21. Friedrich's two marriages

We are not proceeding rapidly in this Treuthardt history, but we are progressed enough that one item needs to be addressed before we go further.   I haven’t given you a family tree (a diagram of which would be rather hard to put on this blog), so you may not be familiar with these names and people, unless you are advanced in years (like me).   Actually, it isn’t that important to have the diagram;  my objective is to get you interested in family history so you keep reading.   The obituary of Anna Geiser Treuthardt needs some explanation, with a brief introduction to Friedrich’s past.   It must be talked about, or you might not pick up on these details, which are not minor. 

When the obituary says that Friedrich and Anna had three children, that makes sense at first, when you learn that the children who immigrated to Texas were Will, Arnold and Ida.   It also makes sense when it says, only one survives, for Arnold died in 1921 and Will in 1930.   But what does it mean, when it says Anna had only 12 grandchildren?   Ida had 8 children, Arnold had 4, and Will had  8.    The children are not named, and the grandchildren don’t add up.    

You may not be old enough to know this additional fact, but you need it in order to interpret the rest.   Friedrich was previously married.   At this point, it is all right if the first marriage is a mystery to us.   It remained to me a mystery for many years.   That mystery too will be revealed, but it’s too soon in this blog to dwell on it.   By Friedrich’s first wife, who died at a young age, Friedrich had three children.   

With Anna, Friedrich had three more children.  So in her obituary, Anna’s children were named.  It was a precise accounting.   According to blood line Ida and Arnold were her children, but Will was not.    This is the way it was done then.    

My father said that Will was “half-brother” to Ida.   Most of the older cousins know that Friedrich was Will’s father, but Anna was not his mother.    Rarely did they call him “step-brother.”   He was “half-brother.”    And yet, all Will’s grandchildren did not know this.   Having become good friends in the past sixteen years with Will’s eldest grandchild Margaret (who was very little in the 1930’s), I found out from her that she never knew that her great-grandmother was not Will’s mother.   

Among my Krieg uncles and aunt, it was a side note that Friedrich had been married, but it was always spoken of as if it were a mystery or a secret.