This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Behr, Eckman, Eckmann, Glie, Klaeser, Mathiesen, Matthiesen, Schmidt, Siller, Smith, Steinmeyer Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/JW.2ADI/825.1 Message Board Post: Thank you for posting the obit, Anita. Just a minor correction (probably a typo on the part of the newspaper): Annie's middle initial in other records is "C," not "G." She is Anna C. ECKMANN / ECKMAN, born Jun 1852 in Hanover, Germany, daughter of Mrs. Catharina/Catherine ECKMAN (maiden name and given name of husband unknown). Anna married first in San Francisco, CA, in 1973, to Frederick William STEINMEYER (b. 1828/9, Prussia). They are next seen in the 1880 census of San Francisco, with an *adopted* son, Henry (æ 4, b. CA), and Frederick's brother, Henry John STEINMEYER (æ 40, b. Prussia). In the 1900 census, Frederick & Anna are in Sacramento, CA. Anna's widowed mother is living with them, along with an adult boarder who appears unrelated. There are no children in the household, and Anna gives the status of her child-birthing as 0|0, consistent with having had only one adopted child. By the 1910 census, Frederick is apparently deceased because Anna has remarried. She is still living in Sacramento, now with second husband, William KLAESER (b. 1854/5, Coblenz, Germany). The only child in the house is her adopted and now married son, Henry STEINMEYER (æ 34, b. CA). Oddly enough, Henry is also enumerated as living with his wife, Annie M. (SCHMIDT/SMITH) STEINMEYER. It's rare to be enumerated twice, but it does happen. So, were Henry and Annie estranged? Did Annie say Henry was living with her to save face? In the 1920 census, William & Anna C. (ECKMANN) KLAESER are still in Sacramento, CA, but living with them, now, is their widowed "daughter-in-law," Annie M. (SCHMIDT) STEINMEYER and her two sons, Elmer and Fred. As shown by the obit, Anna died in 1921. In 1930, we find widower William KLAESER living in the Pacific Old People's Home in Los Angeles, CA. So... who are these *four* children of Anna's named in the obituary? We recognize "Harry L." as Henry L., but who are "Julius J., Eckman, and John Behr"? We not only don't find them in the censuses with Anna, I can't find them in the censuses, at all. Or did the newspaper err and are these her brothers or other relationship? Is "Julius J., Eckman" actually, Julius J. ECKMAN? Is "John Behr" actually, John BEHR? Does anyone know? I haven't been able to solve this one, at all. The other mystery is Anna's sisters, Mrs. Katie GLIE and Mrs. Mary M. SILLER, whose maiden names were presumably ECKMANN. I can't find them in any census, either. What I have in the form of documentation is online at my web site in the form of linked family group sheets, which you can hook into from Frederick's page: http://dgmweb.net/genealogy/FGS/S/SteinmeyerFriederichWilhelm-AnnaCEckmann.shtml I'm not, in fact, blood-kin to this this family, so I've gone rather far afield here, but I do like to solve a mystery. My connection is that Henry & Annie's son, Elmer A. STEINMEYER, married second to Blanche E.M. MATTHIESEN, daughter of Peter Jensen MATHIESEN, brother of my great-grandfather.