Sunday's Obituary - Another Newspaper, Another Obituary

Kewaskum Statesman,
Fri. 02AUG1963, pg1

I shared an obituary for George Herman previously. It was from a newspaper in West Bend, Wisconsin. I had also pulled one from a Kewaskum newspaper. It has much of the same information with a few alterations. Certainly worth sharing.

George Herman (also spelled "Hermann") is my husband's 2nd great uncle.

"George A. Herman, Sr.

George A. Herman, Sr., 74, of the town of Wayne, Allentown rural route, president of the Theresa Mutual Insurance Co., died unexpectedly early Monday morning, July 29, of a heart attack at his home.

A resident of the town of Wayne for 42 years, he was born on Sept. 21, 1888, in the town of Theresa, a son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Valentine Herman. His marriage to the former Alvina Hahn took place in the town of Theresa on Jan. 5, 1911. She preceded him in death on Feb. 18, 1951.

Mr. Herman was the father of four children, one of whom, a daughter Vinelda (Mrs. Alex Krell) predeceased in 1958. Surviving are one daughter Louise (Mrs. Ervin Butzlaff) of R. 2 Kewaskum; tow sons, George Herman, Jr. and Lyle Herman, both of Allentown rural route; one daughter-in-law, two sons-in-law, 11 grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, and a sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Zimdahl, of Allentown.

Funeral services were held at 2 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 1, at St. Lucas Lutheran church, Kewaskum., the Rev. Donald Bitter officiating. Burial took place in Union cemetery, Theresa. Prior to the services friends called at Miller's Funeral home from 2 p.m. Wednesday until 10:30 a.m. Thursday and at the church from 12 noon until the time of services."

Tuesday's Tip - Don't Rely on the Search Engine

Don't get angry when you don't find what you're
looking for in the main search engine. Look under
more specific databases!

So after being out of the genealogical loop for awhile I finally found the motivation (and time) to get back into things.  I started by going through my family tree and verifying that everything was sourced and had been researched to the best of my abilities.  A daunting task, but one that needed doing.  So I came across a couple in my tree that I hadn't been very good at getting information for.  I had a tombstone, knew who they belonged to by talking with family, but not much else.

I was looking at the tombstone for this couple, one Raymond and Hazel Herman buried in Union Cemetery in Dodge County, Wisconsin, when I noticed that Raymond died in 1959 at the age of about 39.  How young.  How sad.  I also noticed his wife outlived him by quite a lot and passed in 2006.  I did a search on Ancestry for Raymond Herman and got a bunch of nothing regarding his death.  This was before the SSDI really covered much so I wasn't too hopeful there.  I did find an obituary for his wife, Hazel, fairly easily.  The obit was wonderful and told me when they were married and the year for when he died.  Well, that's lovely, and very useful, but I wanted more of a date.  Even a month to go with that year would help.  A location of death would help too although looking at her obit I could narrow it down to Kohlsville, Washington County, WI.  Still I didn't want to be looking through an entire year's worth of obits to try to find Raymond.

So I jumped to the Ancestry.com homepage and clicked on the link for Birth, Marriage, and Death Records and saw a link on the far right under "Featured Collections" where I could search their entire card catalog.  I typed in "Wisconsin".  I was delighted when I saw that there was a death record index from 1959-1997.  I entered Raymond's name and it popped up as easy as that.  I have no idea why it didn't come up in my main search.  I had his name spelled the same as it appeared in the death record, but it took me actually searching that specific database to get anything.  Now I know that Raymond died on December 14th, 1959 and I can try to find an obituary or request a death certificate for him.  I need to verify that this Raymond truly was the child of Valentine and Hulda Herman.  Now I can get a little closer to doing just that.

Bottom line though...search engines can be temperamental. You can put your information into the main engine and find very little that is relevant to the person you're looking for, but if you perform the same search in a specific database, it can yield genealogical gold!

Happy hunting!

Sunday's Obituary - George Herman

West Bend News, 01AUG1963

"George A. Herman

Funeral services for George A. Herman, sr., a resident of the town of Wayne for the past 42 years, are being conducted at St. Lucas Lutheran church, Kewaskum, at 2 p.m. today (Thursday) with the Rev. Donald Bitter officiating.  Burial will be in Theresa Union cemetery at Theresa.  Friends called at the Miller funeral home, Kewaskum, from 2 p.m. Wednesday, to 10:30 today and at the church from noon to the times of the services.

Mr. Herman passed away very unexpectedly at his home early Monday, July 29.  Death was attributed to a heart attack.

He was born in the town of Theresa on Sept. 21, 1888 and married the former Alwina [sic] Hahn in that township on Jan. 5, 1911.  She passed away on Feb. 18, 1951.  Mr. and Mrs. Herman were the parents of four children, on of whom Vanelda (Mrs. Alex Krell), died in 1958.  Surviving are Louise (Mrs. Ervin Butzlaff), George, Jr. and Lyle, all residing at rural route, Kewaskum.

He also leaves 11 grandchildren, two great grandchildren, a daughter-in-law, two sons-in-law and a sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Zimdahl of Allenton.

Mr. Herman was president of the Theresa Mutual Insurance Co.  He was a son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Valentine Herman."

George Herman (also spelled "Hermann") is my husband's 2nd great uncle.  George's wife's name on her tombstone in spelled "Alvina". Still need to verify which is correct.

Sunday's Obituary - Valentine Herman

"V. Herman Of Allenton Dies Tuesday (hand-written 1954)
Valentine Herman, 63, of Allenton, died Tuesday, Sept. 21, in that village.

He is survived by his wife, nee Hulda Hahn; three sons, Erwin, Raymond and William; four grandchildren, three daughters-in-law, two brothers, Carl and George, and two sisters, Mrs. Elizabeth Zimdahl and Mrs. Dora Kuehl.

Funeral services will be held Friday afternoon, Sept. 24, at 1:30 o'clock at Zion's Lutheran church Kohlsville, the Rev. G. Kaniess officiating.  Interment will be in Union cemetery, Theresa.  In state at the Ritger funeral home, Allenton after 1 p. m. today (Thursday) and until 11 a. m. Friday, and from noon until the hour of services at the church."

Valentine was actually the son of Valentin Hermann and Ernestine Mueller.  The surname can be spelled with one or two n's at the end. Valentine Jr was my husband's great-great uncle.

Sunday's Obituary - Johannes Hermann August Kuehl

Unknown Wisconsin newspaper

Oh how I love that name! Gut und German!  He wasn't born in Germany, nor was his father, but a fine German name he was given, and to a ripe old age he lived!  He was going by "John" at the time of his death so that's what's seen in his obituary.  John Kuehl is my husband's great-grandfather.

June 6-1974 - handwritten (unknown which Wisconsin newspaper clipping was published in)

"John Kuehl

John Kuehl, 90, of Route 3, Campbellsport, formerly of Kewaskum, died Thursday evening at St. Joseph's Community Hospital, West Bend.

He was born Sept. 14, 1883, near Theresa.  He married Dora Herman on Nov. 6 1906, at St. Jacob's Church in the Town of Theresa.

Mr. Kuehl was a retired farmer and carpenter.  He farmed in the Town of Wayne for 30 years, in 1947 he moved to Kewaskum where he resided until 1970 and the past four years with a son, Elmer at Route 3, Campbellsport.

Survivors include three sons, Roman and Elmer of Route 3, Campbelsport, [sic] and Marvin of West Bend; a daughter, Mrs. Leroy Stean [sic] of Sheboygan Falls; 13 grandchildren; 40 great-grandchildren; three great-great-grandchildren; and three brothers, William of Milwaukee, Paul of West Bend and Rudy of Minneapolis, Minn.

He was preceded in death by his wife of Feb. 22, 1958, by a son, Lester, during World War II, and a son in infancy.

Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday at Salem United Church of Christ at Wayne.  The Rev. Timothy Prasad will officiate and burial will follow in the church cemetery.

Visitation for Mr. Kuehl will be from 4 p.m. Saturday and until 11 a.m. Sunday at Miller's Funeral Home, Kewaskum, and at the church from noon Sunday until the time of services."

John's daughter is listed as Mrs. Leroy Stean, and the surname should be Strean.