WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

                                                 ADOLPH NEBGEN AND FAMILY

SWEET ADELAIDE

Sometimes, old family friends seem to feel more like family than just friends of your grandparents or parents. Adelaide Mayer was one of those people.  According to my Grandma Theresa (Nebgen Sherlock), she was her oldest and dearest friend.  She told me that they had been friends since they were girls. I don't know if they went to school together or met after that.  I decided to do some research and see if I could possibly pinpoint when their two paths first met.  Is that even possible?

All I knew about Adelaide was that she was about Grandma Theresa's age and that her current last name was Mayer.  She had been married when she was younger but that marriage hadn't lasted and there were no children.  I located a marriage certificate for Adelaide.  How lucky is that?  So, according to the license, her maiden name was Mayer and that is also the name she returned to after her divorce.  Adelaide married Adolph G. Haberstroh, Jr. on Dec. 31, 1919 (which was New Year's Eve).  They were married by the Assistant Pastor of Queen of the Angels Parish.  The license lists Adolph as 22 years old and Adelaide as 20 years old.  I wished they would have listed witnesses on the certificate because I would bet that Theresa was her maid (matron) of honor.

Now, to located Adelaide Mayer in the US Census. According to the 1900 US Census, Adelaide was living in Chicago with her father Bernard, her mother Marguerite, her older sisters Marguerite (age 8) and Veronica (age 2).  Adelaide was listed as one years old, but her birth date was listed as May 1899.  According to the 1910 US Census, Adelaide lived in Chicago with her father, mother, and older sister Marguerite and younger brother Bernard.  There is no mention of her older sister Veronica, who would have been 12 years old at the time. I wonder if she died between 1900 and 1910.  The organist from the church, William Esswein, also lived with them. The 1920 US Census lists Adelaide (now with the last name of Haberstroh) living with her parents and her spouse and younger brother Bernard.

Back to my research and more news about Adelaide in my next post ...

THOSE PLACES THURSDAY

I love this photo of my Grandpa Charlie (Sherlock) in Germany (I think!) in 1961.  This was a part of their month-long trip to Europe.  Whenever I see this photo, I think it looks like it is from one of his movies when actually  it was from his life.

On that trip, they took a cruise down the Rhine River and visited cities along the Rhine.  I am thinking that this is from one of those side trips. I have a photo of Grandma Theresa also with this officer, but of course, hers is  much more the typical pose of two people looking at the camera.

What is also typical of this photo of my Grandma and the German officer is that they are not posed in the middle of the photo.  Grandpa Charlie always took photos like this. He would say that he already knew what his family members looked like, he wanted to get the scenery as the focus point.

I do love how they were dressed up in all of the photos of this trip.  I guess that was custom in that time while now we are much more casual. Sometimes, I do yearn for those days ...

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

                                                 About 1890's, possibly Bridget Chambers

FATHER'S DAY 2013

How can I not post a photo of my Dad on Father's Day?  This is a photo of my Dad (Donald Sherlock) and me in Palm Springs when I was a baby.  My Grandparents had friends in Palm Springs so I am assuming it was at their house. My Dad would have been 26 years old at the time.  He looks very young.

Happy Father's Day, Dad!  Thinking of you today and always!

TWIN SISTERS

This is a follow-up to my Wednesday post.  My paternal grandmother Theresa Nebgen Sherlock's mother Theresa Homrich Nebgen (confused yet?) had a twin sister Josephine Homrich Schmidt.  According to family legend and the newspaper clipping, their father Sebastian Homrich couldn't tell them apart until they were 14 years old.

I remember Grandma Theresa telling us kids the story often that her mother was one of a set of twins.  I think that was a big deal in those days.  Now with the help of fertility pills and IVF, twins and other multiple births are a lot more common.

Theresa Homrich married Peter Joseph Nebgen while her twin sister Josephine married Joseph Anthony Schmidt. Theresa's older sister Helen was married to Peter Nebgen's older brother Nicholas.  Yeah, it is fun doing my family tree!

What I found very interesting was not that Theresa and Josephine died 6 years apart -- Theresa in 1945 and Josephine in 1939, but that it was 1 day apart -- Theresa on May 7th and Josephine on May 6th.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

                                                Theresa and Josephine Homrich