FAMILY-Dunkelberger & friends

 August 8 2019

It all started when a new dna match contacted me asking if my family had brittle bone disease. I really did not know how to answer that but after a few questions back and forth we exchanged trees. He said he thinks we are linked through Dunkelbergers. There were none in his tree though LOL
But I started with Amanda Dunkelberger my 2nd great grandmother who was married to Francis Marion Moore- that led to Jacob John Dunkelberger her father. I noticed some blanks- people with no death date. Three days later I am wallowing in information overload. Mostly people not blood related. Why? because one Dunkelberger had a death certificate that read "Inquest Pending". That usually means an unattended death or criminal actions. Murder suicide etc. Nothing perks my appetite more than a mysterious death.
So from Amanda's brother John Alfred b 1854- d 1921

 I had nothing on him. He had a wife Annie V Musselman 1860- 1931. They had a son William Henry 1881-1934 and that is where it got interesting. He had a sister who died young Katie Maude 1889-1903 no information on her.
William Henry  1881-1934 married Lucy M Seitzinger 1877-1945. His death certificate was the first one with "Inquest Pending"

Gun shot wound of
chest suicide
while tempis deranged.
so the only way to get to the bottom of this was to ask for help from people who had access to newspapers.

Seems he was despondent about charges that he  had a disturbance in his apartment.  Likely I will never know what that was. Maybe busy bodies not liking he had a friend whatever. His wife had been ill for many years and was in Norristown State Hospital for treatment.
News Items he left a note for his friend Bertha Bresser  1882-1971 who married a Charles  Honnen  1882-1963
News items:

suicide note and "last will"

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blog down need to refresh.
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August 9, 2019

Before I get too far adrift with the non relative connections to Bertha
Here is Harry's wife Lucy's census information and 2 death certificates.
1910 census Harry & Lucy - 109 Hansberry street Philadelphia PA line 44

 area of Hansberry street now from google maps

1920 Harry wife Lucy listed as mother with John A penciled in above it and his mother Anna listed as mother. Harry line 6
113 W Louden Street Philadelphia PA

1930 Lucy is in Norristown State Hospital. Not sure for an ailment or a mental health issue

 okay found him with his mother Louden st 1930
timekeeper at railroad

father did not die until 1921 wonder if that penciled in "John A" counts

Harry & Lucy marriage 1904

her two death certificates

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ah ha looking for Lucy's parents find the family in 1880 nothing further on any of them BUT the brother  Milton married into my tree through Darius Gilger's daughter Grace ( Patricia Grace) wow. John Milton Seitzinger 1876-1935- his father was James Seitzinger b 1847 was first married to Caroline Ebert / Evert she died in 1898 children: Estella and Cora and Lucy who married Harry Dunkelberger and  John Milton 1876-1939 remarried Caroline's sister Mary Ellen 1847- who had married a Hopkins her husband Richard died sometime between 1877 when her last child was born and 1880 when she is listed as a widow. John Milton & Mary Ellen marriage

They are in the 1910 census in Mount Carmel.wow he WAS a Medal of Honor from Civil War Still cannot find Mary Ellen
James Monroe


They had a son James who became my second cousin 2 x removed, instead of just a person in my tree related to Harry Dunkelberger's wife.
James' obituary

James married Marie Elizabeth Kellerman and they had two children Monsignor John P and James M.
so that was a nice twist.

Now on to Bertha- have no clue if she and her husband had children. No clue either whether she and Harry Dunkelberger had a thing going on. They were friends then he shot himself.
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 need a break!