Correspondence, Merkley Family

Correspondence, Merkley Family
Attention: *Sim’s Facebook: Colby, Larson, Merkley *is a private group Facebook Page, if you are interested in joining, please leave me a Comment at the end of this page and I will forward him the information. Tell him how you are related to one of these families: Colby, Larson, Merkley.

8/7, Sim: Descendants of Frederick Markel

8/6, Daughter of Fern Merkley: group pictures, identifying unknown...

Sim: 8/7/15, Friday

Greetings! We are getting ready to leave for the weekend (a Gray family reunion). I wanted to send you a quick message before we leave. I am thrilled with your Facebook group! I want the Merkley’s to be inspired to learn about their heritage beginning with the Merkley ancestors participation in an historical and epic story. When I began my Merkley family research, I knew only that we migrated from Iowa to Minnesota. Through the early discovery of the biographical sketch of Edgar Cephrenus Merkley, I learn we came from Canada. Later, I discover, many from our lineage, were sent to Canada from New York by England after the Revolutionary War. After that, I learned about our ancestor’s journey from Germany as part of the largest group of immigrants in colonial history (over 2,000). The Merkley family, lineage of Edgar Cephrenus Merkley, begins with our immigrant ancestor is Frederick Markel from Hassloch, Pfalz, Germany. He was part of the historic Palatine migration from Germany to New York so there is tons of historical research that has been done and I found there is still a lot of interest and research being done about the families of the migration. There is even a memorial monument with this inscription: “KNOW O TRAVELER, within sight of this hill on October 6, 1710, led by The Rev. Joshua Kocherthal and The Rev. Johann Frederick Hager, there arrived on the east and west shores of Hudson's River nearly three hundred families of refugees of the Palatine region in Europe, who suffered many sorrows in the ravages of war, sickness, poverty and destitution, yet survived to settle these shores, sustained by their faith in the Lord and the sympathy of Queen Anne of England, whom they came to serve in the reduction of the pine forest for naval stores for Her Majesty's fleet. Do you wish to know more? Seek out their names on this tablet, on the pages of history their deeds.” The surnames of our immigrant ancestors, Merckel (Merkley) and Casselman (Casselman) are on this plaque. I had a difficult time finding family historians and/or genealogists for a ‘Pedigree’ lineage chart. The two that I used have website links. I created a story for my family, see, Frederick Markel, Media: The Story, Part 1, Germany to New York. Descendants of Friederich Merckel Friederich Merckel -Kirsten’s Page http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=vikingtree&id=I5264 Best Source for Lineage Charts I’ve found; she uses reference #’s for SOURCE of information http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~merkley/Intro.htm Merkley Family Researcher: Ejvor Merkley: states his research has spanned 50 years; he made several trips to New York and Ontario checking court, church, land records. Note: I sent a message to Ejvor Merkley and received no response.   Genealogical researcher: Archibald F Bennett: affiliated with the LDS Salt Lake Library had undertaken the Merkley research at the request of Alva Merkley of Magrath, Alberta, Canada.   Dr. Stanley A Merkley (1930’s). Dr. Merkley collected names, that he placed in family groups, but gave no dates or places

to Ferne Merkley's daughter *Sim’s Facebook: Colby, Larson, Merkley

(8/6/15) Hello..., so happy to connect with you here and see your pretty face (the Norwegian genes from the Larsons and Colbys have really contributed to all the good-looking children of Merle and Minnie)! Your mother’s name, Ferne, came up often in conversations between my mother, and my grandmother, Hester Merkley-Adams-Sams. The family in Iowa was VERY close, as can be seen in all those pictures, and they really missed them when Loren moved his family to Minnesota!  Unfortunately, this is all I have for Mary Louis Merkley: she was a Senior in the 1949 College Yearbook, Des Moines, Iowa. The last listing I have of her: U.S Public Records, Index, 1950-1993; as Mary L Cramer, Cinncinnati, Ohio. She is the only surviving sibling listed in Margaret’s 2010 Obituary. I find Directory listings of her in Ohio: 1985, 1993, 1996.  As I look at her wonderful smile in her yearbook picture, I have to go back and review those pictures of Matilda’s grandchildren, I think I remember seeing that energetic smile in one of those pictures.  I’m thrilled to have you identify Elaine in a picture! She is one of my Merkley heroines! I’m hoping to find Minnie Bell in one of those pictures, I think a possibility is the ‘children in the boat’: my great-grandmother is on the far right, I’m thinking the gal next to her might be Minnie Bell, I’ll have to do some calculations.