GeneaBloggersTRIBE

Thursday, June 18, 2020

52 Ancestors 2020 – 23 – Wedding – Ida Louise (Falk) Gutknecht



If you are keeping track of the numbers, you may have noticed that week 22 is missing. If so, you are correct. I have skipped that week and gone on to week 23.

I did not find anyone on the aunts and uncles birthday calendar for week 23 that fit the theme “wedding” that I wanted to write about, so I picked someone from the “wedding pictures” section of the images on my website.

Charles and Ida Louise (Falk) Gutknecht
Courtesy of Richard Stewart

I have always felt sad about what I had learned about Ida Louise Falk, one of my grandaunts, a sister to my grandfather Julius Falk, the daughter of Ludwig and Anna Louise (Boehm) Falk.

Ida Louise was born 12 Apr 1871 in Pulaski Township, Iowa County, Wisconsin, near the village of Avoca. Her parents were immigrants from Prussia who arrived in the United States about 15 years earlier. They had brought her 3 half-siblings and 2 full siblings on their ocean voyage. Six more older siblings were born in Wisconsin and she had 3 younger brothers, including my grandfather.

Ida's marriage to Charles Gutknecht was 30 Aug 1888, when she would have been 17 years old. From the 1900 census, it appears that Charles would have been 28 as he was born in Mar 1860 in Germany and came to the United States as a 2 year old. As my grandfather would have been 7 years old at the time of their wedding, I wonder if he attended the wedding.

Ida and Charles had 2 daughters, Ella born about 1890 and Emma about 1892. Then the reason for my sadness was the diphtheria epidemic which struck that area in April 1894. Ida, now 23, died as well as both daughters.

No comments:

Post a Comment