My Mom was Buried on July 17th

Dates stick in my mind. Today is July 17th and my mother was buried on July 17, 1990. I couldn't let the day go by without just making mention of her, even though I posted her picture on my blog on July 14th, the 19th anniversary of her death.

I recently took a class on heirloom preservation from Laura Best at the Family History Expo in Loveland, Colorado. She advised us to remove any old photos that we had that had been mounted on black paper. You can see that the photo above was one such photo. I hesitate to remove it from the original album (tho I will) because my mother captioned her photos with a white ink pen. I loved her handwriting. My dad did too. And I love this picture of them. I think it's very romantic!

Ruby Nadine Flanders Margheim Craine

Ruby Nadine Flanders Margheim Craine

January 17, 1925-July 14, 1990

We love you and miss you, Mom!

Connecting at Genealogy Wise

On Wednesday I signed up for the new Family Link.com sponsored genealogy site: Genealogy Wise. If you haven't discovered it yet, please click here and check it out.

There are a LOT of groups available that we can join, where we can leave comments, photos, and join discussions on topics of interest to genealogists, including surname groups. Yesterday the group that had the most members was a group about "Germans and German Ancestors". This morning I noticed that a member left a comment inquiring about Germans from Russia. Since there was not a group focused on the Volga Germans, I formed one! If you have ancestors, like I do, who emigrated in the 1700s and 1800s from Germany to the Volga region of Russia, please join my group and share your family information.

Coming Through Ellis Island 105 Years Ago

My wonderful Grandmother, Amalia "Mollie" Koleber Margheim is pictured below with her parents, George and Katie Koleber and her two older brothers George Jr. and Daniel shortly after they arrived in America, coming through Ellis Island, as evidenced in the Passenger Record below their photo. Their arrival occurred on July 8, 1904. My grandmother was born October 6, 1902 in Kratzke, Saratov, Russia. Her estimated age of 11 months is incorrect on the ship manifest. The "Last Place of Residence" is given as Italy. Neither my Dad nor I know why they sailed from Italy.

They sailed on the Ship 'Umbria', pictured below in the photo available at EllisIsland.org.

105 years ago on Wednesday, July 8th, 2009.

I'm so glad your family made it to America, Grandma!

Welcome to "Grace and Glory"

I'm Becky Jamison, a hopelessly addicted genealogist and I blog about the research I've done for the past 10 years, mostly on my family lines of MARGHEIM and KOLEBER (Germans from Russia to Kansas), FLANDERS from the Massachusetts Bay Colony to Kansas, BECKER and STRAIT from Germany to Kansas, and JONES and MARKER in Kansas, as well as my husband's family lines of JAMISON, HAUGHT, ROBERTS, and KING from the Pennsylvania and West Virginia areas.

I'm proud of our families and have fun telling their stories and showing their pictures. I've made such interesting discoveries over the years, met so many wonderful cousins and relatives who've shared with me, and wish that I'd been able to record those experiences in a blog along the way. Today it's so easy to blog that I feel blessed I'm now able to keep a written record of this journey of genealogy.

You can "Follow" me by clicking on the "Follow" button on the right sidebar and visit me often. I try to add new content every week. Scroll down the page and read some of my recent stories.

Putting Names to Faces: Identifying Another Family Portrait

After researching my family's history for 10 years, it surprises me that at times my thinking is so narrowly focused! I came across this family portrait last Fall at my Dad's house and took it home to scan and identify the family. I didn't recognize them as my grandparents or great-grandparents, so I took the large framed portrait to my dad and asked if he knew who they were. He didn't.

I brought up the subject again last week and this time Dad said he recognized the family as a Deines family, but couldn't recall the individual names. I had posted this photo on the wall of a Facebook group called "Volga Germans" hoping someone could help me identify the famly. I'm almost embarrassed to admit that now! What was I thinking?

My grandparents were Volga Germans, those people of German ancestry who immigrated to America from the Volga region of Russia in the late 1800's or early 1900's. My paternal grandmother's maiden name was Koleber and her mother's maiden name was Dietz. Many members of the Dietz family married members of the Deines family. But Dad was pretty sure the unidentified families in the photos I found at his house were friends of his parents. It was while searching through books in my personal library for the identity of another family portrait, that I came across the above photo, along with all the family information. They weren't UNidentified. Their identities were only unknown to ME. And the book I found their portrait in: "Deines Dynasty, Book I", by Brent A. Mai, my father's cousin. I felt so stupid. I knew I had that book about the Deines family. I knew many of the Deineses were distantly related to my ancestors, but I just never thought of looking in that book to identify this family when I scanned their portrait last Fall! I think my brain is getting rusty!

As it turns out, this is the portrait of Georg "David" Deines (1862-1939), his wife Maria Elisabeth Dietz (1861-1944), with children back row left to right: Henry, Lydia, Solomon, Margaret and George, front row left end: Fred, and front row, right end, son David Jr.

Maria Elisabeth Dietz Deines was the daughter of Georg Friedrich Dietz (1830-1891) and Maria Magdalena Mai (1833-1900). They also had a son Georg Daniel Dietz (1852-1932) who is seated in the photo below at left, who had a daughter "Katie" (pictured standing at far left below) who married John "George" Koleber (beside whom she's seated in the photo below right). Katie and George Koleber's daughter was Amalia "Mollie" Koleber, my Grandmother (the young girl in the picture far below)! Mollie Koleber married John Margheim and in 1921 gave birth to my Dad, Ernest Margheim. So the mother in the above portrait is my great, great grandaunt!

The Thrill of Putting Names to Faces: Identifying Old Photos

Last summer I did a lot of housecleaning at my Dad's house to convert a storage room into his bedroom, so he'd be free of using steps to get to his bedroom. The reward to that huge job was that I found many large, framed family photographs in one of his pieces of furniture. I was able to recognize my Dad's parents in many of the old photos, but there were a few that stumped me. I carried the large pictures that were matted and framed under glass, to his room at the nursing home where he was residing at that time, and I asked if he could identify the people. He told me he didn't know who they were, but was sure they were friends of his parents, since it was customary to exchange family portraits with friends in the early 1900s.

My dad's ancestors were Germany residents until the mid-1700s, when they emigrated to the Volga region of Russia. Then in 1886 my Dad's father's family, Jacob and Katie Margheim, immigrated to the United States. And in 1904 my dad's mother, her parents George and Katie Koleber, and two older brothers George Jr. and Daniel immigrated through Ellis Island into the United States.

A few months ago I joined a group on Facebook called "Volga Germans" and posted the unidentified photos on their "wall", hoping someone would recognize someone in the pictures and help with my identification.

Since my dad is now living in his home again, I spent some time last Saturday showing him those photos and introducing him to more features on Facebook. When I brought up the first photo, Dad said "I know who that lady is, that's Mrs. Schwein." I wasn't quite ready to do the happy dance but his comment sure put a smile on my face! The young woman was posing along with her family, whose names I didn't know. But at least I had the first clue---the daughter married a man in the Schwein family. Dad then gave me a second clue...she had a son who had married Millie, the sister of "Coonie" Wilhelm. Now "Coonie" is a nickname for Conrad Wilhelm, and I knew that he was married to my Grandpa John Margheim's sister, Mary. If you're not a genealogist, you might think that's a rather convoluted connection, but if you've spent as many hours studying this subject as I have, it will make perfect sense to you!

My first task was to look again at the siblings of "Coonie" Wilhelm and see if I could positively identify Millie. I found that Conrad had a sister named Amelia. I looked at census images on Ancestry.com and found a Schwein family, also living where my dad's parents were living in Hoisington, Barton County, Kansas. I wrote down the household listing and showed it to Dad, and as he recognized names in the household, he confirmed that I had the right Schwein family. Amelia Wilhelm had married Emanuel Schwein. I found that information in an obituary listing for their daughter Irene F. (Schwein) Trageser that had been published in the Osawatomie Graphic, 31 Dec. 2008! The short obituary listing said Irene was the daughter of Emanuel and Amelia Wilhelm Schwein. Lucky me!

So my next search was for the parents of Emanuel Schwein. I found the household listed in the 1920 census (on Ancestry.com) for Wheatland, Barton Co, Kansas and found his parents to be Henry and Hanna. Incidentally, I made a note of the family living next door: Jacob Maier, wife Mary and 3 children. Okay.....Dad said Emanuel Schwein married Amelia Wilhelm and that Emanuel's mother was one of the daughters in the unidentifed photo that started this whole search. This find on Ancestry of the census listing for Emanuel's parents told me her name was Hanna! I'm really getting somewhere!

I did a Google search for "Henry and Hanna Schwein". I found an obituary listing for Elise E. Schwein. Elsie had been listed as one of the members of the Henry and Hannah Schwein household in that 1920 census image. In the obituary notice, it said Elise E. Schwein was the daughter of Henry and Johanna Maier Schwein. Johanna's ("Hanna") maiden name was MAIER! How happy I am when I see obituaries that list full names of family members, along with maiden names! Too many times these days that information is omitted from obituaries!

Now my task was to uncover the identity of Hanna Maier's parents, so I'd know who this family was. Back to Ancestry.com. I found a 1900 Census listing in Lincoln, Russell County, Kansas for a Hannah Maier, born March 1884. I knew from previous research that my grandparents lived in Russell County, so it was reasonable that I had the right family in this location. The listing revealed the father and mother as Jacob, born April 1849 and Mary E., born 1850.

At this point I made a trip to my dad's house Tuesday noon and with great eagerness exclaimed that the man and woman in this photo above were Jacob and Mary E. Maier. He was surprised that I'd discovered this much just from the clue that their daughter was married to his Uncle Coonie's sister!

As I sat at home Tuesday evening, I couldn't stop thinking about this family. I started wondering who Mary E. (Mrs. Jacob) Maier was...what was HER maiden name. You genealogists know that the hunt just continues---there's no place to stop! I was still wondering why my grandparents had this beautiful large family portrait. Back to Google!

Again, an obituary held the answer to what I was looking for. An obituary listing for their son Jacob Jr. said he was the son of Jacob and Mary Elisabeth (Koleber) Maier. I was almost in shock! I ran to the telephone at 9:30 pm Tuesday night to tell my dad that Mary Maier's maiden name was KOLEBER. That's the maiden name of my dad's mother and my grandmother Amalia "Mollie" Koleber Margheim! Now it became more clear why my grandparents were in possession of this big beautiful family portrait. And I was excited that I was in possession of this portrait of a family who were my relatives! From the census I saw that Mary Elisabeth was born about 1850. My grandmother was born in 1902, so I knew this lady was too old to be a sister of my great-grandfather George Koleber. By checking my database, I saw that my great-grandfather was born in 1874, still too young to be a brother of this Mary E. Koleber Maier.

It was late Tuesday evening but I knew I had more hunting to do before I'd be able to go to sleep. And I knew that there was quite an extensive listing of Kolebers and their related families online at http://www.berschauer.com/. By searching this site I found this: Johann Heinrich Koleber and his first wife Maria Katharina Huck are my 3rd great grandparents. After Maria K. Huck Koleber died, Johann Heinrich married Maria Katharina Mai and had a daughter Maria Elisabeth Koleber, whose second husband was Georg Jacob Maier. So the mother of this family in the portrait is my great, great, grandaunt! These is not just a portrait of friends of my grandparents, like Dad and I originally thought. Jacob and Mary Koleber Maier were born in 1849....160 years ago. What a treasure it is to have this family portrait! And what a thrill it is to now know who this family is!

I made another wonderful identification for an unknown portrait from this family searching, but I'll write about that in my next post. So check back soon!