A Hard To Find Woman
My paternal grandmother, Mayvis, wrote an autobiography of her life and I am forever grateful for those words she left behind. I have found myself reading them again and again and finding something new in them that I didn't notice the time before. I cherish this document.
This very document also helped me to strengthen my family tree. I was following an incorrect path in my ancestry research when my aunt shared with me the autobiography her mother, my grandmother, wrote. This document introduced me, although briefly, to Mary Arnold. Previous to this document I had never heard of Mary Arnold. I had only heard of Bertha Sippel, Frederick's 2nd wife. Hers was the only paper trail visible. There were census documents with her name along with Fred's but nothing of this Mary. So, I just assumed there was just one wife, Bertha, and she was my 2GGM but I was wrong Mary was my 2GGM.
After I read grandma's autobiography and was introduced to Mary Arnold, I was off and running or shall I say researching. I searched the ancestry sites and still nothing on a Mary Arnold no census data, no other family trees, no trace of her. I began searching newspapers from Nashville, IL and found this clipping:
Notice the little boy arrived at Fred's residence - no mention of Mary.
and this...
I have to admit this one was exciting because now I was introduced to a relative of Mary's. How were they are related? I don't know because it says he is a relative of Mr. F. L. Wenzel. Again, Mary is invisible.
And then there were several like this "Mr. and Mrs. Fred Wenzel"
At this point in my research I didn't know that Mary had died already so I didn't know which Mrs. Fred Wenzel this article was referring to Mary or Bertha.
While looking in the newspaper the articles did not appear in the search in chronological order so I was so excited to finally have this one pop up for me:
All this time I was searching for Mary Arnold but unbeknownst to me she was Margaret Arnold. Knowing this information now just had to mean I would find an abundance of information on Margaret "Mary"...Nope...
I did, however, learn from Fred's obituary that she died in 1891 and they had four sons:
And then I learned a little more from her brother, John's, obituary:
Here I learned that John was Margaret's brother, where he was born and assumed she was born there as well.
I was starting to get a picture of Margaret through the men in her life. It was becoming apparent that she was not important enough as a woman to be known separately from the men she was connected to. No obituary can be found on her or any other information.
So, again, I am grateful to my grandmother for leaving me the breadcrumb about her grandmother, Mary. Passing on the information about this important woman in our family who was a vital part in our history allowed me to find her so she is not forgotten and visible to our future generations of valuable women.
Meet Elisabeth Margarethe "Mary" Arnold
I have just recently made a break through when I connected with a 5th cousin in Germany and have learned more about her family. Where she is from, who her parents and other siblings were.
She was Born 8 June 1856 in Fürstengrund, Germany and baptized on 22 Jun 1856. Fürstengrund is now known as Bad König. Her parents are Johann Nikolaus Arnold and Anna Margaretha Flechsenhaar and they were married 09 MAR 1851. Johann was a carpenter and Anna was a day laborer.
She had six siblings: Michael Arnold 1849-1922, Eva Elisabeth 1851-1905, Johannes 1859-1869, Apollonia 1862-1931, Johann Nikolaus "John", whom we have met already, 1867-1932 and unnamed infant 1869-1869. It seems that only her brother John and herself immigrated to the United States.
Her paternal grandfather, Johannes, was a shepherd and it appears she comes from a line of men who were shepherds of sheep.
She married Frederick Wenzel around 22 DEC 1882 in Okawville, IL which is the date the paper listed their marriage license. They moved to Nashville, IL shortly after the wed and had four sons. One of which was my great grandfather, Emil 1883-1929. The others were Frederick 1885-1948, Henry 1886-1952 and Albert 1889-1966. A couple of them settled in St. Louis, MO and a couple in the Chicagoland area.
She died in 1891 and is buried in St. Paul's Evangelical Cemetery next to Fred in Block B.
I will continue my quest to learn and share about the other women that have come before me and have made presence here "seen".
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