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Gilsa Mittelhof. Wikimedia Commons.1
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Catharine has been one of my most stubborn brick walls through the years. Catharine was born on 18 September 1834 in Germany and according to census records immigrated in 1851.
She married was married first to John Kibel (also Kible and Kaebel) and following his death to John Hubertus Younker (various spellings include Junker and Yonker). Distant cousins descended from her Kibel children had some clues, but Gertrude's obituary provided not only a place but names for their parents, Conrad and Catharine Thomas. Small crumbs, given their common names, but a starting place nevertheless.
An search of a online newspaper site yielded an article about a nephew visiting Gertrude Vef 4, which led to the discovery a brother, Conrad, had also immigrated.5 Now I had three siblings but few options because there aren't many records online for the area in Germany they were from. The recent discovery of a Thomas family researcher based in Germany on Geneanet finally broke down that brick wall when she was able to locate Catharine's parents in Gilsa's civil records and several additional generations.6- Mittelhof Gilsa in Neuental-Gilsa, Hessen, Regierungsbezirk Kassel, Schwalm-Eder-Kreis, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mittelhof_Gilsa.jpg.
- Gertrude Thomas Vef. Find A Grave Memorial 53429686.
- Catharine Thomas Kibel Younker. Find A Grave Memorial 7525363.
- The Pantagraph (Bloomington, Illinois), Friday, June 20, 1919, pg 14. www.newspapers.com/image/?spot=3859217
- Conrad Thomas. Find A Grave Memorial 33037411.
- Family tree for Conrad Thomas (1808-1848) and Catharina Jünger (1808-1850). Geneanet, accessed 3 Jan 2016.
