Good Evening All ~ I've always had great luck posting requests ~ so I'm in hopes we'll be able to break this brick wall...
I've posted this request before but had lost my original notes ~ I've now found!!!!
My great-grandmother was Katherine Marie Meisner, often went by Marie Katherine Meisner born 11/18/1898 ?? Some of the records show 1900. Some of her records show she was born in Denmark and some show she was born in Utah??? The family story is that her father was Peter Meisner and mother Maren Sorensen. While they were traveling to the United States her mother gave birth to her and died during childbirth. During the next few years her father re-married and the new wife wanted nothing to do with his children especially the youngest one and it was at that point he had to put my great-grandmother into an orphanage. Let me tell you for about 40 years we all believed this story. About 4years ago I found infomation that this story was not true. In fact what I found out makes a bit more sense, but breaks my heart so I would really like to finish this story and fill in the gaps. This is what I know now to be true:
My great-grandmother was born 11-18-1895 to 1898 - I'm not sure exactly where she was indeed born because if she was born in 1895 then she would have been born in Denmark. If she was born in 1898-1900 then she would have been born in the United States because I do have ship records showing the family coming to America in 1896. I should say the family of Peter Meisner and Maren (Sorensen) Meisner with my great-grandmother's siblings. They are traveling with a younger daughter with a very similiar name as my gg-mother but I can't confirm it's her or another sibling.
Here's why...the skeleton in the closet is who her mother actually was....Peter's wife Maren was sick and dying from 1900 to 1902 when she passed away. The story is that Peter had an affair with a woman by the name of Katherine White during that time of his wife's passing. Katherine White was apparently married as well with several other children (not all from her husband) she may have also suffered from some mental illness because of how she coped with these affairs. The children when born were given their fathers last names. Somewhere shortly after Maren passed away Katherine approached Peter Meisner basically dropping her off on his doorstep. Unable to explain the child to the family of his wife who passed away he was unable to keep the child (my ggrandmother) his other children by Maren stayed with him for awhile but eventually were sent to live with family across the states. My great-grandfather sent her to an orphanage in Los Angeles, CA. I actually spoke to one of the nuns that remembered her and was in her charge, these were the notes I lost over the years and recently found. The orphanage is (was) The Convent of the Good Shepherd in Los Angeles, CA. I will have to try and get those records by phone or find out where they've gone to. My struggle is that I can not find any census or school records or really anything showing my great-grandmother existed before 1922 when she got married. How she actually got to Los Angeles, from either Utah or Idaho, is a mystery. Her father Peter Meisner eventually settled down with his 2nd wife Thomine in Idaho and he was a cobbler (shoe-maker). The odd twist to all this was my ggrandmother eventually needed a birth certificate and had to get an affidaviate from her father and a statement from the family bible... to prove her birth...so she not only re-united with her father, but when she had my grandmother at some point she reunited with her siblings, because my grandmother had fond memories with her cousins, whom I actually spoke with during some of my earlier research...everyone and anyone that shared those memories or have additional information have also passed on. My ggrandmothers life was so very tramatic, filled with heart-ache, tons of loss and her life ended in the same manner that I would love to fill in the missing info and finish her story. I would also love to finish this for my father as well before his time comes. They shared a very solid, loving relationship and they were so close ~ one of the few joyful moments in her life....Any help to finishing this story would so greatly be appreciated.
