Grace and Glory: Identifying more of my Grandma Margheim's Photo Collection

Sunday, March 15, 2015

Identifying more of my Grandma Margheim's Photo Collection

When my dad began his final residence in a Care Center in 2012, it was my responsibility to clean out his house and dispose of its contents. To my great surprise I discovered a large box in the back of his office closet that was full of black and white photos from the early 1900s. Included in that box were the pictures on this post. Some were identified, but most were not. I assumed that the family was close to my grandmother's family simply because of the large number of photos Grandma Mollie Margheim had of these people. With help from the data on the Family Tree at FamilySearch I've been able to identify most of them. Pictured in the family portrait above (and as a couple below) are George Jacob Maier (1849-1932), his wife Maria Elisabeth Koleber (1850-1920), and six of their children.

With the help of this chart, I was finally able to see the relationship of this Maier family to my own family and understand why my Grandma had so many family portraits. There are two close family connections. My grandmother was Amalia Koleber (Mrs John Margheim). Her mother was Catherina "Katy" Elisabeth Dietz (Mrs. John George Koleber). And Katy's uncle is the gentleman in the family portrait at top, George Jacob Maier. But notice George Jacob Maier was married to Maria Elisabeth Koleber. She's an aunt to John George Koleber. So when my great grandparents looked at the family portrait above, George was looking at his aunt's family and Katy was looking at her uncle's family! Now it all makes sense! I'm so blessed to have these wonderful family photos and to finally know who they represent and their relationship to me.