Sunday Obituary - Michael Hengel

MICHAEL HENGEL

Michael Hengel, of Route 4, St. Cloud died Saturday evening at 5:50 after a week's illness. He was born in Rockville, son of Mr. and Mrs. Math Hengel, now deceased, March 20, 1871.

Mrs. Hengel (Catherine Undersander) and the following children survive, Michael Jr., St. Joseph; Victor, St. Cloud and Albert, Gertrude and Alma at home. There are five grandchildren surviving and Joseph Hengel, Staples, Math, Hayward, California; John of St. Cloud and Mrs. D. J. Kostello, Minneapolis and Mrs. Mary Eichers, Cold Spring, are surviving brothers and sisters.

The body will be at the farm home and funeral services will be held in the St. Joseph church Tuesday morning at 9:30. Rev. Maurus Ferdinand, O.S.B. will officiate and burial will be in the family lot in St. Joseph.

Mr. Hengel was a member of the Holy Name society and the Men's society of the St. Joseph church.

Sunday’s Obituary – if you have obituaries of family members and ancestors, consider posting them along with other information about that person as part of Sunday’s Obituary. This is an ongoing series developed by Leslie Ann at Ancestors Live Here.  (Blurb shamelessly stolen from Thomas McEntee at Geneabloggers!)

Wedding Wednesday - Victor Wm.Hengel & Wilhelmine C. Lommel

24 Nov 1927

Victor William Hengel (b. 28 Nov 1904, d. 24 Nov 1965) married Wilhelmine C. Lommel (b. 29 Sep 1900, d. 20 Apr 1972) on 24 Nov 1927  at 7:00 at Immaculate Conception Church in Saint Cloud, Stearns County, Minnesota.  They were my wife's maternal grandparents.

Wedding Wednesday – a great way to display those old wedding photos or scan wedding invitations and announcements! Suggested by Carol of Reflections from the Fence and in use by several genealogy bloggers.  (Blurb shamelessly stolen from Thomas McEntee at Geneabloggers!)

Funeral Card Friday - LaVonne A. (Hengel) Hirdler

LaVonne A. (Hengel) Hirdler funeral card

LaVonne was my mother-in-law's sister.  She died long before I associated with the family, so I never met her.  I did get the chance to meet with her husband, Ralph Hirdler.  Ralph was quite the character, he had a story for everything, and sometimes more than one story for the same thing!  He used to visit my in-laws and play dice and card games while I was dating my (future) wife.

LaVonne's funeral card is one of relatively few I have that is only a single "page", i.e. not folded, so there is only a front and a back with one piece of artwork.  Here's the other side:

Funeral Card Friday is a genealogy meme created by Dee Welborn of Funeral Cards & Genealogy and has been an ongoing series in the Geneablogger community.  If you're interested in funeral cards, I strongly recommend you visit her blog!

Sunday's Obituary - LaVonne A. (Hengel) Hirdler

Deaths

MRS. RALPH HIRDLER

FARIBAULT, Minn. — Mrs. Ralph Hirdler, 31, of here and formerly of St. Cloud, died at the Rochester, Minn., Hospital Monday.

She was born LaVonne Hengel In St. Cloud, was graduated from Cathedral High School and married Ralph Hirdler on Dec. 29, 1959, at St. Mary's Cathedral, St. Cloud. The couple lived in St. Cloud for one year and then moved here where they have lived since.

Mrs. Hirdler is survived by her husband; her mother, Mrs. Victor Hengel Sr., St. Cloud; brothers and sister, Virgil land Victor Hengel, St. Cloud; Eugene Hengel, Red Wing, Minn.; and Mrs. Marvin (La- Donna) Theisen, St. Cloud.

Funeral services are at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at St. Mary's Cathedral, St. Cloud.

Friends may call at the Daniel Funeral Home after 1 p.m. Friday.

St. Mary's Cathedral parish will say the parish prayers at the funeral home at 9 p.m. Friday.

LaVonne A. Hengel was the sister of my mother-in-law.  I never met her, as she died long before I met my wife.  This obituary was in a large box of old photographs, albums and scrapbooks I recently borrowed from my in-laws for the purpose of scanning and preserving the images.  I was told for years that they really didn't have much in the way of old pictures or family information, and for years, I let it slide.  But I've recently become more active in researching the family lines, and pressed for anything they might have.  They told me about this box of stuff, but it was "buried in a closet upstairs", and inaccessible.  Finally I just said, "I have time, I'm going up to get that box from the closet."

That box turned out to be loaded with treasure!  This obit is just one small example.  There's a scrapbook almost entirely dedicated to newspaper clippings, many of them obits with data I never had, and some as interesting as a number of letters to the editor of the local paper by a family member!  I've got the pictures all scanned after my own private Scanfest, and ready to return to their owners,  but the scrapbook and an album will take me a long time to get through.  You will doubtless be seeing material from these books in the near future on this blog!

Sunday’s Obituary – if you have obituaries of family members and ancestors, consider posting them along with other information about that person as part of Sunday’s Obituary. This is an ongoing series developed by Leslie Ann at Ancestors Live Here.

Funeral Card Friday - Michael & Catherine (Undersander) Hengel

Inside data pages of Michael & Catherine Hengel funeral card

Most of the funeral cards I have are for single individuals.  This particular card happens to be for a couple - Michael Hengel and Catherine (Undersander) Hengel.  They are from my wife's maternal line.  I was totally new to funeral cards until my wife showed me some that she had.  I don't know if they're just not part of my family's tradition or what, but I had never seen one at the few funerals I had attended from my family.  It's interesting to me that this card has both people in the couple, as they died 14 years apart.  Is this common?

Other things I've noticed: Some cards are "single page" with an iconic image on one side and the data and prayers on the other side.  Others are a "double page" folded style with iconic images on the outside and data and prayers on the inside.  Some are in black & white or sepia tone, but many have full color images.  Some of my people have multiple cards with different images on the outside, but identical text inside.  I feel like I need to collect the whole set.

Outside of Michael & Catherine Hengel funeral card

These cards are nice little reminders of the departed, but don't contain enough data to be very interesting from a genealogy standpoint.  That said, while scanning a bunch of these, I did come across a few that added more specific dates or locations for people, so they're not useless for sure.

I'd better quit here and post this while it's still Funeral Card Friday!  What's the best information you ever got from a funeral card?  Post in the comments below!

Funeral Card Friday is a genealogy meme created by Dee Welborn of Funeral Cards & Genealogy and has been an ongoing series in the Geneablogger community.  If you're interested in funeral cards, I strongly recommend you visit her blog!

Matrilineal Monday - Hengel

This weekend I was presented with a treasure trove of photos and documents that will undoubtedly be the focus of many a post to come.  This time I'll start with my wife's mother's family, in keeping with the Matrilineal Monday theme. 

My wife's mother's maiden name is Hengel.  I've been relatively unsuccessful in tracking them very many generations back, nor very much detail on the individuals I did know about.  Thus I was tickled pink to get my hands on my mother-in-law's old photos and documents!  Part of the aggregation (I can't call it a collection, it's almost totally unorganized, a problem I shall have to attempt to correct) is an old photo album from my mother-in-law's mother, with many photos dated 1920!  Regrettably few have names or places associated with them.  I'm hoping my mother-in-law can assist with some names.  Another major item is a scrapbook from my wife's great aunt, with literally dozens of obituaries, anniversaries, engagements and weddings from the local newspaper.  Much of this is documentation I've never seen before.  This is the one part of this treasure that contains a lot of useful dates and names along with the faces!  I find myself wishing I had one of those new portable scanners the bloggers are all raving about.  Most of the scrapbook is articles glued in place, difficult to scan on  flatbed.

Another treasure in the group is a set of World War II Ration Books.  They look like this:

World War II Ration Book circa 1943

As you can see, I get a lot of useful data from just this one piece.  A name and address, and even physical description and occupation!  The folder of ration books included one for each member of the family at that point.  Even as historical artifacts, these ration books are of interest, but throw in the personal data and they become very valuable in telling the family story.








Another item found in the box is a heavily laminated copy of the obituary of Wilhelmine C. (Lommel) Hengel, the owner of the ration book above.  It gives the names of many family members, birth and death dates as expected, and a marriage date.  Funeral location and time and burial place are included as well.  Unfortunately, it doesn't include first names of female family members, instead opting for Mrs. Husband Name. 

A Tribute

published in the pages of

The St. Cloud Daily Times

ST. CLOUD, MINNESOTA

APR 20 1972

Memorial Obituary

Entered Into Eternal Rest

Thursday, April 20, 1972

MRS. VICTOR HENGEL

  Mrs. Victor (Wilhelmine)hengel Sr. 71, 707 14th Ave. S., died today.  She was born here Wilhelmine Lommel Sept. 29, 1900, and married Victor Hengel Nov. 24, 1927.  He died Nov. 24, 1965.  She lived here all her life.

  She was a member of St. Ann's Christian mothers and St. Margaret's Society.

  Mrs. Hengel is survived by sons and daughters, Victor Jr., Virgil and Mrs.Marvin Theisen, St. Cloud; Eugene, Red Wing, Minn.; 18 grandchildren; and brothers and sisters, Mrs. August Meyer, St. Paul; Mrs. Raymond Weismann, Minneapolis; Mrs. Raymond Uberecken, Denver, Color.; Mrs. Betty Stewart, Walnut Creek, Calif.; Mrs. Herschel Hieberg, Wallace, Idaho; Gilbert Lommel, Kimball, Minn.; Ed and Sally Lommel, St. Cloud; and Jerome Lommel, Modesta, Calif.  She was preceded in death by a daughter and a brother.

  Funeral Services are at 10a.m. Saturday at St. Mary's Cathedral with burial in Assumption Cemetery.

  Pallbearers will be Donald, Robert and Karl Lommel, Robert and Michael Hengel and James Meyer.

  Friends may call at the Daniel Funeral Home after 2 p. m. Friday.

  St. Ann's Christian Mothers will say the rosary at the funeral home at 3 p. m. Friday and St. Mary's Cathedral parish will say the parish prayers at 8 p.m. Friday.

Watch this space for further treasures to be revealed!