Note: In this post I relate the story of retracing my steps to prove to my distant Uruguayan cousin the existence of his great-aunt and -uncle’s daughter whom he knew nothing about. His great-uncle was a noted art historian Curt Glaser in Berlin who like many Jews in the Nazi era suffered the loss of his profession and more.
The last several months have been among the most prolific periods learning new things about my extended family, primarily from people searching for their ancestors and stumbling upon my Blog. By having more than 400 categories by which my post could potentially turn up in an Internet search, an approach incidentally not recommended by web designers, many people have come upon my writings. In coming weeks, I will relate some of the mysteries I have been able to unlock because of recent reader emails, including an extraordinary communication I received from one individual which resulted in obtaining hundreds of photographs and documents about one of my renowned Bruck relatives who was born and raised in Breslau, Germany [today: Wrocław, Poland]. But this is a story for another day.
The current post stems from a note I received from a delightful Uruguayan man, Eduardo Castro (Figure 1) and an ensuing discovery I made about his family. This gentleman is a fourth cousin once removed as it happens, and he learned about my blog from his aunt and another mutual cousin, Danny Alejandro Sandler. (Figure 2) Eduardo’s aunt, Bettina Basanow née Meyer, was born in Vacaria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil but has lived in Denver, Colorado for more than 50 years. In Post 90, I related the story of trying to locate Bettina and her siblings in Porto Alegre, Brazil, where her parents had emigrated to escape the Holocaust. Thinking Bettina and her family still lived in Brazil, I spent many fruitless months trying to track them down there. My much more social media savvy cousin Danny Sandler eventually located Bettina in Denver and put us in touch.
I have periodically told readers about the difficulty of finding evidence of one’s Jewish ancestors who emigrated to South America to escape certain death in Europe during WWII. While I have been assured that certain South America countries are notorious record keepers, not unlike the Germans, most of these records have not yet been automated making online searches for documentary evidence from there difficult. For this reason, it is always immensely gratifying when descendants of people who emigrated to South America find me through my Blog, as in Eduardo’s case. I often learn the fate of some of their ancestors as well as the indirect route some may have taken to get to South America. In a subsequent post, I will relate the story of one such venture. But, again, this is a story for another day.
Shortly after Eduardo and I began our exchanges, I invited him as a “guest” on my family tree. After catching several errors and sending me images of his immediate family, he became curious about a daughter his great-aunt Maria Johanna Dorothea Clara Glaser née Milch (Figure 3) had with her renowned husband Curt Glaser (Figure 4) named Eva Glaser that I include in my tree. Eduardo had never heard about this daughter so asked me for the source of my information.
Periodically I find myself in the awkward position of being asked to substantiate the existence of a previously unknown ancestor to a member of the family more closely akin to them than I am. I understand this situation. Had someone ever told me that my father had an older brother born in 1900, as he in fact did, that I knew nothing about, I would have scoffed. Obviously, why would my father never have told me this? In the case of this uncle, I only learned of his existence when I visited the “Archiwum Państwowe w Katowicach Oddział w Raciborzu” (“State Archives in Katowice Branch in Raciborz”) and found verification of his birth in 1900 and of his death less than a year later.
In any case, Eduardo Castro would certainly have better knowledge of Eva Glaser as they would have been first cousins once removed. Because I had failed to make a note of where I had found the place and date of her birth I was forced to try and retrace my steps, making new discoveries along the way.
Fortunately, I quickly rediscovered Maria and Curt Glaser’s respective “Declaration of Intention” dated the 16th of October 1941 in New York (Figures 5-6) stating their aim to become citizens of the United States and reside permanently herein. Asked on this form to indicate the number of living children, and their name, sex, date and place of birth, place of residence, both had written “Eva(f) July 22, 1935 born at (sic) Switzerland resides at (sic) Switzerland.” This was confirmation that Eva had indeed existed even though nowhere on this form did it state that Eva was born in Ascona, Switzerland, as I had written on my family tree.
Thinking I had perhaps come across Eva’s place of place in an article about her famous father, I did a Google query on him, and found a fleeting reference to her.
First, let me briefly tell readers about Eva’s father Curt Glaser (1879-1943) as his was an interesting story reflective of the fate of many Jews living in Germany during the 1930’s. Curt was born on May 29, 1879 in Leipzig, Germany, the son of a Jewish family. Almost immediately after receiving his M.D. in 1902, he began a second degree in art history, a topic that had always interested him. At the same time, he also became active as an art critic and began to write reviews on the Berlin art scene, an activity that lasted over 30 years. On the 12th of August 1903, he married Elsa Kolker (1878-1932) (Figures 7a-b), daughter of the Ambassador Hugo Kolker, converted to Protestantism, and received considerable income from the family properties.
Curt received his Ph.D. in 1907 writing his dissertation on Hans Holbein the Elder. By 1909, Curt’s museum career had begun when he was appointed curator of the prints and drawings division (Kupferstichkabinett) at the Berlin Museum (Staatliche Museen Berlin) where he significantly expanded its collection of modern and contemporary art. In parallel to his professional acquisitions on behalf of the Kupferstichkabinett, starting around 1910, with the support of his father-in-law, Hugo Kolker, Elsa and Curt began to build a significant art collection that included, among others, the works of Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse (Figures 8a-c), and Pablo Picasso, as well as valuable prints by artists like Honoré Daumier and Adolph von Menzel.
The Glasers placed a significant emphasis on acquiring the works of Edvard Munch, a lifelong friend whom Glaser had supported. (Figures 9a-b) A special friendship existed between the Glasers and Munch, who painted portraits of Elsa alone as well as of the couple. (Figure 10) The Glasers had the most extensive collection of his works in Berlin.
Curt Glaser clearly supported other artists as evidenced by at least two paintings he commissioned from the German artist Max Beckmann (1884-1950). (Figures 11-12) In addition, Henri Matisse painted Elsa Glaser on several occasions.
In October 1924, Glaser became the Director of the Staatliche Kunstbibliothek (State Art Library) in Berlin, whereupon he recast the library as an art historical research library. By July of the following year, the Glasers had moved into a civil service apartment where their art collection was also displayed and where they held important art salons throughout the late 1920’s. (Figures 13-17)
Elsa Glaser passed away at the age of 54 in 1932, a loss that deeply affected Curt and that he expressed in personal letters to Edvard Munch. After the National Socialists rose to power, in the spring of 1933, Glaser was placed on leave from the Kunstbibliothek because of his Jewish ancestry, his prominence, and no doubt because of his approach to collecting art deemed degenerate by the Nazis. At the same time, Glaser was compelled to relinquish his apartment. Around this time, he found happiness anew with Eduardo Castro’s great-aunt Maria Milch, whom he married on the 30th of May 1933. (Figures 18a-b) Even before he was forced to retire in September 1933, he had auctioned off large parts of his collection, home furnishings, and art library, much of it at depressed prices.
Curt and Maria went into exile in June 1933, going first to Paris, then to Ascona, Switzerland, making the birth of their daughter Eva there plausible. In a reference I happened upon entitled “Curt Glaser Report: III. Summary of the Historical Facts,” the unnamed author writes: “Between 1936 and 1938/1939, the Glasers stayed repeatedly in Florence with their daughter, who was born in 1936,” known, however, to have been born in July 1935. At the time, Curt was likely researching the history of the Renaissance in Florence, a topic he later published a manuscript about.
It is an interesting coincidence that my own uncle and aunt Dr. Franz Müller and Suzanne Müller née Bruck’s stay on the outskirts of Florence almost exactly coincided with that of the Glasers. I like to imagine they may have met. Regardless, as the unnamed author previously quoted wrote: “In 1941, the Glasers emigrated to New York without their daughter and moved in 1943 to Lake Placid. . . He died on November 23, 1943.” (Figures 19-21)
The reason the Glasers left their daughter behind nagged at me. Trying to determine why this might have been, I turned to Geni.com. Here I found mention of her, indicating she had died in 1943, thus, at 7 or 8 years of age. I contacted the Profile Manager of the tree and asked where he uncovered this information. He sent a very gracious reply with a link to an article dated the 20th of March 2020 from “Basellandschaftliche Zeitung” (English: Basellandschaftliche Newspaper), or “bz,” a Swiss Standard German language daily newspaper. The article entitled “Curt Glaser case: The squaring of the cultural circle: an agreement has been reached in the Glaser case” (Mensch) discussed the restitution agreement that had been reached between Curt Glaser’s heirs and the Art Commission of the Basel Art Museum, which was one of the primary beneficiaries of the depressed prices Curt received for his art collection auctioned off in 1933.
Buried within this article was the following paragraph: “Glaser had no direct descendants. His first marriage to Elsa [née Kolker (1878-1932)], with which he had built up his collection, remained childless. His only daughter Eva, who had been born with a trisomy-21 impairment, also died as an eight-year-old child in Arlesheim, when Curt Glaser and his second wife Maria were already in exile in the USA.” Trisomy-21 is the most common form of Down syndrome, caused by an extra copy of chromosome number 21.
In conclusion, the chance to track down why Curt and Maria Glaser may have left their daughter behind when they moved to America in 1941 was only possible because of the prominence of Curt Glaser and the multiple articles written about him. Eva’s impairment is the likely explanation for why her parents chose to leave her in Switzerland, perhaps thinking she would receive better care there. Leaving Eva behind must have been a bitter pill to swallow for Curt and Maria. Interestingly, both Curt and his daughter died the same year, 1943. (Figure 22)
CORRECTIONS & AMENDMENTS MADE ON 8TH MAY 2023 BASED ON COMMENTS PROVIDED BY A READER, FRANK WEBSTER-SMITH
Note: This post is a follow-up to Post 95 in which I discussed the sad fate of my great-grandfather’s niece, Charlotte Bruck, my first cousin twice removed. In this post, I talk about her first husband, Walter Edward Stavenhagen, to whom she was married for only four years (1906-1910) and with whom she had her only two children. Thanks to my German genealogist friend, Peter Hanke, I was finally able to determine when and where Walter died; Peter put me in touch with a Swiss gentleman, Achim Bucher-Stavenhagen, whose deceased wife was the granddaughter of Walter’s youngest brother, Herbert Frederick Stavenhagen. While only related to my family by marriage, the scope and breadth of the Stavenhagen family primary source documents I obtained from Mr. Bucher make the telling of this story compelling.
When writing Blog posts, I often begin by reviewing primary source documents relevant to the people or topic I am writing about. These are mostly written in German, and in the interest of accuracy and completeness, I sometimes ask my German friends or relatives to transcribe and/or translate original certificates, hoping for additional clues. I followed this process in writing the current post, and inadvertently wound up solving the mystery of what happened to Walter Edward Stavenhagen, first husband of Charlotte Bruck (Figure 1), my first cousin twice removed. While doing this, I obtained a trove of primary source documents, many of which are only tangentially relevant to the story I am about to relate.
Before my recent discoveries, the date and place of birth of Charlotte Bruck’s first husband, Walter Edward Stavenhagen, were already known to me from the Mecklenburg-Schwerin or Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (i.e., Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania), Germany 1900 census I found on ancestry.com (Figure 2a); the Stavenhagens originally hailed from Mecklenburg-Strelitz, a territory in Northern Germany. The 1900 census states Walter was born on the 1st of September 1876 in Calais, France.
As discussed in Post 95, on ancestry, I also found Walter Stavenhagen and Charlotte Bruck’s marriage certificate, showing Walter lived in Eichwerder [today: Dąbrowa, Poland] near Soldin, Germany [today: Myślibórz, Poland] (Figure 3) and stating they were married in Berlin on the 3rd of May 1906. Following their marriage, the couple lived on Walter’s estate in Eichwerder, where their two sons, Frederick Wilhelm and Hans Joachim (Figure 4), were born. A notation on their marriage certificate indicates Walter and Charlotte were divorced on the 19th of May 1910 (Figure 5); according to family accounts, the cause of Walter and Charlotte’s divorce stems from Charlotte’s postpartum depression or bi-polar disorder after the birth of her second son and Walter’s suspected spousal abuse. Charlotte obtained custody of her two boys, who never again saw their father, and eventually decamped to America where she sadly spent much of the remainder of her life in mental institutions because of schizophrenia.
Jay Dunn née Lorenzen, Walter and Charlotte Stavenhagen’s granddaughter, sent me primary source documents suggesting Walter stayed in Eichwerder following his divorce. Jay obtained these documents from a German archivist showing that, respectively, in 1911 (Figure 6a), 1919 (Figure 6b), and 1923 (Figure 6c), Walter was the best man for three weddings that took place on his estate in Eichwerder.
On ancestry I was able to locate a list of passengers including Walter’s name showing he travelled from Hamburg, Germany to Grimsby, England on the 22nd of May 1924 (Figure 7), presumably to visit family or conduct family business; this document states his German occupation as “gutsbesitzer,” estate owner, logically. Prior to my recent discoveries, the last physical evidence I could find of Walter’s whereabouts was another passenger list showing he again left from Hamburg, this time headed to Leith, England, on the 20th of August 1929 (Figure 8); then he is listed as farmer, for all intents and purposes the same occupation. Both the 1924 and 1929 Hamburg passenger lists confirm Walter’s date of birth as the 1st of September 1876
Having found nothing further on Walter Stavenhagen in ancestry in my general search, I next turned to a collection accessible there, namely, “Germany and Surrounding Areas, Address Books, 1815-1974” (“Adressbücher aus Deutschland und Umgebung, 1815-1974).” Two old address books exist for Soldin, one for 1925, another for 1931. Neither includes a listing for Walter Stavenhagen even though both directories would logically have covered the period when he could still have been living near Soldin. Unfortunately, neither address book specifically includes the community of Eichwerder where Walter owned his estate even though Eichwerder and Soldin are only a few miles apart.
Knowing of Walter’s association with Soldin, Germany, today Myślibórz, Poland, I next contacted the “Archiwum Państwowe w Gorzowie Wielkopolskim” in Gorzow, Poland, where I was told German records from Soldin, Germany are archived. They graciously informed me their office only contains vital records covering the period between 1874 and 1917, obviously preceding Walter’s death; for land and property records, they referred me to the “Archiwum Państwowe w Szczecinie” in Szczecin, Poland, located 55 miles north of Eichwerder or Dąbrowa. I was hoping the old German “Grundbuch,” in which titles and actions related to land and property were registered, might still exist for Walter’s estate but they claimed not to have it. My previous experience trying to obtain the “Grundbuch” for a family-owned business outside Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland] suggests these may be stored in courthouses rather than archives but are definitively not available online.
I was curious whether the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (i.e., Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania), Germany 1900 census with Walter Stavenhagen’s date and place of birth might yield additional clues. (see Figures 2a-c) Thus, I asked my German genealogist friend, Peter Hanke, whether he could transcribe this document. I humorously dub Peter who has made some miraculous ancestral finds on my behalf and on the behalf of others the “Wizard of Wolfsburg” because he hails from Wolfsburg, Germany where Volkswagen is headquartered.
In sending this transcription, Peter casually mentioned that he might have chanced upon when and where Walter died and promised to get back to me. I was stunned given all the effort I have expended over the years trying to uncover Walter Stavenhagen’s fate. I waited in excited anticipation, and by the following day Peter put me in contact with a Swiss gentleman, Achim Bucher-Stavenhagen, whose deceased wife, Silke Stavenhagen, it turns out was the granddaughter of Walter’s youngest brother, Herbert Frederick Stavenhagen (1885-1960).
Peter located Achim through the GEDBAS database of the “Verein für Computergenealogie,” Association for Computer Genealogy (https://gedbas.genealogy.net/), a database I have never consulted. Entering the search fields and beginning the search sometimes yields results as happened in the case of Walter Edward Stavenhagen along with the name of a contact.
In contrast to Walter Stavenhagen, prior to my introduction to Achim Bucher-Stavenhagen, I had come across quite a bit of information related to Walter’s parents and four siblings (see vital statistics table below), including their dates and places of birth. I learned that Walter was the third of five siblings, though none of these sources indicated when and where he died. Much of this information originates from a family tree found on ancestry, a source I have often told readers I view with circumspection and wariness because of the erroneous data often incorporated into even the best of trees. With access to Achim, I soon learned he has done in-depth ancestral investigations on his wife’s Stavenhagen ancestors that make my own ancestral endeavors pale by comparison. He answered many of my questions and sent me dozens of primary source documents and photos of the Stavenhagen family, some of which I include in this post. Let me first summarize some of what I learned below about Walter.
According to Achim, Walter was schooled in Wittenberg, Germany, trained in Hamburg, Germany before eventually buying his estate in Eichwerder using family money amassed from trading in lace and tulle. The estate was about 414 hectares or 1023 acres, about 1.25 miles by 1.25 miles, in size. Contrary to my situation, by travelling to Szczecin, Poland, Achim was able to acquire a copy of the Grundbuch from the Szczecin archive for Walter’s estate, from which he sent only a few pages. (Figures 9a-b)
Walter sold the property in 1926 to a Jewish banker Hermann Bodzanowski but stayed on as the foreman of the estate. (Figure 10) Apparently, Walter’s youngest brother, Herbert Frederick Stavenhagen, was eventually intended to obtain ownership of the property. Germany’s hyperinflation in the early 1920’s affected the family’s fortunes requiring the sale of the landholding, although it was sold with an option to repurchase it. Regardless, given the Stavenhagen family’s Jewish origins, the estate might well have been confiscated by the Nazis as it was from Hermann Bodzanowski later.
Walter developed stomach cancer in the 1930’s and, while still living in Eichwerder, went to Heilbronn, Germany for treatments as his condition worsened where he died on the 9th of February 1937. According to Walter’s youngest sister, Emilie Fanny Stavenhagen, who kept daily notes between 1912 and 1960 (except during WWII), he was cremated on the 11th of February 1937 and buried in Soldin, Germany on the 15th of February. (Figure 11)
Finally, after several years trying to find out what happened to Walter, I uncovered the truth. Achim and Peter Hanke both sent me Walter’s death certificate from Heilbronn, Germany (Figure 12a), transcribed and translated below. (Figures 12b-c)
One of the first items Achim shared with me was a 1931 photo taken in Nottingham, England of Walter and his four siblings lined up from oldest to youngest. (Figure 13)
Achim sent me the birth certificates for Walter and his four siblings; all were born in Calais, France, thus are written in French which I read passably. I thought I might have difficulties deciphering the French handwriting, but in fact it is very legible. Walter’s birth certificate confirmed he was born on the 1st of September 1876. (Figure 14a) Below readers will find a French transcription and English translation of Walter’s birth certificate done for me by my second French cousin. (Figures 14b-c)
Walter Stavenhagen’s parents are named on his 1906 marriage certificate, Moritz Paul Stavenhagen and Fanny Ann Stevenson. (Figures 15a-b) Prior to connecting with Achim, I had already found Moritz and Fanny Ann’s marriage certificate showing they wed on the 19th of April 1873 in Saint Mary Abbots Church in Kensington, Middlesex, London, when he was supposedly 21 and she was 19. (Figure 16) I already knew Moritz had supposedly died on the 8th of January 1905 in Calais, France from the “England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administration), 1858-1966, 1973-1995,” showing his will was administered on the 15th of June 1905 in London, leaving his effects to his wife. (Figure 17) As though to prove my point that family trees on ancestry are often unreliable, I found two trees with different years of birth for Moritz, 1842 and 1852, a discrepancy I was eventually able to sort out with primary source documents given to me by Achim.
Moritz Paul Stavenhagen (1842-1905) was actively involved in trading lace with a financier originally from Nottingham, England by the name of William Henry Stevenson (1807-1886). Moritz wound up marrying William’s adopted daughter, Fanny Ann Roche, whose mother Margarite Roche née Smith had married William in around 1872. William moved permanently to Calais, France after 1828 and became a naturalized citizen in 1831. (Figure 20)
Two 1907 French Phone Directory listings indicate that “Stevenson et Stavenhagen” were in business together in Calais (Figure 21), a collaboration they likely began in around 1872 (Figures 37a-b). Following William’s death in 1886, Moritz’s continued collaboration was with William’s stepson, Frederick, born in 1855 who could have been his natural son.
I initially theorized that Moritz might have apprenticed with William or his father, John Stevenson, in Nottingham, England, but Frank Webster-Smith, the reader who provided corrections and additions for this post, pointed out that John was dead before Moritz was born and William was already living in Calais. According to the information in Figures 37a-b, in 1870 Moritz still lived in Nottingham, though he eventually moved to Calais from there. Frank theorizes rather that Moritz may well have acted as an agent for William in Nottingham in the early 1870s and picked up knowledge of lace business there.
Interestingly, John Stevenson together with his partner Richard Skipworth appear to have provided financing to a John Leaver, a reclusive genius from Nottinghamshire, recognized today as the “father” of modern lace making, who developed the prototype for machine-made lace. Suffice it to say, the history of lace making is fascinating, and partially explains the connection between England and France in this endeavor in the early-to-mid 1800’s.
According to the directories, it seems the trading company was in Calais proper, while the “succursale,” branch office or fabrication site, was in Caudry, 105 miles to the southeast of Calais. (Figure 22)
Achim sent me two death notices for Moritz Paul Stavenhagen from “Le Petit Calaisian” published after his death on the 8th of January 1905. He was identified as “négociant en matières premières, commissionnaire en tulles, vice consul d’allemagne à Calais,” commodities trader, tulles commission agent, and German vice consul in Calais. (Tulles is a sheer often stiffened silk, rayon, or nylon net used chiefly for veils or ballet costumes that was exported from England.) The death notice remarked that Moritz had been the German vice consul in Calais for 35 years. (Figure 23)
Achim also sent me Moritz’s Calais death certificate (Figure 24), which served to further muddy the waters because the vital data for Moritz, his wife, and his son Paul differs from dates in other primary source documents, specifically, birth and marriage records. Moritz’s death certificate says he died on the 9th of January, rather than the 8th of January 1905 cited elsewhere, at the age of 62 years and 3 months; this would mean he was born in 1842 contradicting what is written on his 1873 marriage certificate saying he was 21 at the time, meaning he would have been born in 1852. Moritz’s wife Fanny Ann Stevenson is said to be 49 years old at the time of his death when she was known to have been born in 1853 and would have been 51; similarly, Moritz’s son, Paul Stavenhagen, is said to have been 27 years in 1905 when he was in fact 29. What to make of all these discrepancies is unclear. I mention this because I often harp about tying vital events to primary source documents, but this is proof there can be discrepancies among even well-sourced certificates.
Another fascinating document Achim shared with me was a letter dated the 23rd of May 1872 appointing Moritz Stavenhagen as German vice consul in Calais. (Figures 25a-b) This would seem to confirm that Moritz was born in 1842 since he would have been only 20 years old in 1872 had he been born in 1852, rather young in my opinion to be appointed vice consul. Another 1907 French Phone Directory lists “Stavenhagen” as the German vice consul. (Figure 26)
A brief digression to recount some of what Achim related. By any measure, the Stavenhagen family were cosmopolitan with ties to Germany, England, and France. At the start of WWI in 1914, the French determined the Stavenhagens to be Germans, and liquidated their businesses. The French newspapers of the day apparently took great delight in the fact German bombs destroyed Stavenhagen’s house during the WWI. Later, during the Nazi era, the family was judged to be Jewish with a predictable outcome. Members of the family who were Anglicans escaped to England, mixed marriages fell apart, and others were murdered in the Holocaust.
We know from Moritz and Fanny Ann’s 1873 marriage certificate they were married in the Anglican Church in Kensington. I naturally assumed that Moritz had converted from Judaism, but such was not the case, according to Achim. His death notice from the “Le Petit Calaisian” dated the 12th of January 1905 states that he was Jewish and that his funeral was presided over by a rabbi from Boulogne-sur-mer, France. (Figure 27) It seems odd Moritz was married in the Anglican Church as a Jew, but then again, neither Moritz nor Fanny’s religion is denoted on the certificate.
As previously mentioned, Moritz’s wife, Fanny Ann Stevenson, was the adopted daughter of William Henry Stevenson; she was born in 1853 in Campagne-Les-Guines, France. Remarkably, Achim was able to track down census records from Campagne-les-Guines, respectively, from 1856 (Figure 28a), 1861 (Figure 28b), and 1866 (Figures 28c-d) with Fanny Ann’s name on it. It’s not entirely clear when or if Fanny’s mother, Margarite (Margueritte in French) Roche née Smith, married William Henry Stevenson, but at some point Fanny and her brother or half-brother, Frederick, took the Stevenson surname. There is no question William deemed these children to be his own because in his 1886 will, they each inherited one-third of his estate, with the last third left to other heirs. (Figure 29)
In closing what I realize is an involved and overly lengthy post on Walter Stavenhagen and his family (Figures 30-36), I want to end on a touching note. While researching his wife’s ancestry in her final months, Achim related how he would give Silke daily updates on his newest genealogical finds, including the day he discovered the fate of Walter’s two sons, revelations that brought her great joy and calm towards the end of her life.
Regular readers know that I am a stickler for accuracy. In recent posts, I have begun to include a table of vital statistics of the people I write about and their closest relatives, citing the source of the vital data. I expect this to be of zero interest to most readers, and I do this primarily for my own benefit so I can recollect where names, dates, places, etc. originate from. That said, I would emphasize to readers that compiling and documenting the source of vital data is a laborious task as the following table illustrates.
VITAL STATISTICS FOR WALTER EDWARD STAVENHAGEN & HIS IMMEDIATE FAMILY
NAME
EVENT
DATE
PLACE
SOURCE
Walter Edward Stavenhagen (self)
Birth
1 September 1876
Calais, France
Birth Certificate
Marriage (to Charlotte Bruck)
3 May 1906
Berlin, Germany
Marriage Certificate
Divorce (from Charlotte Bruck)
19 May 1910
Berlin, Germany
Notation on Marriage Certificate
Death
9 February 1937
Heilbronn, Germany
Death Certificate
Cremation
11 February 1937
Emilie Fanny Stavenhagen’s diary
Burial
15 February 1937
Soldin, Germany [today: Myślibórz, Poland]
Emilie Fanny Stavenhagen’s diary
Charlotte Stavenhagen née Bruck (wife)
Birth
17 August 1886
Berlin, Germany
Marriage Certificate
Marriage (to Walter Edward Stavenhagen)
3 May 1906
Berlin, Germany
Marriage Certificate
Divorce (from Walter Edward Stavenhagen)
19 May 1910
Berlin, Germany
Notation on Marriage Certificate
Death
5 June 1974
Stamford, Connecticut
Connecticut Death Index
Moritz Paul Stavenhagen (father)
Birth
3 October 1842
Neubrandenburg, Germany
Paul Moses Stavenhagen Facts & Events (from Achim Bucher); Marriage Certificate; Death Certificate; Walter Edward Stavenhagen’s Birth Certificate
Marriage (to Fanny Ann Stevenson)
19 April 1873
Kensington, London, England
London and Surrey, England, Marriage Bonds and Allegations, 1597-1921
Death
9 January 1905
Calais, France
Death Certificate
Probate
15 June 1905
London, England
England & Wales, National Probate Calendar, 1858-1966, 1973-1995
Fanny Ann Stavenhagen née
Roche adopted Stevenson (mother)
Birth
10 June 1853
Campagne-Les-Guines, France
Birth Certificate; William Henry Stevenson’s 24 February 1884 Last Will
Marriage
19 April 1873
Kensington, London, England
London and Surrey, England, Marriage Bonds and Allegations, 1597-1921
Death (buried in Nottingham, England)
8 September 1939
Nottingham, England
England & Wales, National Probate Calendar, 1858-1966, 1973-1995
Margarethe Marianne Just née Stavenhagen (sister)
Birth
14 February 1874
Calais, France
Birth Certificate; 1939 England & Wales Register
Marriage (to Aron Albert Just)
23 August 1897
Calais, France
Marriage Certificate
Death (buried in Nottingham, England)
1 July 1945
Nottingham, England
UK, Burial and Cremation Index, 1576-2014
Paul Henry Stavenhagen (brother)
Birth
22 May 1875
Calais, France
Birth Certificate; German Minority Census, 1939
Marriage (to Alice Violet Willmott)
17 January 1906
Leytonstone, Essex, England
Essex, England, Church of England Marriages, 1754-1935
Death
30 December 1946
Hamburg, Germany
England, Andrews Newspaper Index Cards, 1790-1976
Probate
27 August 1952
London, England
England & Wales, National Probate Calendar, 1858-1995
