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.  

20. Death and Obituary -- Anna Geiser Treuthardt

March 11, 1936, Wednesday

On this day in 1936 Great-grandmother Anna Johanna Geiser Treuthardt died.   The funeral was on Thursday March the 12th.   Two short obituaries exist, from the collection of Katherine & Reinhold.   Neither obituary has a citation, though the first one was surely published in the Georgetown, Texas Williamson County Sun and the information would have been supplied by Anna’s daughter Ida Krieg and a grandchild or two.   This obituary must have been printed a day or two after the funeral.   
I have numbered the obituaries and added some comments at the end. 

1)

"Pioneer Resident of Georgetown Dies Wednesday
"Heart Ailment Fatal to Mrs. Anna Treuthardt

"Early Wednesday morning a heart ailment from which she had been suffering for some time was fatal to Mrs. Anna Treuthardt, pioneer resident of this city, and native of Switzerland.   Death came swiftly to this beloved woman, and carried her into the great beyond, where her spirit went to convene with that of her maker.

"Funeral services, which were held Thursday morning at 10 o'clock at the Friedrich Funeral Home, were conducted by the Rev. Robert F. Jones, pastor of the First Presbyterian church.  Interment was in the Odd Fellows Cemetery immediately following the services at the chapel.

"Mrs. Anna Treuthardt, 89, was born in Roggwyl, Switzerland on Feb. 7, 1847.   From an early age, she was taught to love her God, and at the age of 16 she was confirmed into the church at Roggwyl.    In 1871, she was married to Frederick Christian Treuthardt, of Georgetown, in Lausanne, Switzerland.   In 1883, some 53 years ago, they came to Georgetown to make their home.

"Three children were born to this union, one of whom survives Mrs. Treuthardt.  She is Mrs. Ida Krieg of Thrall.   Twelve grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren also survive.

"Pallbearers, who were grandsons of the deceased were Oscar Krieg, Julius Krieg, Will Krieg, Arnold Krieg, Ed Krieg, all of Thrall, and John Treuthardt of Georgetown."

2)

“Georgetown, March 12.-- Funeral services were held here Thursday at 10 a.m. for Mrs. Anna Truehardt, 89, who died near Georgetown early Wednesday after an illness of six weeks.

“Mrs. Truehardt was born Feb. 7, 1847, at Roggwyl, Switzerland.  She was married in 1871 to Frederick C. Truehardt at Lausonne (sic), Switzerland.   With her husband and children she came to the United States in 1883 and settled near Georgetown.   She is survived by one daughter, Mrs. Ida Krieg of Thrall;  12 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren.

“The Rev. Robert Jones conducted the funeral services.   The eight grandsons of Mrs. Truehardt acted as pallbearers:  They are John Truehardt of Georgetown, Siegfred Krieg of Eola, Oscar, Werner, Ed, Will, Julius and Arnold Krieg, all of Thrall." 


Spellings of surnames
In 1, the name Krieg was misspelled and I have corrected it.   [Nobody would object to that.]    This was a misprint by the newspaper.

In 2, the surname is consistently spelled Truehardt.   This is inaccurate for the Swiss immigrants and for the Arnold Treuthardt family.  John, descendant of Arnold, is listed first in the pallbearers list;  but he too exclusively used the original Swiss spelling.   The Americanized form of the surname was adopted by the Will Treuthardt family.  Will, who died in 1930, six years earlier than his step-mother Anna, used the original spelling as well, as shown by the name Treuthardt engraved on his tombstone.   This is why I believe the second citation was written or amended by the Will Treuthardt family; and I don’t know where this second obituary was published.   

Pallbearers
Obituary 2  states that Anna's eight grandsons were pallbearers.   In 1, two grandsons’ names are omitted – Werner and Sigfrid.    In neither copy are the Krieg grandsons listed in birth order.   The youngest Sigfrid (with misspelled name) is listed first, and the others are "mixed."        
   
Survivors
Only one daughter, Ida, 12 grandchildren (8 of Ida’s and 4 of Arnold’s children), and 17 great-grandchildren are listed as survivors.   Not listed are those who predeceased Anna.     This caused me confusion at first.  I’ll explain more in the next blog.    It is all clear now, and it was clear to the people in 1936 who read the newspaper.    Incidentally, several more great-grandchildren were born to Anna after her death, including me.     

The funeral home
I have never heard of Friedrich Funeral Home of Georgetown.   Maybe others familiar with that time know where it was located.       


Georgetown
So what was it?  In the city (1) or near it (2)?   It depends on how you define the city limits of Georgetown.   It is not hard to reckon how somebody could interpret it either way.   Since Ida herself was writing the information for obituary 1 (I’m 99% sure of that), it means something to me that Ida considered Georgetown her familiar hometown.          

The Switzerland clues
Now we are getting someplace, with evidence.   We know Anna’s birthdate and place in Switzerland.  We learn that she came from a God-fearing family and that she was confirmed at the age of 16 in the church where she was brought up.   We learn her husband’s full name, and their marriage year and place. 

I knew that my father and uncles had said their grandparents’ marriage place was Lausanne.   For years I did not know more than that.   But the place of marriage is not exactly right.   The Treuthardts were not married at Lausanne but at Lavigny.   Lausanne is the closest big city to Lavigny, a small town even today.    This too confused me, as to why the exact place was not named;  until I noted that Americans don’t know where Switzerland is, and much less do they know where the towns are.   Especially in those times it would have been true.   

Year of immigration
And we have a reliable year of immigration, 1883!   

19. My family authorities (continued)

Here I want to keep listing my family authorities among our branch of the Krieg-Treuthardt family.   This early effort took about twenty years and more, up to about 1997.   (Certainly it was not something I worked on continuously, but every so often one or two new facts came to me.)      

Family history research has a life of its own.   "It" is resistant to releasing information;  it closely and jealously guards the secrets.    What information it gives up at first seems insignificant, almost petty.   Many times the effort of discovery seems futile, and one is embarrassed to admit how little progress he/she is making.   How easy it is for one's family story to languish and fade away over time.   One cannot even define what progress is.   

Every family's history is unique, so one never knows what to expect.   There is no way to anticipate from which direction the ideas may come.   It has to be important to somebody, to rediscover it by being patient and waiting for the research to creep its way towards his/her direction.

Many times while my children were young, I had to "let it go."    However, I never gave up curiosity or my goal, and I developed patience.   Now I know, the work has to ripen.     That takes a long time.   It is important to begin a family history study when one is young, so that he/she has many years to develop patience.   

A remarkable thing happened over time.     Knowledge and information began to tumble in, quite suddenly in the scheme of things, after all those preliminary years of building on small events and ideas.   

If you want to get my instruction list and scientific techniques and methods for researching our family history, here it is.

•  Ask
•  Seek
•  Knock  

Asking, seeking and knocking comes in many forms!   

   
Among my grandfather Gottlieb Krieg's family of twelve, he was the second-to-last child.    My father was the second-to-last child of eight.   I am the second-to-last child in a family of six, and Gottlieb's and Ida's penultimate grandchild out of eighteen.   Birth-order-wise (second-to-last), I arrived at the end of the branch of my family.   Knowing absolutely nothing about the subject of family history was apparently was so fascinating to me, that I was motivated to ask, seek and knock for more than three decades, going on close to four decades.   This information came from others.  

Sincerely, I would have made no progress whatsoever without the help of Roy and Norman.     Both of those men were inspirational and helped me to have a vision.   They got me oriented in the right direction.   They brought first- or second-hand memories to share, giving me events on which to focus.

Roy and Jo provided their Georgetown home as an ideal central place for our "small" Krieg reunions every year, where the older people talked;   the children played alongside each other and, two kids at a time, drove the go-kart endlessly in circles around the house -- and recklessly drank more soda water than they were permitted the rest of the year.    Providing a venue for sharing news, meeting people, and remembering history, was a tremendous contribution to this study. 

Norman every year would bring a family history "show-and-tell" object that he had found at home.   He had a great memory and could talk for a long time.  I brought a notebook, but there was more to learn and do than I could take notes of.   One needs to listen and hear.   I wanted to visit too, and watch the kids.   I depended on Eddie to remember things that I had not heard.  

The cousins were encouraged to recall things.   The ones who used to live in and around Thrall described the family of those early days.    Marjorie recalled things that were "atmospheric," Robert was always there to give information and approval, and Lucille added items or memories.     Roy took us to places of interest in the Georgetown area, and he suggested other materials for me.    Leon and Ida encouraged me with their support and memories.    Reinhold told me his story about the Williamson County flood.   Jean too had interviewed Aunt Anna before the latter's death.   My brothers lived in Thrall only a short time and were too young to remember the oldest history, but Harvey observed a lot, for being so little.    At one time (Roy told me) 26 members of the Krieg family lived in Thrall.   Since Aunt Maude's death, there are none.

Before Uncle Arnold Krieg's death in 2000 (he was in the nursing home for a couple of years), we visited at their home several times, and I would always ask him questions.   He might have a [short] answer that generated more questions, he might not, but we gained in those visits a better first-hand sense of the earliest times, and of his childhood memories at New Bern, Texas.
   
Of considerable value was the packet of snippits and papers that Reinhold and Katherine shared with me.   Although Katherine didn't know anything about them, and they didn't make any or much sense to us, they came from the files of Ida Krieg, our grandmother.    There were some Swiss documents that we didn't know anything about (now I know more and will tell you later).   Little as they were, they led me to other remote facts.    In these posts, I will record now and then that certain items came from the collection of Katherine and Reinhold.   They originally belonged to Ida.  

What all of the above eventually resulted in, was a history of Krieg Brothers Chevrolet Company, of Thrall, Texas.   Using the memories of the cousins and uncles, I wrote this history of the memories of the uncles, aunts and cousins, to compile as much "regional" information as possible.    Afterwards, I shared the history with every branch of the family.   The reports have probably been lost in the shuffle, so I plan to enter the report on this blog eventually.   When I get to the Kriegs, this report will be helpful in imparting the history of the Kriegs in Williamson County from about 1920 to 1950.

As recently as last year, Earl brought me an item from the Krieg family Bible which was a typewritten Christmas poem on which paper my father had signed his name in cursive handwriting.   It must date from about 1920.   One never knows what might become valuable as a clue to the history.   When I get to that point, I will tell about that little adventure of the Christmas poem.