Discovering a local connection to my Uncle Vic Koleber

The first thing I did for my job this week was to pick up a printing order from our local printer, Master Printers, in Canon City, CO. I was greeted by the long-time owner, Myron “Smitty” Smith. At age 83, Smitty has a lifetime of experience at his craft and has donated much of his time to service in our community. He’s served on numerous boards, greeted new business owners as the head of the Economic Development Council, served as a County Commissioner, etc. I’ve been acquainted with Smitty since I moved to Canon City in 1987 and worked as the Office Manager of the Chamber of Commerce. So when I had a printing job that I was not able to handle in my office, I took it to Smitty. Within the first 5 minutes after I was greeted by Smitty, he happened to mention that as a high school student, he worked in Florence, Colorado for the local newspaper, the Florence Citizen. With his razor sharp memory, he commented that he started working there as a “Print Slave” in February, 1952, explaining that the term was used to describe the Janitor. I was totally stunned, as I told him it was my great-uncle Victor Koleber who OWNED and PUBLISHED the Florence Citizen in 1952. Uncle Vic was the younger brother of my Dad’s mother, Mollie (Koleber) Margheim. Smitty related a really clever story of his initial job interview with Uncle Vic, along with a quick story that included Vic’s daughter Vicky, as she sunbathed on the lawn that Smitty was hired to take care of.

Pictured above is my great-uncle Victor Koleber at left, with his daughter Vicky and her husband Billy Turner, taken about 25 years ago. The photo below shows (from left to right): my grandparents John (1900-1978) and Mollie (Koleber) (1902-1986) Margheim and son Leonard (1929-2018), Vicky Koleber (1935-2012) in front, and parents Ethel (Massey) (1907-2002) and Victor Koleber (1911-2002). They’re standing in the backyard of my grandparents’ home at 114 E. 6th St, Hoisington, Kansas, about 1943. 

I know many people would not even consider this a story worthy of relating in a blog. But I find these connection discoveries noteworthy. As I’ve said before, I’m easily amazed. I’ve know Smitty for more than 30 years and had no idea that he knew my great-uncle, much less learned his printing trade at the hands of Uncle Vic. I cringe when I hear people say this phrase, but it really is a small world! I took advantage of the opportunity to ask Smitty about Uncle Vic’s personality, since I have no memories of ever visiting with him. A genealogist won’t pass up an opportunity like that! Thank you, Myron “Smitty” Smith for making my day!

Connecting my Father's Family to my Mother's Family

This week Jerry Michel posted this photo on the Facebook page for the Russell County Historical Society of Germans from Russia. 

Jerry identified the couple as Johann George Bender, Sr, (1803-1913) and his third wife, Maria Katherine Schneider, who were married 13 May 1883 in Russell County, Kansas. 
My dad's father, John Ludwig Margheim was born in Russell county, Kansas to German parents who were also from the Volga River area of Russia. I knew the Margheims were associated in many ways with Bender and Schneider families, so I did some research into this couple pictured above. 

As a result of my research, I was able to prepare this chart, which is also pictured above at the start of this post. 

Let me guide you through this maze of cousin connections. At the bottom left is me, Rebecca Margheim, shown as the wife of Larry Jamison. My dad's ancestry goes up to his mother Amalia "Mollie" Koleber and on up to her great grandfather, Johann H. Koleber, born 1817 in Russia. Besides son Johann H. Koleber, the Senior Johann had daughter Maria, wife of George J. Maier. Maria, her husband and family are pictured at the top left of the illustration above. Their daughter Louisa Maier married John Bender. You can see their wedding photo under their name. 

John Bender's grandfather was the Johann George Bender whose photo was posted on Facebook yesterday. But John's grandmother was the first wife of Johann, being Maria Schwien. Johann George and Maria (Schwien) Bender's great granddaughter Manetta Bender married Archibald Parkhurst. Archibald's mother was Letha Cochran and her third cousin was Leo Cochran, the husband of Geneva Hill. 

I knew I had some Hill cousins so I looked up Geneva on Family Search and found the rest of her Hill lineage. Her great, great grandmother was Sarah Strait, wife of Richard Hill. I'm a third cousin five times removed of that same Sarah Strait. In the chart above you can see that my mother Ruby Flanders is a seventh cousin of Geneva Hill. 

So at the bottom right, you see me again, as the descendant of Ruby Flanders and Ernest Margheim. The chart I've prepared shows the cousin connection between my paternal ancestors and my maternal ancestors. The connection is meaningful to me because, as I grew up, I thought these two families were worlds apart. They were on opposite ends of the spectrum in MY world. Little did I suspect that they could be connected through cousin marriages. My world is getting smaller all the time!

A Facebook page tells me another cousin was KIA in Viet Nam

Yesterday I wrote a blog post that featured Kent Amerine as one of the Barton County, Kansas residents who lost his life in the Viet Nam war. I showed my connection to Kent through cousins. Today, the page featured Carl Frederick Karst. I knew by the name that I was probably related to Carl, but I was never personally acquainted with him. My research reveals my Cousin Connection to another valiant soldier who gave his life for our freedom. 

This was posted on the Barton County Kansas Facebook page today.

A donation was made to Barton County to honor five Vietnam vets that were either Killed or Missing in Action. Barton County learned that there were six men in these categories. They included Carl Frederick Karst. Having come from Galatia, Karst was born October 27, 1930. His name will be engraved on Stone II at the Golden Belt Veterans Memorial as a result of the donation.

We know that Karst was a Colonel in the Air Force and was lost in Pleiku Province, South Vietnam, on February 8, 1974. Information compiled from various sources –

On November 16, 1968, (then) Major Carl F. Karst, pilot, and Captain Nguyen X. Quy, VNAF observer, departed Pleiku in an O1F on a visual reconnaissance mission over South Vietnam. At 1640 hours (4:40 p.m.), shortly after takeoff, Karst reported that his position was two nautical miles east of Pleiku, and that he was proceeding with his mission. When subsequent attempts to raise Karst by radio failed, a search began.

The search continued for three days without success. Karst was classified Missing in Action.

A few months later, a Vietnamese informer reported information given him by a NVA/VC propaganda team that Karst's aircraft was shot down by small arms fire and the Vietnamese observer was killed. The informer stated that Karst evaded to the south, but was captured and executed in a village in northern Phu Bon Province. The informant did not witness any of these events. The report was considered inaccurate because the NVA/VC team was known for coloring stories to impress the local population, and because Karst was very knowledgeable of the location of Viet Cong and North Vietnamese units in the area. Those who knew Karst agreed that he would not have evaded to the south, but rather to the west where he knew he might reach friendly forces and safety.

In December 1983, a refugee turned over two bone fragments and a rubbing of a metal ID tag bearing Karst's name to U.S. officials in Malaysia. He stated that he had been given the remains and rubbing by a Buddhist monk in 1981. The refugee was told that the remains were among 7 American remains recovered at an unspecified location in the Central Highlands.

By 1984, U.S. officials had received a series of reports from eight separate sources reported information concerning the alleged remains and dog tags of Karst. Four provided information solely on Karst, while the other four sources related Karst's name to other Army personnel who had returned from Vietnam at the end of their tours…

….Vietnamese officials turned over Col. Karst's remains in 1989, but they were not identified until last month by the Army's Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii. He was survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.

…His remains were returned to this country, were positively identified, and a burial was arranged. On a golden autumn morning Friday at Arlington National Cemetery, the moment for that last salute finally arrived. Karst's wife and their three children now adults with children of their own watched as Karst's flag-draped casket was solemnly carried by horse-drawn caisson to be buried on American soil. Four US Air Force F-16 jets roared overhead in the Missing Man formation...

…Karst's dedication is reflected in his military honors, including the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. He was a 14-year Air Force veteran when his reconnaissance plane was shot down in 1968. He was officially listed as missing in action until 1974, when military authorities changed his legal status to killed in action. His body was returned by Vietnam in 1989…

A quick look at my database revealed that Carl is my third cousin twice removed, as this chart shows.

I often hear negative comments about Facebook and the reasons people won't use it. But in just the last two days I've learned that one of the young men from my hometown who gave his life in Viet Nam while protecting my freedom was a cousin of my cousin, and another young man who experienced the same thing was actually my cousin. I'd have never become aware of that if I was not reading the posts on Facebook! I'm obviously learning more about my family, my cousins, and ancestors daily. The news isn't always pleasant, but it expands the family tree that I'm aware of and makes my time on Facebook very worthwhile!

Trego Co Historical Society adds to my newspaper findings

I love the Library of Congress's site Chronicling America with millions of digitized newspapers, FREE! Last weekend I was reviewing issues of the Western Kansas World, which covered WaKeeney, Trego, Kansas, where my great grandparents lived in the early 1900s. I noticed this little item:

22 Jan 1920 Western Kansas World

George Koleber Jr. was my grandmother's (Mollie Koleber, Mrs. John Margheim) oldest brother. He's pictured in this photo from 1949 with his wife Mary Elizabeth (Margheim), their son Harold and my twin brother Dennis Margheim and me. 

Mary Elizabeth "Lizzie" was the sister of my grandfather, John Margheim. Here's a photo of George, Jr. with his younger brother Daniel, his sister (my Grandma) Mollie, and their parents George and Katie (Dietz) Koleber, in 1905.

The news item says Uncle George went to work for Walter F. Swiggett. Many issues of the Western Kansas World included ads for Walter's company.

20 Jan 1920 Western Kansas World

I noticed his phone number was 1 2 3. 

6 Nov 1919 Western Kansas World

I was just happy to know a little more about my great-uncle George. But the really special thing happened on Wednesday of this week, only a few days after I learned of the Walter F. Swiggett company in WaKeeney. The Trego County Historical Society posted this on their facebook page: 

The blessings of Social Media! It can be coincidence or serendipity, but whatever we call it, we're blessed when windows like this open up for our research and give us greater understanding of the lives of our ancestors. I looked at the news articles for my Koleber family, found dozens, including the snippet above about Uncle George, and just 3 days later found an accompanying photo and background information from the Historical Society of that county on Facebook. I recognize that as a real blessing! 

An 1880 Census Connects my Kansas Cousin to my Colorado Co-worker

While cleaning up my genealogy database I noticed that one of my grandmother's cousins from WaKeeney, Trego, Kansas married a man who was born in Coal Creek, Fremont, Colorado. WaKeeney was the birthplace of my father in Kansas and Coal Creek is a small settlement 10 miles southeast of Canon City, where I currently live in Colorado. Two different worlds. WaKeeney was inhabited at the turn of the 20th century by German immigrants from the Volga River region of Russia. 

I was surprised to find this connection in the 1880 census for Coal Creek, Fremont, Colorado that is shown above. The bottom 6 rows of the census page list the Fred and Mary Dixon family, with their children Alex, Mamie, Alfred and Grace. The chart below shows that Mamie married James Lindsay. 

Their son James E. Lindsay married Amelia Meisner, whose 3rd cousin in the column at right is Amalia Koleber, my grandmother. I'm the "Becky Margheim" listed at bottom right. On my other blog "Grace and Glory Plus" on my web site, I wrote an article about my cousin and author Amelia "Mela" Meisner. You can read it here.

When I look at a census page I always review the entire page. I noticed the name Cowan at the top of the census page, shown at the top of this story. I knew that two of my "co-workers" had Cowan relatives, so I noted the names of John and David Cowan and looked at the research I've done in the past for those co-workers. This chart shows my findings.

The John and David Cowan on that census page were the sons of Charles Cowan and Margaret Scot. John Cowan's brother was Charles, whose great granddaughter is Sallie Poteet McQueen. Sallie is my friend who attends the church where I'm employed in Canon City, CO.

So on that one census page from Coal Creek, CO in 1880, I'm able to see the family of the in-laws of my distant (Kansas) cousin Mela Meisner Lindsay, as well as the cousins of my friend Sallie here in Canon City, Colorado. I had not suspected that I'd ever discover such a cousin connection. 

Those Koleber daughters were outnumbered

In the photo above, my grandmother, Amalia 'Mollie' Koleber is the little girl in the center, pictured with her father George Koleber, oldest brother George Jr. and brother Daniel standing behind her. A year before this photo was taken, this family emigrated from Kratzke, Russia. Grandma Mollie's mother, at right in the photo, was Catherine Elisabeth Dietz.  "Katie" was the daughter of George Daniel Dietz and Maria Elisabeth Meier, pictured below.  

The photo below shows Daniel and Mary (Meier) Dietz with daughter Katie at left and son Ludwig at right.

As I was again adding "Titles" to the photos I've uploaded to the Family Tree at FamilySearch.org, I reviewed the obituary of Mary (Meier) Dietz, shown below.

The obituary explains that Mary Dietz gave birth to nine children, EIGHT sons and one daughter. So my great grandmother Katie was their only daughter. 

As it happens, my great grandmother also had only ONE daughter and had SEVEN sons. 

Mollie (Koleber) Margheim with left to right
Alfred, Ernest, LaVerna and Leonard

Katie's daughter Mollie (Koleber) Margheim, my grandmother, gave birth to THREE sons and ONE daughter, shown above.

John and Mollie (Koleber) Margheim with LaVerna,
Ernest and Leonard. Son Alfred had died in 1933.

I hadn't realized daughters were in such short supply in those three generations of my Grandma's Koleber ancestry! 

PS: After I posted this story on Facebook, I learned from the wife of George Koleber's grandson (Sandra Skold Koleber) that they also have had 6 sons and one daughter! George is the oldest son in the photo at the top of this blog post. 

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.   

Cousins crossing the Family Lines

Pictured above is my mother Ruby Flanders and her friend Adeline "Addie" Kasselman, as they were shopping for fabric in the early 1940s. The digital photo came to me last week as part of a collection borrowed by my cousin Nancy (my mother's brother Albert's daughter) from my cousin Debbi (the daughter of my mother's brother Mervin). As I grew up I was well acquainted with Addie and her second husband Ray Buehler, as they were long-time friends as a couple of my mother and her second husband Don.

Ruby Flanders at left, Adeline "Addie" Kasselman
center and my mother's brother Mervin at right.

Let's switch to the other side of my family, my dad and my step-mother. As I was archiving their keepsakes, I found a scrapbook my step-mom Phyllis (Jones) Margheim had put together at the time of her mother's illness and subsequent death in 1949. I saw many cards in the album that were signed by "Buehler". From the sentiments she wrote, I could tell this woman was obviously an employee in the business that my step-mother's parents, Jim and Helen (Marker) Jones owned, Jones Laundry in Great Bend, KS. I also found this picture of "Buehler" in Phyllis's photo album from the 1940s.

My dad, Ernie Margheim, identified this Jones Laundry employee, dressed in her crisp white laundry uniform, as his cousin, Alvina (Koleber) Buehler. Alvina had married Elmer Buehler in 1939. It was only three years ago that, in my research of my dad's side of my family, I discovered that Elmer was a brother of Ray Buehler, husband of Addie Kasselman, friends of my mother Ruby and step-dad Don.

Alvina (Koleber) (1917-2000) and Elmer Buehler (1914-1947)

I remember the day in 2013 that I walked into my dad's room at the nursing home exclaiming my astonishment at this discovery. It's hard to explain sufficiently, but as I grew up in the household of my dad and step-mom, my brother and I were not allowed to discuss our mother or her family. Strong dividing lines were drawn and were never crossed. One part of my little world consisted of my mother, step-dad and her family, of whom we never spoke, but only frequently visited per court order. And the other part was my "real" life in the home of my dad and step-mom who I thought of as my family, along with dear grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles. In my world, there was NO mixing of the two sides of my family.

So I was dumbfounded when I found this "mixing" of the family lines by someone who was connected to my mother's friends, and also a cousin of my father and was an employee with my step-mother at her family's laundry business!  

This picture was included in my step-mother's photo album. This is a picture of her parents, George and Mary Elizabeth "Lizzie" (Margheim) Koleber at their wedding in 1915.

George Koleber (1895-1962) and his wife Mary Elizabeth "Lizzie"
Margheim Koleber (1898-1979)

My great uncle George and great aunt Lizzie Koleber are pictured above with their youngest son Harold, while visiting me and my twin brother at the home of my grandparents in 1950. It happens that George is the oldest brother of my grandmother Mollie (Koleber) Margheim and Lizzie is the older sister of my grandpa John Margheim. 

Here's where this story takes an interesting twist. As I scanned hundreds of pictures last month from another cousin's collection, my thoughts have been heavily drawn to my mother and her family. I've written a few blog posts about members of her extended family, to the exclusion of my dad's family recently.

Last Tuesday, out of the blue, I got an email from another Koleber cousin which required that I turn my attention once again back to my dad's family. This gentleman explained that he found me through a Google search, knew very little about his father's ancestry and was hoping I could share information with him. As I learned a bit more about him, I discovered that his father was a BROTHER of Alvina Koleber! In fact, he's pictured here with her in this family portrait. Now what are the chances of this timing? 

Back row left to right: Alvina Koleber (1917-2000) and Hermena "Minnie" (1916-1986)
Front row left to right: Arthur (1921-1972) and Eleanora Koleber  (1919-1978)
About Christmas 1922

As I've shared Koleber family information with this new-found cousin this week, I've thoroughly enjoyed getting better acquainted with the family of my great uncle and aunt George and Lizzie (Margheim) Koleber. And I haven't really abandoned the research on my mother's side of my family, because of this interesting tie between the two families, being cousin Alvina Koleber Buehler, the one-time sister-in-law of my mother's good friend Addie.

I'll close this post with this photo of my dear grandmother Mollie (Koleber) Margheim at left and her niece (two ways) Alvina Koleber Buehler Krentzel Niver. 

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.

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."