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Showing posts from April, 2021

Elisabeth Kaufman Zoll: How I Found Her Date of Death

  St. Joseph Catholic Church, Wright, Ottawa County, Michigan I have been researching the lives of the siblings of Benjamin Kaufman in an effort to view Benjamin's life in relationship to what was happening with his family.  Benjamin had three full siblings, Elisabeth, Lewis and John and six half siblings from his mother, Catherine Omlor's, second marriage to Anthony Armock: Nicholas, Theobald, Mary, Anthony, Christian and Catherine.  This post will deal with attempting to find the death date of Elisabeth.   Elisabeth was born to Lewis and Catherine Omlor Kaufman in Ohio in 1836. Unable to find a birth record I am relying on the baptismal record from the St. Alphonsus Ligouri Catholic Church in Peru, Ohio for an approximate birth date.  She was baptized in that church on August 9, 1836, the sponsors being her grandparents, Theobald and Elisabeth Stutzman Omlor.  Elisabeth's father died when she was four years old and her mother remarried Anthony Armock.  The family farmed i

The Great War and the Food Pledge

On April 6, 1917 the United States went to war. During the Great War Americans would be called on to give their sons and daughters to the cause, to conserve food and to donate money among other things.  Total war would demand a total commitment to fight that war. (Pifer, 2017) Food conservation was necessary for several reasons.  In the US there had been a problem with poor grain harvests in the years leading up to the war.  The fighting forces would need food as they were mustered and trained in the US and sent overseas to fight.  The Allies were starving after suffering through years of war and food needed to be sent to them.  In order to meet these demands food conservation became the responsibility of every American.  In order to meet this responsibility every woman was asked to sign a Food Pledge.   Pifer (2017) explains the elements of the Food Pledge.  Americans were to eat one wheatless meal per day, eat beef, mutton and pork only once a day and in smaller portions.  The homema