gravestone and death certificate indicate that her birthday was on July … More Roy’s Ties to Stella’s Hotel
A double wedding took place on May 4, 1854 at Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown. Brothers and sisters were part of this double marriage. In other words, both marriages involved a Lorenz and a Franke. Unfortunately, I am not in Altenburg today and cannot show you an image of the Grace, Uniontown record of these … More Lorenz/Franke x 2
Today’s story once again comes out of Farrar, but before I tell the story, I want to plug an event that is taking place in Farrar this weekend. Tonight and tomorrow are the final performances of a play that a group of folks mostly from Salem and Zion Lutheran Churches are putting on. Here is … More Teacher, Soldier, Postmaster
A while back, I wrote a story that focused on a Lorenz family in Farrar that included several boys that played baseball. That post was titled, Building a Baseball Team. That story included the picture below which was said to have been taken around 1910. It was in that year (1910) and on this date … More Youngest Marries the Oldest
There are 31 pages in our German Family Tree dedicated to the surname Schuessler. Just last month, Wayne Schuessler contributed a post to this blog that told the story of the original Schesslers who came to Perry County. It was titled, The Bowl Makers of Perry County. Today’s story will focus on just one of … More Just One of the Schuessler Swarm
The story today begins aboard the Copernicus on its voyage to America and ends in a popcorn stand in Collinsville, Illinois. It involves several people and places in between. We find three Lorenz siblings listed on a passenger list of the ship, Copernicus. There was an older brother, Johann Gottlieb, and his two younger sisters, Johanne … More Gottfried’s Popcorn Stand
I ran across a marriage that took place on this day in 1904. The story looked like it had potential. It involves a Bachmann marrying a Lorenz. Those are some familiar names. Looking deeper, I found out the the Bachmann had been married previously to a Stueve. That added some interest. I came across one … More From Wagons to Tractors
This post was inspired by an e-mail our museum received this past week. It came to us from an individual in Germany who has discovered our blog and website and is looking to find information about what happened to some people from Germany who came to America as part of the Gesellschaft. First of all, … More The Real Housewives of Perry County – 1800’s Edition
July 9th was not only the birthday of Mathilde Gerler, it was her anniversary. She was born on July 9, 1882. Her birth record in the Immanuel Lutheran, Altenburg church records say that she was born in Friedland, which is another term for The Ridge. She was the daughter of Louis and Emma (Thurm) Gerler. … More Art and Tillie
Occasionally, I run across a man or woman who had two spouses who just so happened to have the same first name. That, in itself, is a pretty unusual thing. Today’s story takes this circumstance up another level. Joseph Henry Lorenz had two wives during his lifetime, and both of them were named Frieda Bachmann. … More Did Joe Really Marry Two Frieda Bachmanns?
