I am trying to understand and unravel documents I'm looking at on Ancestry and Familysearch.

Theresa WELTER is shown as the wife of Henry TRANEL and the mother of Henry H. TRANEL (b. 1855, d. 1927) and John Herman TRANEL (b. 1860, d. 1930) on their respective death records. I have not found any census records in this time frame for Henry and Theresa.

Theresa WELTER is shown as the wife of Charles WEDERHOLT and the mother of Mike WEDERHOLT (b. 1871, d. 1939). Indeed, I have found Charles and Theresa in 1880 and 1900 in the East Dubuque and Menominee areas. The 1900 census says they were married in 1850 and that she was the mother of 11 children, 5 living.

On the surface, you'd say (as would I) that these are 2 different women with the same name.

I found a marriage record for John Henry TRANEL and Margaret KLAAS/CLAUSE in 1853 in nearby Grant Co., Wisconsin. These two show up in the 1860 and 1870 censuses in Menominee, Jo Daviess. And they have sons named Henry and Herman (among others) but the dates don't exactly line up with the dates of the two death records. The death record for another Henry H. TRANEL (b. 1863, d. 1918) states his parents were Henry TRANEL and Margaret KLAAS.

Now I'm thinking that there are two Henry TRANEL families in the Menominee/East Dubuque area with sons with the same names and similar birth years.

One more item to confuse yet maybe connect: An obituary of the above Henry TRANEL (1855-1927) says he was survived by step-brothers Joseph and Michael WIEDERHOLT. The obituary doesn't mention his parents, only that he was born 31 Jul 1855 in Menominee, his unnamed wife (Louisa from another document) died in 1917) and he was survived by 4 daughters: Theresa "Molly" Hoftender, Helen Pfiffner, Mathilda Hoftender and Amelia Catherine Hilby. The obituary doesn't give this much detail about the daughters, but I got the names from Findagrave.

If you're still with me, what do you think? Do I have one Theresa WELTER with two husbands, two Theresa WELTERs, or two(or more) Henry TRANELs?

What a bunch of spaghetti!