Amazing breakthrough today

Today was a great day for the BRETTEL side of my family genealogy. The BRETTEL side of my family came from Germany and settled in Brooklyn in the 1880s. They stayed there for 20-30 years until my great-great-grandmother, Rosa BRETTEL, and her brothers Herman and Charles BRETTEL, moved from Brooklyn to Yonkers, while my great-great-grandmother's sisters Louise (Brettel) LUTZ and Lena (Brettel) BOPP moved to Long Island along with my great-great-great grandmother Elizabeth BRETTEL. The rest of the siblings (Josephine (Brettel) HARTMAN, Max BRETTEL, Emma (Brettel) BRANDT and Annie (Brettel) DAUENHEIMER) chose to stay in Queens/Brooklyn for the time being.

Anyway, my great-aunt Catherine (Bloomer) DOSIN, who is the source of knowledge for all things relating to this side of the family, has told me all about her grandmother's sisters, but could not recall when they died or where they were buried.

So, for the past four years, I have been searching for the date of death and burial location of my great-great-grandmother's five sisters. I know where she is buried (Mount Hope Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson) as well as where her two brothers, Max (also Mount Hope) and Charles (White Plains Rural Cemetery in White Plains), are buried.

Today I was looking through fultonhistory.com, which has an extensive collection of searchable newspapers, including the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. This database goes much later than the one the Brooklyn Public Library has online on their website. Lo, and behold, as I was searching, I found the death notice for Josephine HARTMAN. She died November 2, 1947 and was survived by three sisters (all except Rosa) and her brother Herman. She was buried in St. Michael's Episcopal Cemetery in Queens. I couldn't believe my luck! I called the cemetery and confirmed that she was indeed buried there, along with her husband who, I found out, died in 1904.

Hoping my luck would continue, I searched the newspaper for DAUENHEIMER and came across a death notice for Florence DAUENHEIMER, mother of Edward DAUENHEIMER. My great-great-great aunt Annie was married to an Edward, so I read further. This Mrs. DAUENHEIMER was buried in Lutheran Cemetery in Queens. So, I decided to call Lutheran and see if, by chance, Edward had chosen to have been buried in the same place as his parents. Lutheran performed the check for me over the phone and found them to be buried there; Edward in 1962 and Annie in 1963.

Today was an amazing day for my BRETTEL family research. Hopefully, I will be able to find the whereabouts of the two remaining BRETTEL sisters soon. I plan on visiting St. Michael's and Lutheran this Saturday, so stay tuned for pictures and details of the trip!