Tombstone Tuesday - Do You Understand What it Says?

A tombstone can tell you a lot...if you know what it says!

Here we have a tombstone for Ernestine E. Hermann.  It tells you that her maiden name (name at birth/born as) was Muller (also spelled with an umlaut over the "u", and as Mueller).  It also tells you that her husband was Valentin Hermann.  She was born on September 28, 1860 and died on May 18, 1904.

Now most genealogists would be able to figure most of that out without knowing German, but if you weren't careful you could get it wrong.

Anyway, Valentin and Ernestine Hermann nee Muller are my husband's 2nd great grandparents.  Ernestine was born in Germany and they were married in Wisconsin around 1881. They had 5 known children:  Carl, Elizabeth, Dorathea (my husband's great grandmother), George and Valentine (Jr).  Ernestine and Valentin are buried in Union Cemetery, Theresa, Dodge County, WI

A bit odd.  I never realized that Ernestine was only 43 when she died.  She was fairly young. Sometimes I forget that just because these people lived what seems to be a long time ago, it doesn't mean that they were actually old.  How sad that she still had children that were living at home when she died.  I will have to go in search of her death certificate (which I may have in a stack of papers), because I would like to know why she died so young.