Monday, March 17, 2014

Scandalous Scandal!!

This month has proven very useful by way of family research.  I went to my Dad's cousin's house to dig around his papers. Mostly I wanted to see if he had something written by his mom, my Opa's sister. Unfortunately, all he had was her children recollections of her, and she said very little about her dad. I did get to see Grandpa Max's "card catalogue of death" that showed where he was buried in the cemetery in  Dresden. I didn't get a scan, so who knows if I will ever get to see that again.
Grandpa Max's grave in Dresden.

Cousin Lee had the most exciting copy of a book from Wolfie, Opa's youngest brother.  The books seemed like a vetting booklet.  It had to state who his grandparents and great grandparents were. It was really cool and clearly written.

Now for the scandal. Daniel was right there is incest. Okay so it's not that bad, but I do have a picture of one of the persons involved.  So my Opa's great grandfather, Gustav Eduard Pueschel, married his first cousin, Johanna Charlotte Luise Pueschel, in the 1830s.  When we first heard of this we figured oh they didn't know better, but then I found out, at least in England, people did know better and would go to the doctor to see if it would be an issue for their children.  Interestingly enough their first child was born six months after they were married and then another child four months later. I feel a mistaken date or a scandal brewing!  People's stories are so interesting. I hope it is not a totally bust and I can't find out about their lives.

I hope by next month I can start shifting through newspapers and other books to see if I can find more stuff.