What Happened to Uncle Herman? ? What's Past is Prologue

In my quest to prepare for the 1940 Census by documenting all of my relatives and their potential 1940 addresses, I realized there was a relative or two I never found in earlier censuses.? One such relative was my great-grandfather?s half brother, Herman Goetz. Herman and his brother, Julius Goetz, left a rather good paper trail except I was never able to locate Herman ? with certainty ? in either the 1920 or 1930 Census.? The name ?Herman Goetz? was not exactly ?John Smith? but it was a common name among German immigrants, and I never really tried to determine if any of the Herman?s I found was ?my? Uncle Herman.? Did he move out of state?? Did he return to Germany?

In genealogy, as in life, sometimes the simplest answer is the correct one.? I couldn?t find Herman in the 1920 Census because he died.? It?s almost comical that I never considered that possibility until I discovered it, quite by accident, in one of Ancestry?s newer databases: Pennsylvania, Church and Town Records, 1708-1985.

There does not appear to be a complete list of what records are included in this collection, but in my searching of various surnames I?ve found some hits in funeral home records and some Catholic cemetery records.? I found Herman in the Record Books for the John Kimmerle Funeral Homes.? He died on 11 October 1918 from pneumonia and was buried at Mt. Moriah Cemetery on 18 October.? His sister, Hilaury ?Laura? Bergmeister Thuman, paid for the burial.

His death in 1918 finally answers the question of why my father never heard of him ? my grandmother barely knew him since she was only 5 years old when he died.

When I first began my genealogical research, I asked my dad about relatives and he said to look for his mother?s ?Uncle Julius Goetz?.? Neither of her parents was named Goetz, so I wasn?t clear how he was an uncle until I found her parents? marriage record. Joseph Bergmeister and Maria Echerer were married in November 1897 in Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm, Oberbayern, Bayern (Bavaria), Germany. The record indicates that the bachelor Joseph was the son of the ?deceased flour merchant Joseph Bergmeister of Munich and Ursula Dallmeier (who later married a Goetz), residing in Regensburg.?

Portion of the 1897 marriage record that details the status of Joseph Bergmeister's parents.

My great-grandfather?s mother re-married a man named Goetz, so any children from her second marriage are half siblings to my Bergmeister?s.? While I have a record in Julius? hand that lists Ursula as his mother, I only have circumstantial evidence that Herman is also her son. (The circumstantial evidence is his ?connection? to both Julius and the Bergmeister family ? I can now send for his death certificate to verify his parents? names.) Even if he was a step-brother to both Julius and the Bergmeister children, he was certainly involved in their lives based on the documents I have found. Here is Herman?s ?paper trail? in the United States:

22 Apr 1911 ? Herman sets sail from Antwerp aboard the S.S. Finland.? He is listed as Herman G?tz, a 26-year-old locksmith from Regensburg whose father, also named Herman G?tz, lives in Regensburg. He is traveling to his brother, Julius G?tz, who is living at 500 Lehigh Avenue in Philadelphia, PA. On 03 May 1911, Herman?s ship arrives in New York City.

24 Mar 1913 ? Herman receives a marriage license to marry Florentina Bottner. He is living at 6078 Kingsessing Street (the address of his half sister, Hilaury Bergmeister Thuman, and her husband, Max) and was born on 14 May 1885 in Germany. Florentina lived at 3458 Amber Street and was born on 14 Aug 1877 in Germany.? Parents? names were not requested on the license, and neither had been married before.

11 Apr 1913 ? My grandmother, Margaret Hermina Bergmeister, is born and apparently named after her Uncle Herman. She is baptized on 13 July 1913 and her godparents are Uncle Herman Goetz and Aunt Laura Bergmeister Thuman.

12 Aug 1914 ? Herman?s wife dies. Her death certificate lists her name as Mrs. Flora Goetz with the same birth date as the marriage license above. Although she is listed as married, the information is provided by her mother and the address given is that of her mother?s and the same as provided in her marriage license. She died from peritonitis ?due to ruptured uterus during child birth?.

12 Sep 1918 ? Herman registers for the draft. His draft card shows he is living with his sister and brother-in-law at 6078 Kingsessing Street and Laura is listed as his nearest relative. He was born on 14 May 1885.? He is naturalized, although I have not yet found his papers. He is employed as a machinist at Standard Roller Bearing Co. at 49th?and Merion. His physical description: tall, stout, grey eyes, red hair.

Front of Herman Goetz's WWI Draft Registration Card.

11 Oct 1918 ? Herman died from pneumonia based on information found in the funeral home records. His address is the Thumans? address on Kingsessing Street, which is directly across the street from the cemetery in which his is buried on 14 Oct 1918, Mt. Moriah Cemetery.

What little I do know of ?Uncle Herman? is sad ? although he quickly found love in his new country, his wife died in childbirth the following year and he died only four years later at the age of 32.? It is also the beginning of a very sad chain of events for my great-grandfather, Joseph Bergmeister. First, in October, 1918, his half-brother Herman dies.? Less than six months later, in February, 1919, his wife Maria dies at the age of 43, which leaves him as the single parent of five children.? Later that year, in November, his brother Ignaz Bergmeister dies at the age of 43.? Joseph would only live to 54 himself, dying in 1927. Of the Bergmeister and Goetz siblings, despite the young deaths of Herman Goetz and Joseph and Ignaz Bergmeister, their sister Laura Thuman lived to 73 and Julius Goetz lived to 84. There was a 16-year age difference between Hilaury and Julius, however, so Julius was the sole surviving sibling for many years after Laura?s death in 1943.

Although my grandmother never knew her ?namesake? Uncle Herman, I assume she had some familial relationship with Uncle Julius.? Although my father knew who he was, he didn?t recall meeting him and their lives overlapped by quite a bit ? Julius did not die until 1971.

If it wasn?t for the ?accidental? searching of this new record collection on Ancestry, I would not have solved the mystery of what happened to Uncle Herman any time soon. Although Pennsylvania death indexes were recently made available, I would not have ordered any record for a man with the name Herman Goetz without more evidence as to the correct one, which I now have. I hope to eventually find a photograph of both Uncle Julius and Uncle Herman ? I recently learned the name of Julius? grandson and plan on contacting him soon.? Even if I can?t see what Herman looked like, I?m glad I learned what I did about him so his too-short life can be remembered. That?s what family is for?

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Source: http://pastprologue.wordpress.com/2012/03/03/what-happened-to-uncle-herman/

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