Funks and Grentzes: 52 Ancestors Prompt “Mistake”

Funks and Grentzes: My Research “Mistake”

While researching my great-grandmother and her family, I made a serious mistake based on a single census record. It took me a couple of years to correct the mistake, which crippled my research on a whole branch of my family tree.

My maternal great-grandmother, Lena Helena Funk, was born on February 12, 1869 to Charles or John Funk and a woman named Catherine or Catherina, whose surname was a bit of a mystery. All I knew for sure was that the family had moved to the Mankato, Minnesota area at some point prior to Lena’s birth, but I was struggling to confirm how many children the family had, and what happened to all the family members other than Lena.

My best piece of evidence was the 1870 census record, showing the Funks living near Mankato. The family was headed by father John, age 40, a cabinetmaker born in Prussia, and his wife Catherine, age 33, born in Ohio, who was “keeping house”. There are six children listed: William, age 12, born in Iowa, Sophia, age 10, born in Iowa, Mary, age 8, born in Iowa, Charles, age 6, born in Iowa, and 3-year-old Amelia and baby Lena, age 1, both born in Minnesota.

I dutifully added all these children to my tree under the surname “Funk”. I searched for them on later records, but poor Catherine and the three older children all disappeared. Father “John”, also known as Charles, appeared in the 1885 state census as a widower, so Catherine must have died. He lived with Lena and Charles, and I was able to find Amelia’s marriage records, so I knew she was alive. But I could find no trace of William, Sophia, and Mary Funk. Had they all died along with their mother, at some point between 1870 and 1885?

I was stuck until I found an obituary for Charles Funk, Lena’s brother. It had a wealth of information. First, it included his father’s death year, 1889. It also stated that his mother died when he was six years old, which would make her death year 1871. Third, it stated he was born in Burlington, Iowa, which gave me a location to search for records. And fourthly and most importantly, it stated he was survived by a half-sister, Mrs. Mary Gaffney of Redwood Falls, Minnesota.

I suddenly realized that the three “missing” older children weren’t necessarily missing. If they were half-siblings, they likely had a different surname than Funk. The census taker had mistakenly listed them as having their stepfather’s surname, and I had been searching for them using that erroneous information.

So what was the correct surname? I started researching Mary Gaffney of Redwood Falls, and eventually discovered her marriage record. Her maiden name was “Grentz”. She married George Gaffney of Janesville Minnesota when she was 17—he was ten years older. They had six children together.  

                                                            Mary Grentz Gaffney

I then backtracked to the Iowa records, finding a marriage record from Mahashka County, Iowa for C.N. Funk and Catherine Grentz dated November 21, 1863.  That led me to the 1860 census record for Louis Grentz, a brewer from Oskaloosa, Iowa, with a wife, Catherina, son William Louis, and daughter Sophia Grentz. The last Grentz daughter, Mary, was born in 1861 or 1862, around the same time that Louis Grentz must have died. I have yet to find death records for him that would give me a precise date.

I made the appropriate corrections to my family tree, so now William, Sophia and Mary are listed as the children of Louis Grentz, and as half-siblings to my great-grandmother Lena Funk and her siblings Charles and Amelia.

I managed to find Lena’s half-brother William Louis on the 1880 census. He was 19 years old, living in Mankato and working as an engineer. The census shows his surname as “Grantz”. I have found no further records for him under either Grentz or Grantz.

 I am still struggling to find any records at all for Sophia. Perhaps she died at the same time as her mother. But at least now I will be searching for her with the correct surname.

Annie Macbeth Schostag: 52 Ancestors Prompt “Back to School”

Annie Macbeth Schostag: 1893-1976

            “Back to School” calls to mind new pencils and notebooks and anxious children heading to a new classroom. But it also applies to the dedicated teachers who head back to work each fall—teachers like my great-aunt Annie Macbeth Schostag.

            Annie was my grandfather Ivan Macbeth’s middle sister. She was born June 1, 1893 to Walter Macbeth and Lucy Dane Macbeth, the second of their six children, and grew up on the family farm in LeRay Township, Blue Earth County, Minnesota.

            I am not sure when she became a school teacher. I believe she attended some sort of teacher training program—there is a city directory listing for her in 1914 listing her as a “student” and boarding in “rooms” at 513 North 5^th Street in Mankato. She was 21 years old then, so it must have been secondary school, probably Mankato Normal School which trained teachers at that time. I have not been able to find her in the Normal School yearbooks that still exist from that era, however. The photo below shows her with other young women that looks like it was taken in her early twenties, so it could be her with other teachers-in-training. She is at the far right.

            By the date of the 1920 census, Annie was 26 years old, living at home with her parents and two youngest brothers, and was working as a teacher, probably at the nearby Dickerson one-room school. My mother said that was where she taught, and she appears in the photo below of Dickerson School students as the teacher in the upper right corner.

I love the photo--it is fascinating to see the range of ages in the class. Annie may have had her own young brothers as students—they attended Dickerson, but may have been in high school by the date the photo was taken. Look at how cold the weather was—the students were all bundled up. Using the restroom involved going out in the cold to an outhouse. The inside of the school was probably heated by a wood or coal-burning stove, which wouldn’t have kept the building very warm in the winter months. Students sat at wooden desks fastened to the floor, with the youngest in the front at the smallest desks, and the older students at the back. Differentiated instruction was the rule of the day—teachers at these schools prepared dozens of lessons each day, teaching three or four levels of English, math, and history. It was a lonely, hard, and poorly paid life.

            I am not sure how many years Annie taught. By the 1930 census, she was married to Gustaf Schostag and was living in Decoria with him and his mother. She was no longer teaching; schools usually forbade hiring married women as teachers.

Annie

Gus

            Annie and Gus never had any children. Gus farmed for many years before retiring to the small town of St. Clair where they lived until their deaths. I remember them as a sweet old couple who we visited occasionally when I was in grade school. I remember on one occasion, probably around 1966 0r 1967, Annie made my brother and I chocolate milk shakes on a warm summer day, much to our delight. She was having a little trouble with daily tasks at that point—my grandmother had been appalled at the state of the house. I suspect Annie, then in her seventies, might have had the beginnings of dementia. She must have used spoiled milk in the milkshakes, as both my brother and I became violently ill a few hours after drinking them. My mother never felt comfortable eating there again. Poor Aunt Annie!

1961

            Annie died March 19, 1976 at age 82, and was buried in the Eagle Lake Cemetery.

Julius “Jay” Seltenreich: 52 Ancestors Prompt “At Work”

Julius “Jay” Herman Arthur Seltenreich: 1892-1955

            Many of my ancestors were farmers, so I am always interested when I find someone in my tree with a different occupation. Jay Seltenreich, my great-aunt Martha Hoffman’s husband, was a firefighter for the city of Mankato, Minnesota. To my delight, as I looked through old family photos from my grandmother Nora Hoffman Macbeth, I found two photos of Jay at work.


            Jay was born on January 21, 1892 to Julius and Friedericke Fabian Seltenreich. He was the fourth of their five children, with older siblings Ida, Louise, and Carl Oscar, and younger brother Frederick. His full name was Julius Herman Arthur Seltenreich, but he was called Jay to distinguish him from his father Julius.

_{^{Seltenreichs: L-R Carl Oscar, Julius, Ida, Frederick, Friedericke, Louise and Jay}}


            Jay grew up on a farm just outside Mankato, Minnesota, near a farm owned by William Hoffman. William had six daughters, several of whom were close in age to the three Seltenreich boys. Jay and his brothers all married Hoffman girls—Carl Oscar married Grace, Fred married Sadie, and handsome Jay married Martha, who was a few months his senior. 


            Jay and Martha married September 20, 1916, with their siblings Sadie Hoffman and Fred Seltenreich as their attendants. Following their marriage, they lived in Mankato where Jay worked as a laborer for the St. Paul and Omaha Railroad. His 1917 WWI draft card described him as being medium height, with gray eyes, brown hair, and, stunningly, a “stout” build! I find it unlikely he’d become so overweight in less than a year! His marriage photo shows a slim, handsome man.

By the 1920 census, Jay is working as a “checker” at a freight depot, but by the 1930 census, he has become a fireman with the Mankato Fire Department. The photos I found show Jay on the firetruck, still handsome and smiling. He must have cut quite a dashing figure in his uniform, and he appears to have been the engine driver as both shots show him behind the wheel. His 1942 WWII draft card states he was 5’10” and 190 pounds—that might qualify as “stout”, but a lot of the weight would have been muscle. Firefighting required hard, physical work, even in a smaller city like Mankato. By 1953, at over age 60, he was listed in the city phone directory as being a lieutenant with the fire department, so he had put in over 25 years with the department and advanced up the ranks.

Jay died June 22, 1955 at age 63. He was survived by his wife Martha and their only daughter Lucille. When I am in Mankato next, I will try to do more research to see if I can find out more about his career with the Mankato Fire Department.