Multiples – Week 9 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Twins

My genealogic journey began with a search for twins.

During my Thanksgiving visit in 2014, my mother, Jerrie Watkins Bernal, asked me to make a book about her family. She and her cousin (actually her first cousin, once removed), Barbara, decided that it was important for them to go through their family photos and identify as many relatives that they could so that this information would be preserved for future generations. My mother also asked me to try to find out as much information as possible to fill in the blanks.

My grandmother, Annie Anthony McLeod, was born in 1905. Her oldest brother, Henry, was born in 1886, 19 years before her. Annie had been told that her mother, Gertrude Schmidt Anthony, had 10 children, but she only knew of 7. She and Barbara’s mother had been told that Gertrude had a set of twins but did not know if that was accurate. My mother asked me to try to find out if indeed there were twins and to find out anything else that I could about them.

I spent the next year doing research and going through the pictures to create the book which was completed in January 2016.

The good news is that I was able to find the twins! Christina and Otilla (sometimes spelled Otillia) were born October 13, 1897. Christina died February 27, 1898 and Otilla died in 1890. Both Christina and Otilla were family names. Gertrude’s mother was Maria Christina Shafer (Schaefer) and her sister was Christina Schmidt. Gertrude’s husband and Christina and Otilla’s father was John Peter Antony (Anthony). His mother was Otilla Endress (Enders) and Gertrude’s sister was Mathilda Otillia Schmidt.

The other sister that my grandmother didn’t know anything about was Katherine. She was born and died in 1890. In 1896, Gertrude and John had another daughter that they also named Katherine.