Re: Early Machamer families
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In reply to:
Re: Early Machamer families
David Machemer 3/24/04
I come from the same branch of the Machemer family as David. My mother, Catharine (the a in the middle was a common spelling in the family),was his grandfather's sister. I can provide some additional information and correct a couple of errors.
We have a double dose of Machemer blood. Both of my mother's parents were Machemers, cousins of some sort but not first cousins. This can cause some confusion about exact relationships. For example, I thought for many years that my mother's uncles, Joe and Frank, were my grandfather's brothers but found recently that they were actually brothers of my grandmother.
My grandfather, Melvin (he went by his middle name; his first name was Henry), lived in Bozeman,Montana, most of his life, as did my grandmother's brother, Joseph (his middle name). We presumably still have relatives in Montana but I know nothing about them. My mother was born in Bozeman but apparently grandma didn't like Montana as she and their children moved back to Constantine, Michigan, in 1912 or 1913 to live with her parents.
My grandmother's other brother, Frank, lived most of his life in California and presumably there are still Machemers there. A story in the family is that he owned a construction company that helped build Disneyland in 1955.
My aunt Bee, whom David mentioned, was my mother's twin sister and was actually named Mary Josephine. She died recently at the age of 95. Her Marine uniform is on display at the Smithsonian; it is one of the few complete uniforms left from that era.
David's great-great-grandfather was actually named Levi M. Machemer. Teesdale was his wife's maiden name. He was born in Hamburg, Pennsylvania, where his family had moved from Berks County, Pennsylvania. In 1855, the family moved to Constantine, Michigan, where he lived the rest of his life.