Sometimes it can be easy to overlook those relatives who left no descendants of their own. They also have their stories to tell and those stories are just as important as those of relatives who left families of their own.
A 1908 horse accident left Mary Trautvetter with her legs broken in three places, a broken arm, and other injuries. Her sister, Anna, was injured as well–but not as severely.
It’s possible that the injuries from the accident impacted Mary for the rest of her life.
Mary never married. Her sister Anna (Trautvetter) McMahon died in the 1920s and Mary raised Anna’s daughter who was left orphaned by the death of both her parents. Mary died in 1962 and is buried in the Lutheran Cemetery in Warsaw, Hancock County, Illinois.
Have you documented those relatives who left no descendants?
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4 Responses
This is so important to know as well. Definitely!
Love this article…my great uncle had no descendants. He was in WWII and sustained an injury that made him unable to have children. All I knew about him was that he never had children for the longest time until I started doing research on the other family members, the aunts and uncles and found this out. When I asked my mom about him, she told me the whole story about when he came home from the war and when he and Aunt Lazelle found out they couldn’t have children. My mom was very young then and they asked my grandmother (my mom’s mother and his sister) if they could raise my mom as their own. My mom was born out of wed-lock and was treated horribly by the rest of the family. My grandmother turned them down. But it is an interesting story that no one else would have ever heard if it wasn’t for the fact that I was researching about my great aunts and uncles.
Every life has a story worth telling. And, when aunts and uncles with no descendants pass, their probate and estate settlement records can be contain genealogical gems that may not be found in any other records!
That’s very true about probates–especially if the person outlived their siblings.