Saturday, April 25, 2015

Another Mary Rebecca and her family's early days in Oregon

I've spent many hours in the last few weeks attaching records to my ancestors on the Family Tree at FamilySearch.org. Last night I was working on the family in this chart below. At the top right you can see Rebecca Jennings (1819-1889), married to Samuel Daniels (1819-1905). 
While doing this important task, we can learn some good facts and details about our family. As I was attaching records to Samuel Daniels, I saw that he resided in Monroe, Allen, Ohio in 1850, then in Gentry County, Missouri in 1860. By 1870 his family was residing in Kirby, Josephine, Oregon. In the 1880 census his family were residents of Slate Creek, Josephine, Oregon. I started thinking about their moves and what was driving them westward. I wondered what Josephine County, Oregon was like in 1870. 
I found this wonderful web site OregonGold.net:
It offers this map of the area at that time.
The site gives us a good but brief history of that area in the mid to late 1800s. It's worth taking 5 minutes to read. In each of the censuses from 1850-1880 Samuel Daniels lists his occupation as Farmer. I can't help but think, however, that some kind of mining occupied his time also. 
The chart at the top of this post shows that Samuel and Rebecca (Jennings) Daniels's daughter Sarah Ann (1847-1919) married William Stringer about 1864 in Oregon. The photo above is taken from Josephine County's Historical Society "Passport to History" site. You can see that the caption says "Stringer was the name of the person who first built the Wilderville Store here (Josephine County). William Stringer fought in the Indian War as part of Company B in the Second Oregon Mounted Volunteers." This is a pretty good find! 

In the 1860 census at Linn, Oregon, the 26 year-old single William Stringer is living next door to his parents Bluford and Elmira Stringer. They are pictured below.
The chart below shows my relationship with William Stringer and Sarah Daniels, and specifically their daughter MARY REBECCA. Notice my full name is also MARY REBECCA (Margheim at bottom right). 
It's fun to find a cousin with my name who has ties to the early mining settlement days of Oregon. If only I could interview her!

Friday, April 17, 2015

Seeing the resemblance in grandmothers

This is one of my favorite old family photos, showing my grandmother Amalia "Mollie" Koleber in about 1905. She's pictured with her father George and mother Catherine Elisabeth "Katie" Dietz Koleber, her oldest brother George Jr. and brother Daniel. This family had just immigrated to America through Ellis Island the previous year from Kratzke, Saratov, Russia. 
I absolutely LOVE this picture of my grandmother Amalia Koleber. I've written about it before in this post. I've been studying it to determine a resemblance that Mollie might have had with her mother Katie. 
This is my great-grandmother Katie Koleber, above, on her farm near Wakeeney, Trego, Kansas about 1924. As I look at her face, I see my grandmother's face when my grandmother was in her teens, as shown in the photo above (she's on the left).

This family photo may have been taken about 1926. It shows George and Katie Koleber (seated) with all their family, except Daniel, who had died in 1916 at the age of 18. From left to right standing are Albert, Victor, Henry, George Jr, Fred, and Emil.  
This is my grandmother Mollie (Koleber) Margheim about 1978, at age 76. And pictured below is HER grandmother, my great, great grandmother Maria Elisabeth Maier Dietz (1851-1929). I do see the resemblance that my grandma bore to her grandma. I noticed that my great, great grandma Mary Dietz is holding a handkerchief in her left hand (below). Notice in the photo at the top of this post that my grandma Mollie is holding a handkerchief in her little left hand. 

It's interesting to me to note that Mary Elisabeth Maier Dietz, above, died 5 Sept 1929 and her daughter Catherine Elisabeth "Katie" Dietz Koleber died 18 Nov 1929. My grandmother Mollie Koleber Margheim gave birth to twins, her 3rd and 4th children on 18 Oct 1929. So Grandma Mollie lost her grandma, gave birth to twins 6 weeks later, then lost her mother one month after the births of her daughter Laverna and son, Leonard Margheim. What an emotional time that must have been for my dear Grandma Mollie.

Friday, April 3, 2015

Sharing a headstone photo brings me closer to my ancestors

I was happy this past week to get the above message from my Facebook friend Terry Batt. We've corresponded before so he knew that my paternal grandmother's surname was Koleber. The great thing about posting information like this on Facebook is that others can see it and add to it. I was fortunate that Dr. Brent Mai saw this posting and added this information for me: 
Dr. Brent Mai is the Director of the Center for Volga German Studies at Concordia University in Portland, Oregon. Brent's grandaunt, Mary "Marie" Magdalena Deines, was married to my granduncle, Friedrich "Fred" Koleber, so he also knew of my Koleber connection. 
From my RootsMagic database, I was able to prepare this chart above that shows my relationship to the Georg Adam Koleber whose headstone is at the top of this story. I'm his second great grandniece, as he's a brother of my great, great grandfather, Johann Heinrich Koleber.  

Terry proceeded to share this headstone also.

He tells me it's the headstone of Heinrich Dietz and is one of the oldest markers in the Trinity Lutheran Cemetery. I'ts made of granite, rather than limestone, as are most of the other headstones in the cemetery. You can see in the relationship chart above that my grandmother Amalia Koleber's mother was Catherine Elisabeth Dietz. Thus my Dietz/Koleber connection. 

I found this better picture of the headstone at Find-A-grave.com.
In the first photo of the headstone you can notice the carving of the representation of fabric at the top of the monument. In connection with Heinrich's memorial on Find-A-Grave is the memorial of his sister Katherina. The fabric is also visible at top right. 

Evidently a correction needs to be made on the Family Tree at FamilySearch.org. This screen shot of their family's detail page shows Henry (or "Heinrich)'s birth year as 1876, since his headstone tells us he was born in 1879.

These screen shots show the memorials at Find-A-Grave.com for the parents of both Heinrich and Katharina Dietz. In the photo above of Katharina's headstone, this headstone of her parents is barely visible at the left. 
I was born and raised in Great Bend, Kansas which appears at the bottom right of this map. My father went to high school in Hoisington, which is just 10 miles north of Great Bend. His father, John L. Margheim grew up in the Russell, Kansas area, seen at top right. This map shows the placement of the Trinity Lutheran, or bender Hill Cemetery in Russell County. 

This little map snippet shows where the Trinity Lutheran or Bender Hill Cemetery is in relation to Canon City, Colorado (at far left), where I currently live. 

It's such a blessing to have friends like Terry Batt, who shared this information and Dr. Brent Mai, who added more details so the people and our relationships have become more meaningful and relevant.

The Katharina Elizabeth Dietz (1876-1901) whose headstone is pictured above, married Frederick Schneider. 

This chart shows her at left with her husband Frederich and son Harold Frederick. At the bottom right is Lefa Virginia Margheim, the first cousin once removed of Harold Frederich Schneider. The chart below shows that Lefa Virginia Margheim is also my first cousin once removed. 
When I determine personal relationships, I'm blessed to feel so much more connected to those ancestors who are represented by headstones in these cemeteries. They aren't just monuments, but they're my family! And they are remembered. These families immigrated to America from the Volga region of Russia. That's why I like the Russian proverb that I use as my tag line: "We live as long as we're remembered."