"Don't stay by the Meyers for dinner, Minnie!" My mom used to mimic her great-grandma Kate's German accent. As a child, Mom was taken to Mascoutah, IL to visit her great-grandma by her mother, Minnie Davis Casey (and Mom didn't realize that the Meyers were her cousins, Kate's family). Kate had been born in Baden in l937 and came to the United States as a teenager with her famiy. They came to Mascoutah, IL which had been settled by German immigrants, and as far as I know, Kate lived there all her life.
A few years after arriving, Kate married another German immigrant, Valentine Kindlinger, and they had six children before Valentine died. He was a handsome man according to an 8 x 10 photo passed down, and came to the US from Nassau as a young man.
Census records show Valentine was an inn and saloon keeper. Almost 10 years older than Kate, he died in his 50's; then she married Leonard Heiligenstein in l889. She was called Grandma Heiligenstein by her grandchildren.
I haven't found a record of Kate's mother, only her father, August, and brother, George. Kate lived to be 90 years old.
Sue<Hilda Casey<Minnie Davis<Sophia Kindlinger<Katherine Meyer
I remember Mother saying Heiligenstein like it was a voodoo word. It is quite a mouthful. I see there is a Hotel Heilegenstin in Baden Baden today. It makes me curious about the step grandfather - when he arrived in Mascoutah and from where. I always wondered if these were Jews fleeing Europe. If so, thank god they did.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to look at my pictures again especially of Sophie and sister Hilda.
Not sure how to select the right profile on this blog but just sign this Jude.
According to Wiki Heiligenstein is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France near the border with Germany. Its name means holy rock. Jude
ReplyDelete