The Grandma Else Schwebel mystery

Genealogy, or family history, is not just a hobby collecting names and dates for me. It is finding and understanding an ancestor, their story, their place in history, understanding who they were, what they were about, and how that influenced the dynamics of you and your family today. In genealogy most everyone can go as far back as their grandparents. In fact it would seem that most people even if they did not know their grandparents personally, due to death or distance, at the very least know their name and have been told a bit about them. Not so with Grandma Else Schwebel.

My father in law, now deceased, years ago when prompted told me that his mothers name was Elisabeth Schwebel. He said "she died when I was young, I don't really remember her". My husband did not recall even ever hearing her name. The family did not have one picture of her. The only "proof" I had that Elisabeth Schwebel was my husbands paternal grandmother was a copy of my in-laws wedding record which named her as the mother of my father-in-law and stated her date of birth. Who was she? What happened to her? What was her place in the family?

They say start with what you know. What could each tiny piece of information I found  tell me about Elisabeth? What additional questions or thoughts does each bit of information generate?





• Elisabeth was born 25 May 1897 in Reinheim, Germany.
          -Reinheim and Groß-Bieberau are very close. Elisabeth and Ludwig may have known each other for some time.
          -their families may have been familiar with each other also.

•Elisabeth married Ludwig 29 Apr 1922. She was 25 and he was 35.
          -couples generally married in the parish of the bride, why in the grooms parish?
          -did her parents not approve of the union?

•Elisabeth gave birth to my father in law Walter 14 Jan 1923, 9 months after their marriage
          -she was not pregnant at the time of her marriage

•Walter was the only child of that union
          -was this a difficult delivery that impacted her health or fertility?
          -did the couple separate after his birth?

•Walter had a painting of himself as a baby
          -to commission or have a friend paint your baby seems to me to indicate that child was cherished.

the only known photo of Walter as a child

•Walter had only 1 photo of himself as a child and he was maybe 3 or 4 and the next family photo was of him, his father and his fathers new wife and child taken when Walter appeared to be in his teens. The family has no photo of Elisabeth
            -did she at some point leave/abandon the family since it seems it is often the mother that documents her growing children with photos.
            -for some unknown reason did the family wish to forget about her?
           -WWII, my mother in laws family lost their home during an air raid bombing yet they still had some photos of their children. The Feick home was untouched
           -Is it possible wife #2 for some reason destroyed all photos of Feick family taken before she arrived?
           -did Ludwig destroy all photos of his first wife for some reason?
           -did Walter himself for some unknown reason destroy all photos of his mother?

•Elisabeth was found in a Schwebel family tree. It most certainly is her as the name is the same, birth date same, name of spouse same (alternate spelling Feik), date of spouse birth is same and date of marriage is same. However after marriage there is no more info on that tree about Elisabeth.
          -she only moved 2-3 miles from her home. Did her Schwebel family not stay in touch?
          -if she had left her husband Ludwig would she not have returned to Reinheim?
          -why did not the Schwebel family maintain some contact or even know there was a child of that union?
       
 •Elisabeth died 20 Aug 1938- this is a fact verified by the archive in Groß-Bieberau      
          -Walter said distinctly "she died young, I don't really remember her". 1938? Walter would have been almost 16! My mom died when my brother was 14 and he remembers her distinctly and fondly.
          -is it possible she died elsewhere and her death is merely recorded in Groß-Bieberau?


Putting all this together it would seem to me that from the time of Walters early youth, Elisabeth was not present and perhaps abandoned the family. I was starting to dislike Grandma Elisabeth.

Then I found this:

•Elisabeth is buried in the family plot along with her husband Ludwig and his second wife Käthe
          -a woman who divorced or abandoned her husband would hardly be buried with him
          -her name on the tombstone is Else, a term of endearment for Elisabeth as Liesel or Elise would be? or just cost less than the longer name Elisabeth?
       
Now I am back to square one, still seeking more information about Elisabeth.

Grandma Else, were you a part of your son's life? where were you? what happened to you? would you have been pleased to know that someday in the U.S. you would have 4 grandchildren, 8 great grandchildren, 9 great great grandchildren and counting?

The hunt for Grandma Else goes on.