New discoveries from my post of Uncle Alex's fatal accident

I recently wrote a post about my Granduncle Alex Margheim's fatal auto accident in 1927. A Facebook Friend Terry Batt, a fellow Volga German descendant, read the post and confirmed the identity of the driver of the car that wrecked into Uncle Alex that Sunday morning.

George Daniel and Maria Elisabeth (Maier) Dietz
They are shown at the top left of the diagram below.

George Daniel and Maria Elisabeth (Maier) Dietz

The connections that surfaced as a result of those identities are shown in this diagram that I composed. 

At the bottom right in the shaded box are William Karst and his wife Lydia Templing. It was William '"Willie" or "Bill" Karst who drove the Hudson automobile that was identified in the newspaper article as the driver of the vehicle that collided with Alex Margheim, who appears in the shaded box at left. 

In drawing up this diagram, I was able to show the connection of William "Bill" Karst and Alex Margheim. As you can see since Bill was married to Lydia Templing, his brother-in-law was Jacob Margheim husband of Lydia's sister Hannah. And it was Jacob's brother Alex who was driving the car that Bill collided with. I can't imagine the agony and heartache so many families felt as a result of this accident. 

I've shown the Margheim brothers, Jacob, Alex, and John. John is my paternal grandfather---Ernie's father. 

Just last night as I developed this chart, I discovered  a connection between my grandmother Mollie (Koleber), wife of John Margheim, and the Templing family also! Hannah and Lydia Templing's mother is Eva Elisabeth Maier. I knew that Mollie's maternal grandmother was also a Maier--Maria Elisabeth Maier, wife of George Daniel Dietz. (The spellings of Maier and Meier seem to be interchangeable in those families.) The chart, with the red arrows, shows that Maria Elisabeth Meier's brother was George Jacob Maier, husband of Maria Elisabeth Koleber.

Well, lo and behold, my grandmother's maiden name was KOLEBER! So here are the discoveries: my Grandma Mollie (Koleber) Margheim's Grandaunt (through her mother's line) Maria Elisabeth Koleber was the grandmother of both Lydia and Hannah Templing. And her Granduncle (through her father's line) George Jacob Maier was the grandfather of both Hannah and Lydia Templing. And Grandma Mollie's brother-in-law Jake Margheim was married to her second cousin Hannah Templing.

Terry Batt supplied these photographs of Bill and Lydia Karst, for which I'm very grateful.

Bill and Lydia Templing Karst at their
wedding 1916

Bill and Lydia Karst 1966

My grandmother's photo collection, that I found as I was cleaning out my father's house, included the photos below, of the Margheim brothers and their wives.

Alex and Bertha (Schneider) Margheim
at their wedding in 1916

Jacob "Jake" and Hannah (Templing)
Margheim at their wedding 1912

John and Amalia "Mollie" (Koleber)
Margheim at their wedding 1920 

A comment I wrote in a previous post was "Dig a little deeper". We never know what we're going to discover. By digging deeper last night when I saw that Hannah and Lydia Templing's grandma was a Koleber, I found the relationships in the diagram above. 

When I noticed all these family connections last night, I first wanted to go tell my Dad (can't do that anymore!), and then I wished I could ask Grandma Mollie about her connection to the Templing family. The opportunities I missed during those years that I spent so much time with my Grandma! She'd have so gladly shared with me her family connections. I just never thought to ask.