Thomas Eugene Wegley, known to our family as Uncle Tommy, was born on June 13, 1949, in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. He was the eldest child of Raymond Edward Wegley and Elsie Jane Hoag, who went on to raise four children together.

Tommy was part of the first generation of our direct Wegley family line to be born and raised in Oklahoma. His father, Raymond, had been born in Fort Smith, Arkansas, in 1925 and served in the United States Navy during World War II before eventually settling with his family in Oklahoma.

Parents

Tommy’s father was Raymond Edward Wegley, born December 15, 1925, in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and died December 4, 1992, in Sapulpa, Oklahoma. His mother was Elsie Jane Hoag, born June 22, 1927, and died April 26, 2018.

Raymond and Elsie married on June 5, 1948, in Pennsylvania. Tommy was born a little more than a year later, followed by his siblings Karen Marie, Raymond Junior, and Robert Thomas.

Marriage and Children

On November 24, 1975, Tommy married Margret Hinton in Brevard County, Florida. Together they had two sons:

• Thomas Eugene Wegley Jr., born 1976
• James Ray Wegley, born 1979

Through his sons, Tommy continued the Wegley family line, traceable through generations from Pennsylvania to Arkansas and eventually Oklahoma.

Death

Thomas Eugene Wegley died on May 1, 2026, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at the age of 76. His death marked the passing of the eldest of Raymond and Elsie Wegley’s four children.

For me, this page is also more personal than many of the older genealogical entries on this website because Tommy was not simply an ancestor whose life I have reconstructed through historical records. He was my uncle, someone whose lifetime overlapped my own and whose story belongs to the living memory of our family.

Continuing His Story

This biography is still a work in progress. Now that Uncle Tommy has passed away, I am continuing to gather photographs, records, memories, stories, and other details that can help preserve a fuller account of his life for future generations.

As additional information becomes available, I will continue expanding this page. My goal is not simply to record his birth and death dates, but to preserve something of the person he was and the place he held within our family.

Raymond Edward Wegley Jr., my uncle, was born on December 11, 1952, in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. He was the third child and second son of Raymond Edward Wegley and Elsie Jane Hoag.

Raymond was born while his parents were establishing their family in Oklahoma. His father was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas, in 1925, served in the United States Navy during World War II, married Elsie in Pennsylvania in 1948, and eventually made Oklahoma home.

Parents and Siblings

Raymond’s father, Raymond Edward Wegley Sr., was born on December 15, 1925, in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and died on December 4, 1992, in Sapulpa, Oklahoma. His mother, Elsie Jane Hoag, was born on June 22, 1927, and died on April 26, 2018.

Raymond grew up as one of four children. His siblings were:

• Thomas Eugene Wegley, born June 13, 1949
• Karen Marie Wegley, born January 26, 1951
• Robert Thomas Wegley, born September 27, 1954

The family eventually became established in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, where Raymond Sr. spent decades working for the Bartlett-Collins Glass Company. Raymond Jr. therefore belonged to the first generation of this branch of the Wegley family to grow up primarily in Oklahoma after generations of the family had lived in Pennsylvania.

Marriage to Catherine Anne Burk

On April 17, 1974, Raymond married Catherine Anne Burk in Fannin County, Texas. Their marriage lasted more than forty years, until Catherine’s death in 2017.

Raymond and Catherine had two sons:

• Shawn Dale Wegley, born 1975
• Jeremy Edward Wegley, born 1978

Through Shawn and Jeremy, Raymond and Catherine’s branch of the Wegley family continued into another generation. Their family eventually included grandchildren as well as numerous nieces, nephews, great-nieces, and great-nephews.

Catherine’s Death

Catherine Anne Burk Wegley died on June 11, 2017. After more than four decades of marriage, Raymond spent his final years as a widower. Catherine was buried in Bonham, Fannin County, Texas. Raymond would eventually be laid to rest beside her.

His Final Years

Raymond died on February 12, 2021, in Paris, Texas, at the age of sixty-eight. According to his obituary, his death resulted from kidney failure.

His obituary remembered him through a passage from Ephesians 4:32:

Raymond Edward Wegley Junior, age 68, passed away on February 12, 2021, due to kidney failure. He was born December 11, 1952, in Okmulgee, Oklahoma to Raymond and Elsie Wegley. He married his longtime friend and love, Catherine Anne Burk, in April of 1974, who preceded him in death in 2017.

His life was a living example of Ephesians 4:32 — “And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.”

Raymond is survived by three siblings, Thomas Eugene, Karen Marie, and Robert Thomas, as well as his sons, Shawn Dale and Jeremy Edward, his wife, his beloved grandchildren, his many nephews and nieces, and great-nephews and nieces.

He had a wonderful life and will be missed by many.

His family presented that verse as an example of how Raymond lived his life. His obituary described a man his children, grandchildren, siblings, nieces, nephews, and extended family remembered with affection.

At the time of Raymond’s death, his three siblings, Thomas Eugene, Karen Marie, and Robert Thomas, were still living. He was also survived by his sons Shawn Dale and Jeremy Edward, his grandchildren, and a large extended family.

Burial

Raymond Edward Wegley Jr. was buried in Bonham, Texas. He was laid to rest beside his wife, Catherine, who had died nearly four years earlier.

Their neighboring graves preserve the final chapter of a marriage that began in Texas in 1974 and lasted until Catherine’s death in 2017. Raymond followed her in death on February 12, 2021.

Remembering Uncle Raymond

Raymond’s life belongs to a much more recent part of our Wegley family history, where genealogy begins to overlap with personal memory. He was not simply a name discovered in a census, probate file, or centuries-old church record, but my uncle and a member of a generation remembered directly by those of us still living.

Raymond Walter Wegley was my great-granduncle and one of the sons of John W. Wegley and Helen Elizabeth “Bessie” Swanson. He was born on June 1, 1901, in Kane, McKean County, Pennsylvania, where his parents had established their family during the closing decades of the nineteenth century.

Some later records and family trees have given Raymond’s birth year as 1900, but a surviving Kane municipal birth record provides much stronger evidence. It records Raymond Wegley, born June 1, 1901, in Kane to J. W. and Bessie Wegley, confirming both his birth date and his parentage.

Parents and Family

Raymond’s father, John W. Wegley, was born on June 29, 1858, and was the youngest son of Joseph William Wegley and Eve Berkebile. His mother, Helen Elizabeth “Bessie” Swanson, was born in Sweden and brought a much more recent European immigrant connection into a family whose Wegley ancestors had already been in Pennsylvania for generations.

Raymond was one of at least six children presently supported by the family research:

• Minerva Pearl Wegley
• Frederick Wegley
• Ruth Leona Victoria Wegley
• Clarence John Leroy Wegley
• Raymond Walter Wegley
• Howard Wegley

The Wegley family was closely associated with 507 Biddle Street in Kane, an address documented in family records beginning by at least 1893. Raymond therefore grew up in a family whose roots in Kane stretched through much of his childhood and young adulthood.

Marriage to Minnie Ida Westcott

Raymond married Minnie Ida Westcott, and the couple eventually settled in New York. Together they had one known son, Thomas Galven Wegley, born in 1929. Thomas’s name may have honored Minnie’s brother, Thomas Galvin Westcott.

Here is the baptism record for Thomas Galven Wegley from the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York Church Records. It also provides further documentation of Raymond Walter Wegley’s life and family.

Episcopal Diocese of Central New York; Liverpool, New York; The Episcopal Diocese of Central New York Church Records, 1797-1970; Volume: 1

The Wegleys in New York

By 1930, Raymond and Minnie were living in Salina, Onondaga County, New York, with their young son Thomas. Also living in the household was Cordelia Westcott, Minnie’s elderly grandmother, who was recorded as ninety-one years old.

Raymond would have been twenty-eight at the time of the census, not twenty-one as stated in an earlier version of this biography. The household provides an interesting picture of four generations of interconnected family life, with Raymond and Minnie raising a young child while sharing their home with an elderly member of Minnie’s family.

Thomas’s Baptism

Church records provide another glimpse of the Wegley family during their years in New York. On April 1, 1934, Raymond and Minnie’s son Thomas was baptized in a congregation associated with the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York.

The baptismal record is particularly useful genealogically because it records Raymond’s full name in connection with his son. Church records such as this can provide valuable evidence alongside civil birth, census, marriage, and military documents.

Service in the United States Marine Corps

Raymond entered the United States Marine Corps in January 1931. Records place him with the Marine Barracks at the Naval Air Station at Lakehurst, New Jersey.

Lakehurst was an important naval aviation installation during this period and became particularly famous for its association with lighter-than-air aviation and airships. Raymond’s presence there places him within the military world between World War I and World War II, rather than making his Marine service part of the Second World War itself.

Raymond’s World War II Draft Registration

Although Raymond had previously served in the Marines, the federal government documented him again during World War II through his draft registration. The registration provides a valuable physical description of him.

Raymond was recorded as:

• Height: 5 feet 6 inches
• Weight: 135 pounds
• Complexion: Light
• Hair: Brown
• Eyes: Blue

The registration also gives his birth date as June 1, 1901. That date matches the earlier Kane municipal birth record, giving us two independent records supporting the same birth year.

A Machinist in Syracuse

By 1940, Raymond and his family were living on Seeley Avenue in Syracuse, New York. Raymond was thirty-eight years old and working as a machinist, an occupation that required specialized mechanical skills and placed him within Syracuse’s substantial industrial economy.

The 1940 census records Raymond as having completed high school and earning $1,820 during the previous year. Rather than converting that salary into a modern dollar figure, the original amount is more useful genealogically because it preserves exactly what the historical record reported.

Life After Minnie’s Death

By 1950, Raymond’s household had changed considerably. Minnie had died by this time, leaving Raymond a widower.

Raymond lived at 144 North Salina Street in Syracuse, apartment 1304, and worked as an inspector at a gear factory. His progression from machinist to inspector suggests he stayed connected to skilled industrial work throughout much of his adult life.

From Machinist to Inspector

Raymond’s census records offer more than a simple occupation on a family tree. They allow us to follow his working life across at least a decade, from machinist in 1940 to gear-factory inspector in 1950.

Both jobs belonged to the manufacturing economy in which Syracuse played an important role during the middle of the twentieth century. Raymond’s experience and mechanical knowledge may have contributed to his later inspection work, although the records presently available do not tell us his specific employer or how long he held either position.

Death in Syracuse

Raymond Walter Wegley died in March 1958 in Syracuse, Onondaga County, New York, at the age of fifty-six. His precise date of death still needs to be confirmed because two dates currently appear in my family records: March 20 and March 29, 1958.

Until a death certificate, obituary, cemetery record, or another reliable contemporary source resolves the discrepancy, I prefer to preserve the uncertainty rather than select one date simply because it has been repeated elsewhere. Once that record is located, this page can be updated with the confirmed date and, hopefully, additional information about the circumstances of his death.

Raymond’s Place in the Wegley Family

Raymond’s life illustrates how far the Wegley family had traveled, both geographically and socially, in only a few generations. His grandfather, Joseph William Wegley, spent much of his life in rural Pennsylvania and worked as a day laborer and wood chopper, while Raymond grew up in Kane and eventually built his adult life in industrial New York.

His records also give us a much more detailed picture than we have for earlier generations. We know his exact birth date, his physical appearance, his military affiliation, the names of his wife and son, the households he lived in, his addresses, and the kinds of work he performed.

Raymond Walter Wegley was born into a Pennsylvania family whose American roots stretched back nearly two centuries, but his own story became centered in New York. Through his Marine Corps service, family life, and decades of skilled industrial work, he represents another distinct chapter in the Wegley family story.

One research target jumps out at me now: Raymond’s 1958 death certificate. Finding it could settle the March 20 versus March 29 question immediately and may also give us his cause of death, burial location, final address, occupation, and informant.

Howard J. Wegley was my great-granduncle, the son of John W. Wegley and Helen Elizabeth “Bessie” Swanson. He was born on April 26, 1903, in Kane, McKean County, Pennsylvania, where the Wegley family had become established during the late nineteenth century.

Howard’s life was comparatively short, ending when he was only thirty-three. Even so, the records that survive allow us to reconstruct a life that included family, marriage, fatherhood, personal difficulties, incarceration, and a sudden fatal illness during the winter of 1937.

Born in Kane

Howard’s original birth record provides unusually valuable information about both him and his family. It records Howard J. Wegley, born April 26, 1903, to John W. Wegley and Bessie Swanson, and identifies both parents as Kane residents.

The record also states that Bessie had given birth to seven children, six of whom were living when Howard was born. This is important because earlier research had securely identified only six children of John and Bessie: Minerva Pearl, Frederick, Ruth Leona Victoria, Clarence John Leroy, Raymond Walter, and Howard.

An earlier family reconstruction also included a child named Rush Wegley, reportedly born around 1897. Howard’s birth record now proves that there was indeed another child in the family who had died before April 26, 1903, although the birth record alone does not establish that the deceased child was Rush.

This again is another important lesson in why you want to gather all the official documents you can from every family member (not just your direct line) because you never know what information that may reveal.

The Youngest Wegley Child

Howard appears to have been John and Bessie’s youngest child. His brother Raymond Walter Wegley was born in Kane on June 1, 1901, less than two years before Howard.

Howard grew up in a family already deeply connected with Kane. His parents had been associated with 507 Biddle Street since at least the 1890s, and his father worked at different times as a merchant, laborer, oil-well pumper, grocer, and oil and gas producer.

Howard’s mother brought a more recent immigrant story into the family. Bessie Swanson had been born in Sweden, while Howard’s Wegley ancestors had lived in Pennsylvania for generations.

Howard’s birth record specifically supports that Swedish birthplace. Interestingly, his later death certificate incorrectly gives his mother’s birthplace as New York, demonstrating why records created at different points in a person’s life sometimes disagree.

Military Service at Sixteen

Howard entered military service at a remarkably young age. On March 22, 1920, he enlisted in Company E of the 16th Infantry, and his service record reported his age as eighteen. His original birth record, however, establishes that Howard was born on April 26, 1903, meaning he was actually only sixteen years and ten months old when he enlisted for what appears to be a 3-year enlistment.

The discrepancy in his age strongly suggests that Howard reported himself as eighteen to enlist. Underage enlistment was not unheard of during this era, particularly among young men eager to enter military service, although Howard’s surviving record does not explain his reasons.

This seems to have been common back in the day. My grandfather and his brother both lied about their age when they enlisted. So Howard lied about his age to join the military, doesn’t suprrise me.

Howard enlisted during the immediate aftermath of World War I rather than during the war itself. The fighting had ended with the Armistice in November 1918, more than a year before he joined.

On April 1, 1921, Howard was transferred to Company M of the 112th Infantry, a Pennsylvania National Guard regiment.

Howard remained in military service for more than two and a half years. His service card shows that his original term was scheduled to expire on March 21, 1923, but he was discharged on November 9, 1922, approximately four months early. The surviving card does not clearly explain the early discharge, and nothing in the record currently indicates it was disciplinary.

His service card also gives an unusually detailed picture of the teenage Howard. He lived at his parents’ home at 507 Biddle Street in Kane, worked as a laborer, and was described as five feet five inches tall and 120 pounds, with blue eyes, light brown hair, and a light complexion.

Marriage to Olive Rush Hooks

As an adult, Howard married Olive Rush Hooks. Together, they had at least one known child, Leroy G. Wegley, born on September 16, 1930.

The surviving records suggest that Howard and Olive’s marriage later broke down. Howard’s 1937 death certificate explicitly records his marital status as divorced, providing contemporary evidence that the marriage had legally ended by the time of his death.

However, an interesting contradiction remains. Howard’s obituary reportedly described him as being survived by his wife, while his death certificate says he was divorced.

Rather than choosing one record and ignoring the other, we should preserve both. The death certificate is stronger evidence for his legal marital status, while the obituary may simply have used “wife” informally, may have relied on information from someone unaware of the divorce, or may have reflected a complicated relationship between Howard and Olive that the surviving records do not fully explain.

Olive later married William Macaluso in 1948, more than a decade after Howard’s death. Further marriage or court records may eventually establish when Howard and Olive divorced and clarify the circumstances surrounding their separation.

Fatherhood

Howard became a father when Leroy was born in 1930. He was twenty-seven years old at the time.

Unfortunately, the surviving records presently tell us much more about Howard’s difficulties during the 1930s than about his relationship with his son. That imbalance is common in genealogical research because legal, institutional, and death records often survive when the ordinary details of family life do not.

The Allegheny County Workhouse

Howard’s life took a difficult turn in 1935. On March 11, 1935, they committed him to the Allegheny County Workhouse and assigned him prisoner number 39227.

His institutional record provides a physical description that gives us an unusually personal glimpse of Howard. He stood approximately 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighed about 113 pounds when he entered the institution.

The records indicate that Howard gained nearly ten pounds during his confinement. Details like these may seem minor, but they allow us to picture someone who otherwise survives largely through names, dates, and official documents.

What Was Howard Convicted Of?

Unfortunately, the handwritten entry identifying Howard’s offense has not yet been deciphered with enough confidence to include it as fact. Earlier attempts to interpret the handwriting have not produced a reading that I consider sufficiently reliable.

For that reason, I am leaving the offense unidentified rather than guessing. The workhouse record establishes that Howard was convicted and incarcerated, but until the handwritten entry can be reliably read or another court record is located, the specific crime should remain an open question.

An uncertain transcription could easily become repeated as fact in family trees, and Howard deserves the same evidentiary care as everyone else in this family history.

I asked AI to analyze the document to see if it could figure it out, and it thinks it’s a “Dr” an abbreviation for drunk or drunkenness. The clerk was abbreviating many offenses:

• Vag = vagrancy
• Forgery
• N.S. = likely nonsupport
• Fel. B&E = felonious breaking and entering
• Rob. = robbery
• Lar. = larceny
• A&B = assault and battery
• Dr = drunk/drunkenness

So basically that means he had to serve time for drunkenness. These two documents are the full U.S. Prison, Reformatory, and Workhouse Records. Hard to read, for sure, but I know many of you will appreciate seeing the real records for inmate 39227 (Howard Wegley).

The discharge docket explicitly gives 532 days under the column “Time Served in Prison.” That’s about 17½ months, or roughly 1 year and 5½ months.

Since his original sentence was two years, Howard served roughly three-quarters of it before being paroled. The mark in the “How Discharged” section lines up with the Paroled column, not expiration of sentence.

If we count 532 days forward from March 11, 1935, that puts his release in late August 1936.

Howard received a two-year sentence, considerably longer than a brief jail term for a single night of public intoxication might suggest today. The surviving record does not explain the circumstances of the offense or whether previous incidents influenced the sentence, so those details remain unknown.

A separate discharge docket shows that Howard did not serve the entire two-year term. He spent 532 days in the workhouse, approximately seventeen and a half months, before being paroled. His prison occupation was recorded as Kitchen.

The records also preserve an unusual physical detail. Howard weighed approximately 113 pounds when he entered the workhouse and 127 pounds when he left, a gain of about fourteen pounds during his confinement.

Howard would have been released around August 1936. Only about five months later, in January 1937, he became seriously ill with pneumonia and died at Allegheny General Hospital at the age of thirty-three.

That last timeline really stands out. Howard spent much of 1935 and 1936 in the workhouse, was paroled around August 1936, and died in January 1937, so his death came only a few months after he regained his freedom.

Pittsburgh

By the time of his death, Howard was living in Pittsburgh rather than his hometown of Kane. His death certificate records his usual residence as 22 Mission East Parkway, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the same address reported in his obituary.

The certificate states that Howard had no occupation at the time of death. That does not tell us what kind of work he had performed earlier in his adult life, so it would be inappropriate to interpret the entry as evidence that he had never had an occupation.

The Illness Begins

Howard became ill in January 1937. His death certificate gives January 10, 1937, as the onset of the illness that eventually killed him.

His condition worsened over the following days. On January 14, he came under medical care at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, where doctors treated him for pneumonia.

The certificate identifies the principal cause of death as lobar pneumonia. Before antibiotics were widely available, bacterial pneumonia could progress rapidly and was far more dangerous than it became after effective antibiotic treatment was introduced.

January 17, 1937

Despite medical treatment, Howard’s condition continued to deteriorate. He died at Allegheny General Hospital on January 17, 1937, only about a week after his illness began.

He was just thirty-three years old. His death brought an unexpectedly early end to the life of John and Bessie’s youngest known son.

Howard’s obituary appeared in The Kane Republican on January 18, 1937, the day after his death. Although he was living in Pittsburgh by then, publishing his obituary in Kane reflects the family’s continuing connection to the community where he was born and raised.

Conflicting Information on His Death Certificate

Howard’s death certificate is extremely valuable, but it also demonstrates why no single genealogical record should automatically be accepted as completely accurate. The certificate identifies his father as J. W. Wegley and his mother as Betty Swanson, clearly corresponding to John W. Wegley and Bessie Swanson.

However, the certificate gives Bessie’s birthplace as New York. Howard’s original birth record and other family research establish that Bessie Swanson was born in Sweden, making the New York entry almost certainly an error supplied decades after Howard’s birth.

A Life That Was More Complicated Than the Records

Howard’s surviving records do not present the simple progression often found in a family tree. His marriage ended in divorce, he spent time in the Allegheny County Workhouse, and he died of pneumonia at only thirty-three.

Those facts should not define his entire identity. The records preserve particular moments when government agencies, courts, hospitals, churches, or newspapers had a reason to write something down, but they cannot tell us everything about Howard as a son, brother, husband, father, or individual.

We do know that he was born into a large family in Kane, married Olive Rush Hooks, became the father of Leroy, and eventually made his way to Pittsburgh. We also know that his life ended with remarkable speed after he became ill during the first days of 1937.

Howard’s Place in the Wegley Family

Howard belonged to a generation far removed from the Pennsylvania frontier on which his Wegley ancestors had once lived. His great-grandfather, Joseph William Wegley, was born in Brothersvalley in 1802, while Howard was born more than a century later in an industrial Pennsylvania town shaped by lumber, railroads, petroleum, and natural gas.

He was also part of the final generation raised by John W. Wegley and Bessie Swanson. Howard’s newly examined birth record adds an important piece to their family history by establishing that Bessie gave birth to seven children, not merely the six whose identities have so far been securely reconstructed.

Howard J. Wegley lived only thirty-three years, but enough records survive to keep him from becoming merely another name and pair of dates on the family tree. His story remains incomplete, particularly regarding his marriage, occupation, legal troubles, and the unidentified seventh Wegley child, but those unanswered questions are reasons to keep researching rather than to fill the gaps with assumptions.

Euphrosina Wilhelmina Wegerle was my sixth great-grandaunt and a member of the German generation of the family that lived in Lampertheim before my direct ancestors came to America. She was born on March 14, 1716, in Lampertheim, more than sixteen years after her older brother Johann Paul Wegerle, my sixth great-grandfather, was born.

Her parents were Hanß Philipp Wegerle and Barbara Keßler, whose marriage is recorded in Lampertheim on June 19, 1691. The same couple was the parents of Johann Paul Wegerle, born May 10, 1699, whose family would eventually leave Germany for Pennsylvania in 1732.

The quest to unravel Euphrosina’s life led me down a path filled with linguistic nuances and historical discrepancies. Variations of her last name in German records, including Waegerle, Wegerle, Wageli, and Wägeli, among others, show the fluidity of language and naming conventions over time.

• Wegerlin
• Wegelin
• Wägerlin
• Wegerlein
• Wägele
• Wägeli
• Waegerlen
• Waegerlin
• Weckherlin
• Weekerlin
• Wegerle
• Weggerly
• Weikhelin
• Wiegerlin
• Wigerli
• Wigerlin
• Waeckherlin
• Wuekherlin

A notable aspect of this journey was understanding the pronunciation of ‘Wägeli.’ A consultation with a German translator revealed the intricacies of phonetic translation, approximating ‘wu-ghe-ly’ as the closest pronunciation for an English speaker, albeit not entirely accurate.

A Daughter of the Wegerle Family in Lampertheim

Euphrosina was born into a family whose surname appears in historical records under numerous spellings. Forms associated with this extended family and related records.

Those differences should not automatically be interpreted as different families. Early German records were created by different ministers, clerks, and later transcribers, and spelling was not standardized as modern researchers expect.

For this branch of the family, I currently use Wegerle as the principal spelling. Records associated with Hanß Philipp and German records connected with Johann Paul support this form, although other versions continued to appear throughout the family’s history. I previously used the name “Wägeli” for the earlier branches of the family, but since her father has so many documented records with the last name Wegerle, we’ll stick with that.

Her Unusual Name

Euphrosina’s given name is one of the most distinctive in my family tree. Variations such as Euphrosina, Euphrosyne, and similar forms appear in German records, while Wilhelmina can likewise appear as Wilhelmine.

To me, the name is unique, and I love it. But as it turns out, back then in Germany it wasn’t uncommon. It only became rare after they left Germany and came to the United States.

The unusual name later contributed to one of the more complicated mistakes in my genealogical research. I found another woman with an almost identical name and initially believed I had discovered Euphrosina’s marriage and children. I had not.

The Ludwig Gottlieb Sieber Mistake

The collection Germany, Select Births and Baptisms, 1558-1898 contains records identifying a woman named Euphrosina Wilhelmina Waegerle as Ludwig Gottlieb Sieber’s wife. The couple was associated with daughters including Wilhelmina Barbara Sieber, born in 1858, and Rosina Barbara Sieber, born in 1859.

At first glance, the names appeared to fit remarkably well. The surname was another recognizable variation of Wegerle, and the woman’s unusual combination of Euphrosina and Wilhelmina seemed too distinctive to be a coincidence.

For a time, I attached these records to the Euphrosina born in 1716.

The problem became obvious once I examined the dates together. If the 1716 Euphrosina had given birth to Rosina Barbara in 1859, she would have been approximately 143 years old. Clearly, these could not be the same woman.

A Second Euphrosyne Wilhelmine Waegerle

Further research revealed the actual explanation. Another woman named Euphrosyne Wilhelmine Waegerle was born on August 6, 1819, more than a century after my ancestor’s sister.

The later Euphrosyne was a daughter of:

• Johann Christian Waegerle
• Rosine Catharine Enderle

She married Ludwig Gottlieb Sieber. The Sieber daughters born during the 1850s therefore belong to this nineteenth-century woman, not to Euphrosina Wilhelmina Wegerle of Lampertheim born in 1716.

The similarity between the two women’s names was extraordinary, but genealogy cannot be established through names alone. Dates, parents, locations, spouses, and generations must all fit together.

The marriage of Hans Philip Wegerle and Barbara Keßler in 1691 in Lampertheim provides a documented connection to the Wegerle family. But the mystery around Euphrosina’s life and lineage persists, underscoring the complexities and surprises inherent in genealogical research.

PLEASE NOTE: I am taking you on a research journey to show you how things you are sure are true later turn out not to be. Please read this document all the way through before confirming any facts in your family tree. At the bottom, you’ll discover I made a mistake in my research. I am keeping it here to share how I confirmed and discredited documented “facts” from others.

There is a record called the ‘Germany, Select Births and Baptisms, 1558-1898 (Deutschland, ausgewählte Geburten und Taufen, 1558-1898),’ and that tells us her full name is Euphrosina Wilhelmina Waegerle, that she married Ludwig Gottlieb Siber, and that they had a daughter named Rosina Barbara Sieber. Rosina was born on October 26, 1859.

Another similar document shows they had a second daughter named Wilhelmina Barbara Sieber. She was born on May 20, 1858.

Ludwig Gottlieb F Sieber, her husband, appears to have emigrated to Russia in March of 1862. It says he was born in Grossingersheim, Germany. His children were still very young, so we can assume that his wife Euphrosina went with him, and that is where she died.

On another of Wilhelmine Barbara Sieber’s baptism records, her name is spelled “Euphemia Wilhelmine Sieber.” However, that’s very easily a translation error. As you can see in the original below, it’s hard to read.

Rosina Barbara Sieber’s other baptism records also misspell Euphrosina’s name. Again, this is a common error in translation. This is why you always need multiple records to confirm the same fact, since no single source is truly definitive.

Now, we come to a stump in the road. Another one out there goes by the name Euphrosyne Wilhelmine Wagerle [Euphrosyne Wilhelmine Waegerle].  She was born on August 6, 1819, and at 37 she married Ludwig Gottlieb Siber.

However, there is a 103-year difference between our Euphrosina and this Euphrosyne. This later Euphrosyne’s parents are …

Why the Error Was So Easy to Make

This case demonstrates one of the biggest dangers in online genealogy. Once an incorrect relationship is attached to a person in a family tree, it can be copied repeatedly until hundreds of trees appear to confirm the same mistake.

In reality, those trees may all descend from one incorrect conclusion.

Surname variations made the problem even harder. Waegerle, Wegerle, Wägerle, and related spellings could all plausibly represent versions of the same German surname, while Euphrosina Wilhelmina is unusual enough that finding two women with nearly identical names seemed improbable.

The dates ultimately exposed the error.

What We Actually Know About Euphrosina

The Euphrosina in my family was born on March 14, 1716, in Lampertheim and is associated with the family of Hanß Philipp Wegerle and Barbara Keßler. She belonged to the same German family that gave birth to Johann Paul Wegerle in 1699.

Johann Paul married Ottilia in 1721 and left Germany with his wife and four children aboard the Johnson Galley in 1732. Euphrosina does not appear among the members of Johann Paul’s household who made that voyage, which is exactly what we would expect because she was his sister rather than his daughter.

What happened to Euphrosina afterward remains much less clear. I have not yet established a reliable marriage, children, death date, or place of death for the woman born in 1716.

Those blanks are preferable to attaching the wrong family to her.

What Happened to Her?

Euphrosina would have been sixteen years old when her brother Johann Paul and his family left Germany for Pennsylvania in September 1732. Whether she remained in Lampertheim, married elsewhere, moved to another German community, or died young remains unclear.

Her brother’s departure means that the two siblings’ lives may have separated permanently at that point. Johann Paul’s descendants can be traced through Pennsylvania and eventually into the Wegley family of later generations, while Euphrosina’s own path remains unfinished.

That unanswered question is now one I hope future research will resolve.

A Lesson in Genealogical Research

I have deliberately preserved the story of my mistake involving Ludwig Gottlieb Sieber because it illustrates how genealogical research actually works. Research is rarely a straight line from one correct record to another, and sometimes evidence that initially appears convincing collapses when another record is discovered.

The important thing is not making a mistake. It is being willing to revisit a conclusion when the evidence no longer supports it and to correct the family tree rather than defending an attractive story.

Euphrosina’s page is a good example of why I now place so much emphasis on dates, relationships, locations, and independent records. A matching name can begin an investigation, but it cannot finish one.

An Unfinished Story

For now, Euphrosina Wilhelmina Wegerle remains one of the more mysterious members of the early German family. We know where she belongs within the Wegerle generation of Lampertheim, but much of her adult life remains undiscovered.

Perhaps another baptismal register, marriage record, burial entry, or German church book will eventually reveal what became of her. Until then, I would rather preserve the uncertainty surrounding the real Euphrosina than give her the documented life of another woman born more than a century later.

Orville J. Wegley, better known as Jack, was born on October 26, 1920, in Williston, North Dakota. He was the son of Joseph Wegley and Tena Olson Wegley, and he spent his life closely connected to Williston and the surrounding Williams County community.

Jack belonged to a branch of the Wegley family that had moved far west of the family’s earlier Pennsylvania roots. His father’s ancestry connected him to the German-American Wegley line, while his mother’s Olson family contributed a Norwegian heritage, a combination later recorded on Jack’s death certificate as Norwegian-German.

Growing Up in Williston

Jack was the youngest child of Joseph and Tena Wegley. His father, Joseph, became a prominent member of the Williston community and served as mayor, giving the family a visible place in the civic life of the growing North Dakota town.

Jack came of age during the Great Depression, when economic hardship affected families throughout the Great Plains. Before he reached his twenty-first birthday, however, military service would take his life in a very different direction.

Joining the North Dakota National Guard

Existing family military records give June 2, 1939, as Jack’s original enlistment date. If that date is correct, he was 18 when he joined the North Dakota National Guard.

The surviving roster of the 164th Infantry Regiment lists Orville J. Wegley, Army serial number 20711019, of Williston, with a birth date of October 26, 1920. His father, Joseph Wegley, is listed as his next of kin, which makes the identification particularly strong.

February 10, 1941

The date February 10, 1941 appears in military records connected with Jack, but it should not be interpreted as a separate enlistment. On that date, the North Dakota National Guard’s 164th Infantry Regiment was inducted into federal service, meaning Guard members became part of the active United States Army.

Jack was therefore part of a much larger mobilization of North Dakota National Guardsmen as the United States prepared for the possibility of entering the expanding global war. Pearl Harbor was still nearly ten months away, but the federal government had already begun bringing Guard units onto active duty for training.

World War II and the 164th Infantry

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the regiment’s role changed dramatically. The 164th Infantry was eventually sent to the Pacific and became part of the Americal Division, serving in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater. The regiment fought in major Pacific operations, including Guadalcanal.

North Dakota’s veteran register specifically records Orville J. Wegley as having served in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater. It also records his separation from the Army at Camp Gruber, Oklahoma, on April 10, 1944, as a sergeant.

That means Jack’s military service was more substantial than the earlier version of this biography suggested. Rather than serving separately in the National Guard and Army, the evidence indicates a continuous progression from state National Guard service into federal Army service during World War II.

His World War II Registration Card

Another surviving military document records Jack as Orville J. Wegley, age twenty-three, living on Route 1 in Williston, Williams County, North Dakota. It gives his birth date as October 26, 1920, and his birthplace as Williston, North Dakota.

The card names Mrs. Tena Wegley as the person who would always know his address. At the time the card was completed, his employment was described simply as “staying at home,” with Williston listed as his location.

This card is useful primarily for confirming his identity, birth information, residence, and relationship to his mother. It should not be used alone to reconstruct the chronology of his military service because Guard and federal Army records provide much more specific information.

Marriage to Nadine Melland

Only weeks after leaving military service, Jack married Nadine Melland on May 29, 1944. His marriage therefore marked the beginning of his transition from wartime military life back into civilian life.

Jack and Nadine remained married for more than fifty years. His 1995 death certificate still identifies him as married to Nadine Melland, and Nadine herself was the informant who supplied information for the certificate.

I found both their marriage license and certificate, which, while not easy to read, provides further documented information about his life and family connections.

A Career With the Postal Service

Jack eventually built a long civilian career with the United States Postal Service. His death certificate records his usual occupation as mail carrier and identifies the Postal Service as the industry in which he worked.

That occupation gives us a particularly fitting picture of Jack’s connection to Williston. After military service took him away from North Dakota during his youth, he returned home and spent his working years serving the community in a much different capacity.

His Final Home in Williston

By the end of his life, Jack and Nadine were living at 2008 8th Avenue East in Williston. His death certificate lists the same address for Nadine, confirming that the couple lived there together in 1995.

The certificate also records that Jack had completed twelve years of education. His race was recorded as white, and his ancestry was given as Norwegian and German, reflecting the backgrounds of the Olson and Wegley sides of his family.

Why I like to include things like death certificates when I find them is because they record more than just the person’s name and the date they died. Often, they give us invaluable information about the person we might not otherwise know.

July 4, 1995

Orville “Jack” Wegley died on July 4, 1995, at Mercy Hospital in Williston. He was seventy-four years old and had lived his entire life with Williston as the central place in his story, even though military service had carried him far beyond North Dakota during his younger years.

The copy of the death certificate currently available has the cause-of-death section obscured, so I would not state a cause until an unobscured copy or another medical record is found. The certificate otherwise provides strong documentation for his birth, death, marriage, occupation, parents, residence, and burial.

Riverview Cemetery

Jack was buried at Riverview Cemetery in Williston, North Dakota. The funeral arrangements were handled by Everson Funeral Home in Williston.

His burial brought his story back to the same community where it began nearly seventy-five years earlier. Williston had been his birthplace, family home, postwar residence, workplace, place of death, and ultimately his final resting place.

Jack’s Place in the Wegley Family

Jack’s life connects the Wegley family directly with one of the defining events of the twentieth century. He entered the North Dakota National Guard as a young man before the United States entered World War II and became part of the 164th Infantry when the regiment was called into federal service in 1941.

By the time he left the Army in April 1944, Jack had reached the rank of sergeant and had served in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater. He then returned to North Dakota, married Nadine, and built a civilian life in the community where he had been born.

His story also reminds us to interpret military records carefully. What initially looked like separate Army and National Guard enlistments appears instead to represent the transition of a young North Dakota Guardsman into federal military service as the country prepared for war.

Orville “Jack” Wegley’s life ultimately stretched from the farms and small towns of 1920s North Dakota to wartime service in the Pacific and then back home to decades of ordinary community life. His military service was an important chapter, but his fifty-one-year marriage to Nadine, his career as a mail carrier, and his lifelong connection to Williston make up the much larger story of the man who came home.

Growing Up in Ohio

Working His Way West

The Dream of Becoming a Cowboy

Learning the Cattle Business

A Caution About the Memoir’s Timeline

Marriage to Tena Olson

Their Children

If you have any children (aother than the 9 from above) listed for Joseph and Tena Wegley then you are mistaken and need to re-verify your information.

• Cloyd J. Wegley
• Joe A. Wegley
• Howard Joseph Wegley
• Edna Josephine Wegley
• Theodore J. Wegley
• Lester J. Wegley
• Charles Joe Wegley
• Dora V. Wegley
• Orville “Jack” Wegley, born October 26, 1920

Life in Williston

Williston’s First Mayor and a Scandal

Joseph Wegley Elected Mayor

• Joseph Wegley: 137 votes
• H. H. LaDue: 90 votes
• Joseph’s majority: 47 votes

Cleaning Up the “Blind Pigs”

When His Own Brother Was Accused

From Cowboy to Mayor

My Adventures in the West

The Wegley Farm

January 5, 1946

Joseph’s Place in the Wegley Story

Williston, N. D., Nov. 7 – A warrant has been issued for Fred Wegley, a brother of the mayor, the charge being the illegal sale of intoxicating liquors in what is commonly known as “Wegley’s Pig,” the joint in the lower regions of the concrete building on East Broadway.  The warrant was issued this morning and is now in the hands of the sheriff, who will serve it as soon as the defendant can be found, the understanding being that he has left the city temporarily. ‘Grand Forks Herald,’ Grand Forks, North Dakota.  10 June 1909 Williston, N. D., June 9 – Fred Wegley has been acquitted.  The jury in the case was out just three minutes this morning when it returned a verdict of not guilty.  This case has attracted attention for the last year and a half on account of the accused being a brother of Former Mayor Joseph Wegley, who has the reputation of being the man who cleared Williston of blind pigs, and it was asserted that the mayor was protecting his brother and allowing him an exclusive right to conduct a “pig.” The accused was tried three times before justices of the peace, and each time, he was found not guilty. He was then indicted by the grand jury, on which indictment he was just found not guilty. The outcome of the case convinces Wegley’s friends that the case was only a piece of spite work on the part of those opposed to Mayor Wegley to throw suspicion on the sincerity of his administration.

Here’s a crazy story about how he became mayor in the first place.

Fact: First North Dakota mayor accused of horse rustling

Olive Alta Wegley was my first cousin, three times removed, and the youngest known child of Jonathan George Wegley and Sarah A. Circle. She was born on February 2, 1884, in Washington Township, Shelby County, Ohio, into a branch of the Wegley family that had moved west from Pennsylvania into Ohio during the nineteenth century.

Her life can be followed through birth, marriage, census, and cemetery records. Those documents also raise an interesting question about her given names: the earliest record identifies her as Alta Olive Wegley, while she spent much of her life using Olive as her first name.

Alta Olive or Olive Alta?

An Ohio births and christenings index records her as Alta Olive Wegley, born February 2, 1884, in Washington Township, Shelby County, Ohio. The same record identifies her father as J. J. Wegley and her mother as Sarah Circle.

Later records reverse the emphasis. Her 1901 marriage application identifies her simply as Olive Wegley, while her gravestone records her as Olive A. Rasor.

Rather than assuming the birth index contains an error, the surviving records suggest that she may have been given the names Alta Olive but chose to use Olive as her everyday first name. It was not unusual for someone to use a middle name or reverse the order of given names in everyday life.

For this family history, I use Olive Alta Wegley, while preserving Alta Olive as it appears in the birth index.

The Youngest Child of Jonathan and Sarah

Olive’s father, Jonathan George Wegley, was born about 1836 in Pennsylvania and was the son of Joseph William Wegley and Eve Berkebile. Jonathan eventually moved to Ohio, where he married Sarah A. Circle and raised his family.

Olive was born relatively late in Jonathan and Sarah’s marriage and appears to have been their youngest child. Her birth in 1884 places her in a very different generation from some of the older members of the Wegley family, even though they shared the same parents.

Marriage to Pearl Cloyd Rasor

On December 25, 1901, Olive married Pearl Cloyd Rasor in Shelby County, Ohio. The marriage took place on Christmas Day.

The original marriage application provides considerably more information than a simple marriage index. Pearl was recorded as twenty-five years old and Olive as just seventeen.

Both were residents of Lockington, Shelby County, Ohio, and both had been born in Shelby County. Pearl worked in farming, and neither bride nor groom had been married before.

The record identifies Olive’s father as Jonathan Wegley and her mother as Sarah. Because Olive was still a minor, the application contains an especially valuable notation:

Consent of Sarah Wegley, mother of Olive Wegley, on file in this office.

That sentence provides unusually direct evidence connecting Olive to Sarah and also shows that her mother formally approved the marriage.

Pearl Cloyd Rasor

The marriage application gives Pearl’s age as twenty-five on September 6, 1901, which strongly suggests a birth date of September 6, 1876. His gravestone independently gives his birth year as 1876.

Pearl and Olive would remain married for nearly half a century. Their shared gravestone records:

• Pearl C. Rasor, 1876-1950
• Olive A. Rasor, 1884-1960

The monument preserves the name by which Olive appears to have been best known during her adult life: Olive A. Rasor.

Their Children

Olive and Pearl had at least two known children:

• Herman James Rasor, born March 21, 1905, died December 13, 1985
• Dorothy Miriam Rasor, born February 25, 1908, died September 8, 1996

Through Herman and Dorothy, Olive and Pearl’s branch of the family continued into later generations.

The surviving records presently support these two children. As with other branches of the family, add additional children only if contemporary records establish the relationship.

Working Beside Her Husband

The 1930 United States census provides a glimpse of Olive and Pearl’s working life. Pearl operated a grocery store, while Olive worked there as a saleswoman.

Olive was classified as an unpaid family worker, meaning she contributed to the business without being recorded as receiving a separate wage. That description gives us a much more useful picture of her life than simply labeling her a housewife.

The grocery store was evidently a family enterprise. Pearl ran the business while Olive worked alongside him, combining household and commercial responsibilities during a time when family-owned stores were common in small American communities.

Nearly Fifty Years of Marriage

Olive and Pearl married in December 1901, when she was only seventeen. Pearl died in 1950, ending a marriage that had lasted approximately forty-eight years.

Their shared gravestone reflects the length of that partnership. Pearl’s name appears beside Olive’s on the same family monument, preserving them together even after death.

Olive was about sixty-six years old when Pearl died. After spending most of her adult life married to him, she eventually began another chapter.

Marriage to Charles Trushel

Olive married Charles Trushel on November 9, 1951, approximately a year after Pearl’s death. She was sixty-seven years old.

Her remarriage shows her life did not simply stop after she became a widow. She continued building relationships and adapting to major changes well into her later years.

I would like to locate Olive and Charles’s original marriage record before expanding this part of her biography further. Such a record could confirm their residences, ages, previous marital status, and parents.

Her Final Years

Olive lived for another decade after Pearl’s death. She died on August 25, 1960, at the age of seventy-six.

Some family-tree information lists her death location as “Lima, Miami County, Ohio,” but that combination is geographically inconsistent because Lima is in Allen County. Unless a primary death record establishes another location, her death should therefore be recorded as Lima, Allen County, Ohio.

Her gravestone records simply Olive A. 1884-1960, beside Pearl C. Rasor. The stone further confirms the birth and death years established through other family records.

What the Marriage Record Adds to Her Story

Olive’s 1901 marriage record is one of the strongest documents connected with her because it does much more than confirm the wedding date. It establishes that she was seventeen, lived in Lockington, was born in Shelby County, and that her parents were Jonathan and Sarah Wegley.

The notation concerning Sarah’s consent is especially important. Rather than relying on a later family tree to identify Olive’s mother, we have a legal document created when Olive was seventeen showing Sarah Wegley personally consenting to her daughter’s marriage.

That kind of detail turns a genealogical relationship from an assumption into a documented family connection.

Olive’s Place in the Wegley Family

Olive belonged to the Ohio branch descended from Jonathan George Wegley, one of the sons of Joseph William Wegley and Eve Berkebile. While other descendants of Joseph and Eve remained in Pennsylvania or eventually moved elsewhere, Jonathan’s family established another part of the Wegley story in Ohio.

Olive spent most of her life outside the Wegley surname because she married Pearl Rasor as a teenager. Yet her records preserve her connection to the family exceptionally well through her birth record and marriage application.

Her story also shows how easily names can confuse genealogical research. Alta Olive Wegley, Olive Wegley, Olive Alta Wegley, and Olive A. Rasor all appear to refer to the same woman, not several different people.

Behind those variations was one life that stretched from a childhood in Shelby County in the 1880s through marriage on Christmas Day 1901, motherhood, work in the family grocery business, nearly fifty years with Pearl Rasor, widowhood, remarriage, and ultimately her death in 1960. The surviving documents allow us to see Olive not merely as Jonathan and Sarah’s youngest daughter, but as a woman whose own family story continued for more than seventy-six years.

John Wesley Wegley was my great-granduncle and my grandfather’s older brother. He was born on March 5, 1923, in Charleston, West Virginia, the son of Frederick Wegley and Tillie Blanch Edwards.

He was the second John Wesley Wegley in my family tree, sharing the name of an earlier family member. Although John was born in West Virginia, his family did not remain there permanently, and by 1930 they were living in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.

Growing Up in Pennsylvania

The 1930 United States census records John as seven years old and attending school. His childhood coincided with the beginning of the Great Depression, a period that placed enormous economic pressure on working families throughout Pennsylvania and the rest of the country.

John did not complete high school. Later records indicate that he completed approximately two years of high school before entering the workforce.

By his late teens, he was working in the glass industry, following the same general occupation as his father. The 1940 census described him as a new worker, suggesting that he was just beginning his working life around this period.

Working in the Glass Industry

John’s later marriage certificate gives a more specific description of his occupation. In 1946, he was recorded as a cutter working in the window glass industry.

His World War II draft registration also identifies his employer as the American Window Glass Factory in Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania. This gives us a direct connection between John and the glass-manufacturing industry that employed many people in southwestern Pennsylvania.

At the time of his draft registration, John was living at:

210 Wood Street
Belle Vernon, Fayette County, Pennsylvania

His mother, Mrs. Fred Wegley, was listed as the person who would always know his address and was living at the same residence.

World War II Draft Registration

John registered for the draft in 1942 when he was nineteen years old. His registration card confirms several important details about his identity and early adult life.

The physical description gives us a much more personal picture of John than census records alone can provide. At nineteen, he was a relatively small young man with brown hair and blue eyes, already working in the same industrial world his father had worked in.

Entering the United States Army

John entered active military service during World War II. His Pennsylvania World War II veterans’ compensation application records his entry into active service on February 12, 1943, at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland.

Another source has given February 20, 1943, as his enlistment date. Rather than assuming one record is wrong, the difference may reflect separate administrative dates for induction, enlistment, or entry into active duty.

The compensation application is particularly valuable because it was completed from John’s military service information and gives a detailed breakdown of his wartime service.

World War II Service

John served in the United States Army under serial number: 33 429 246. His compensation application divides his service into domestic and foreign periods. It credits him with approximately:

• 5 months of active domestic service
• 29 months of active foreign service

That means John spent considerably more of his Army career overseas than in the United States.

The form records foreign service beginning around July 19, 1943, and continuing until November 29, 1945. He separated from active service on December 6, 1945, at Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania.

John ultimately attained the rank of Staff Sergeant, showing that he progressed well beyond the rank at which he entered the Army.

Nearly Two and a Half Years Overseas

The 29 months of foreign service recorded on John’s compensation application represent approximately two years and five months overseas. That was the overwhelming majority of his wartime service.

The document currently available does not identify the exact countries, campaigns, unit, or theaters in which John served. Those details should remain open until we can locate his complete military personnel records, discharge papers, unit records, or other documentation.

We can confidently say that John spent a substantial period outside the continental United States during World War II and remained in the Army until after the war ended.

Pennsylvania Veterans’ Compensation

After the war, John applied for compensation through Pennsylvania’s World War II Veterans’ Compensation Bureau. The application provides a useful summary of his service and shows how Pennsylvania calculated payments based upon domestic and overseas military service.

The form credited him with:

• $50 for domestic service
• $435 for foreign service
• Total compensation: $485

He received his application in May 1950. By then, John lived at P.O. Box 853 in Henryetta, Okmulgee County, Oklahoma, showing he had already moved from Pennsylvania to Oklahoma by the beginning of the 1950s.

Marriage to Norma Jean Pocky

Only a few months after leaving the Army, John married Norma Jean Pocky. They married on April 1, 1946, in Winchester, Virginia. John was twenty-three years old, while Norma was twenty-one. Neither had previously been married. Their Virginia marriage certificate provides extensive information about both of them.

The marriage certificate therefore provides another independent record confirming John’s parents as Fred Wegley and Tillie Edwards.

A Baptist Wedding in Winchester

John and Norma were married in Winchester, Virginia, by E. T. Cook, identified on the certificate as a Baptist minister. The ceremony took place on April 1, 1946, exactly as stated on the marriage license.

The timing is notable because John had been discharged from the Army only about four months earlier. His marriage to Norma therefore came almost immediately after his transition back into civilian life.

John and Norma’s Children

John and Norma went on to have four known children:

• Lynn Wegley, born 1947
• Wesley Wegley, born 1952
• Janine Wegley, born 1955
• Donald Wegley, born 1959

Their children represented another generation of the Wegley family whose lives became centered in Oklahoma rather than Pennsylvania.

From Pennsylvania to Oklahoma

John’s records trace a significant geographic journey. He was born in West Virginia, grew up primarily in Pennsylvania, worked in the glass industry in Belle Vernon, entered the Army in Maryland, served overseas during World War II, married in Virginia, and eventually settled in Oklahoma.

By 1950, his veterans’ compensation application lists his address in Henryetta, Oklahoma. This places him firmly in Okmulgee County by that time.

The move continued the gradual westward migration of this branch of the Wegley family. Earlier generations had been concentrated in Pennsylvania, while John’s generation established lasting roots much farther west.

Death in 1982

John Wesley Wegley died on November 1, 1982, in Okmulgee County, Oklahoma. He was fifty-nine years old. He was buried at West Lawn Cemetery in Henryetta, Oklahoma, the community with which he had been associated for decades after moving from Pennsylvania.

John’s Place in the Wegley Family

John’s life reflects a major transition in the family’s twentieth-century history. He began life as the son of a Pennsylvania glass worker, entered the same industry himself as a teenager, and then had his life dramatically redirected by World War II.

He spent approximately twenty-nine months overseas, rose to the rank of Staff Sergeant, and returned home at the end of 1945. Within four months, he married Norma Jean Pocky, and within a few years the couple began establishing their family in Oklahoma.

His surviving records give us an unusually detailed picture of his young adulthood. We know where he lived, where he worked, what he looked like, where he entered military service, how long he served overseas, where he was discharged, whom he married, and where he eventually settled.

John Wesley Wegley’s story is therefore more than a sequence of birth, marriage, military service, and death dates. It is the story of a young glass worker from southwestern Pennsylvania whose generation was swept into World War II and who returned from nearly two and a half years of overseas service to build an entirely new chapter of the Wegley family in Oklahoma.

Lewis Weighley was my first cousin, five times removed, and the son of John Weigley and Elizabeth W. Croft. He was born on February 16, 1810, in Brothersvalley Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, into a branch of the family that remained closely associated with Somerset County for generations.

Lewis is not part of my direct ancestral line, but his family has proved especially valuable to my research. Records created for his children identify Lewis and his wife by name, helping establish relationships and showing how the family surname appeared in different documents over time.

Lewis or Louis?

One question about this family is whether his given name was Lewis or Louis. The surviving evidence favors Lewis.

His gravestone is inscribed Lewis Weighley, and his son John’s 1918 death certificate identifies John’s father as Lewis Weighley. John’s 1898 marriage application also records his parents as Lewis and Eva Weighley.

However, one important variation remains. Lewis’s son Ezra J. Weighley’s 1913 death certificate identifies Ezra’s father as Louis Weighley.

Rather than treating one spelling as proof that the others are wrong, I consider Louis a documented variant of his given name. Because Lewis appears on his gravestone and in multiple records created by or for his children, I use Lewis as the principal form on this page.

His Birth Date Confirmed by His Gravestone

Lewis’s gravestone provides more than his year of death. It states that he died on December 25, 1885, at the age of 75 years, 10 months, and 9 days.

Counting backward from that age produces a birth date of February 16, 1810. That agrees with the birth date already associated with Lewis in my family research and provides a useful independent check.

The stone is inscribed:

Lewis Weighley
Died Dec. 25, 1885
Aged 75 Yrs. 10 Mos. 9 Ds.

Marriage to Eve Beeghly

Lewis married Eve Beeghly on October 2, 1831. Later records also give her name as Eva, so both Eve and Eva appear in documents connected with their children.

The children’s death records particularly support the Beeghly surname. John’s 1918 death certificate identifies his mother as Eve Beeghly, while Ezra’s 1913 certificate records her as Eva Beeghley.

These spelling differences are typical of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century records. Beeghly and Beeghley appear to refer to the same family surname, while Eve and Eva were used interchangeably in records concerning the same woman.

Their Children

Lewis and Eve had at least seven known children:

1. Elizabeth Weighley, 1831-1909
2. John S. Weighley, 1835-1918
3. Mary Ann Weighley, 1838-1918
4. Joseph Weighley, 1840-1844
5. Sarah Weighley, born about 1844
6. Ezra J. Weighley, 1846-1913
7. William Lewis Weighley, 1849-1928

Their son Joseph died as a young child, which explains his absence from the family’s household by the time of the 1850 federal census.

The Family in 1850

The 1850 United States census provides an excellent snapshot of Lewis and Eve’s household. Lewis was recorded as thirty-nine years old and Eve as thirty-eight, with six children living at home.

The ages fit the reconstructed family remarkably well. Joseph, who had died in 1844 at approximately four years old, is the one known child missing from the household.

The census is also another example of surname variation. The family appears there as Weigley, while later records and Lewis’s gravestone use Weighley.

Son John S. Weighley

Lewis and Eve’s son John S. Weighley was born on August 1, 1835, in Pennsylvania. He lived into the twentieth century and died on January 4, 1918, at age eighty-two.

John’s death certificate is particularly valuable for identifying his parents. It names his father as Lewis Weighley, born in Pennsylvania, and his mother as Eve Beeghly, also born in Pennsylvania.

John spent his working life as a farmer and was described as a retired farmer at the time of his death. His cause of death was recorded as obstruction of the bowels, with old age listed as a contributory condition.

John’s Second Marriage Adds More Evidence

Another unusually helpful record comes from John’s later marriage. In 1898, at the age of sixty-two, John applied to marry a sixty-year-old widow.

The application explicitly identifies John’s parents as Lewis and Eva Weighley. This is valuable because John supplied this information during his lifetime, rather than someone else providing it after his death.

The record also shows that John’s previous wife had died on August 1, 1897. His bride had also been widowed, making the marriage a later-life union for both of them.

Son Ezra J. Weighley

Another son, Ezra J. Weighley, was born on October 9, 1846, in Pennsylvania. He died on May 8, 1913, in Somerset County at the age of 66 years, 6 months, and 28 days.

Ezra’s death certificate gives his occupation as a salesman. It identifies his father as Louis Weighley and his mother as Eva Beeghley, both born in Pennsylvania.

The informant was Hulda M. Weighley of Somerset, Pennsylvania, apparently a close family member who was in a position to provide information about his parents. Ezra died from paralysis, with Bright’s disease listed as a contributing condition.

Ezra’s certificate matters because it differs slightly from John’s. One child remembered or reported their father as Lewis, while another record gives Louis, showing how easily variations can develop even within one immediate family’s records.

The Weigley and Weighley Spellings

Lewis’s family is a useful example of why surname spelling alone cannot separate people into different family lines. The 1850 census uses Weigley, Lewis’s gravestone uses Weighley, and the later records of John and Ezra also primarily use Weighley.

I would therefore remove the earlier statement that Lewis’s children changed the family name from Weigley to Wegley. The records shown here do not support such a clean transition.

Instead, these documents show something much more typical of the Wegley family history. Weigley, Weighley, Wegley, and related forms could coexist across generations and even within the records of the same immediate family.

Death and Burial

Lewis Weighley died on December 25, 1885, at the age of seventy-five. He was buried in Pleasant Hill Brethren Cemetery in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.

His gravestone survives and provides direct evidence not only for his death but for his calculated birth date. The prominent Weighley spelling carved into the stone also gives us good reason to use that form as the principal spelling of his surname on this page.

Why Lewis Matters to My Research

Lewis is a good example of why I research people who are not my direct ancestors. Side branches often preserve documents that identify parents, maiden names, birthplaces, and relationships that may be missing from direct-line records.

In Lewis’s case, the records of his sons John and Ezra repeatedly connect him with Eve or Eva Beeghly. John’s marriage application is particularly strong evidence because John himself identified his parents as Lewis and Eva Weighley while both were still part of his own remembered family history.

The records also demonstrate why I try not to force historical names into a single standardized spelling. Lewis appears as Weigley in one source and Weighley in others, while even his given name shifts between Lewis and Louis.

For now, the strongest reconstruction is Lewis Weighley, born February 16, 1810, married to Eve “Eva” Beeghly, father of at least seven children, and buried in Somerset County after his death on Christmas Day 1885. His story may belong to a side branch of my family tree, but the records his family left help illuminate the larger Weigley, Weighley, and Wegley story.

Minerva Pearl Wegley, sometimes remembered as Minnie Pearl, was my great-grandaunt and the eldest known daughter of John Wesley Wegley and Helen Elizabeth “Bessie” Swanson. She was born on March 20, 1888, in Pennsylvania and belonged to the generation of the Wegley family raised in and around Kane during the late nineteenth century.

Her father descended from the Pennsylvania Wegley line, which had been in the state for generations, while her mother was born in Sweden. Minerva therefore grew up at the intersection of two very different family histories, one rooted deeply in Pennsylvania and the other tied to more recent Scandinavian immigration. The current family reconstruction places Minerva among the children of John and Bessie alongside Frederick, Ruth Leona Victoria, Clarence John Leroy, Raymond Walter, and Howard.

Her Birth Date

Various websites and older family information have given Minerva’s birth year as 1885 or 1887, but her death certificate provides a much stronger internal match. It records her birth as March 20, 1888, and states that she was 50 years, 4 months, and 2 days old when she died on July 22, 1938. Those figures agree exactly. For that reason, I currently consider March 20, 1888 the date best supported by the surviving evidence.

Marriage to Gerald Winfred Foster

Minerva married Gerald Winfred Foster, whose name appears on her death certificate as Gerald W. Foster. At the time of Minerva’s death in 1938, the certificate records her as married, not widowed or divorced.

The 1950 marriage certificate of their daughter, Myrtle Gene Foster, independently supports the full middle name, Winfred. That record identifies Myrtle’s father as Gerald Winfred Foster and her mother as Minerva P. Wegley, providing especially strong evidence connecting the Foster and Wegley families.

Their Children

Surviving records directly document at least two children of Minerva and Gerald.

• Griffith Wayne Foster
• Myrtle Gene Foster

In 1950, Myrtle married Harold Eugene Boswell in Arlington, Virginia. Her marriage certificate records her as twenty-five years old, born in Kittanning, Pennsylvania, and working as a financial clerk for the federal government.

The certificate is particularly valuable for Minerva’s family history because Myrtle herself identified her parents as Gerald Winfred Foster and Minerva P. Wegley. It gives us another independent record confirming Minerva’s maiden surname and her marriage to Gerald.

I found the birth certificate for their son, which, of course, provides a long list of invaluable information about her.

Life in Kittanning

Minerva spent her adult years in Pennsylvania and eventually made her home in Kittanning, Armstrong County. By 1938, she and Gerald were living at:

127 Hazel Street
Kittanning, Pennsylvania

Her death certificate identifies this address not only as her residence but as the place where her life ended. The house therefore represents a direct physical connection to Minerva’s final years.

The residence still survives today. Family research identifies it as a house built in the early twentieth century, making it one of those rare locations where a place associated with an earlier generation of the family still stands.

Her Life at Home

Minerva’s death certificate records her occupation as housewife and gives her industry or place of work as “own home.” That wording reflects the way women’s domestic labor was commonly recorded in official documents during the period.

It is easy to overlook such an entry because it does not identify an employer or wage. In reality, maintaining a household and raising a family represented a substantial part of daily life, particularly before the widespread availability of modern household appliances and conveniences.

High Blood Pressure

The medical portion of Minerva’s death certificate reveals that she had suffered from high blood pressure since about 1934. That means the condition had been known for roughly four years before her death.

High blood pressure is listed as a contributory cause rather than the immediate cause of death. The certificate therefore gives us a clear medical sequence rather than simply stating that she died unexpectedly.

A Sudden Death at Home

On the morning of July 22, 1938, Minerva died suddenly at her home at 127 Hazel Street. Her death occurred at approximately 10:30 a.m. The principal cause of death was recorded as apoplexy.

“Apoplexy” was a historical medical term commonly used for a sudden stroke or cerebral hemorrhage. In Minerva’s case, the accompanying diagnosis of longstanding high blood pressure makes a stroke-related event a particularly understandable interpretation of the terminology used on the certificate.

No autopsy was performed. Because the death was sudden, the certificate was completed through the coroner rather than through a lengthy hospital treatment record.

Only Fifty Years Old

Minerva was only fifty years old when she died. Her death certificate records her precise age as fifty years, four months, and two days. The suddenness of her death makes the record particularly striking. She apparently began July 22 at home with her family and died there that morning, with no indication on the certificate of a prolonged final illness.

Her Parents Confirmed

Minerva’s death certificate also provides important genealogical evidence about the previous generation. It identifies her father as John W. Wegley, born in Pennsylvania, and her mother as Helen Elizabeth Swanson, born in Sweden.

That is especially useful because the certificate gives Bessie’s full name rather than merely “Bessie Wegley.” It independently confirms the Swedish birthplace that appears elsewhere in the family’s records.

A Family Connection Preserved Through Myrtle

More than a decade after Minerva’s death, her daughter Myrtle’s marriage record preserved Minerva’s identity once again. When Myrtle Gene Foster married Harold Eugene Boswell on August 5, 1950, the Virginia certificate listed her mother as Minerva P. Wegley.

Myrtle was twenty-five, single, and living in Washington, D.C., at the time. Her record lets us follow Minerva’s family into another generation, even though Minerva had died when Myrtle was still relatively young.

Minerva’s Place in the Wegley Family

Minerva belonged to a generation in which the Wegley family moved beyond Kane and spread through Pennsylvania, and eventually far beyond the state. Her siblings would follow very different paths, with later branches of the family reaching New York, Oklahoma, and other parts of the country.

Minerva’s own life remained centered in Pennsylvania. Her records connect Kane and the family of John and Bessie Wegley with Kittanning, Gerald Foster, and the next generation represented by Myrtle Gene Foster.

Her story also reminds us why original records matter. Family trees gave Minerva several different birth years, but her death certificate records a date and an age that agree precisely, allowing us to replace uncertain inherited information with a much stronger documented conclusion.

Minerva Pearl Wegley Foster died far too young, but the records she left behind provide a surprisingly clear picture of her family. We can identify her parents, husband, daughter, home address, health condition, exact time and place of death, and the medical event that ended her life, preserving much more than simply her name on a family tree.

Elsie Jane Hoag was born on June 22, 1927, in Monessen, Pennsylvania, to Robert Thomas Hoag (1900–1961) and Emma Marie Assel (1905–1988). She grew up during the Great Depression, an era that shaped her resilience and resourcefulness. Elsie passed away peacefully on April 26, 2018, in Houston, Texas, at the age of 90, having spent her final years living with her eldest daughter.

Marriage and Family
On June 5, 1948, Elsie married Raymond Wegley in Pennsylvania. Their marriage was a partnership built on love and devotion that lasted until Raymond’s passing on December 4, 1992.

Elsie never remarried, remaining a faithful and loving widow for 26 years, a testament to her enduring loyalty and commitment.

Together, Elsie and Raymond raised four children, who were the heart of their lives:

• Thomas Eugene Wegley (born June 13, 1949)
• Karen Marie Wegley (born January 26, 1951)
• Raymond Junior Wegley (born December 11, 1952)
• Robert Thomas Wegley (born September 27, 1954)

Elsie’s family grew to include 12 grandchildren, each of whom she cherished and doted upon.

Career and Interests
In addition to her roles as a wife and mother, Elsie was a hardworking woman. She spent many years employed at a glass plant in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, where she worked alongside her husband and one of her daughters. This shared work experience strengthened their family bonds and reflected her enduring commitment to supporting her loved ones.

Standing 5 feet 4 inches tall, Elsie was a petite yet strong woman, embodying the qualities of determination, kindness, and unwavering love for her family.

Later Years
Elsie lived independently until 2016, when she moved to Houston, Texas, to be cared for by her eldest daughter. Surrounded by her family, she spent her final years in comfort and peace.

Legacy
Elsie Jane Hoag Wegley’s life was a reflection of dedication, love, and quiet strength. Her legacy lives on through her children, grandchildren, and the values she instilled in them. She remains fondly remembered as a wife, a mother, a diligent worker, and a pillar of her family.