Monroe County, Illinois Church Records</h1> <article> <h1>Monroe County, Illinois Church Records</h1> <p>2006-04-08T15:29:00.000-07:00</p> My latest genealogy project is to put my transcriptions from original church records on-line, with a focus on Esther Kraus's ancestors and the Eckert, Krauss/Kraus, Lepp, Stumpf, Wehinger, and Wenkel families. Many other related families are also found in these records.You can access the records here. Just follow the link to the church of interest.So far, I have completed the following: St. </article> <article> <h1>East St. Louis-Columbia and Waterloo Railway Souvenir</h1> <p>2006-01-13T22:21:00.000-08:00</p> Esther Clara Kraus was born in Columbia, Illinois in 1905. Her family had first settled in Columbia in the 1850s. Esther lived in Columbia until her marriage to Neil Mabry in 1925.The Monroe County GenWeb site has a neat scan: The East St. Louis - Columbia and Waterloo Railway Official Time Table and Souvenir.The timetable (jpg), published in 1913, shows that one could travel from East St. Louis </article> <article> <h1>Happy New Year!</h1> <p>2006-01-06T23:35:00.000-08:00</p> May everyone have a happy and healthy 2006.1952 New Year's photo of Esther (Kraus) Mabry, her mother Katie (Wenkel) Kraus, and her two daughters, Jacqueline and Nadine.Happy New Year Mom and Aunt Nadine! </article> <article> <h1>Views of the Old Country: Thuringen, home of the Wenkel Family</h1> <p>2005-12-01T18:30:00.000-08:00</p> Dorothea Maria Hupe was the daughter of Johann Friedrich Hupe, a medical officer in Ebeleben. On August 9, 1795, she married Johann Friedrich Wenkel and they had at least ten children there, including our ancestor, Johann "Conrad" Christoph Wenkel.Ebeleben is in the Kyffhäuserkreis (Kyffhäuser region) of Thuringen, Germany, in the Hainleite hills, south of the Harz Mountains*.• Pictures of </article> <article> <h1>World War I Draft Registration</h1> <p>2005-11-11T01:29:00.000-08:00</p> In 1917 and 1918, all males born between 1872 and 1900 were required to register for the draft. The draft registration cards are a great source of genealogical information, with registrant's home address, occupation and physical description.Esther's dad, Friedrich "Fred" Kraus, had to register:Name: Fred KrausAddress: Columbia, Monroe County, IllinoisBirth: December 21, 1874, Native </article> <article> <h1>Our Ancestral Villages and Towns</h1> <p>2005-10-18T23:01:00.000-07:00</p> Genealogy and How suggests that a little research on the literal meaning of German town names can provide some insight as to how our ancestors lived in the "old country." From what I've learned about our own ancestors' homes, it is often not as simple as looking up words in a German-English dictionary. While some names are based on a local geographic feature, others are named after early </article> <article> <h1>Web Site Update: Web Family Cards</h1> <p>2005-10-06T00:43:00.000-07:00</p> To make navigating through Esther Kraus's ancestors even easier, I've used my genealogy program, Reunion, to generate web cards. You can start with Lee and work your way back to his earliest known ancestor. I've put a handy link in the sidebar, so you can access the webcards page even after this post has been archived.Give the web cards a try, and let me know if you have any problem viewing or </article> <article> <h1>View of the "old country": Webcam Dornbirn Marktplatz</h1> <p>2005-09-27T19:47:00.000-07:00</p> Our Wehinger ancestors lived in the Marktplatz (market square) area of Dornbirn, Austria for hundreds of years (from the 1630s to at least the 1830s). According to the official Dornbirn web site: The centre of Dornbirn, the “Marktplatz” (market square), is one of the most interesting and amusing places in Vorarlberg. Three and a half centuries of different architectural styles can be found here </article> <article> <h1>Evangelical St. Paul's Cemetery Photos</h1> <p>2005-09-06T21:24:00.000-07:00</p> Esther (Kraus) Mabry was a member of St. Paul's Evangelical Church (now UCC) in Columbia, Illinois, as were were her parents, grandparents and even several of her great+ grandparents. Most of her ancestors were buried in the Evangelical St. Paul cemetery. Several volunteers, particularly Judy Lindquist (a cousin on the Wenkel side), have photographed gravestones in Evangelical St. Paul cemetery, </article> <article> <h1>Did Daniel Krauss serve in the Civil War?</h1> <p>2005-08-19T15:20:00.000-07:00</p> The Krauss family emigrated from Germany in about 1861, first settling in Whitewater, Wisconsin.“Shortly after their arrival in this country, the family’s oldest son, Daniel, entered the service as a blacksmith shoeing horses for the Union Army in the St. Louis area. Here he re-established connections with the Kuehner family* of Columbia, old friends of his parents. In time, they and young Daniel </article> <article> <h1>Our Ancestors in 1800</h1> <p>2005-08-07T16:24:00.000-07:00</p> I've been playing with the Google maps API to generate a map showing where the ancestors of Esther (Kraus) Mabry lived in 1800. I've pinpointed where the Krauss, Wenkel, Stumpf, Lepp, Eckert, and Wehinger families were living in what is now Germany and Austria.The advantage of using Google maps is that I can insert "pins" with information at different locations. The viewer can zoom in on any </article> <article> <h1>The Wehinger Family in Dornbirn, Austria - What the Fugger?</h1> <p>2005-08-02T02:19:00.000-07:00</p> Paulina Wehinger was born in 1832, in Dornbirn, Austria. When she left Austria for Illinois in the early 1850s, Paulina's Wehinger ancestors had lived in Dornborn for at least two hundred and fifty years. (Paulina's Dornbirn ancestors)Dornbirn is an Alpine city in the Austrian province of Vorarlberg (formerly the western part of the Tirol). It is about 15 miles south of Bregenz and the Bodensee ( </article> <article> <h1>Wenkels on the Ship Iris</h1> <p>2005-08-01T23:16:00.000-07:00</p> Johann "Conrad" Christoph Wenkel married Henriette Bierwirth in 1822 in Großwenden (now part of Großlohra), which today is in the German state of Thuringia (Thüringen). The Wenkel family lived in Ebeleben, southwest of Sondershausen. According to family stories the Wenkel family emigrated to America between 1843 and 1846, traveling up the Mississippi River to Monroe County, Illinois. A new </article> <article> <h1>The Krauss family from Becherbach</h1> <p>2005-08-01T22:43:00.000-07:00</p> Our Krauss (Krauß) ancestors lived in the village of Becherbach in what is now the German state of Rheinland-Pfalz. One Village Many StatesBecherbach is nestled in the mountains east of the Rhine (Rhein) River in the parish of Gangloff, near the town of Roth. Coins and other artifacts found in this area show that it has been occupied since Roman times. (">Map of Becherbach and region)The </article> <article> <h1>Belleville, St. Clair County in the 1840s</h1> <p>2005-07-28T23:46:00.000-07:00</p> Our Stumpf and Wenkel ancestors emigrated from Germany to Illinois in the 1830s, settling in northern Monroe County near the towns of Columbia and New Hanover. Map. The nearest "city" was Belleville, about 15 miles to the northeast of Columbia in St. Clair County (Map). Belleville's size (and proximity to St. Louis) brought many notables into town. The records they have left paint a picture of </article> <article> <h1>UPDATED: Land owned by George Stumpf & William Wenkel in Monroe County, Illinois</h1> <p>2005-07-21T01:24:00.000-07:00</p> Esther Kraus was born in Monroe County, Illinois. Her grandparents and great-grandparents emigrated from Germany in the 1830s-1850s, probably in part because of the availability of land in America. Our ancestor Johann Georg "George" Stumpf (1804-1875) made several land purchases from the federal government. In contrast, Johann "Conrad" Wenkel purchased land already in the public domain. Stumpf </article> <article> <h1>Emigrants from Michelbach, Hessen: the Eckert Family</h1> <p>2005-07-17T20:50:00.000-07:00</p> Our ancestor Margaretha Eckert, born August 7, 1848 in Michelbach, Hessen emigrated to America some time before April 1862, when she was confirmed at St. Paul's Evangelical Church in Columbia, Illinois. Five years later she married Daniel Krauss.Several other Eckert emigrants also settled in the Columbia area. Emigration records from the Hessen archives help us sort out the relationships between </article> <article> <h1>Emigrants from Gross Zimmern, Hessen - George and John Stumpf</h1> <p>2005-07-17T19:03:00.000-07:00</p> Our ancestor Johann Georg "George" Stumpf was born November 18, 1804 in Gross Zimmern in the Starkenburg region of Hessen, Germany. This was formerly in the Grand Duchy of Hessen-Darmstadt. We know that George arrived in Monroe County, Illinois by April 1836. However, emigration records from the Hessen state archives suggest that he emigrated with his brother John in 1834. There are two entries </article> <article> <h1>Emigrants from Oppenheim, Hessen: the Lepp Family</h1> <p>2005-07-16T18:15:00.000-07:00</p> Wilhelm "William" Lepp was born in 1828 in Oppenheim. Today Oppenheim lies in the state of Rheinland-Pfalz, but in the mid-19th century, it was in the state of Hessen-Darmstadt. William emigrated from Oppenheim with his mother, stepfather and two brothers and stepbrother in 1849.The Hessen archives list the following family in their emigrant database:Date: 1849-02Ziel (Goal): Amerika, USAOrigin: </article> <article> <h1>How to use this site</h1> <p>2004-10-25T01:10:00.000-07:00</p> Welcome! I just wanted to share a few tips for using this site. What information can I find here? The purpose of this site is to share information about the ancestors of Esther Clara Kraus, and their families. The surnames covered here include: Eckert, Kraus(s), Lepp, Stumpf, Wehinger, and Wenkel. In the right-hand sidebar are a series of "mini-biographies". This list the basic facts for a </article> <article> <h1>1904 St. Louis World's Fair</h1> <p>2004-09-29T11:17:00.000-07:00</p> Esther Kraus was born in 1905 - a year too late to visit the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis. However, her parents, grandparents and cousins living in Columbia, Illinois probably did attend. According to an article in the September 20th Columbia Clarion Journal, most of Columbia attended the fair: "Columbia had 1,000 people out of a town of 1,300 attend the fair in 1904," said Bob Schlegel, </article> <article> <h1>Updated Family Tree for Esther Kraus Mabry</h1> <p>2004-09-06T23:32:00.000-07:00</p> The Kraus family tree has been updated. It now includes family photos. A big thank you to those who shared their photos, including Ida (Kraus) Schmidt (1900-1991) and the contributors to the Wenkel/Wenkle Cousins newsletter (Jane Ladic (1920-1986) published 1982-83). If you think that different photos should be used, please feel free to comment. </article> <article> <h1>Monroe County, Illinois Funeral Cards: Wenkel, Kraus, Lepp</h1> <p>2004-08-17T23:08:00.000-07:00</p> The ancestors of Esther (Kraus) Mabry (1905-1986) lived in and around Columbia in Monroe County, Illinois for several generations. The Monroe County Genweb site has added a lot of material recently. Among the interesting items are scanned funeral cards. There are a number for our relatives, including: • Ida (Kraus) Schmidt - sister of Esther (Kraus) Mabry. [neither Esther, nor her sister Edna ( </article> <article> <h1>Mini bio: George Philip and Johanna (Leip) Lepp</h1> <p>2004-08-15T23:18:00.000-07:00</p> Brief biography of George Philip Lepp (1785-1844) and his wife, Johanna "Hanna" Leip (1803-<1860). Their position on the family tree. George Philip LeppBirth: March 10, 1785 in Oppenheim, Hesse-Darmstadt (now in Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany). Parents: Johann Georg Lepp and Katharine MuellerKnown Residences: --- Lived his entire life in OppenheimOccupation: Haefnermeister (master barrel maker)Death: </article> <article> <h1>Mini bio: Martin and Margaretha (Einsle) Wehinger</h1> <p>2004-08-15T23:11:00.000-07:00</p> Brief biography of Johann "Martin" Wehinger (1779-1839) and his wife, Margaretha Einsle (1792-?). Their position on the family tree. Johann "Martin" WehingerBirth: July 25, 1779 in Dornbirn, Vorarlberg, AustriaParents: Joseph Wehinger and Maria Elisabetha HeflinKnown Residences:--- lived his entire life Riedgasse 26, DornbirnOccupation: Fuker?Death: April 1, 1839Margaretha EinsleBirth: March 23, </article> </main></body></html>