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John & Anna Menzel Immekus, Milwauke, Wisconsin

Replies: 3

Re: John & Anna Menzel Immekus, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Posted: 28 Dec 2014 7:32AM GMT
Classification: Query
Edited: 28 Dec 2014 7:34AM GMT
Surnames: Immekus Menzel Imikus Schowalter
"... On the 1880 census John and Anna were living in Milwaukee and he was a cigar maker. Wisconsin Deaths, 1820-1907 shows he died July 31, 1894 in Milwaukee."

I've replied to a similar posting about Immekus and Menzel entries found in the local resource "Milwaukee's German Newspapers; an index of death notices and related items" (1844-1950).

But it bears noting that there was no family death notice for John Immekus in Aug. 1894, at a time when there were 4 German language daily newspaper editions and many other variations. In major urban settings a death notice (confused with the term obituary) was paid for by the family, an obituary was written at the discretion of the newspaper. The Immekus family may have been cash-strapped at the time of his death.

I frequently hear library visitors doing newspaper searches ask the question out loud: "why wasn't there an obituary?". Even today, if there wasn't a death notice in a newspaper (printed or online), it's because the family didn't place one there. An authentic obit. is a local news article written at the discretion of the newspaper. The advent of death notices written in an obituary style on funeral service websites is a whole different matter (an itemized invoice explains a lot).

Immekus is the consistent spelling in these German language newspapers, but Carl Schowalter published rare death notices for his wife Elisabeth "Imikus" Schowalter (42 yrs) in the 1860s.

Indexing Milwaukee's German newspapers continuously since 2007... a resource for family researchers that was a rare as hen's teeth prior to my effort. gary.rebholz@gmail.com, originator/compiler/editor, Milwaukee Wis.
SubjectAuthorDate Posted
dstephensogle... 1 Aug 2006 12:30AM GMT 
janebeyers1 26 Nov 2006 9:00PM GMT 
dstephensogle... 18 Aug 2007 10:07PM GMT 
GaryRRebholz 28 Dec 2014 2:32PM GMT 
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