(Part Two) Lena Schmidt: Breaking Through a Brick Wall

In my last post, I discussed the biggest brick wall encountered in my research. I spent many years searching for information about the fate of my husband’s great-grandmother, Lena Schmidt. Here’s how I recently managed to crack this difficult case.

Lena Schmidt: Part Two

In April 2012, the 1940 census was made available to the public for the first time. Records were slowly transcribed by volunteers and became visible on Ancestry.com, among other genealogy sites. I searched the database initially, but couldn’t find anything that seemed connected to Lena. A full year later, a search I ran for “Lena Hook” turned up a possible match.

Name:	Lena Hook
Respondent:	Yes
Age:	47
Estimated Birth Year:	abt 1893
Gender:	Female
Race:	White
Birthplace:	Illinois
Marital Status:	Married
Relation to Head of House:	Wife
Home in 1940:	St Louis, St Louis City, Missouri View Map
Street:	Nicholson Place
House Number:	1747
Inferred Residence in 1935:	St Louis, St Louis City, Missouri
Residence in 1935:	Same Place
Attended School or College:	No
Highest Grade Completed:	Elementary school, 8th grade
Household Members:	Name Age William Hook 50 Lena Hook 47 Billy Hook 8

The birth year and location of residence looked like a match for Lena Schmidt Laun. However, no one in the family had heard that Lena might have had another child, and this census clearly states that Lena was the mother of Billy Hook, age 8.

I searched death records online and found a Missouri death certificate for this Lena Hook. It listed her date of death as October 5, 1947 in St. Louis, Missouri.

This also told me Lena Hook’s birthdate, September 3, 1891, and the place of her birth, Belleville, Illinois. It listed her cause of death as coronary artery disease. She was survived by her husband, William D. Hook. However, because Lucille Laun Towell’s children both remember their mother attending their grandmother’s funeral in the early 1950s, there was still a big question as to whether this could be the correct Lena.

I wrote to the St. Louis Genealogical Society and asked them to search local records for an obituary for Lena Hook. They located an obituary that was published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on October 6, 1947. It reads as follows:

HOOK, LENA R. – 5544 Chippewa, Sun., Oct. 5, 1947, beloved wife of William D. Hook, dear mother of William Ray Hook and Lucille Towell of Houston, Tex., dear mother-in-law, grandmother, sister, sister-in-law and aunt.
Funeral from C. HOFFMEISTER Colonial Mortuary, 6464 Chippewa at Watson, Wed., 10:30am to Sunset Burial Park.

This tells us pretty conclusively that Lena Hook was the Lena Schmidt Laun we’d been trying to locate, since she is identified as the mother of Lucille Laun Towell. I can’t even articulate how excited I was to have this breakthrough after so many frustrating years of searching for Lena!

Now that we know what happened to Lena after her marriage to Harry Laun, there are more things to research. Firstly, Lena had another child, William, born in about 1932. I reached out to someone on Ancestry.com who has William R. Hook in his family tree, and lists him as the widower of Marian Claire Schemkes. That contact confirmed that he is a relative of the late Billy Hook, but was unable to tell me any more about Lena. He was also searching for information about her, and was eager to hear what I knew. I am still hoping that someone on this side of the family might turn out to have photos of Lena or more information about her.

The other thing left to determine is who Lena’s parents were. The records I’ve already located tell us quite a bit about them. They were both born in Illinois, and were living in Belleville, Illinois when Lena was born, just a half-hour drive from St. Louis.

I started searching for a Magdelene Rose Schmidt born in Belleville around 1891, and uncovered a census listing that looks likely to be Lena’s family. This is not conclusively proven at this time, but is a strong possibility. The 1900 census lists the family of Howard and Elizabeth Schmidt of Belleville, Illinois, along with their 7-year old daughter, Magdaline. Magdaline was the youngest of ten children, with her parents being in their 40s at the time of her birth. Further research into this family reveals that the father’s name was actually Herman, not Howard, and the mother’s full name was Elizabeth “Elisa” Bosch. Herman Schmidt died on December 14, 1913, just a month after Lena Schmidt married Harry Laun in St. Louis. Hermann and Elisa’s parents were German immigrants.

I have two question marks surrounding this family. The first is that Magdaline Schmidt’s birth is listed as September 1892, when Lena Laun Hook’s death certificate establishes her birth as being September 1891. This doesn’t necessarily mean it isn’t the right person, but it warrants some additional investigation. After all, two of the census records listing the person we are certain is Lena record her year of birth as 1893, so there is some overall discrepancy about her birth date. There is further research to be done before Lena's parentage can be proven.

Of Lena’s second husband, William Dewitte Hook, I’ve learned quite a few things. He was born March 11, 1890 in Round Prairie, Missouri. He was the son of Benjamin Hook and Viola Pemberton, one of nine children from this marriage. William had been married earlier, to a woman named Naomia, but they’d had no children together. He served in World War I. William Hook died in St. Louis in December 1962.

The next steps will be to continue trying to prove Lena’s parentage, and ultimately learn more details about her life. I'd love to find a photo of her. Hopefully, there will be more information to come in the near future.

So, my biggest brick wall is smashed, which is absolutely thrilling. As often seems to be the case in genealogical research, every question answered creates many more riddles, so I suspect I will still be working on Lena for quite some time.

Lena Schmidt: Breaking Though A Brick Wall

I joined my local genealogy society this year and have been immensely enjoying the education and camaraderie it provides. This coming week, our meeting is devoted to brick walls. Members will ask for help with their genealogical mysteries and share stories of how they cracked their toughest cases. In the spirit of this discussion, I wanted to share my recent success in breaking through a very difficult brick wall.

The biggest brick wall I’ve faced in my research is in my husband’s family tree, and involves his great grandmother, Lena Laun. She was the wife of Harry Laun of St. Louis, and the mother of my husband’s grandmother, Lucille Laun Towell.

Harry Laun, husband of Lena Schmidt Laun
 

Lucille Laun Towell, daughter of Harry and Lena Laun

I started researching Lena after it became clear that no one in the family knew much about her, including who her parents were or what happened to her after her divorce from her husband, Harry. Family records indicated that Lena’s maiden name was Schmidt, but this was really the only information we had about her, initially. I started combing through census, birth, death and marriage records online, looking for any clues as to who her family might have been, and where she went after separating from Harry.

The first record I found mentioning Lena was the 1920 census. In that census, Harry Laun is shown living in St. Louis with a wife, Lena, and daughter, Lucille. The record indicates that Lena was born in approximately 1893 in Illinois and had parents who were also born in Illinois.

The next bit of information came from Harry and Lena’s marriage license in St. Louis. On 12 November 1913, Lena married Henry "Harry" Laun at the Winnebago Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, Missouri. The Missouri marriage license for Lena and Harry lists the following information:

License no: 185008
Harry H Laun of St. Louis, Missouri (over age 21) and
Mrs. Lena Smith of St. Louis, Missouri (over age 18)
License date: 11 Nov 1913
Marriage date: 12 Nov 1913
Filing date: 1 Dec 1913
Marriage performed by Jerrie Johnson, Presbyterian Minister, at 3438 Winnebago St.

This information led me down several paths. First, I investigated whether Lena’s maiden name was actually Schmidt or Smith. I also researched whether Lena might have been married prior to her marriage to Harry Laun, because she is listed as “Mrs.” on the marriage license. After extensive review of records, I could not find any indication that Lena was married prior to her marriage to Harry, so I will chalk the listing of Mrs. up to a clerical error for the time being. Also, we know that Smith is the Anglicized version of the German surname Schmidt, but the records I uncovered during my research indicated clearly that Lena’s maiden name was Schmidt, not Smith.

I hired a genealogist to search the archives where the Winnebago Presbyterian Church’s records are kept, at the Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia. The church in St. Louis closed some years ago, and all of their records are now in storage. The genealogist located the Winnebago records in Philadelphia and discovered that the marriage of Lena and Harry was noted in church ledgers.

Page 198, entry #80
Name of Man - Harry H. Laun, 3341 Vir. [Virginia Rd., St., etc.]
Name of Woman - Mrs. Lena Smith
His Residence - St. Louis
Her Residence - St. Louis
Date of Marriage - November 12, 1913
Names of Witnesses - Oliver A. Laun & Bertie (Berta?) J. Geiger

This record indicates that Harry was living at 3341 Virginia in St. Louis at the time of the marriage. It also tells us the names of the witnesses to the marriage. Oliver Laun was Harry’s brother. I don’t, at this time, know who Berta Geiger was or how she was connected to Harry and Lena, although I have looked long and hard.

On August 29, 1915, Lena and Harry had a daughter, Lucille Ruby Laun. Lucille was born in St. Louis, Missouri.

The next step was to look for a baptism notice in the records of Winnebago Presbyterian Church. Sure enough, the notice for Lucille Laun’s birth was located in the records for 1915.

Page 154, entry #259
"Lucile Ruby Laun
Parents - Harry H. & Lena Rose (Smith) Laun
Born - Aug 29 1915
Baptized - Nov 7 1915

This gave me one piece of new information. Lena’s middle name was Rose.

I knew that by 1924, Lena and Harry were no longer together. Harry remarried Minna "Minnie" Bilderbeck before 1924, when their first child, Emmett Laun, was born. Lucille was raised by Harry and Minnie after the departure of her mother. I started searching the 1930 census to learn where Lena Laun might have been living after her divorce.

I could not find a Lena Laun, Lena Smith or Lena Schmidt of an appropriate age in the 1930 census. I also was not been able to obtain divorce records from the city of St. Louis that might shed more light on what happened to Lena after her separation from Harry, or the cause of the divorce.

The next two critical pieces of information came from baby books.

My mother-in-law, daughter of Lucille Laun Towell, found a baby book belonging to her son (my husband), and inside it there was a small family tree. It listed Lucille’s mother as Magdalene Schmidt. My mother-in-law thinks that only her mother could have filled out this information, as she herself did not know her grandmother’s full name.

This told us that Lena’s full name was likely Magdalene, with Lena being a nickname.

Another big discovery was made in the baby book of my husband’s uncle, Lucille Laun Towell’s son. It in, there is a list of everyone who sent gifts when he was born. Among those listed are “Grandma and Grandpa Hook.” Several years ago, his wife went through the list of names and identified each of them, but could not be sure about “Grandma and Grandpa Hook.” She suggested that perhaps Hook was a remarried surname for Lena Laun. I researched this possibility, but could not find any connections. Years passed. I continued to work on finding documents pertaining to Lena, but nothing panned out. She became my biggest and most frustrating brick wall, driving me absolutely nuts.

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