Last Saturday, I had a very tender experience in doing the endowment work for Louisa Augusta Hecker so sent an email to my nonmember cousin Henrietta Hecker Wheeler in Minnesota who had done the original research. When she heard the name, she thought of another family she had researched but not connected. That family was Catholic but so much of the other detail meshed with this family. She began checking her research and we talked on the phone for nearly an hour last Sunday night. Friday I received a detailed e-mail from her wondering if she had missed finding Wilhelm August Hecker when she originally searched the records. She sent me the microfilm and page number of the christening records for another of Jost and Jacobina Hecker’s children. (Henrietta is a meticulous researcher and a delight! She's coming to Salt Lake City again next spring for a week at the Family History Library.)
My student had to go to work Friday afternoon so I went over the Family History Library to check out the microfilm myself. I was overwhelmed with the prospect of reading the old German script but remembered the training Henrietta had given me on her previous trips to Utah to do genealogy work. I went to the entries which had our family’s information and carefully traced the words for Hecker (the surname) and Haiger (the town). We decided that if he were part of the family he would have to be in the record between 1833 and 1836. Using the “template” I started going through each entry. Imagine my joy when I found his birth and christening information. At the FHL a native German sister carefully translated and spelled the words so I would have an accurate record. I knew it was our Wilhelm because his parents were Jost and Jacobina. They were Protestants and apparently their son Wilhelm married a Catholic girl so their marriage and the christenings of all their children were in the Catholic Church with Latin names. It was such a wonderful find. Wilhelm was born December 3, 1834 at 10:00 AM and christened on December 12. All the other information agrees with the other siblings. Even the witnesses have the surnames of both parents and are from the same towns. We are elated to add this family to our records. It will take a little time to carefully document the details for our own PAF5 files and enter them into New.FamilySearch but what a tender mercy to find the information. Louisa didn't want her little brother left out!
My student had to go to work Friday afternoon so I went over the Family History Library to check out the microfilm myself. I was overwhelmed with the prospect of reading the old German script but remembered the training Henrietta had given me on her previous trips to Utah to do genealogy work. I went to the entries which had our family’s information and carefully traced the words for Hecker (the surname) and Haiger (the town). We decided that if he were part of the family he would have to be in the record between 1833 and 1836. Using the “template” I started going through each entry. Imagine my joy when I found his birth and christening information. At the FHL a native German sister carefully translated and spelled the words so I would have an accurate record. I knew it was our Wilhelm because his parents were Jost and Jacobina. They were Protestants and apparently their son Wilhelm married a Catholic girl so their marriage and the christenings of all their children were in the Catholic Church with Latin names. It was such a wonderful find. Wilhelm was born December 3, 1834 at 10:00 AM and christened on December 12. All the other information agrees with the other siblings. Even the witnesses have the surnames of both parents and are from the same towns. We are elated to add this family to our records. It will take a little time to carefully document the details for our own PAF5 files and enter them into New.FamilySearch but what a tender mercy to find the information. Louisa didn't want her little brother left out!
Other family news:
My cousin Randy Mack Whitlock has been made the bishop of his Riverside, California, ward. Uncle Morris and Aunt Elaine Whitlock were able to go to California for the special event.
The Navy football team from Anapolis, Maryland, has been invited to play at the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego, California, on December 23 (Edie's birthday.) Because Joe DuPaix is their head defensive coach, the school will pay travel and lodging for him and all his family to San Diego. They have six children. Edie and Roger DuPaix and many of their family are going to San Diego for the game and for their extended family Christmas celebration. What fun!
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