We hear plenty in the news these days about hackers. There are hackers in America. There are hackers in foreign countries. They make the news when they have succeeded in their hacking. Hackers are a relatively new phenomenon. The advent of hackers only occurred with the advent of computers and the internet. However, you may … More Longtown’s Hair Hacker
Not long after the beginning of the twentieth century, a future pastor was baptized at Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown, Missouri. Heinrich Herman Schaefer was born on June 12, 1902. His parents were Heinrich Carl and Josephine Tennessee (Telle) Schaefer who lived in the town of Old Appleton, just south of Uniontown. Here are photos … More Pastor Schaefer – Tennessee’s Spirit-maker’s Son
I was attracted to this story because of the name Gothard Pfennighausen. As near as I can tell, this name means something like “penny house” in German. He married Emma Hooss on June 9th at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Perryville in 1890. Gotthard’s trail led to many different places…..and several changes in names. Plus, there … More Name Changing
On June 2, 1864, Johann Jacob Seibel married Matilda McCauley. Our German Family Tree says that this marriage is in the Perry County Marriage Records, but it’s a record I could not find on Ancestry.com. I am not in Altenburg today, so I cannot research this further, but this is a story I really want … More Captain J.J. Seibel
May 28th was the birthday of a tall Oklahoman by the name of Newton Amos Bodenschatz. He was not born in Oklahoma though. He was born into the family of a farmer from north Cape Girardeau County, Missouri. Newton was born in 1922 as the tenth child out of eleven to Herman and Rosa (Landgraf) … More Oklahoma Ground Sweethearts
When you study the early years of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, you cannot help but notice that many of the personalities involved in that history have names which are given with initials. The first president of the Synod, Rev. C.F.W. Walther is a prime example. The second president of the Synod was Rev. F.C.D. Wyneken. … More Another Initial Pastor
Before I delve into today’s post, let me tell you about how I got some unexpected help in my research for it. I am visiting some grandchildren this week, and my granddaughter Kaitlyn offered to help me. Kaitlyn has been bugging me for a few years because she thinks she should have been included in … More Wedig Wedding
I am going to backtrack to a post I wrote at the end of March titled, One of the Ridge Gerlers. In that post, I said I would have to tell the story of the Gerler family immigrating to America in another post. Today, I will tell that story. The family of Christian Frederich Gerler … More The Genesis of the Gerler Genealogy
A fascinating story took place on April 9th in East Perry County, and the characters in the story had absolutely nothing to do with the Lutheran immigration. However, its timing came awfully close to corresponding with the arrival of the German Lutherans into Perry County. It took place in 1839. According to Zion on the … More Mississippi Marriage Misfortune: Tragedy at Tower Rock
Two things: People who know me are familiar with my rants in November about how people shouldn’t start playing Christmas music until after Thanksgiving. Certainly it is not anywhere close to being the time to talk about holiday music, but that’s the title for today’s story, yet there is a reason for it. I have … More Holiday Music
