Hidden in my Hometown Newspaper 1942

I'm grateful that my dad was a saver and that I had the privilege of cleaning out his house at the end of his life! I recently moved some of the items from his "archives" in my house and two copies of the Great Bend (Kansas) Daily Tribune from July, 1942 caught my eye. They are brittle and need to be handled with great care. It's my hope to send them to the Barton County (Kansas) Historical Society for permanent storage so others can enjoy their contents. 

Here's the reason Dad saved these copies. 

This photo from the July 9, 1942 edition of the Daily Tribune shows the men who were recently inducted into the Army. 

In this photo, my father is shown as being among the inductees. He's Ernest Margheim, 5th from left. It's interesting to note that this was printed in the July 9, 1942 edition. Exactly one year later, on July 9, 1943, Dad was home on Leave and married my mother, Ruby Flanders. This clipping is also from that edition of the Tribune: 

Nearing 500 Stories in 10 Years and a Cousin's Visit

It was on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 that I created my blog “Grace and Glory” and wrote my first post on the blog. It was a short post, so I’m sharing it here:

Two of My Favorite Words

For my first blog post, I want to explain why I've chosen 'Grace and Glory' for the name of my blog. Simply, they are two of my favorite words. I love the name "Grace"; I love the act of Grace--to honor or favor, to give beauty, elegance or charm, to reprieve. I love the meaning of Glory: intelligence, beauty and splendor, perfect happiness, honor, praise, distinction, height of achievement. How can you beat that?

I will be talking about my life and the people in it, the thoughts I have about it, the lessons I'm learning from it, and since genealogy/family history is my passion, even those in my family who have gone before me and who have come together to make me who I am. I can reflect and recall with grace--to honor my life and family. And I can reflect and recall in Glory--remembering beauty, intelligence, happiness, and achievement. The way I see it--it all fits!

I'm just getting started, and this is my first Baby Step!

The Blogger statistics tell me that I’ve written 492 stories in the past 10 years. I was hoping to hit the 500 mark, but have been busy these last few weeks helping my husband adjust to new health concerns. I haven’t been able to study and share my ancestors’ stories or do any new research into my family history.

I was very blessed, however, to have spent the past three days enjoying a personal visit from my first cousin Nancy Flanders Orrick. Nancy’s father Albert Flanders, was an older brother of my mother Ruby Flanders Margheim Craine. 

Here’s a picture of my mother with her brother Albert in the late 1930s.

I lived my childhood with my twin brother Dennis, my dad Ernest Margheim, and my step-mother Phyllis (Jones) Margheim. Dennis & I visited our mother Ruby after her divorce from our dad and spent a few weekends throughout our early childhood in Stafford, Kansas with her family members. So we did meet and get acquainted with cousins and our grandparents, Milo and Nannie (Becker) Flanders. But as visitors, we missed a lot of interaction with our biological family. 

So when I’ve had the opportunity to spend days with my cousin Nancy, it’s been a real blessing. She has provided ancestor and family information that I’d never have secured otherwise. And more than that, she’s provided a very personal connection to me from that side of my family. I’d have received that from nobody else! We lovingly call ourselves “Sisters”.

Thank you, Nancy, for making a very special effort to come to Canon City, CO and spend time with me and Larry, and for sharing your friendship, your stories, your insights, your time, and your love with me. It's the best way for me to have celebrated being with FAMILY at the time of the 10-year anniversary of my personal and family history blog "Grace and Glory". You've given me the meat for one more post here in my family journal. Only 7 more to go to hit that magical 500 mark. 

The Stiebens, Straits, and Margheims are getting my attention

I recently received a message from my genealogist cousin Kate Keller, letting me know one of her cousins on my mother’s side was married to one of my cousins on my father’s side. I was grateful for her lead and promptly drew up this chart showing the connections she referred to.

Since I’m “Mary Rebecca Margheim” in this chart, you can see that Leroy Stieben, my dad’s 5th cousin, was married to Juanita Grace Strait, who was my mother’s 2nd cousin one generation removed. I wrote a blog post about this here: https://beckysgraceandglory.blogspot.com/2018/07/dads-cousin-married-moms-cousin.html
As I filed this chart in my laptop, I noticed that I already had a chart showing this connection! I looked at my blog postings and noticed that I had written a story about this connection back in October 2012! This is the chart I composed at that time.

Two days ago on Facebook, I awakened to this Memory that Facebook shared with me from 2014.

This is the photo I have in my collection:

And this is the image of the back side of the photo:


I’m grateful that my dad typed this information after interviewing Mrs. Emanuel Flagler. If he hadn’t taken advantage of the opportunity to do that, I’d have no way of ever knowing who this beautiful photograph represented! Notice that Elizabeth Margheim is listed and noted that she married Henry Stieben. So 4 years after I posted this picture on Facebook, I’m again, just this week, reminded of the Stieben Margheim connection that my cousin Kate referred to a few days ago.
A few days ago I received a notification of “Hints” available for my tree at Ancestry.com. I only had time to review the Photo Hints, noticing that among them was this picture of Elizabeth Margheim, wife of Henry Stieben.

Now this morning I awoke to an email from Ancestry.com notifying me of available hints for Leroy Henry Stieben!

So in this past week,  (1) I was reminded by Kate Keller of the family connection, (2) I developed a new chart and wrote a new blog post about his connection, then (3) discovered that 4 years ago I’d prepared a chart and wrote a blog post about the same discovery. Then (4) Facebook reminded me of the photo and blog post I’d written 4 years ago with my dad’s photo and description, (5) this week Ancestry offered photo hints and I found Elizabeth Margheim Stieben listed, and (6) this morning Ancestry displays front and center in my email that I have hints to pursue for Elizabeth’s son Leroy Stieben! I think the Stieben, Margheim and Strait families are trying to get my attention. I need to follow up on all the hints available at Ancestry and see what else is waiting for me to discover!

Tragedies 25 Years Apart

Occasionally something happens during the course of our family history research that spurs a blog post so we can document the noteworthy event. Many years ago as I researched my father’s Margheim family, I discovered a tragedy that had happened in the family in 1934. My Dad related some of the details as he remembered them, which brought the event even more to life for me. Here’s a news clipping that divulges this family tragedy.

Fred Margheim was the older brother of my grandfather John Ludwig Margheim. Fred was born 22 April 1886 and was married to Pauline Becker. It wasn’t until I thoroughly researched my mother’s family too, that I discovered this Pauline Becker was a first cousin of my maternal grandmother! This chart shows that my mother Ruby Flanders was the first cousin once removed of Pauline Becker Margheim.

Fred’s death is listed as 15 Sep 1934. The article above says he’d been missing for 10 days when his body was found on September 25, 1934. It’s tragic that he might have committed suicide. I say “might have” because even though the news article says suicide was the official ruling of the County Coroner, the family did not believe that was his cause of death.

Just last week I received an email from a woman whom I had never met. Cynthia was asking for my help with her “Margheim family”. She told me her father died when she was young and she knew next to nothing about his family or ancestry. Through further email exchanges, I discovered that her father was the son of the Fred Margheim above. I was happy to hear from her since our family’s never had any contact with any descendants of Fred and Pauline. I inquired more about her father’s death. She told me he had died in a river, just as his father had done.

It just happens that during the same week that I heard from this woman, I had subscribed to newspapers.com. So I took a chance and entered her father’s name into a search on newspapers.com. I was saddened by what I read in a news article that appeared through the search.

My new Margheim contact lost her father when she was only 3 months old. She had 6 older brothers and sisters. Imagine how that tragedy and loss impacted that precious family.

I was struck by the similarities in the deaths of Fred and his son Arthur. I enter here a side-by-side comparison of those tragedies for your review.

Almost exactly 25 years to the day that Fred Margheim’s life ended, his son Arthur’s life ended apparently in much the same way. Fred died at age 47, while Arthur died at age 48. I’m saddened by these losses in the family and amazed at the similarities that are evident. It gives me much food for thought.

PS: Here's a chart that shows that Cynthia Margheim McKaughan is my cousin through my mother's family as well as my father's family. 

I don’t have a picture of Arthur Margheim, but I have this wedding picture of Fred and Pauline from 1910.

Take My Hand: a Moment of Serendipity

I’m off work on Fridays so Friday morning is my alone time to do our laundry and clean our house. While I do that I like to listen to CDs of music from years ago. This morning my choice was Neil Diamond. As I listened to his love songs, with my work done, I explored some of the old German books from the collection I inherited from my father after his death in 2014. The book pictured above has the title “So nimm denn meine hande!”
We can see inside that it belonged to my grandfather, John Ludwig Margheim.

The book was published in 1910 when my Grandpa was 10 years old. It’s nice that the autograph also tells me that Grandpa lived at 414 E. 4th St, Hoisington, KS at that time.
I sat down at my computer this morning to look up on Google the translation of the book title. As I was doing so, I was singing along to Neil Diamond as he sang one of my favorite songs “Cant Help Falling in Love with You”. I particularly like the closing of the song, when he says “Take my hand, take my whole life too, for I can’t help falling in love with you.”
As I was singing that final phrase with Neil Diamond, the results of my Google search came up and I clicked to translate. Almost to my unbelief, what I found was “So Take my Hands”. Here are the words to the song, from which the book title comes:
Julie Hausmann, 1862; English text
So take my hands
And lead me
Until my blessed end
And forever!
I do not like walking alone,
Not a step;
Where you will go and stand,
Take me there.
2. In your mercy envelope
My weak heart
And make it completely quiet
In joy and pain.
Let them rest at your feet
Your poor child;
He wants to close his eyes
And believe blindly.
3. If I do not feel the same
From your power,
You bring me to the goal,
Also through the night.
So take my hands
And lead me
Until my blessed end
And forever!
I’m very fortunate to have possession of Grandpa’s book and especially happy that I was prompted to review it this morning. I won’t listen to Neil Diamond again without making the connection to my grandfather John Ludwig Margheim (1900-1978) and his little church book. Serendipity at its best!

Selections from my dad’s Army service 1942-1945

I recently posted a story about receiving two letters my dad wrote to his in-laws while serving in France during World War II, in 1944. In response to that story, my cousin Shanon Martin asked for more details about Dad’s Army service. I’m posting some facts and pictures here in answer to her questions.

Ernest Ludwig Margheim entered the Army in July, 1942. This picture shows him with his younger brother Leonard and parents John and Mollie before he left the train station in Great Bend, KS.

On July 9, 1943, while home on leave, Dad married Ruby Flanders in Hoisington, KS.

Here are assorted photos of Dad and Mom spending time together at the home of his parents at 114 E. 6th St. in Hoisington, KS.

Here are assorted photos of my father during his service in Europe.

I have quite a collection of photos of the landscape in Europe during that time. Here are a few selected pictures.

Dad served most of his tour as an Instrument Repairman. And of course, with it being during World War II, he served under General George Patton and was a member of the troops at Utah Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

An accidental identification of an heirloom

My cousin's husband recently passed away. As I was looking through photos of his family this morning, something caught my attention in this photo.

Mike, Michele and Jason Kurvink

Mike and Michele were seated at the dining table in the home of my paternal grandparents, John and Mollie Margheim in Hoisington, Kansas. In the background is one of my grandmother's china cabinets. I noticed the plate in the top shelf of the cabinet and recognized it as one I have in my china cabinet today. 

A long-time mystery has finally been solved. I thought my dad had told me this plate had belonged to my maternal grandmother, Nannie (Becker) Flanders. Many years ago I showed it to my mother Ruby (Flanders) Craine who said she didn't recognize it. I was disappointed that it hadn't been an heirloom of my Flanders grandparents. 

I'm happy today to realize this plate belonged to my dear Grandma Mollie Margheim, the best grandma any child could have. So while today I acknowledge the sorrow I feel for my cousin Michele at the passing of her dear husband Michael, I recognize a spark of joy at identifying a precious heirloom from my grandparents. At this point in my life, that's a precious thing!

There are Poets in my family

I have a small collection of poems written by my mother Ruby Flanders Craine and her brother Mervin Flanders. I recently realized some of my cousins from that family were not aware of this talent in our family. So I'm sharing them here for their benefit.

My twin brother has also authored many poems, but I'll keep them private for now. It's good to know that he inherited his creative talent from our mother. I inherited my strength for names, dates, organization and attention to detail from our father. But I didn't inherit much creative talent! 

Cousins connect my maternal grandfather's line to my maternal grandmother's line

I'm so blessed to have a second cousin, Kate (Smith) Keller who's an avid genealogist. She asked me recently if I had a Vivian Aileen Smith in my genealogy database who was married to a Flanders. Kate's grandmother Edna May Becker and my grandmother Nannie Becker were sisters, so Kate knew that my grandmother Nannie Becker was married to Milo Flanders. I did have Aileen Smith in my database, but had no spouse listed. 

Kate told me that Vivian Smith's husband was Joseph L. Flanders. With a little research I found that Joseph L. Flanders was indeed my distant cousin. So Kate and I realized her cousin was married to my cousin and that union connected my mom's father's (Flanders) line to my mom's mother's (Becker) family.

I drew up the above chart to show those connections. It always helps me understand the connections when I can see them laid out like this. 

Our Family Connections to RootsTech Speakers

In two of the classes I attended at the RootsTech 2017 Conference, the speakers mentioned who their fathers were. You have to know that, armed with that information, I'm going to see if you might have a family connection to me or my husband!

Two of the guest speakers on Discovery Day were Elder Russell M. Nelson and his wife Wendy Watson Nelson. Wendy told us her father's name was Leonard David Watson and her family lived in Alberta, Canada. From previous research on my husband's ancestry, I knew he had family connections at McGrath and Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada in the early 1900s. They were sent by authorities in the LDS church to settle communities there. So I was curious if some of Wendy's ancestors might have been acquainted with Larry's ancestors.

When I attended the highly enjoyable class that Ron Tanner, Product Manager of the Family Tree for FamilySearch, taught on the future of the Family Tree, I heard him tell us that his father's name was Cleon Burnell Tanner. I have Tanners in my RootsMagic database, so I looked for Cleon Tanner. He wasn't already there, but a bit of research on the Family Tree showed me how he connected to those I already had in my database.  

With that information at hand, I was able to prepare the chart at the top of this post, using Microsoft Publisher to draw the pedigrees and connect them where appropriate. When I finished the tree, I added a few photos for visual interest. 

I won't go into the detail of every family connection, but you can see at the bottom left that I start with Larry Jamison, my husband, and end at the bottom right with ME!

Take a couple of minutes and study the pedigree charts, with the directional arrows showing the descendancies. It probably doesn't matter how we're all connected, but I always find it fascinating to make these discoveries. I don't go along with the adage, "We're all related anyway!" because there are families who can't find a connection to anyone else's ancestry. And we can't simply make them up or force individuals to tie together. I'm blessed to have a pretty good recall of names, which helps me as I discover these connections. And I find them significant.

Cousins that I share with Edgar Allan Poe

The Ancestry app "We're Related" advised me today that Edgar Allan Poe is my distant cousin. As I looked at the suggested connection, I saw that we are both descendants of Anthony and Susanna Haddon Colby. Among other notable descendants of this couple are Joseph Smith, Jr, founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Bruce R. McConkie, an Apostle in that same church. My great aunt, Lorena Colby, wife of my great uncle Truman Flanders is also a descendant of Anthony and Susanna Colby. 

I prepared this chart to show the descendancies among the family, with accompanying photos of my cousins.  

Gen. Geo Patton: My Dad served under the command of my Cousin

In a blog post here earlier today, I posted these two pictures from one of my father's heirloom Bibles that showed his entry about his military service. 

We can see at the top of the photo above that Dad was part of the Third Army which was under the command of Gen. George S. Patton.

I'm showing in the chart below that Gen. Patton was my 8th cousin, one generation back, through my mother's father's Flanders family line. 

While I never did have the chance to discuss this with my dad while he was alive, I know he'd have been quite interested and even impressed. But somehow, I believe he knows now. And someday he can recall all those WWII stories to me and my family again. We have lots to talk about, don't we, Dad. 

Dad's Bible holds Marriage, Military and Birth Information

Prior to our move to a different house Nov 1, 2016, my twin brother Dennis helped arrange the sale of my piano to his friends in El Paso, TX. As they made plans to travel to Colorado to buy my piano, Dennis told me he was sending with them, for delivery to me, Dad's Bible that he'd been given in recent years. I was thrilled, as I had no knowledge of this Bible's existence. 

Pictured at left is that "New Standard Reference Bible". It's huge, heavy, and just like new. As I leafed through it I found three bookmarks and noticed that my mother had completed the information on her marriage to my dad, as seen below. 

Also completed on the information pages is a complete record of my dad's service in the US Army. 

What a treasure! My dad, Ernest Ludwig Margheim, was a list-maker and record-keeper and treasured his family history. So I have this information on other paperwork. But it's wonderful to have this succinct record here in this Bible. 

As I flipped through the Bible, I found just this one newspaper clipping. It was published in the Great Bend Tribune at the time of the birth of me and my twin brother.

When I sold my piano, I certainly had no idea I'd be gifted in return with this family heirloom. I'm grateful to my brother for entrusting me with this keepsake Bible. 

My Dad would Love this Cousin Connection

As I've been exploring cousin connections, I've found many surprises. I posted this chart yesterday showing how my father's Volga German ancestry was connected to cousins on my mother's side of the family, who were not Volga Germans. 

I continued to look at descendants of the Richard Hill and Sarah Strait family and noticed the name of Acuff. Being the daughter of Ernie Margheim, I KNOW that Acuff name. Dad, as "The Sunflower Wrangler" was a singer/guitarist of Western music in the late 1930s and 1940s. He had quite a collection of Western music and memorabilia, among which were recordings and song books of Roy Acuff. 

This chart illustrates my connection through cousins to the late Roy Acuff. His 2nd cousin (2 generations back), Zulema Wallace married Mark Cord Hill, my 5th cousin 3 generations removed. I know my dad knows of this connection now, but it would've been fun to have had the opportunity to show him and discuss this while he was alive. My dad was interested in the family history decades before I ever caught on. He'd be so thrilled.

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!