One thing that really hit home was the concept that people make up stories about their family history.
For instance, many people who had a relative in the Civil War will tell you that their ancestor was at the Battle of Gettysburg. If it were true, the battlefield would have to be the size of Texas. With all the muster rolls available online, this story is easy to verify.
But what happens at a smaller level? How about the story your Mother tells you that is passed down to her and another relative restates? Or the one your Grandmother tells you, from her personal experience? Or the one on records that you find in a search? What gives?
Let's take the case of my Great Grandfather - Peter Labenz
Peter Labenz was born on 20 September 1875 in West Prussia. He came to America with his parents and a number of brothers and sisters on 28 March 1892. He married Eva Kant in 1897 and lived his life in Philadelphia, working as a Morocco Finisher, which means he was a leather worker.
Wedding Photo of Peter Labenz & Eva Kant, 1897
Somewhere around 1901, he, like his brother August, lost an arm in the machinery. Many did at that time. OSHA and unions were not part of the American landscape at that time. Here's where the story begins.
The tale is told that while recuperating in the hospital, he was visited by his wife Eva, who told him that "she didn't want to be married to a cripple" and she "didn't want to see him again." The story goes on to say that he did not go home and became a hobo. He died under the wheels of a freight train that he tried to hop a ride on. Kind of a given that a one-armed man would have difficulty grabbing a ride on a moving train.
This story survived into the 1990s.
It took me a while to find that he died in 1917. For a man who never came home, he sired seven children between 1901 and his death. That fact never seemed to occur to anyone. When I finally obtained a death certificate, I found that he died of kidney failure, a disease quite common among leather workers of the time.
In trying to determine why such a story was around, I found out about my Great Grandmother, Eva. It seemed that the story was more about her than him. Apparently, she was a very tough woman, sometimes abrasive, with a proud Prussian heritage. Her sons would tease here asking if she was Polish. She would get irate and defend her birth in Prussia. I also heard that when questioned about her Father, who remains somewhat of a mystery, she would tell her children that they didn't need to know about him.
She passed in 1959, 42 years after her husband.
In that time, she raised seven children. You had to be tough.
I probably should mention that it was likely to be Eva who was home when the census taker came around in 1910. She mentioned among her children her son Edward. He's on the census. He died in 1907.
Next Time: Martin Fink and the San Francisco Earthquake.
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