This lady is my great great great grandma. Pegging her first name is near-impossible, but here she is, the wife of John W. Merkert.

She and her husband were the parents of Mary Elizabeth Merkert, who had a daughter, Rosena Kimpel, who had a son, William Hamilton Storkey V, who had my mother.

I suspected she died before her husband because his obituary doesn't contain the requisite phrase "husband of", but couldn’t be sure for a long time. I have been unable to find an obituary or death certificate for her. The best I could do was find a one- line death notice in the Philadelphia Inquirer. On January 28, she was listed as a death reported to the Bureau of Health on January 27, 1903. Contagious causes of death were marked with an asterisk, but she had none. Here, she was named as a Livinia.

Chronologically, the first official document I can find on our mysterious lady is the February 5, 1876 death certificate of her daughter Elizabeth, age two, who died of convulsions. The family is living at 133 Levering Street in Manayunk (a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), and our subject's name is recorded as Luwina.

The 1880 census shows Lavina and John W. Merkert in Roxborough on what appears to be Keely or Neeley Alley. Children in the home then are Frank L (age 18), Mary (my gg grandma, age 16), Annie (12), Julie (10), Katie (8), Johanna (5), Josephine (3) and Maggie (2). While she and her parents were purportedly born in Pennsylvania, her husband John reports being born in Baden like his parents. He is working at a paper mill, Lavina is keeping house, and the four eldest children are working at cotton or woolen mills. Perhaps not born yet, the census doesn't show a child of the family confirmed by city birth records: a son named Joseph born June 25, 1880, where his mother's name is given as Loivina.

A child who never appears on censuses but is in the city birth records is John D. Merkert, born November 29, 1881, and his record of birth shows his mother as Lavina. Not long for this world, November 17, 1884, John would pass away. The death certificate for the boy shows the family living at 4843 Washington Street in the 21st ward, Roxborough/Manayunk. Here, she is recorded as Mary. It may have been a mistake, maybe John's sister Mary reported the death and the info was mixed up or English-speaker's simplification of a German name - no, John did not take a new wife because in the next census we go back to another version of a name beginning with "L" for her.

On the 1900 census, the family lives on "Lamont, formerly Prospect" street and Leudveina is John's wife. Kids present are Hannah, Margaretta, and L. Clementina. Leudveina reports having been born in December 1841 and is age 58. Husband John, age 68 is reporting himself as German-born like his parents, and is listed as a "retired gent", reporting too that he was a naturalized citizen who came to the United States in 1856. The Eichenhofer family is 3 doors up, so we can guess Leudveina's daughter Josephine married a neighborhood boy.

One other item of note - this couple's deceased children Elizabeth and little John, as well as L. Merkert's husband John were all buried at St. Mary's Church, aka Saint Mary of the Assumption, a German Catholic church. This came as a bit of a surprise because so far all individuals I have found in our Manayunk/Roxborough families do not appear to have been affiliated with the Catholic church. Cemetery records are at the rectory office, so perhaps they will reveal more.

Until proven otherwise, we will assume Mrs. L. Merkert is interred with her husband John and at least her two children known to be at Saint Mary's as well.

On L Merkert's ancestry:

A small book of 24 pages entitled Lubold, Lupold, Leopold and related families (Daniel G Lubold, Reading, PA, 1937, E. S. Smith, printer) shows a Lovina Lubold, daughter of John Lubold (born Oct. 23, 1811, farmer, located north of Gratz, PA) and Catherine Sassaman. In the book, she is reported as having married John W. Merket and having an address of 1431 Washington St. in Philadelphia which puts her right near Broad and Washington, a wide busy intersection in South Philadelphia. I wonder if this data is correct, and if it is actually Washington in Roxborough to which this address belongs.

This info matches some I found in January 2010 on a fragment of a family tree on Rootsweb from a member who has not been active for at least 6 months, and I have not yet found a current email address for her, but... on her tree, she has a John W. Merket married to a Lovina Lubold, daughter of John Lubold (born 30 Dec 1811) and Catherine Sassaman. I have no way of knowing if the tree's author used the above book to arrive at this information. Perhaps not, as Lovina's father's birthdate differs. The tree indicates no dates or locations so we cannot yet be sure this is our L Merkert, but it does seems beyond coincidental.

Our Merkert clan pronounces the name like Mer-ket which is the spelling the Rootsweb contributor has. In the book and on the tree, the father of Lovina was born 1811 which would make him age-wise a candidate to have had a daughter in 1841 when he would have been thirty. And what are the odds the book and tree's John Merket would have the same middle inital "W" as my John? And a wife with a name like Lovina?

I truly don't know the odds, but believe this is a likely connection.

I looked at the 1860 census and found Lovina's father and mother, John and Catherine, in Gratz, Lykens Twp in Dauphin County, and Lovina is listed as their eldest child in the home, age 18, making her just the right age to have been born December 1841, the date of L Merkert's birth according to a later census. That's pretty perfect. The Rootsweb family tree I found claimed that her dad John was born 30 Dec. 1811 which would mean on this census he should have been 49, but he is listed as 40, and wife Catherine as 38. Census takers can make mistakes, and so too can books, or people posting on Rootsweb.

The census shows other kids in the household at the time as George, William and Phillip. The Rootsweb researcher says the kids in total were George, Phillip, Charles, Jacob, Elizabeth, Lovina and Henrietta, so we match on George and Phillip and Lovina.

The contributor's data that I found is at this link and has the following information:

John W. MERKET (no parent info given)
Marriage 1 Lovina LUBOLD
No children are listed

Lovina's parentage:
Father: John LUBOLD b: 30 Dec 1811
Mother: Catherine SASSAMAN

Children given as:

1. George LUBOLD b: 27 Sep 1837
2. Philip LUBOLD
3. Charles LUBOLD b: 1866
4. Jacob LUBOLD
5. Elizabeth LUBOLD
6. Lovina LUBOLD 7. Henrietta LUBOLD

Lovina's mother Catherine has no additional information.

Lovina's father John Lubold is listed as the son of George LUBOLD and Elizabeth BUFFINGTON. As soon as I saw Buffington, I knew we had to be out in Dauphin County, as this name is one I have run across repeatedly in doing Romberger research. Sure enough, Lovina's mother is listed as being buried at Klingers Church, Dauphin County, PA.

George Lubold and Elizabeth Buffington had the following children:

1. Joseph LUBOLD b: 9 Oct 1805
2. Anna Catherine LUBOLD b: 11 May 1807
3. Susan LUBOLD birth b: 13 Jan 1809
4. John LUBOLD birth b: 30 Dec 1811 5. Elizabeth LUBOLD b: 10 Nov 1812
6. Jacob LUBOLD
7. Martin LUBOLD b: 10 Aug 1820
8. Sarah LUBOLD b: 28 Jul 1820
9. Lydia LUBOLD
10. Mary LUBOLD

Elizabeth Buffington was the daughter of Benjamin BUFFINGTON and Mary FRISELL. No further data is listed for them.

George Lubold was the son of Johann Martin LUIPOLD (b: 5 Nov 1730 in Frommern, Wurttemberg, German States) and Catharina BECHTEL (b: 28 Feb 1755 in East Nantmeal Twp, Chester Co.,Pa.). They married 1773. Their children are listed as:

1. John Frederick LUBOLD b: 4 May 1774 in Douglas Twp., Phila. Co.,Pa.
2. Magdalena LUBOLD b: Abt 1776 in Lykens,Dauphin,Penna.
3. Catherine LUBOLD b: Abt 1785
4. George LUBOLD 5. John LUBOLD b: 6 Jun 1789

Of mother Catharina we learn that she died in 1826, and was the daughter of Burkhart BECHTEL and Gertrude REIFSCHNEIDER (b: in E. Nantmeal Twp, Chester Co.,Pa). Catharina is listed as an only child, and no further info is given on this family.

Father Johann Martin Luipold is listed as dying in 1810 in Wiconisco Twp, Dauphin Co.,PA and buried in St. Johns Lutheran, Mifflin Twp., Dauphin Co., PA. If my line of inquiry here is correct, that would mean I have a distant birthfamily member buried in the same cemetery as my adopted family ancestors. One wonders if way back my two families knew one another, two centuries before the one family would adopt the other's child.

Johann Martin Luipold was the son of Johannes LUIPOLD (b: Abt 1710 in Frommern, Wurttemberg, Germany) and Anna Maria MÜLLER (b: 1 Aug 1708 in Frommern, Wurttemberg, Germany). They married 26 Jan 1728 in Frommern, Wurttemburg, Germany. Johannes and Anna Maria had the following children:

1. Catherina LUIPOLD birth b: 17 Jan 1729 in Frommern, Wurttemberg
2. Johann Martin LUIPOLD birth b: 5 Nov 1730 in Frommern, Wurttemberg 3. Maria Agnes LUIPOLD birth b: 14 Dec 1731 in Frommern, Wurttemberg
4. Ludwig LUIPOLD birth b: 21 Feb 1734 in Frommern, Wurttemberg
5. Johann Caspar LUIPOLD birth b: 7 Nov 1737 in Frommern, Wurttemberg
6. Anna Maria LUIPOLD birth b: 10 May 1739 in Frommern, Wurttemberg
7. Johann Ludwig LUIPOLD birth b: 30 Aug 1740 in Frommern, Wurttemberg
8. Johannes LUIPOLD birth b: 30 Dec 1741 in Frommern, Wurttemberg, christened 17 Jun 1764 in New Hanover Lutheran, Montgomery Co.,Pa.
9. Johan Carl LUIPOLD birth b: 4 Jul 1743 in Frommern, Wurttemberg
10. Anna Maria LUIPOLD birth b: 28 Sep 1745 in Frommern, Wurttemberg
11. Maria Elisabetha LUIPOLD birth b: 24 Oct 1746 in Frommern, Wurttemberg
12. Maria Elisabetha LUIPOLD birth b: 21 Jan 1748 in Frommern, Wurttemberg

Johann Martin Luipold's mother Anna Maria Muller was a daughter of Martin MÜLLER and Anna Maria SCHULER. Her parents married 20 Jul 1701 in Frommern. Her mother, Anna Maria is listed as the only child of Hans SCHULER, and no maternal information is given. Her father, Martin Muller, was a son of Matthaeus MÜLLER (b: Abt 1650 in Frauenfeld, Switzerland, d. 12 Nov 1720 in Frommern, buried 14 Nov 1720) and no info is listed for his mother.

The father of Johann Martin Luipold, Johannes Luipold, was a son of Marty Ludwig LUIPPOLD (christened 11 Mar 1687 in Frommern, Wurttemberg) and Catharina (maiden name Luippold) LUIPPOLD (b: 23 Mar 1686 in Frommern, Wurttemberg).

More to come.