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Sidetracked in Memorabilia–Llewellyn Badertscher Family

Memorabilia table

NOTE (October, 2023): An email from a relative of Lewellyn Badertscher, added a lot to my understanding of the man.

Every once in a while, I take a break from telling my family stories–like the Smith family that I have been researching for over a month now– and sort through some of the many boxes of memorabilia that clutter our office and closet. That can lead me in unexpected directions. Yesterday among my souvenirs, I discovered the obituary of Llewellyn Badertscher, which led me to spending a day piecing together his family for my husband’s Badertscher family tree.

Before I found Llwellyn’s obituary, however, I had also found a clutch of photos of me with political luminaries that must be scanned and framed and at some point written about. I did share one of them on Facebook. (If you want to friend me on Facebook, look for Vera Marie Badertscher.)

I found newspaper clippings from the late 60s/early 70s when we lived in Scottsdale. There was my husband, Ken on the front page of the Scottsdale Daily Progress in his role as board member for the Maricopa County Community Colleges. And other editions had pictures of me participating in activities with Scottsdale Junior Women’s Club. And, from news farther afield, two front page articles about man landing on the moon! More subjects for future stories here under the “Slice of My Life” title.

Headline:Men land on moon. Arizona Republic, July 21, 1969.

Speaking of Scottsdale Progress, there was this sheet of pictures of my mother delivering newspapers. No–she wasn’t really. She was posing when one of my sons was a newspaper boy in 1970s. It surely is one of the best photo we have of her in her later years. Something else to share in the future.

Harriette/Grandma Kaser delivering the paper. 1970s, Scottsdale

And my entire date book from Ohio State in 1960. This week I graduated from college, but commencement wasn’t the event that rated bold capital letters!

1960 Date Book

And I found a picture of Paul Badertscher, my husband’s father, teaching at a tiny school called Moscow that doesn’t even exist any more (the town OR the school). There could be more told about the crossroads of Moscow, also. Oh my, I’ve never really written a story about Paul Badertscher and his many occupations and long teaching career. In fact when I was writing about Ken’s family, I got drawn to the maternal side of the family, and never did pursue the Badertschers beyond their arrival in Ohio.

Which brings us back to Llewellyn Badertscher’s obituary. The undated obituary, fortunately, had a specific birth and death date for Llewellyn (who turns out to be Ken’s first cousin once removed.) The author of the obit also included a complete list of Llewellyn’s brothers and sisters, as well as his parents, John and Ida. Well, I thought, this will be a piece of cake to expand the Badertscher line by adding this entire family to Ken’s tree. Except for one thing–we didn’t know how Llewellyn Badertscher connected to the rest of the tree.

Swiss Immigrants Frederick and Mary Badertscher

Frederick Badertscher Sr and wife Mary. Photo From Ancestry.com. These are the parents of both Frederick, Ken’s grandfather and John, father of Llewellyn Badertscher. Probably taken in the late 1800’s. They emigrated to Ohio from Switzerland in 1881 with several children.

Because of his birth date, I could tell that Llewellyn Badertscher must have been the child of a sibling of Frederick Badertscher (Jr.), Ken’s grandfather, so I needed to find a brother of Frederick named John. Although I did not remember having Frederick’s siblings on the tree,I DID!

With such an uncommon name, I figured I could easily find Llewellyn Badertscher on Ancestry, and sure enough, he popped right up, along with his birth certificate confirming the mother and father listed in the newspaper. At this point I was feeling downright cocky and started adding the brothers and sisters from the obituary to my tree. Those that the newspaper obit had designated as deceased, I marked as ‘Died Bef Dec.1998’ (the month of Llewellyn’s death).

Ancestry furnished me with plenty of hints (green leaves) as I went along, and I decided to add only birth and death dates and marriage dates and spouses. The birth certificates listed mother’s maiden name, so I learned that Llewellyn Badertscher’s mother Ida was Ida Sprunger and having the maiden name led to birth and death dates, (1883-1909) That was fine until I ran into children who were born after 1909–after Llewellyn Badertscher’s mother, Ida, had died. Whoops. In fact, at first it looked like she only had two children, and Llewellyn, born in 1909, certainly would have been her last.

Turns out the “Fannie” that I had assumed was a nickname for Ida indicated another wife. So I went back and changed those children born after Ida’s death date to “Mother: Fannie (unknown)” until a birth certificate of one of the children gave me Fannie’s last name. She became Fannie Sommer (1883-1945). (And I went back and changed HER record.)

It was boring work, but I thought I was close to the end. You guessed it–one more problem popped up. Albert proved difficult to find because there were a lot of Alberts, plus they lived in various locations rather than staying put in Wayne County, Ohio as the others did. He had a birthdate of 1897 or 1898. That would mean Ida gave birth to him when she was 13 or 14 years old. Possible but not probable. The problem got worse when his sister Irene’s data showed she arrived in 1894! Fortunately, her birth Certificate showed her mother’s name–Barbara Amstutz.

Finally I found documentation for Barbara’s birth and death, and it proved that John Badertscher indeed did marry three women because twice he became a widow. John fathered at least12 children, listed below. Sadly, two daughters died as young teenagers and the obituary of Mary Jane, who died at 16, mentions two infant deaths and another young death before she died in 1936– that other young person was her older sister who died at 15, 5 1/2 years before Mary Jane.

Father: John Badertscher, b. 1867 in Switzerland, Immigrated in 1881 with his father and brothers. John worked as a farmer his entire life. Died November 19, 1934, in Kidron, Wayne County, Ohio.

1st Wife: Barbara Elizabeth Amstutz (May 31 1871-March 27, 1900)

Children of John and Barbara:

Irena Badertscher Nov 17, 1894,Kidron Ohio; m. Daniel Morand; D. Jan 4, 1968, Decatur Indiana

Albert Wilson Badertscher , January 9, 1897, Riley, Putnam, Ohio; M. Edna Diller; Nov 16, 1960, Cleveland, Ohio (Specifics of Death not yet proven)

2nd Wife: Ida Sprunger December 16, 1877-February 10, 1909; Married August 13, 1905

Children of John and Ida:

Milton Badertscher: Born about 1905; M. Mabel. Died perhaps Dec 22, 1966 (Attended four years of college at Bluffton College and became a school principal.)

Ivan L. Badertscher: Born July 20, 1906; M. Pauline Mae Gerber June 27, 1943; D.Jan 30 1997, Goshen, Indiana. Attended Bluffton College. In 1940, still single, he was living with his brother Llewellyn.

FLorence Pearl Badertscher: Born November 8 1907, Kidron, Ohio; M. Henry Clair Amstutz Aug 12 1934; D. September 5, 2001, Goshen, Indiana.

Llewellyn Badertscher, Jan 25, 1909; M. Verna S. Bixler, June 8 1946; D. September 24, 1998. Llewellyn was a farmer and then an electrician. He was single until he was 37 years old, and apparently had no children.

3rd Wife: Fanny M. Sommer

Children of John and Fanny:

Hulda A. Badertscher, Born April 29, 1913, Kidron, Ohio; M. Charles J. Graves August 10, 1940; D. February 1990, Maple Heights, Ohio.

Ida Sarah Badertscher, Born January 24, 1916, Kidron, Ohio; Died May 10, 1931 at Age 15.

Martha S. Badertscher, B. February 12, 1919;Kidron, Ohio M. ____Klett; Died February 16, 1904, Ohio

Mary Jane Badertscher, B. April 18, 1920, Kidron Ohio; Died December 25, 1936. This 16-year-old girl died on Christmas day.

Thomas L. Badertscher, B. November 1, 1924, Kidron, Ohio; M. Effie Irene Amstutz; D. November 25, 1998, Kidron, Wayne County, Ohio. I have found very little about Thomas.

In addition to these children, the newspaper obituary of Mary Jane identifies two infant deaths. One of those would be Milo, unk. birth and death dates. We don’t even know who is mother was. And if there was another infant boy who died, as the newspaper said, he also is unknown.

It turned out to be more complicated than I thought, but aren’t famIlies always complicated?

Happy 5th Birthday to Ancestors in Aprons

8 Replies

. Okay, make that BELATED Happy 5th Birthday.

I would like to make a toast to YOU–Thank you for reading Ancestors in Aprons. Thank you for commenting on posts. Thank you for reading the newsletter and for passing on information about Ancestors in Aprons to your friends on social media or IRL (in real life). Readers comprise “the better half” of this blogging enterprise.

FIVE YEARS

Here I am with my parents at Five Years Old in 1944–the year my brother was born, changing my status from only child to older sister. I grew a lot in five years and learned a lot. Just like Ancestors in Aprons on its 5th birthday.

Paul and Harriette Kaser with baby Paul William and Vera Marie 1944, Killbuck Ohio

This site actually launched on April 27 2013, when I published three posts–about my memories of grandmother Vera Anderson, thoughts about Family Photos, and a food post about leftovers. Looking back, it seems that those three topics did a good job of setting the tone for what would follow in the next five years. Family Stories, Photographs and Heirlooms, and Food and Recipes.

As of the 5th birthday (plus a couple of months), Ancestors in Aprons has brought you a total of 523 posts. (I added 85 this past 14 1/2 months.) Readers particularly like the recipe posts, returning to them again and again.

Food and Recipes

I noticed this 5th birthday year that many times when I am looking for a particular favorite recipe, rather than open a cookbook or my computer I look at one of the recipes I have published on Ancestors in Aprons. Those specific posts now total 158 recipes that have been identified by category, and that’s a pretty fair-sized cookbook! An additional 40 posts focus on some aspect of food as it relates to our grandparents or great-great grandparents without presenting a specific recipe.

As the content grows, the readership grows–more people each year discovering Ancestors in Aprons, and more people each month signing up for the weekly newsletter.

Ancestors By the Numbers

(This is the nerdy stuff, by which I measure progress in research, so feel free to skip!)

In 2016, I wrote this:

Ancestry.com says I have 1,241 people in my tree. Not all of those people are “people” yet. A birth date, death date and place of birth does not a person make. Family stories bring them alive. Some of those names on the tree are just names, and some are unconfirmed names.

As Of July 2018, more than 3000 names appear on my tree on Ancestry. The same caveats still apply. Ancestry recently launched a hint that suggests parentage, and if I followed their hints blindly, I would immediately add another 30 or 40 people to my direct-line ancestry and hundreds to my tree. However, those suggestions just suggest a lot of work to me. Every one must be confirmed with solid facts rather than “somebody else has this person on their tree.”

Looking at the Pedigree Chart provides a more accurate measure of how my knowledge of ancestors has grown. The first five generations (from me through 2x great-grandparents) provides a possible 16 people. I have all sixteen, although one 2x great-grandmother persists in hiding behind her tombstone. The tombstone says Lucinda–but I have not been able to find her maiden name or more information about her.

Last year, I counted 19 3x great grandparents (out of a possible 32). This year I am counting more rigorously, and only claim to have 15 verified 3 x great-grandparents, plus four with incomplete information.

The cautious approach, however, still yields a total of 152 of a possible 1023 direct line ancestors at ten generations. And I have turned up ancestors in each of the following four generations, so my number of direct line ancestors through 15 generations now totals 228 direct ancestors (plus 17 with incomplete information) compared to 153 two years ago. Definitely progress. And definitely much work to be done.

DNA

Matching up information through DNA matches provides endlessly fascinating detective work. Fortunately, many DNA matches have contacted me, or responded to my messages to them, and I have been able to add many aunts, uncles and cousins to my tree. Unfortunately, these DNA matches seem to struggle with the same brick walls that I do, and have not shed light on the earlier direct line ancestors, particularly in the Kaser and Anderson lines.

DNA matches have inspired a few posts on people I had previously ignored, but other than that, the DNA research information stays on the Ancestors in Aprons Newsletter rather than here on the blog. I have decided that my main objective here is to bring ancestors to life through story-telling, not to get into the nitty-gritty of hows and whys of research. If you feel that you are missing something, do subscribe to the weekly newsletter by following this link :

SUBSCRIBE TO THE WEEKLY ANCESTORS IN APRONS NEWSLETTER

What Happened in the 5th Year?

This year saw my husband and me move to an apartment and organizing, downsizing, packing and unpacking got in the way of posting last summer. The upside, as far as Ancestors in Aprons goes: moving means discoveries. As I unpacked, I found heirlooms and photos that I had forgotten about–things to jog the memory and inspire some further research and writing.

Then you witnessed my terrible mistake as I climbed far out on a limb that I eventually had to saw off. I discovered that a source listing my father’s 2x great grandparents had it wrong, and I paid the penalty for trusting without verifying. Much research, and several blog posts later, I was back to not knowing one of the important branches of my father’s tree.

My Favorite Posts In 5th Birthday Year

Just in case you missed them, here are some of the posts that I personally enjoyed the most between April 2017 and June 2018 in order of their appearance.

Vera’s large and Maude’s smaller autograph books

“Remember Me”, Heirloom Autograph Books. These beautiful books, belonging to my grandmother and her sister, led me to exploring some of their cousins I had not known before.

“Tragedy at Sea”. Agnes Bent’s story made up just one of the fascinations of my New England ancestors in the Bent family.

“Lively Letter from Teen Makes Me Sad”. Nothing brings people to life more than their personal letters. And because my father’s younger brother died young, this precious letter remains the only clue I have to his personality.

I wrote about pictures that I discovered in the move–among them this one of my grandmother as an athlete and my grandfather looking quite the man about town.

: Vera Stout (Anderson) and a friend in their baseball gear, Circa 1900.

: Leonard Guy Anderson in Tintype. Exact date unknown.

When we moved, the find that excited me most–family letters–threatened to consume all my time. I wrote a series based on my Grandmother’s letters to my mother during World War II. Other letters include a note from my Grandfather Anderson and a rare letter from my great-grandmother Hattie Stout. My all-time favorite letter, however, was one written by a naughty little girl to her grandmother. My grandmother Vera Stout (Anderson) wrote to HER grandmother, Emeline (Cochran) Stout.

“Doctor’s Daughter and the Medicine Show”

“Letters from the Front” these from an uncle to a nephew spanning in both World War II and Vietnam also reveals the service of those nephews and how war continues to dominate our personal history.

“Bent’s Fort”. Review of a book that tells the fascinating story of more distant relatives, the Bent family. The Bents gained fame as traders,explorers, leaders in the development of the Rocky Mountain region.

In the kitchen of Ancestors and aprons, I presented many German recipes this past year. I am enjoying introducing German sausages in a still-ongoing series. I’m also enjoying discovering other new-to-me German dishes. However, when I decided to make a German Black Forest Cake, I narrowly averted tragedy.

“The Prince and the Poison Cake”

I hope you’ve enjoyed this look back at the past 14 months, and that you are looking forward as much as I am to the 6th year of Ancestors in Aprons. Who knows where we will go? What ancestors will divert our attention with their amusing, unusual, or tragic stories? Stick around and find out.

Black Forest Cake – Almost Authentic

German Black Forest Cake

Print recipe

Serves	12
Prep time	13 hours
Cook time	20 minutes
Total time	13 hours, 20 minutes
Allergy	Egg, Milk, Wheat
Meal type	Dessert
Misc	Child Friendly
Region	German

A delicate chocolate cake infused with cherry flavor and frosted with a pretty pink cherry frosting. Topped with chocolate covered cherries.

Ingredients

cake

1 2/3 cup flour (all-purpose)
2/3 cups cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening (vegetable shortening or butter, room temperature)
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup buttermilk ((see note))
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup cherry juice ((see note))

Filling/Icing

1 cup cherries (pitted (divided))
1 cup butter ((two sticks) room temperature)
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
7 cups powdered sugar

Chocolate Covered Cherries

20-24 cherries (Pitted from the side, stem on)
10oz Melting chocolate wafers ((see note))

Directions

Cake
1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line bottom of three 9-inch cake pans with parchment paper.
2.	In medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa,baking soda and salt.
3.	In large bowl, cream shortening and sugar.
4.	Add eggs and vanilla and mix well.
5.	Add dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk and mix until no dry spots appear, but do not over beat.
6.	Pour batter into cake pans evenly.
7.	Bake 20 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.
8.	Let cakes cool in pan. When cool, remove from pan and prick all over with toothpick. Drizzle about 1/4 cup cherry juice over each cake.
Filling/Frosting
9.	While Cake is baking, chop 1/2 cup cherries and set aside.
10.	Puree enough cherries to make about 1/2 cup puree, using blender, food processor or stick blender. Set aside
11.	Beat butter and vegetable shortening with electric mixer untili fluffy--2 minutes.
12.	Add vanilla extract and cherry puree, beat with electric mixer.
13.	Add powdered sugar 1-2 cups at a time until frosting is the consistency you want. Stir in the chopped cherries.
Filling
14.	Put one layer of cake on cake plate and spread frosting on that layer--spread evenly. (Optional) Add a layer of pitted, halved cherries on top of the frosting, and top that with more frosting. ) If using 3-layer cake, put 2nd layer on top and do the same. Top with 3rd layer but do not frost.
Resting
15.	Put cake in refrigerator overnight so the cherry juice will penetrate the cake layers. Seal remaining frosting well and put it in the refrigerator as well.
Chocolate Covered cherries
16.	The next day, make the chocolate covered cherries for decoration. Nest a smaller saucepan in a larger pan, putting water in the lower pan. Bring the water to a simmer, stir the chocolate until it is smooth. (This is very fast if you use the melting wafers.)
Chocolate Covered Cherries
17.	Holding a cherry by the stem, swish it through the chocolate to cover, and as much as possible fill the hole left by pitting. Set the chocolate-covered cherries on a piece of wax paper to harden.
Final Frosting
18.	Remove the frosting from the refrigerator and let it come to room temperature, mixing to soften. Remove the cake from the refrigerator and cover sides and then top with frosting.
19.	Arrange chocolate-covered cherries on top and around bottom of cake.

Note

This almost-authentic German recipe substitutes cherry juice for alcoholic kirsch since I'm baking it for children. I also substituted butter cream filling and frosting for the more traditional butter cream filling and whipped cream frosting because a whipped cream frosting will deflate after a short period of time, and I wanted the cake to last longer.

The cake is very delicate and difficult to remove from pan and move from cooling rack to plate. If you do not want to tackle the authentic cake, use a Duncan Hines dark chocolate cake mix instead. You may decide to make two layers, as I did rather than three.

Use either dark or milk chocolate. We like dark chocolate, so I used Ghiradelli's dark chocolate melting wafers and was pleased with the results. If you have not used melting wafers before, I recommend you try them. Melt quickly and smoothly and have a nicer look when they cool than chocolate chips or even baking chocolate.

If you have trouble finding cherry juice, substitute apple juice, or if the cake is served to adults, use Kirsch for a really powerful cake.

If fresh cherries are not in season, used drained, canned cherries (not cherry pie filling!).

To ensure the cake layers are even, I weigh the pan with batter. Usually when I eyeball the amount I'm right on target, but being off by a couple ounces can make an uneven result. Also be sure to smooth the batter out with a spatula. It won't even itself out as it bakes.

Don't like buttermilk? Substitute sour cream or plain yogurt. (But I think buttermilk gives the best results.)

The authentic version of the cake uses plain naked cherries--but I love the over-the-top-ness of using chocolate covered cherries to decorate the cake.