Tag: Family History and Family Life

In the late 1990s, my grandfather, Gilbert Ellis, was living with my Aunt Maureen and Uncle Dale. They had decided to have a large garage/shed installed, so Grandpa and my uncle would have a workshop. They had the shed assembled and engaged a local electrical company to run electricity to the workshop. Uncle Dale had to run some errands on […]

My second great-grandfather August H. Elker was born in Hanover, Germany on May 22, 1848, in the year of revolutions in Europe. Whether related to the revolutions or not, August’s family travelled to America in 1854. After landing in New York City, the Elker family made its way to St. Louis, Missouri. St. Louis had a large German Catholic community, […]

The Mosblechs have very large families as a rule.  My great grandfather Eduard Mosblech was one of twelve children.  Eduard had fourteen children and his brothers had twelve and thirteen children respectively.  While I have not yet been able to verify the size of the other two families, both Mom and I remember it the same way.  Grandma Ellis had […]

When I started researching the family history, I only knew about two of my great-grandmother Caroline “Lee” Ellis’ nee Johannpeter’s siblings.  My grandfather told me a lot about his Uncle “Jules”, Julius Johannpeter.  Grandpa lived with Uncle Jules from the time he left Missouri Military Academy in 1932 until he married my grandmother, Alvina Ellis nee Mosblech in 1938. Grandpa […]

Uncle Oscar Von Burg and Aunt Dorothy Von Burg nee Mosblech were my grandparents’ closest friends.  Grandma Ellis and Aunt Dorothy were sisters separated in age by about a year and a half.  Grandpa Ellis and Uncle Oscar became close friends when they were dating the sisters.  Neither Uncle Oscar nor Grandpa danced, so they would escort Grandma and Aunt […]

Arthur C. Clemmings was born on Thursday, April 3, 1913 in St. Louis, MO.   At the start of World War II, Uncle Art enlisted in the United States Army as a private.  He was assigned as a semi-skilled metal worker.  His term of enlistment, which began on September 2, 1942, was for the duration of the war plus six months. […]

Prior to Thanksgiving last year, I wrote a St. Louis history post about 151 couple who broke the one day marriage license record in 1904. 1904 was the year St. Louis hosted the World’s Fair. What I did not realize until a few weeks ago was that my great grand-uncle, Frank O. Mosblech, was one of the grooms that day. […]

When I was growing up, I often heard Grandma Ellis, Alvina M. Mosblech Ellis, talk about her two lost sisters.  She lost her oldest sister Margaret and her little sister Loretta before her 40th birthday. Margaret B. Mosblech was the first of fourteen children born to Eduard and Magdalena Mosblech.  Great Aunt Margaret was born on June 10, 1908.  As […]

The Missouri record for issuing marriage licenses in one day was broken on Wednesday, November 23, 1904 by 151 couples in St. Louis, who wanted to tie the knot on Thanksgiving Day 1904.  The previous one day record was 117 couples set in St. Louis prior to Thanksgiving 1903. The Justice of the Peace, R.J. Carroll, set up shop in […]