Interesting Facts

While researching a particular family line, certain interesting facts or trivia are discovered. The first interesting fact concerns the life span of our ancestors. They must have been of hardy stock, as many of them lived to their sixties, seventies and even eighties. This is remarkable considering the time period (1700-1800s) in which they lived.

The second interesting fact pertains to the occurrence of twins. We know that our ancestors, Gottlieb and Hanne Gliedt nee Poeppelmeier, had three sets of twins. Since Hanne had three sets of twins, one might expect to find twins occurring frequently among our ancestors. My research found that twins only occurred in the Glied line and not in the Poeppelmeier line. Gottlieb's mother, Anne Margarethe Ilsabein Glied nee Steffen, was a twin. I traced the Steffen line back to circa 1747 and found that Gottlieb's mother was the only twin born in the Steffen line. While Gottlieb was not a twin, his mother did give birth to one set of twins daughters. Gottlieb's grandparents, Albert Henrich and Anna Ilsabein Glied nee Westerwelle, did not have any twins, but their first son, Johann Henrich and his wife, Anne Ilsabein Glied nee Dreyer, also had two children who had twins. I traced the Westerwelle line back to circa 1746 and found no occurrence of twins.

The third interesting fact is the spelling of our ancestors surnames. There are different spelling of the Glied(t) surname in the old German church records probably because the recorder of the records spelled the surname the way it sounded to him. Even the same recorder sometimes spelled the surname several different ways over the years. It should also be noted here that spelling variation are common in the written German. For instance, the following letters are interchangeable; t for d/dt or vice versa; b and p; k and c/ckk; z and tz; s and z; t and th; a and e; v and w or f; y and i. The Glied(t) surname was found spelled GLIT /GLITT /GLIDT in the early 1700s church records. In the late 1700s and throughout the 1800s the surname was usually spelled GLIED. In one instance it was found spelled GLIETH. The name was rarely found spelled Gliedt in the German records. In America, all of Gottlieb and Hanne's children used the Gliedt spelling. Adolph's children began spelling their name Gleidt while they were in high school. The rest of the family continued to use Gliedt version.

The Poeppelmeier surname was usually found spelled Pöppelmeier or Pöppelmeyer in the German church records and Poeppelmeier, Poeppelmeyer and Bebelmeyer in the various civil and church records in Missouri. Several of William and Wilhelmine Poeppelmeier nee Greife used the Poeppelmeyer version today.

The fourth fact concerns the occurrence of intermarriages. The Glied and Poeppelmeier families intermarried twice. First, Anne Catharine Ilsabein Glied married Hermann Heinrich Pöppelmeier in Germany and then Gottlieb Gliedt married his first cousin, Hanne Friederike Poeppelmeier in America. The parish community was a closely-knit community. Generally a male would find his wife within the parish community. Thus, over the years the occurrence of intermarriages became common.