When we were kids and some concept finally became clear to us, Mom would say, "..comes the dawn!" Last night, Larry provided me again with one of those moments:
...he was asking about my grandmothers' sister who also died in April 1945. He'd been looking at Margaret Naber's death certificate (above). He saw that Reinhard, at 24 years old, had provided the information...and it finally finally dawned on me what actually happened!
Grandma Margaret must not have talked much about her relatives in Iowa, but Reinhard remembered the name Schlichte. We know Mary Naber (Schlichte) was 14 when her step-mother had Margaret, so maybe Mary was a "second mom" to little Maggie.
Now, the name Schlichting is fairly familiar in central Minnesota. Some are even related thru dad's side of the family, but not that we've found on the Janson/Naber side. And, if you say both names out loud, it's difficult to distinguish one from the other. Imagine distraught Reinhard sitting with Mr Virnig, the undertaker: "What was Margaret's mothers' maiden name?" Reinhard had already given the wrong name and birthplace for Gerhard Naber, and he probably said the first name that presented itself in his head: Schlichte...which Mr Virnig heard as Schilchting....and that's what was written down, and what's confused us now, 65 years later.
The moral of this story is that death certificates can easily be wrong....names get confused, or informants guess, or just might not know.
The correct information on Margaret Naber Janson's death certificate should read:
Father: Gerhard Naber, born in Oldenberg, Germany (1829)
Mother: Elizabeth Richels, born in Westfalen, Germany (1846)
WOW, Larry, this is really really COOL!
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