There's that Kunz name again

The G. Jacob and Katy Margheim Family, about 1906

In my posts of August 10th and August 11th, I wrote about the discovery that my paternal great-grandfather was married to Mary Katherine "Katy" Winter or Kunz. At the Margheim website that has published the research done by Clarence Jake Margheim, the following paragraph is entered for my great-grandfather George "Jacob" Margheim: 

• Came to the USA from Wiesenmuller, Samara Province, Seelmann District, Russia. Arrival date was December 1886 at New York.
• Wiesenmuller is a daughter colony of Merkel, and was founded in 1860. Georg Jacob probably left Merkel as a young man to take advantage of the new land made available by the Russian Government. 
• Declaration of Intention was filed November 2, 1889 in Russell County, Kansas. Age listed as 32, and had been born in Russia. Filed as Jacob Margheim. 
• Dr. Igor Pleve, Saratov State University, Saratov, Saratov Province, Russia, included a copy from the Merkel Church Book of the page registering the birth of Georg Jacob Margheim on May 7, 1857. Baptised Lutheran in the church by Pastor Ludwig Marpurg. Sponsors: Colonists Jacob Margheim, Heinrich Templing, and Catherine Kunz. Note in right margin: Moved (Ausgesiedelt). The copy is included in the Documentation Section of the Margheim Family History Book.

I had not noticed this piece of information until my cousin Charlene West-Scheneman posted it on Facebook yesterday.

I noticed that KUNZ name again, this time belonging to a woman who was a Sponsor for my great grandfather when he was baptized. Further research is definitely needed to identify this Kunz connection! 

My Uncle Heinrich Margheim Story Gets Better!

In my previous post I explained how I discovered that my paternal grandfather had a brother who died at age 1 and how surprised I was to discover that fact just last week. When I visited my Dad in the nursing home this afternoon I brought up my story here on my blog and let him read it. His hearing is failing and it's difficult to carry on a lengthy conversation so I thought he'd absorb the information much better by reading it. Last Friday I visited him and asked if he knew about this brother Heinrich. He said he hadn't heard of him. But there are days when his memory is foggy...that was one of them. Today after he read my blog post, he turned to me and said "I know where he's buried. I've been there". And he was totally correct. He described the exact location of the Milberger Cemetery as it's listed on FindAGrave and as it's shown on the map. Down to the County line! He said as a boy each time his family drove by the cemetery, his mom would say "That's where Dad's baby brother is buried". Now isn't it something that I'm 65 years old and had NEVER heard about this baby boy? Dad told me Heinrich ("Henry") is buried quite near his mom and dad and does not have a grave marker.  

Dad also noted as he read the Church Register entry that had been transcribed by Janet Flickinger that his grandmother Maria Katherina Winter (geb Kunz) Margheim was "geborn Kunz" or born Kunz. Dad remembers enough of his German to understand that. I had to go to Google translate yesterday to find that out. He didn't seem as shocked as I was. I just always knew my great-grandmother was Katie Winter. Now we need to find out if Winter was a first husband and what happened to him!

The story gets even crazier. I mentioned in my previous post yesterday that I originally discovered Heinrich when I saw him listed as a child to this family on FamilySearch. The entry was made by a Lisa Hagner. After I wrote my blog post I wrote an email last night to Lisa Hagner so she'd know what I found on FindAGrave. She replied to me tonight that she thought it was awesome and was happy to have been able to help me. Then her closing line in her email says: "I am wondering what (geb Kunz) means ...as Kunz is my maiden name." Do you believe it? My son was visiting this afternoon as I read this email and I just gasped and shared this new development with him.

I said in my previous post that I now have new research to do on the Kunz line and tonight I got my first lead, from the same woman who put me onto this trail in the first place. My ancestors are really at work here to get this story straightened out. I fully expect to find someday that my great-grandma Mary Katherine Kunz Winter Margheim is related to this Lisa Hagner. I will keep you all posted! Who knows what I'll learn next? 

Uncle Heinrich Margheim, I Never Knew You

Last weekend my husband and I attended the Colorado Family History Expo in Colorado Springs. I ate up every word spoken in his classes by James Tanner, Genealogist in Mesa, Arizona and author of Genealogy's Star blog. James is a wonderful resource for keeping up on developments at the rapidly changing FamilySearch.org. While listening to one of James's presentations, I got the idea of gradually transferring all the data in my RootsMagic database into the Family Tree at FamilySearch.org. My purpose for this is to preserve it for my descendants, who I'm sure will not update or even open my database after I'm gone. But someone down the line in the future may find it on FamilySearch. I also have my family tree on Ancestry.com but one of these days I will probably delete it and manage only one online tree.   

To follow up on my new plan, I signed into FamilySearch Tuesday evening, August 6. I quickly began attaching Records to my ancestors, starting with my Margheim family, since I was born Mary Rebecca Margheim. I discovered that family members or changes had been submitted to Family Search by two different individuals besides me: (1) Lisa Hagner and (2) SchenemenCharleneRenee1.

Before I went to bed (who could sleep?) I sent an email to Lisa Hagner asking about her identity and relationship to 'my' Margheim family. I grew up knowing my grandfather John L. Margheim (1900-1978) very well and had heard mention of each of his brothers and sisters. 

To my amazement, as I checked my email from my ipad late Tuesday evening, August 6, after writing to Lisa H., I found a letter of inquiry from Charlene West-Scheneman. The same name I had just read two hours earlier at the Family Search site! This is the opening of Charlene's email: "Hello, I am working on my family tree in FamilySearch and found that some of the info I am needing was entered and completed by you." Now I could have written those same words to HER the same evening! 

I knew the George Jacob and Katie Margheim family who is shown in this family portrait:

My grandfather is the youngest, shown above in the front center. 

My heart nearly skipped a beat as I was reviewing the family members listed on FamilySearch because they included a Heinrich, born August 6, 1891, died June 8, 1892. That had to be wrong! I'd never heard of a Heinrich in this family, nor had I ever heard of a son dying as a one year old child. 

When I visited my Dad yesterday I asked him if he ever heard that Grandpa Margheim (his father) had an older brother who died as a one year old. He had not. The reply I got by email this morning from the Lisa who had listed this child in the family told me she got the information from two other public family trees on Ancestry.com.  

I didn't have time to follow up on that today as I was busy teaching a Family History lesson to teenagers at our church. But this evening that was my top priority. Before I went to the trees on Ancestry.com I did a Google search for Heinrich Margheim. Related links led me to FindAGrave where I found a listing for all of the Margheims in the Milberger (Kansas Cemetery). I can't tell you how surprised I was when I saw a listing for Heinrich "Henry" Margheim, born 1891, died 1892. This information is added to his memorial and is very significant: "Death Records for Milberger Lutheran Church

Janet Laubhan Flickinger

(transcribed by Janet Flickinger) has an entry that reads: Heinrich Margheim (sic, they used the German spelling), died June 8, 1892. Child of Jacob and Maria Kath. Winter (geb Kunz) Margheim. He was born Aug. 6, 1891." So he was real. I digested this information as my husband and I fixed our dinner this evening. After eating, I went back to the paragraph from FindAGrave and re-read it carefully. I also finally added Heinrich to my database and entered the paragraph into the personal notes for Heinrich. 

Another surprise!!! "geb Kunz" was translated "born Kunz". Well, what do you know?! Does this tell me that my great-grandmother Mary Katherine Winter Margheim was born a Kunz? This story is just full of surprises. Does anyone else in the family know this? Can it really be true? It must be, as it was recorded in the church register at the time of her infant son's death. I'm employed as a Parish Administrator in the local Episcopal church and regularly make entries into the Parish Register. When death information is added, it is provided by family members. 

So now I have a lot more research to do on the Kunz family. That's going to have to wait for another day.