Lecture description Roland Geiger, FEEFHS 2021

Sources of the Facts as Told in an Obituary (German track)

In 1837 Peter Engel from St. Wendel (Germany) came to America (other sources indicate it may have been 1840). He was accompanied by 9 comrades who stated their reason to emigrate was to avoid serving in the Prussian Army, but possibly they could have emigrated after their service.
Peter’s life is portrayed in his obituary produced by relatives and friends who knew him, which was published in a newspaper after his death in April 1916 in Wayland, Steuben County, New York.

Roland Geiger, local historian and genealogist from St. Wendel and a distant relative to Mr. Engel, shows the facts behind the narration of the obituary and the sources where they can be found.