| Volume 5 Issue 4 | Winter 2000 |
| PUBLISHED BY: SCOTT BOSECKER |
| Who is the Lady in the Dark Dress? Left to Right: Unknown, Ida (Bosecker) Barborka, Ida (Bosecker) Graesch, Louise (Bosecker) Wells, Margaretha (Baumgartner) Bosecker, Hanna (Bosecker) Kleinschmidt. |
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I received a copy of this photograph from Doug Ingersoll of Bothel, Washington in November 1995.
Doug is the son of Norwin [1931-1975] & Shirley (Graesch) Ingersoll [Born: 1930].
This photograph had originally been in the possession of Emma (Graesch) Marvel [1892-1962] and had been passed to Shirley (Graesch) Ingersoll when Emma passed away in 1962. On the back of this snapshot the following note was written in Emma (Graesch) Marvel’s handwriting: Aunt Louise Aunt Maggie Mother Graesch Ida Bosecker Louise Bosecker Hannah Bosecker. Although Emma (Graesh) Marvel’s note offers clues as to the identity of the women in the photograph it is still going to take some detective work to determine who is who. First problem; the order of the people in the note does not seem to match the order of the women in the photograph. If the note were taken literally, the oldest ladies would be side by side and then the younger women would be next. Does the note refer to the front row and the back row? Second problem; when I first obtained this photograph I was also given other photographs that contained images of Emma (Graesch) Marvel’s mother Ida (Bosecker) Graesch. From these photos I was pretty sure that “Mother Graesch” was the 3rd lady from the left. The Front Row - Back Row idea didn’t seem to work either. With Ida (Bosecker) Graesch in the middle there didn’t seem to be any pattern to the note. Perhaps if I determined whom the note referred to, I’d be able to identify the individuals in the photograph. Based upon other pictures that I had seen, I was pretty sure that the women in the back row of the photograph were the daughters of John G. [1864-1937] & Margaretha (Baumgartner) Bosecker [1867-1935]. These daughters were Ida, Louise and Hannah so that matched very nicely with the note on the photograph. If I had guessed correctly about the back row then I only had to figure out who Aunt Louise and Aunt Maggie was. Ida (Bosecker) Graesch had 3 sisters and 5 brothers that lived to adulthood although 2 of those sisters had died before 1901. John G. Bosecker’s daughter, Hannah, was born in 1891 so any possible aunt had to be alive after at least 1901 in order to be a candidate. The strongest possible candidate for Aunt Maggie seemed to be John G. Bosecker’s wife, Margaretha (Baumgartner) Bosecker. I sent a copy of this photograph to Margaretha (Baumgartner) Bosecker’s grandson, Edwin G. Bosecker [Born: 1926] to see if he could identify anyone. Edwin sent a reply confirming that the women in the back row were indeed John G. and Margaretha (Baumgartner) Bosecker’s daughters and that the lady in the front row on the far right was indeed Margaretha (Baumgartner) Bosecker. I now had all of the women identified except for one. The lady on the far left in the dark dress was Aunt Louise based upon the note on the back of the photograph. Who could Aunt Louise be? Looking at the possibilities for Aunt Louise, I quickly had a prime candidate; Louise (Bosecker) Mohr [1854-1943] but there was yet another problem. Several years earlier I had received a photograph of a Bosecker family gathering (see next photograph). A family member, now departed, had identified the second lady from the left (dark scarf; dress with print) in the front row as Louise (Bosecker) Mohr. In my opinion the women in the two photographs were different people. One of the hazards of the family history game is that occasionally one gets a bad identification of a person in a photograph. Could this be one of those occasions? In this case I think that a misidentification may have occurred. Recently I have been shown photographs that were labeled years ago by different individuals that should have known the subjects of the photographs well. Each of these notes indicated that the person in question was not Louise (Bosecker) Mohr but Barbara (Graesch) Kirsch [1848-1930]. Barbara (Graesch) Kirsch was the sister of Friederike (Graesch) Bosecker [1853-1934]. The questionable photograph had been taken in Vincennes, Indiana. Barbara (Graesch) Kirsch also lived in Vincennes at the time this photograph was taken while Louise (Bosecker) Mohr lived in or near Evansville, Indiana. So I pose the question to the readers of The Boßecker Newsletter: Is the lady in the dark dress Louise (Bosecker) Mohr? Please let me know!
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| A Bosecker Get-Together This photograph appears to be a gathering of Frank [1849-1921] & Friederike (Graesch ) Bosecker’s [1853-1934] children. Friederike is the lady on the far left in the dark dress and dark hat. This photograph appears to have been taken in the winter (Thanksgiving?) in the mid 1920’s. Louise (Rademacher) Bosecker, the lady on the far right, died in November 1928. |
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Readers respond to Last Issue’s Queries
In the last issue of The Boßecker Newsletter I posted 3 questions. Readers responded with information on 2 of the 3 questions but so far I have not received any reader response to the question about the postcards from Ruth Hewitt to Flora (Strupp) Bosecker in the 1940’s. Several readers responded to the request for information on Carol Sue (Blackburn) Ewing. The information provided may help me to locate Carol Sue. Regarding the question, “Is Henry G. Lipper a Boßecker descendant?” It appears that he is not. Kim (Schauss) Berry and William Bosecker provided information that showed that Henry G. Lipper was the son of Albert August Lipper. Albert August Lipper had a brother, George [1867-1938] and a sister, Hannah [1876-1938]. These 2 Lipper siblings married Schmidt siblings, Anna [1871-1924] and William F. [1874-1954]. Henry G. Lipper was a close cousin but had no Boßeckers in his family tree. A German Connection In late 1999 I received an email from Ortwin Grossman of Germany. Ortwin had some Boßeckers in his family tree and was interested in exchanging information with me. I saw this as an opportunity to try to solve a puzzle regarding the original Boßecker immigrants. As readers of The Boßecker Newsletter may recall, in 1846 Peter, Karl & Johannes Boßecker + Christine (Boßecker) Rückert immigrated to the United States. Karl, Johannes and Christine were definitely siblings but Peter’s relationship to the others had not been determined. I asked Ortwin to check some of the other churches around the Boßecker ancestral village of Veilsdorf, Germany to see if they might yield clues as to Peter Boßecker’s relationship to the other immigrants. Ortwin found several references to Peter in the Eisfeld, Germany’s Church records. Eisfeld is a village a couple of miles from Veilsdorf. The Eisfeld records noted that Peter was the 2nd son of Johann Heinrich and Caroline (Telletin) Boßecker. I have access to Veilsdorf records that had Karl, Johannes & Christine’s father and mother as Johann Heinrich and Henrietteella Karoline Marie S. (Della Torre) Boßecker. (It should be noted that the Veilsdorf records had some alternate spelling for Della Torre.) Unfortunately, I can’t decide from the above information if Peter is, or is not, a sibling of the other immigrants. Peter’s father’s name matches but his mother’s maiden name doesn’t. However, the Veilsdorf records indicate that there is uncertainty about the spelling of Della Torre. Peter is probably a sibling of the other immigrants but his status is still undetermined at this time. Schmidt Reunion to be Held in August A Schmidt Reunion will be held on August 5, 2001 at the Living Legacy Bed & Breakfast in rural Wabash County, IL. Contact Edna (Schmidt) Anderson at 3759 N 900 Blvd, Mount Carmel, IL 62863-4608; phone (618) 298-2476. |
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MORE VETERANS
Here are more Boßecker descendant veterans that have been documented since the last issue.
Wallace Adolph Altermatt [1889-1949]
Gertrude Anna (Altermatt) Ryan [1923-2000]
Thomas McCarty [1930-1969]
Joe Riley [1920-1984]
Richard Alfred Anderson [Born: 1949]
Gail Marie (McCarty) Helmle [Born: 1955] NEW ARRIVALS! David Kelly Austreng, GGGG-Grandson of Johannes Boßecker was born on 27 Nov 2000. Jack Norman Bodishbaugh, GGGG-Grandson of Johannes Boßecker was born on 22 Dec 2000. MARRIAGES! Seth Stephan Bosecker, GGG-Grandson of Karl Boßecker, and Jill Shaffer were married on 23 Sep 2000. IN MEMORY OF...
Edna Johanna (Lipper) Bosecker
Harold Karl Wilhelm Bosecker
Gertrude Anna (Altermatt) Ryan
Alice (Elton) Wood 25th Issue of The BoßeckerNewsletter! This is the 25th issue of The Boßecker Newsletter. It is hard to believe that it has been over 5 years since the first issue in October 1995. Over the past few years The Boßecker Newsletter has covered quite a bit of ground. From a description of the journey the Boßecker family took from Germany to the United States in 1846 to a description of a trip to Veilsdorf, Germany by your editor in 1992. From the face-to-face exchange of photographs and information with cousins in the United States to the digital interchange of images and information, via the internet, with distant cousins around the United States and in Germany today. From an Orphan Train bringing a new child to the family in the early 1900’s to the Spanish Flu taking a member away in 1918. From tracking down and reuniting a mother separated from some of her children for almost 60 years to the whole family being made aware of over 1800 cousins who’s maternal ancestor had become “separated” from the rest of the family group shortly after the family’s arrival in the USA. In the coming issues, I hope that the newsletter can continue to find family stories that will be of interest to its readers. I would like to thank the readers of The Boßecker Newsletter for their many words of encouragement and support. |