Back in 2010, in honor of Women’s History Month, Lisa Alzo created a list of writing prompts for each day during the month of March.  I didn’t participate in 2010, so I’m going to take the opportunity to participate this year, since Lisa was kind enough to resurrect her prompts for 2012.

Is there a female ancestor who is your brick wall? Why? List possible sources for finding more information.


Three of the four second great-grandmothers on my mom’s side are “brick walls” simply because in order to determine their parents and siblings, requires studying others of the same surname in Chicago and/or “crossing the pond” to Germany.  Here are some basic details on each of them:

Minnie (Hemfler) Leppin – According to her death certificate, Minnie Hemfler was born on 9 April 1871 in Germany.  Minnie married Herman Leppin on 26 March 1894 in Chicago.  Minnie died on 17 Mary 1945 in Chicago.  Her death certificate does not name her parents.  However, based on the correlation of a few sources, I’m fairly positive that she had a sister named Augusta, who married a Philip Zimmermann (you can read more about this in my post I Think She’s Related).

Mary Eva (Reeder) Rottman – This one is definitely a thorn in my side (I’m sure my cousin Barbara would agree!).  I don’t really know that much about Eva, other than she was probably born about 18 March 1849 in France, married Philip Rottman likely before 1870, and died on 26 October 1899 in Iowa.  The interesting twist is that of their six children’s records, sometimes her maiden name was listed as Reeder, while other times is was listed as Lasser.  Is it possible that she was married briefly before she married Philip?

Mary (Braun) Stoffel – According to her death certificate, Mary was born on 19 November 1855 in Frankfurt, Germany.  She married Carl “Charles” Stoffel about 1884.  On 9 August 1936, Mary died in Chicago.  As I was reviewing a wedding booklet for Mary’s daughter, Anna, I was able to identify all of the names, except two.  After researching those two names, I’ve come to the conclusion that Mary had a sister (could also be a cousin, but there’s definitely a relationship), Anna, who married an Otto Beckard in Chicago in 1871.

Hopefully as my research on these ladies continues, I will be able to figure out who their parents and sibling were and where they came from, other than “Germany.”

Read all of my Fearless Females posts.