Author Archives: Diana - Page 7
Grandma Weiler’s Spinning Wheel
Reverend William Weiler wrote about his father's loom and his mother's "spinning outfit" which he brought back from Germany in 1908 when he visited home. Granddaughter Eleanor Wagner kept it and then gave it to me. My father learned the trade of a linen weaver, but switched over to farming after the machine looms were invented. I well remember the big loom he had in their bedroom and how he plied his trade it times…
[TIP] Transcribing old documents
Do you have lots of old scribbled letters and other documents that need to be transcribed? Not a great typer? Use your phone! There are several free dictation phone apps that allow you to read aloud and it will transcribe. They're amazingly accurate. I recently tried "Dictate" (free version has ads, but they're not too distracting and the premium version might be worth it if you're using it a lot). Dragon Dictation is another one.…
Christina Behringer Strebe
In 1891 my great grandfather William Weiler came to America from Germany at the age of 14. He went directly to Lafayette, Indiana to stay with his aunt Christina. This is excerpted from Reverend William Weiler's autobiography Photos found on Ancestry - originally shared by Jodi Austin Christina (maiden name Behringer) was William’s mother’s next older sister who had come to the United States in 1873 at the age of 26. Her husband, Heinrich…
Ulrich and Juliana Lahr
In 1891, my great grandfather Rev. William Weiler, age 14 and fresh off the boat from Germany, went to live and work with Ulrich Lahr and his wife and son William in Lafayette, Indiana. Rev. Weiler spoke of them in his autobiography. I am posting this PDF of an excerpt about the Lahrs for any descendants who might find ; Feel free to download the excerpt, as well as the full autobiography. Please reach out…
Reverend William Weiler Autobiography
A fantastic taste of life in a small German peasant village in the late 1800's and the voyage to America, hand written by the flying parson himself. This is the autobiography of Reverend William Weiler, the father of my grandmother, Louise Adelaide Weiler Wagner. Rev. Weiler wrote it at the age of about 79, but he did not finish it, leaving off at the age of 15. I have transcribed it just as he wrote…
Birth Certificates
In September 1942, the American women’s magazine Good Housekeeping published an article “Why you need a birth certificate.” “America has suddenly become aware of birth certificates,” it declared. Between 1940 and 1943, as the United States shifted into a wartime industrial economy, many native-born Americans faced difficulty proving that they were, in fact, citizens by birth. In the early 1940s, about 43 million Americans—nearly one-third of working-age population—had no such document. Their births had never…
Ernest gets arrested
On November 25, 1940, my grandfather Ernest Monroe Thornton was arrested after firing 3 shots at James Rucker during a fist fight at West Park Cafe at 1111 Federal St. (3 blocks from his apartment) North Side, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The “cafe” was a rough place with gambling, drinking and repeated code violations. Read more in the updated chapter PDF:
Nonie
My aunt Babe told me that my great grandfather Nonie drowned but no one knew when. She showed me this photo of him (seated) and his uncle Davy taken shortly before he died. Finally I tracked down an article that filled in this hole. I have yet to find any death or burial records. When my grandfather Ernest was six and a half, on a Monday afternoon, September 27, 1908, his father Nonie drowned. He…
Are we related to Richard Wagner, the composer?
Probably not. There has always been some curiosity in our family as to whether we are related to the German composer (1813 – 1883). I’ve never found any connection, and he was born after our ancestor John Wagner was born in 1805. It is possible they have common ancestors. However, Wagner is a very common German name. Richard was from Leipzig, about 300 miles to the east of where our Wagners lived in Elleringhausen. I…
