update 2020 concerning Jacob Gastel senior

Gastel family

Jacob Gastel

Anna Gastel nee Laubengeiger

Visit to the USA in May 2008

Here you find a travel report as pdf-file for download.

Abstract of Balthas Gastel's family bible

Helmut Gastel sen. from Frommern shared some copies of his grandfather Johann Martin Gastel’s (1875-1962) family chronicle, which was part of the family bible. There he described very detailed the family events but also weather phenomena like drought, long winters or earthquakes. His father Balthas Gastel (1838-1919) a brother of Gottliebin Laubengeiger nee Gastel described some family events in his family bible as well, of which I have received some copies from Helmut Gastel. Balthas Gastel was the godfather of all 9 children of Gottlieb and Gottliebin Laubengeiger, which means also of the three sisters Anna, Gottliebin an Anna Maria who emigrated to America.

Jacob Gastel’s Report of Death

Now we know a little bit more of Jacob Gastel senior. Last week I received a certificate of Cook county which reports the death of jacob Gastel on April 14 1897 at the age of 54. Our Jacob Gastel sen. was born on November 23, 1842, which means that this fits to the age of 54. Cause of his death was a second stroke of paralysis, the first was 4 years earlier. He was buried the same day on a cemetery with the name something like “Waldaim”. I think that means Waldheim, which is the German Waldheim Cemetery in Forest Park, where a lot of German immigrants were buried. This place is not far away from the place of his death at 524 South California Ave. The Corresponding Secretary of the Schwaben Verein of Chicago told me, that Jacob Gastel was member of the society. At their next meeting in the later part of April she will bring up the name to the members. Perhaps we can learn some more facts about him. This was not successful.

Death certificate Jacob Gastel sen. (easy reading version)
Death certificate Jacob Gastel sen. (original)

update 2020 zu Jacob Gastel senior

Recent research 2019/2020 on the archives of Chicago Tribune revealed some Information about Jacob Gastel sr.:

1. Obviously in 1872 he run a Saloon at the corner of Monroe and Canal Street in Chicago. According to a news item of October 30th 1872 he was fined with a charge of $50, but it was not said, which wa his aggravate offence.
   
2. On a news item of February 1st 1879 the address of his saloon was mentioned as 26 West-Madison Street.
   
3. On several news items Jacob Gastel was named as a Saloon-Keeper. Frequently these news items are dealing with violations of youth protection legislation and also the beginning conflicts between supporters of the prohibtion and the Saloon-Keepers Union, in which Jacob Gastel was active:
   

• As an example he was discharged from the prosecution of the Temperance League, that he runs a saloon with concerts, because an orchestrion is not a concert (Chicago Tribune, 02/09/1879).
  
• He was elected on September 5th 1879 as member of the Judiciary Committee of West Side of the Saloon-Keepers Union (Chicago Tribune, 09/06/1879).
  
• The struggle for existence among the saloonkeepers caused, that Jacob Gastel had to leave his Saloon on May 7th 1880 by force an tried to resist (unsucessful) by firing a revolver at the police (Chicago Tribune, 05/08/1880).
  
• He was charged in June 1882 with allowing minors to play pool in his Saloon 185 madison Street (Chicago Tribune, 06/02/1882).
  

Holweger family

Certificates of the Holweger Family

After the weekend with the Jorgensen family end of May 2008 we made a trip to Chicago on Monday. At the office of vital statistics we ordered some certificates. They arrived in Germany some weeks later. There is the death certificate of Gottlieb Holweger, the birth certificate of his son Gottlieb (he named himself later on Charles) and the death certificate of Anna Maria (Mary) Holweger, the sister of Anna Laubengeiger who died 1907, being only 40years old. Vital Statistics could not find the birth certificate of the daughter Mary Holweger, although the family lived throughout the years in Chicago. What we know, the daughter also died very young in 1928 (34 years old). Finally I ordered from Du Page County the death certificate of Charles (Gottlieb) Holweger. On the certificate there are no hint of descendants , because informant of death was someone of the clinic.
The following links lead to the documents:

Death Certificate Gottlieb Holweger
Birth Certificate Gottlieb Holweger
Death Certificate Mary Holweger
Death Certificate Charles Holweger

Death Certificate of  Blanche Holweger

Finnally I ordered also the death certificate of Blanche Holweger (nee Fisher). There was also no hint of descendants, because the informant of death was the funeral director. It seems that this line of the family ended here. Here ist the link to the document:

Death Certificate Blanche Holweger

Wilke family

Great-granddaughters of Gottliebin found

After some more researches I received from King County, Washington the death certificate of Carrie Carlson. She died in 1992 with 94 years at Kirkland. With the address of her daughter Mary Vaughn mentioned in the certificate some days ago I got in touch with Karen Montague, a great-granddaughter of Gottliebin Laubengeiger. At the same time I ordered the death certificate of Carrie’s son Robert Carlson and with the mentioned address I got also in touch with his daughter Kitty Carmichael, a second great-granddaughter of Gottliebin. Both are living in the Seattle area. Karen has a brother, Keith, who lives in Alaska. Tey are new members of the platform and have now to get in the story. Perhaps we could then learn something more about Gottliebin.
The following links will lead you to the certificates in the data file.

Death Certificate Carrie Carlson
Death Certificate Robert Carlson

Marriage Licence of Gottliebin and Albert Wilke

After the weekend with the Jorgensen family in May 2008 we made a trip to Chicago on Monday. There we ordered some certificates at the office of vital statistics. Weeks later they arrived in germany. Among them was the marriage license of Gottliebin Laubengeiger with Albert Wilke:

Heiratsurkunde von /Marriage Licence of: Gottliebin und Albert

Birth Certificate of Robert Frank Carlson

Only from Robert Frank Carlson, the eldest of the three  children of Carrie and Frank Carlson there is a birth certificate at McLean County in Bloomington. He was born on October 15th 1924 in Normal - a township of Bloomington in the Brokaw-Hospital, where 2 years later his grandfather Albert died. Either the two other children were born in another city or the familiy moved. But whereto? Now it’s getting difficult to trace the descendants of Gottliebin!

Birth Certificate of Robert Frank Carlson

Death Certificates of Gottliebin and Albert Wilke

I received the death certificates of Gottliebin and Albert Wilke from the McLean County in Bloomington. Gottliebin died on August 1st 1929. As her birth place is filled in: Germany and the name of her father reads: John Lavengeiger. Albert Wilke died September 23rd 1926. Both were burried on the Park Hill cementery in Bloomington. Perhaps the graves are still there. We will check this on our USA-journey in May/June.

Death Certificate Gottliebin Wilke
Death Certificate Albert Wilke (original)
Death Certificate Albert Wilke (easier to read)

Marriage of Carrie Wilke and Frank E. Carlson

For my presumtion, that Carrie Wilke married Frank E. Carlson in the 20ies I received the certificate this week. The copy of the marriage license contains also the record of the clergyman Herman H. Birnbaum, that he had united the couple in marriage on June 15th 1922 at Bloomington. The copy of the document could made visible through the following link:

Marriage licence of Caroline Wilke and Frank E. Carlson

I have ordered also the birth certificates of their three children. Perhaps it will give us some hints of still living descendants.

Contact with Kitty Carmichael, greatgranddaughter of Gottliebin Wilke

From the death certificate of Carolin Wilke, daughter of Gottliebin Wilke nee Laubengeiger, I learned the address of her granddaughter, Kitty Carmichael. She wrote in a contribution to the blog on November 11th 2008:

"When I got your e-mail I was wondering how you got my name.
This blog answers this questions. What kind of information do you want? I can tell you about my dad, Robert (Bob) Carlson, myself and my daughter (Portia Carlson Orner). Also my grandmother Carrie and her husband Frank Carlson. My aunt Mary (Karens mom) and her twin brother Billy (never married). Grandma never had sibblings but my Grandfather (family from Sweden) had 11 I think. My grandpa worked for 30 years for shipyard in Bremerton (out side of Seattle, they lived in Seattle all that time), then moved to Alderwood. Where they had 3 acres and had very large gardens. My Grandmother like to sew and she taught me to sew. We went to my grandparents almost every sunday for dinner, when my father lived in Korea. My father Robert Frank Carlson was married 4 times, wife number 2 was my mother Toni. The last 2 wives were Korean. He lived in Korea for 25 years, and was the controller (business manager) for the army base there. He had a degree from University of Washington, 1949, business. He retired from there and moved to California for several years. He was 72 years old when he died, from a stroke. He came and lived by me for the last 2 years of his life. I live in Granite Falls, Washington,(very small town. I work as a Nurse Practitioner, in Arlington Washington (another small town), my husband is John Carmichael (retired house builder). My daughter is Portia, age 26, she works for a shoe company as a marketing manager. She is getting married to Ben Smith may 30,2009 there a bit about my family.
Kitty"