A win in 2023, and on to 2024
It was just a year ago when The Legal Genealogist resolved to solve, once and for all, the mystery of the marriage of the New Year’s Eve baby.
The baby was my father’s aunt, born, the church records say, at 9:30 a.m. on 31 December 1888 in the village of Bad Köstritz, and baptized Elly Emma Martha Maria Geissler in the Lutheran church there on 24 January 1889.1 That was in what was then the principality of Reuß jüngerer Linie and is now the German State of Thüringen.2
And the mystery was how Elly could have entered the United States from Germany as Elly Froemke in 19273 when the record of her marriage to Paul Froemke was dated 1935.4
So my New Year’s resolution was to solve the mystery, with my theory being that Elly had married Paul in Germany while visiting her family there.5
And, with the help of readers, it turned out to be even weirder than I’d thought: Paul and Elly married for the first time in 1926,6 divorced in January 1935,7 and then married a second time in May of that same year.8
As much as I’d love to know the backstory to that, since there’s no one alive who can shed light on that…
Case closed.
2023 resolution complete.
So… what’s on the list for 2024?
I resolve to stand in the church where Elly was baptized — the church where her parents, my great grandparents were married and where all of her siblings, including my paternal grandfather Hugo Ernst Geissler, were baptized.
After having to cancel a long-planned trip to Germany scheduled for — sigh — September 2020, I resolve to go to Germany in 2024 and walk in the footsteps of my German ancestors.
That’ll mean time in that German State of Thüringen, and also in next-door Sachsen-Anhalt, for my grandfather’s side of the family, and in Bremen and environs for my grandmother’s side.
I’ve blocked time off my calendar in September-October for this trip — close to three weeks with no other speaking or travel obligations.
So… what’s on your genealogical resolution list for 2024?
Cite/link to this post: Judy G. Russell, “Resolved and resolved!,” The Legal Genealogist (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : posted 31 Dec 2023).
SOURCES
- Kirchenbuch Bad Köstritz, Taufregister Seite 57 Nr. 89 aus 1888 (Church book, Baptismal Register, Page 57, no. 89 of 1888); digital image of entry in the possession of JG Russell. ↩
- See Wikipedia (https://de.wikipedia.org), “Reuß jüngerer Linie,” rev. 14 Dec 2023. ↩
- Manifest, S.S. George Washington, 9 September 1927, page 218 (stamped), line 7, Elly Froemke; digital images, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 31 Dec 2023); citing NARA microfilm publication T715, roll 4125. ↩
- Cook County, Ill., Marriage License and Return No. 1446337, Froemke-Geissler, 4 May 1935; digital image in the possession of JG Russell. ↩
- See Judy G. Russell, “The New Year’s Eve baby and the resolution,” The Legal Genealogist, posted date (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : accessed 31 Dec 2023). ↩
- “Illinois, Cook County Marriages, 1871-1968,” entry for Paul A Froemke and Elly Geissler, 28 June 1926; database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1463145 : accessed 20 Jan 2023). ↩
- Froemke v. Froemke, Case No. 34C22464, Cook County, Illinois, Circuit Court, Chicago; digital image in the possession of JG Russell. ↩
- Cook County, Ill., Marriage License and Return No. 1446337, Froemke-Geissler, 4 May 1935. ↩
While I was in Germany, a lot of my short trips went through Cologne, a beautiful old city and home of Martin Luther. Legend has it that two women argued about Luther during the Diet of Worms. One of them, a follower of Luther, took her staff and thrust it into the ground, exclaiming: “By the truth that this staff will take root and grow into a tree, by the same truth are Luther’s teachings true.” The trunk of this old tree is huge. I was friends with quite a few of the German people in Michelstadt and a lot of these were Lutheran. After a trip to South Dakoto to see my sister, a lot of those folks are Lutheran and of German decent. Did any of your folks migrate on into S.D.?
On my genealogical resolution list for 2024 is to find the parents/siblings of my great grandmother, Mary Theresa Keller, who came from Prussia. I had searched for her husband, Frank Sterck/Stark’s family for 40 years before finding them last year thanks to DNA matches on Ancestry. Mary Theresa, being female, will be a bit harder to find but I am determined to find her family!
It will be such a rewarding and emotional experience to stand in their church and see where they lived.
Goosebumps will happen. I have been in the churches of my German immigrant ancestors, one set marriage place and baptismal for the other set. It is so moving.
And as a plus, you will be there in time for Oktoberfest!
My goal this year is to prove that my mother’s side of the family, through her maternal grandmother, descends from a Revolutionary War participant by name John O’Connor Smith. While several of John O’Connor Smith’s children are proven at DAR, the daughter I believe to be our ancestor is not. If I can prove this connection, then I will have Revolutionary War ancestors on both sides of my family.