Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
Politics and Religion
My latest family history (non-)discoveries

My latest family history (non-)discoveries

Last updated on: April 3, 2017 at 7:36 am by Jane the Actuary

My latest family history (non-)discoveries 2017-04-02T21:35:25-06:00 Jane the Actuary

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Not long ago, I wrote about my discovery that the answer to all our family questions was seemingly waiting to be uncovered at the St. Louis County Public Library genealogy department.

And, over the weekend, as a small trip during the kids’ spring break, we drove down to St. Louis, and spent some time looking at microfilm, to find . . .

nothing.

No evidence of church membership, baptisms, confirmations, or marriages, at what was supposedly the family church for generations.

All we found were gravestones, at a visit later on to the family cemetery, Friedens Cemetery.

So on the drive back (and, to answer your question, no, we didn’t just look at the microfilm and come back; we had a proper tourist visit), we brainstormed.

What we knew was this:

Emile Schwartz married Wilhelm Wittkoetter in 1885, promptly gave birth to two daughters, and he died two years later, before the second child was even born.

She then married Edward Debush, had 4 more daughters, two of whom died as infants, and then he himself died in 1897.

One of those daughters, Amelia, then married Richard Stapleton, gave birth to a son who died in infancy in 1910, and a daughter, my grandmother, in 1913. Then Richard died in 1917. She eventually remarried, to Oscar Kostedt, gave birth to another died-in-infancy child and two more children who lived to old age.

In the cemetery we found graves for, in one section:

My grandmother and grandfather
her father Richard Stapleton
and her mother Amelia Kostedt.

In another section we found

Annie Debush, one of Emile’s daughters, who survived infancy but died in 1906 at the age of 19.
Emile herself, who died in 1908.
And the baby Richard Stapleton, who died in 1910.

But what about the earlier deaths — that of Wilhelm Wittkoetter, and Edward Debush and the two babies?

Turns out, for Wilhelm there’s only a death listing online, but for the Debushes there are death certificates, which list their place of burial, and this is not the Lutheran cemetery at all, but the Catholic cemetery Holy Trinity. And this isn’t just any Catholic cemetery, but is described at findagrave.com as a cemetery for the poor.

Oh, and Holy Trinity is, or was (it seems to have been paved over and is now either a parking lot or the interstate) the cemetery in the Holy Trinity (now Most Holy Trinity) parish boundaries, and every address that Amelia, William, and Edward are listed as having lived at (according to census records, death certificates, and city directories) is in the very immediate vicinity of this church.

So our new operating assumption is that she was Catholic, not Lutheran, during the 1880s and 1890s.

Why, then, are the members of the family who died in the 1900s, buried in the Lutheran cemetery?

Our only guess — and it really is just a guess — is that some benefactor came along, who provided financial assistance but also prodded the family, or Amelia at least, to become Lutheran. We know that Lillie, another sister, was employed as a servant in 1910, and this was a common occupation for young women at the time.

So now we need to go back to St. Louis again, and look at the Catholic parish records!

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AEllis_island_1902.jpg; See page for author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Uncategorized

family history

genealogy

Previous Post

March 29, 2017

ERISA-exempt church plans and the "little guy"

Next Post

April 4, 2017 Could Staff Model HMOs rise from the dead?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Actuarial/Retirement Issues Politics Uncategorized

Select a Month September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 December 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 August 2021 June 2021 April 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How many fish were caught in the miraculous catch in John?

Select your answer to see how you score.

153 100 200 150