Tag: William Helbling

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Do You Know These Helblings? (or Geiers? Or Stupys?)

Unknown photo from the Helbling-Geier Family Photo Collection

Helbling Family (click for family tree)

We will be posting some photos in this and upcoming posts of some unknown family. These unlabeled images have been passed down in the Helbling line, and we hope someone out there also has one of these photos, and may be able to identify the people in it.

Here is a little background:

The current owner of these pictures, which were found loose, is a descendant of Laurelda Collette (Helbling) Geier, who lived in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area. Laurelda was born in 1888, and married Bernard Adam Geier (1887-1961) on 23 Nov 1910; they both died in 1961, only 22 days apart.

Laurelda was a first cousin to Gerard William “G. W.” Helbling (1882-1971), husband to Anna May (Beerbower) Helbling (1881-1954), our direct ancestor. We have pictures of G.W.’s son, Edgar B. Helbling (1908-1994), with Laurelda’s son, Robert “Bob” A. Geier (1912-1990); they were second cousins.

G.W.’s father was Francis X. Helbling (1840-1919) and Laurelda’s was William Helbling (1841-1896), both children of Franz Xavier Helbling (1800-1876) and Mary Theresa (Knipshield) Helbling (1810-1891). F.X. (Sr.) and Mary were our German immigrants to the US, probably about 1835.

On to the pictures:

Lawrence and Flora (Helbling) Hyle family

The first picture in this article is not labeled with names of the woman or child. We do know that the photo directly above is a portrait of Laurelda’s sister, Flora Agnes (Helbling) Hyle (1867-1920), her husband Lawrence M. Hyle (1864-1921), plus other family members. (The Hyle name has also been spelled “Heyl.”) Although this is not a great image, it could be two or three sisters, their husbands and children, and an older woman who could possibly be their mother. The family thinks that the woman on the far right of the photo looks like the woman in the picture above, and may be one of the women in the following picture:

Unknown portraits- possibly Helbling or Stupy Family, from the Helbling-Geier Family Photo Collection

Could the above picture possibly be 4 generations of the family?

If this portrait was taken in 1897, as the cutout from what was probably the original photo card suggests, the little girl in the lower left could possibly be Laurelda Collette Helbling, who would have been 9 years old that year.

This picture appears to be the same little girl:

Unknown photo from the Helbling-Geier Family Photo Collection

Here is another adorable little girl- could this be the same person, just younger?

Unknown photo from the Helbling-Geier Family Photo Collection

It is always good to compare unknown pictures with those that are labeled, so here is a picture that includes Laurelda:

Helbling Family. Rear, from left: Regis, Millie, Mae, Essie. Front: Eliabeth B (Stupy) Helbling-mother, Laurelda Collette, and Flora Helbling.

What do you think? Could these unknown pictures be of Laurelda Collette (Helbling) Geier?

 

The fact that so many pictures of the same people were lovingly saved over almost 120 years (or more!) suggests that these ‘unknowns’ are truly family members, in the direct line of the person who now holds the images. Not having their names on the picture was logical at the time- their contemporaries all knew who was who.

Please use our contact form to let us know if you have these same photos- even without names, knowing the chain of persons they have been passed down through may help to eliminate or even to identify persons.

With names, of course, would be even better…

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. See “Mystery Monday: Who is Visiting with the Helblings?” for more info about Bob Geier
    http://heritageramblings.net/2018/03/26/mystery-monday-who-is-visiting-with-the-helblings/
  2. Histed Studio- there is an 1897 image from a studio by this name but at a different address in Pittsburgh: https://historicpittsburgh.org/islandora/search/catch_all_fields_mt%3A%28histed%29?f%5B0%5D=RELS_EXT_isMemberOfCollection_uri_ms%3A%22info%5C%3Afedora%5C/pitt%3Acollection.236%22&islandora_solr_search_navigation=0
  3. A special thanks to cousin Mary Lou who has done phenomenal research on the Helbling family- in the days before the internet!- and who has been a wonderful steward of these family treasures.

 

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We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.

Original content copyright 2013-2019 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted. 
Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly, i.e, reference this blog.
 Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright or use of our blog material.

Mystery Monday: Who is Visiting with the Helblings?

1935- Helblings. Gerard William “G.W.” Helbling (1882-1971) on left, his son Edgar B. Helbling (1909-1994) on right. Man in center is now known to be a cousin, Robert A. “Bob” Geier.

Helbling Family (Click for Family Tree)

Actually, this mystery has been solved, even before it was published.

Here is what was written last week:

This image was shared by a cousin, but I do not have a record of who the man in the center might be. I checked my emails, because that is where I would have received the image, but many of the emails I exchanged with this cousin have disappeared from my mail service. (WHY??) It reinforces the fact that one needs to document well, and save to their hard drive, the cloud, or even such an archaic thing as paper. We can no longer expect these companies to keep things available to us forever, and WE are the losers if we do not ‘back-up’ information in a format that cannot be easily eliminated by a computer. And don’t forget to share– LOCKSS— Lots Of Copies Keep Stuff Safe.

Back to the photo- do you know this mystery man? He looks to be younger than Edgar, who would have been about 26 when this picture was taken; as a guess, perhaps our Mystery Man was born around 1915?

Edgar did the driving on some family trips to Illinois and other places. Note the car to his right- does that belong to the Helblings? Or to the Mystery Man?

It is hard to tell where the photo may have been taken- was it St. Louis and they were being visited, or were they off visiting somewhere? Checking the old Helbling photo albums to see if there is another picture of this young man or the background might give us more information.

Please do let us know if you can tell us the identity of our ‘Mystery Man!’

An email to what I thought might be an old, defunct address of the cousin actually worked! It has been a number of years since we corresponded, but she did answer the above questions. I still thought it might be helpful to list some of the thought process that one can go through in trying to identify a photo. Posting information about LOCKSS is important, I think, as well.

So back to our photo. Our dear cousin Mary Lou, who so generously shared her detailed research on the Helbling family (all done the hard way- before the internet!), explained that the man in the center was Robert Albert “Bob” Geier. He was the son of Laurelda Colette Helbling and her husband Bernard Adam Geier. Laurelda was the daughter of William Helbling, brother to our Francis Xavier Helbling (Jr.). So Bob’s mother and G.W. Helbling were first cousins. That makes their children, Bob Geier and Edgar Helbling, second cousins.

Mary Lou went on to explain that Bob drove across the country in 1935, so that is probably his car in the photo. He likely started in his hometown of Avalon, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania (near Pittsburgh), and one of his next stops was St. Louis to visit his Helbling cousins. Remember, the interstate highway system as we know it today was not built until Dwight D. Eisenhower was President, authorized in 1956 but not completed until 35 years later. So no four- or six-lane I-80 for Bob! He may have taken the Lincoln Highway west to the Chicago area and then south to St. Louis, or possibly just taken smaller roads that were more direct. (The Lincoln “Highway” was only two narrow lanes in some places back then, and just a dirt road in others, as paving was not completed until 1935. So there might not have been much difference in quality of the road back then between the two routes.) The St. Louis Helblings had travelled to Pittsburgh by car (as well as train), so they probably knew the best route.

From St. Louis Bob could have taken the famous Route 66 west to California.

Route 66 Map via Wikipedia, By Fredddie – USA map(GIS data), roads (GIS data), maps to help locate the route in GIS data, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12499286.

What an adventure that trip must have been for a young man of 23!

Bob’s adventures continued, as he learned to fly small planes and started a flying school with his younger brother Bernard Geier. There was a story in a 1940 Pittsburgh newspaper about Bob’s plans to fly from Santa Ana, California, to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in a biplane that was 15 years old and only cost him $300. The story stated he was a superintendent at a fruit canning plant, but also held a commercial pilot’s license. He had been an aeronautical student at the University of Pittsburgh prior to his move to California.

Bob married and had children, and ran for Congress in Orange County, California.

1961 advertisement for Bob Geier, candidate for Congress in Orange County, California. Family image.

Bob passed away 19 September 1990 in San Diego, California.

If you are a grandchild of G.W. Helbling, you are a second cousin once removed to Bob. It was nice to get to know one of our distant cousins!

Thanks, Mary Lou!

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. Family treasure chest of photos.
  2. Robert Albert “Bob” Geier (1912-1990); Laurelda Colette Helbling (1888-1961); Bernard Adam Geier (1887-1961); William Helbling (1841-1896); Francis Xavier Helbling (1840-1919); Bernard Geier (1924-2007)
  3. Highways– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_System, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Route_of_the_Lincoln_Highway

 

Click to enlarge any image. Please contact us if you would like an image in higher resolution.

We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.
 

Original content copyright 2013-2017 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted. 
Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly.
 Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright or use of our blog material.

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Tuesday’s Tip: Look Beyond the Subject in a Photo: The Helbling Family

1929- Mary Helbling with the family dogs, the pups of their beloved Midge: Babe, Spot, and Boy.

Helbling Family (Click for Family Tree)

This image was just posted recently, but there is more to it than just Mary and the family dogs.

Tuesday’s Tip: Look beyond the subject of a photo to learn more about the event and the family.

Looking at the above photo, we notice that there is a shadow at the bottom, obviously of a person. The shape of the shadow suggests, by the silhouette of the hairstyle, that it was a woman taking the picture. We cannot be sure, but most likely it was little Mary’s mother, Anna “May” (Beerbower) Helbling (1881-1954), taking the picture. That shape of shadow would not have been cast by Mary’s father, Gerard William “G.W.” Helbling (1882-1971). In 1929, young women were cutting their hair- and their skirts!- short, but since May was 48 years old that year (she was 43 when she had Mary), she wore her hair a bit more old-fashioned, as she did in the nineteen-teens. The Edwardian styles were poufy on the sides and flat on the top so they could wear the big hats of the day. The shadow reflects (actually the opposite?? Wordsmithing is fun.) that style.

Analyzing the picture further, we also note the woman in the background, at the screen door. (No air conditioning in those days!) Too bad we cannot see her face, but that woman was most likely Mary’s beloved maternal grandmother,  Anna Missouri (Springsteen) Beerbower  (1854-1939).  Why do we think that? We found Anna Missouri in Indianapolis, Indiana, with her husband Edgar Peter Beerbower at the time of the 1910 census. He died in 1916 but we cannot find her in the 1920 US Federal Census- not in Indianapolis, St. Louis, nor with her other children. There is a picture of Anna holding her granddaughter Mary as a baby (see previous posts) so she was at least visiting in 1925, if not living in St. Louis with the family. We do find her listed with her daughter and son-in-law and their family (including Mary) in 1930, the year after this picture was taken, at the house at 5154 Page Ave., St. Louis, Missouri. So checking censuses can help us learn more about what is in the background of the photo.

Anna’s son, Edgar Springsteen Beerbower (1876-1940) lived with them too as he was divorced. He was Mary’s “Uncle Edgar.”

That must have been a very full house at 5154 Page Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri! The Helbling house appears to have been since demolished, (see Google Maps link below) but neighboring houses are about 2,000 sq. ft. Zillow lists the one next door as multi-family, with 2 bathrooms. The lot size is about double the size of the house, at just over 4,000 sq. ft. In the 1930 census,  the residents of the house were G.W. and May Helbling (who is listed as age 46, not 49), their children Edgar B. Helbling, the oldest at age 22; Anna “May” Helbling; Viola G. Helbling; Robert “Bob” Helbling; William “Bill” Helbling; and Mary Helbling, age 5. Anna Bierbower was listed as G. W.’s mother-in-law, and Edgar Bierbower is listed as his brother-in-law (his wife’s brother). Emma Johnson was their servant. (They definitely were not ‘rich’ money-wise, but May had health problems- likely diabetes before there was insulin, so needed help at home.) So there were 10 people in that house and since it was built in 1895, at that time there was likely only one bathroom. A 2,000 sq. ft. house is considered a ‘starter home’ in the suburbs today, but is the norm for many city areas. The home was very near Forest Park, and even back then was considered city.

Although this information about the home and occupants is not something we directly learn from the photo, the research was inspired by it, to add more to the story. So always analyze more than just the subject of a photo, to understand more about your ancestors.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. Google Maps for 5154 Page Blvd– https://goo.gl/maps/TP2PpBgu4dH2
  2. Zillow listing for 5156 Page Blvd, St. Louis MO–https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/5156-page-blvd-st-louis-mo_rb

 

 

Click to enlarge any image. Please contact us if you would like an image in higher resolution.

We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.
 

Original content copyright 2013-2017 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted. 
Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly.
 Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright or use of our blog material.

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Helbling Family Home & School, Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania, Part 1

This entry is part 1 of 4 in the series Helbling Family Home & School

 

Helbling family home in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania. From a family photo but image may also be found in St. Augustine Diamond Jubilee, page 40-2, St. Augustine Catholic Church, Lawrenceville, PA. From a family photo but image may also be found in St. Augustine Diamond Jubilee, page 40-2, St. Augustine Catholic Church, Lawrenceville, PA.
Helbling family home in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania.
From a family photo but image may also be found in St. Augustine Diamond Jubilee, page 40-2, St. Augustine Catholic Church, Lawrenceville, PA.

In the year 1854, the Franz Xavier and Maria Barbara (Helbling) Helbling home was across from the Allegheny Cemetery and halfway between Sharpsburg and St. Philomena’s Roman Catholic Church. The Redemptionist Fathers of St. Philomena’s often stopped at the home of the devout Helbling family when traveling between the Church on Fourteenth St. and Sharpsburg. (The home was still standing in the 1930s, but 4807-4809 Butler St., Lawrenceville, PA, is now an empty lot.) German Catholics were very devoted to parochial schools- they felt their children should start their day with a Mass and that they should be schooled in a Catholic school. The Helblings had eleven children, and there were many more children of German Catholic families in the town of Lawrenceville, PA, near Pittsburgh which was rapidly becoming an important industrial city.

The Helbling children attended the English-speaking school at St. Philomena’s on 46th St., but it was quite a long way to travel. Father John Hotz, C.SS.R. visited the Helblings at their home in the fall of 1854, and asked if the Helblings would board a teacher who could instruct their children. A schoolroom was set up on the second floor of the double house, and the teacher arrived.

 

Nine of the Helbling children attended school with this teacher: Elizabeth Barbara, Francis X., William, Philomena Rosanna, Catherine Josephine, Mary Sophia, John Baptist, and Joseph Anthony Helbling; sometimes Bertha Louise, just 2 or 3, attended class. The teacher was very stern and strange, only left the house on Sundays to go to Mass, and wore a long black robe but was not actually a priest. (He may have been a Redemptorist lay brother but no information has confirmed this.) He prayed to a picture of Our Lady of Guadeloupe constantly. The story told is that when, one day, Mrs. Helbling sent little daughter Bertha Louise to get some corn cobs from the yard, the child returned with them and said, “I got them.” The teacher, not being very fluent in English, thought that the child had said a curse word, and said, “Bertha Louise is surely going to hell.”

The adults in the family soon began to question the eccentric behavior of this teacher that their children greatly disliked and feared. The family never even knew his name- he was always just addressed as “Teacher.” As a mother, Mary Theresa (Knipshield) Helbling feared for her children that the teacher was about to lose his mind, and asked Father Hotz to dismiss him from their school and home. Fr. Hotz transferred the teacher to a school in Sharpsburg, where he did in fact lose his mind and have to be removed. Nothing further is known of him.

To be continued…

 

Notes, Sources, and References:

1) St. Augustine’s Parish History 1863-1938. Personal copy from a cousin, but the entire history may be found online at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~njm1/StAugJub-TC.html, page 11. Accessed 1-22-2014.

Please contact us if you would like a higher resolution image.

Copyright 2014 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

 
We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post, and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.