Mother and Daughter Share Death Date
Coincidences abound in my family tree. But this one made me do a double-take. My grandmother and her mother died on the same date – July 2nd – 29 years apart.
The Mangels Marriage Mystery
Is this “my” Frank Mangels? It is the only documentation I’ve uncovered that mentions the nickname Fred. And Catholic? Hmm. Frank’s stepfather, the man who raised Frank, was born in Germany and was very likely Lutheran. As genealogical luck would have it, six weeks before their wedding Frank and Lucy had considered eloping to scenic St Joseph…
A Second Look at May
Happy first day of June! I hope you’ve already noticed that May was BIG Improvement Month here at where2look4ancestors. 95 new obituary transcriptions was just the beginning. I also added 100+ new resources to the Places-United States page and 45 to the Things page. Then I sprinkled a few new resources on the Places-Worldwide page for good measure.…
Delayed Birth Certificate
My paternal grandmother was 18 years old when, on May 4, 1929, she and her paternal aunt Amanda (Mangels) Giles signed their names before a notary public, essentially testifying to the date and place of Frances Lois Mangels’ birth. No mention of why there wasn’t a certificate issued when the woman who would become Grandma Brenke…
Are We Polish? Part One
During the Polish Research Techniques workshop I attended in December, I mentioned to Deb that I have a marriage certificate for Maria Bukmakofski and Hermann Mangels: Deb told me immigrants from Poland tended to be Catholic. Hermann Mangels was a German Lutheran. To marry her husband in his church, Deb believes Maria would have had…
My Family History Month 2013 To-Do List
Here’s a rainy day project idea. Peruse the surnames of your direct line ancestors and jot down a question or two you’d like answered for each name on your list. My list is below: Françoise ADAM (my French 6th great-grandmother): when/where was she born? when/where did she marry Jean Schmitt? Magnus ÅMAN (my Swedish 4th great-grandfather):…
Family Story Examined
According to family lore, Herman Mangels drank often and his wife was tired of his drunkenness. She was supposed to have told him that the next time he came home intoxicated, he would be sent outside to sleep on the porch. As fate would have it (the story continues), Herman’s banishment occurred during a cold Chicago…
October Birthdays in My Family Tree
Happy October birthday to the leaves on my family tree including my dad, who would have been 81 on October 25th; and to my grandson and my niece, my cousins Cynthia and Rosemary, and my grandaunt Lucy. Happy birthday to Anna, David and Frank – my first cousins once-removed, to James – my first cousin-twice removed, and to Kyle…
September Anniversaries
Ah, wedded bliss. Not always the case in my family tree: My great-grandmother divorced her first husband and gave away their three children. A few years later Esther Ingeborg CLARIN married Charles Fredrick OTTO in Chicago, Cook, Illinois. I located their 10 Sept 1918 marriage certificate on familysearch.org where Esther’s name was indexed as Esther Kerien Wamgel…
Old Letter, New Clues
What happens to us between “woo hoo!!” and “I’ll come back to this”? Why don’t we take the time to process documents the second our heart rates return to normal? The following letter has been in my Mangels’ file folder for years. It was penned by a distant cousin and postmarked September 2, 1987. I received a copy…
where2look4ancestors 