Joe's children

Home Up Blanche Leona Ruth Coletta

Click on a link for a specific daughter. General info on the girls below the photo gallery.

Click on any photo to see it larger. Move the mouse to the right of the photo and then back over the photo to zoom (after you've clicked).

10-3-1915 so the baby in Joe's arms is probably Coletta at seven or eight months

9-7-1916 so the baby in Jessie's arms is probably Ruth at five months old

Joe and his daughters, in order of age: Coletta, Ruth, Leona, Blanche

Ruth, Leona, Coletta, Blanche on the day of Coletta's wedding 1937

After their father's death in 1928 (or perhaps before, when he was sick), the girls were sent to the Angel Guardian Orphanage (the only German and Catholic orphanage near Chicago at the time) though at times one or another lived with a relative. At 15 Coletta lived at least for a time with her grandparents, Anton and Anna Wachdorf (according to the 1930 census). Blanche told one of her daughters that at age 7, she lived for a time with her father's sister, Lettie Myers. Children of Edward Wachdorf reported that the girls "came and went" through their household from time to time.