Friday, February 13, 2009

Happy Birthday - Feb 13

Happy birthday to Melvin Edward DISTELRATH. Melvin was the younger brother of the second husband of my great-grandaunt, Alvina Florence PEMBERTON. Melvin was born on 13 Feb 1925 in St. Clair, St. Clair, Michigan. Sadly, he died when struck by lightning at the age of 14. He died on his father's farm on Trumble Road in St. Clair on 27 May 1939. He had been working on an old automobile when it started raining. He ran into the woods and was found 18 hours later by his father and his older brother, Arnold, my great-grandaunt's husband. He attended school at St. Mary's in St. Clair and was an altar boy and member of the choir there. He is buried at St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery in St. Clair. See his obituary here.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks Jennifer, I have been researching Distelrath genealogy for years. Have them back to their village in Germany in the 1700's but never had Arnold's wife's maiden name. I'm really impressed that someone your age is interested in genealogy, my kids are the same age as you and they just smile politely when I am excited about a find.
    Susan Carter, St. Clair Michigan

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  2. Hi, Susan! If you give me your email address, I can send you a scanned image of Alvina's and Arnold's marriage record. I have actually been finding other young people interested in genealogy for the first time since I've started blogging in January. Before then, I didn't know any either! I thought I was the only one.

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