Month: July 2008

Genealogy

More Mysteries

Shelly

One of the little puzzles I’ve been working on is, what happened to Mabel Meineke?

The 1900 US census lists a Mabel Meineke as the infant daughter of Henry and Maria. All other censuses, both federal and state, show a Matie who was born in the same year, but no Mabel. What happened to Mabel[1]? And why, if they were born in the same year, isn’t Matie listed in the 1900 census? Are Mabel and Matie the same person? The names are sufficiently similar, so that I think it’s possible that an enumerator might have heard Matie and assumed it was Mabel. (Remember, both parents were born in Germany, and so would have spoken with an accent that may have been difficult for an enumerator decipher.)

Another possibility is that she was simply known as Mabel when she was young, but was called Matie when she was older. After all, her brother was known as Fred, Cecil, and John.

I’m not really any closer to an answer. However! I talked to my mom this morning, and she had some more information from my grandpa. Mom said that one of grandpa’s uncles had married a Marge Soren. I couldn’t find any trace of her, and I think that’s because Matie was the one who married a Soren. Elmer Julius Soren, to be exact. I found him and Matie in the 1925 Iowa census, which oh so very helpfully lists Matie’s parents’ names, so I absolutely know she’s grandpa’s aunt.

I’ve found all the other available federal and state census records for Matie and Elmer, as well as Elmer’s SSDI record and Matie’s burial place (Evergreen Cemetery in Wright County, Iowa).

And guess what? One of their daughters was named Marjorie. So, there was a Marjorie Soren, just not where I was expecting to find her.

Something else that my mom mentioned is that Ada was also known as Henrietta. That, I’d actually figured out from the 1900 US census, where she was listed as Henrietta Meineke. And in another census, she was listed as Ada H. Meineke. None of that is as confusing as their grandmother, however. I’ve found her listed as Augusta, Henriette, Sophie, and Elsie. Aieee!

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1. Just to make things even more confusing, one of grandpa’s uncles married a woman named Mabel, so there’s more than one Mabel Meineke floating around.

Pets, Photography

Fishy Update

Shelly

IMG_2269

Don’t ever let anyone tell you that fish are unthinking or unfeeling creatures. I’ve watched these guys swim their tank together. I’ve seen how they sleep next to each other, touching. I’ve seen the healthy fish gently rest his “chin” against Spotty, looking for all the world like he’s trying to comfort him. Earlier today, I watched as he bullied Spotty into swimming around with him for awhile.

And just now, I heard the sound of clinking glass. I went to check on them, and they were both head-down, searching for left-overs among the marbles at the bottom of their tank. Spotty is eating again.

Genealogy

Newspaper Trawl

Shelly

I talked to my mom this morning, and she solved one family puzzle and inadvertently created another. After doing some cursory searching and getting nowhere, I thought I’d poke around in some online newspaper archives. Boy, is that ever entertaining!

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Wright County Monitor (Clarion, Iowa), 11 January 1951, Page 4

Pretty much everything in this particular paper seems to be comprised of chatty nosypantsing. I’ve gotten through about 1/3 of the 370 pages containing the name Meineke, and so far, every single reference has been about someone having dinner at someone else’s house, or someone joining or hosting some variety of social club.

Pets

Fishes

Shelly

I did several ich treatments, but one fish still has a few white spots on his tail. Not good. I had to stop, though, because the affected fish started developing black scales. At first, I thought it might be black ich (another parasite), but it doesn’t look at all like that. It looks like ammonia burns, and the symptoms match. He’s lethargic, “panting,” and won’t eat. He just sits at the bottom of the tank.

The other fish, bless his heart, hangs out with the sick one. He occasionally rests his “chin” on the sick fish, in a way that looks for all the world like he’s trying to comfort him. These guys have been joined at the proverbial hip since day one. They swim the tank next to each other, and when they sleep, they’re usually touching. I don’t want to guess what goes on in little fishy brains, but they seem to be deeply bonded.

As far as the ammonia burns, it looks like there’s not a whole lot I can do, besides stop feeding, add some salt to the water, and do a 1/4 tank change every day. It’s strictly wait-and-see. I should remove the sick fish to another tank, since he’s still got a couple of white spots on his tail, but I’m not going to, because I don’t want to stress him further. Maybe if the two goldfish weren’t so attached to each other, it would be different.