Yearbooks Are Not Just for Students

Ancestry.com  recently announced an update of their yearbook collection. A quick search located a 1941 reference to my grandmother's sister, Margaret Habben, who was teaching home economics in Gridley, Illinois, in 1941.

I've found Aunt Margaret in yearbooks before, but I think this is the first time I've seen an entry with her picture. The yearbooks have been especially helpful as Aunt Margaret taught in several different schools after her graduation from Western Illinois University in Macomb and before her service in World War II.

When searching old yearbooks, don't forget to search for relatives who might have been teachers or staff as well. There are other people in yearbooks besides students.

Aunt Margaret's Military Stone In Idaho

My great-aunt Margaret has two tombstones at the Valley Vu Cemetery in Malta, Idaho. One is for her and her husband. The other is her military marker which lists her name only. The dates on the stone are the same, even though on the stone with her husband she is listed as Margaret A. and on the military marker she is listed as Anna M. I am guessing that the stone with her husband was erected first as he passed away in 1966--some time before Aunt Margaret.

Margaret A. and Robert J. Hutchison grave marker, Valley Vu Cemetery, Malta, Idaho;  digital image from FindaGrave (http://www.findagrave.com) -photographer inactive--could not contact.

Anna M. Hutchison military grave marker, Valley Vu Cemetery, Malta, Idaho;  digital image from FindaGrave (http://www.findagrave.com) -used by permission of photographer

I always heard her referred to as Aunt Margaret, never Aunt Anna.

I don't think her military marker has her name wrong either. Aunt Margaret's enlistment record (obtained at Ancestry.com) lists her name as Anna M. Habben. The year of birth and other identifying information is consistent with what is known about my aunt--except for the first name.

World War Two enlistment record information for Anna M. Habben--obtained on Ancestry.com.

Was she Anna or was she Margaret?

The quick answer: she was both. My great-aunt Margaret also had a sister, my great-aunt Anna. They were full siblings (both children of Mimka and Tjode (Goldenstein) Habben and sisters to my maternal grandmother). The reason for the confusion is that the Habbens named two of their daughters for their mothers: Anke (Fecht) Habben and Anna Margaret (Dirks) Goldenstein. The first names of Anke and Anna were distinct in low-German, but not in English. Grandmother Anke did have a middle name, but her middle name was Hinrichs, a patronym based upon her father's first name. My hunch is that it was easier for Anna Margaret to go by her middle name than it was for Anke--if she even had a middle name. I am not certain my great-grandparents would have given her the middle name of Hinrichs.

The children were likely christened in the Zion Lutheran Church in Carthage, Illinois, and those records cannot be located. The church has disbanded and the ELCA archives did not have the records in their collection and the congregation into which the church folded (Trinity Lutheran) did not have the records either. Writing this post reminded me that I don't have copies of the civil records of their birth--that's something I need to do.

So I need to add a couple things to my research list.

Alumni Newsletter Gives Graduation Date from 1940

The "Western Illinois State Teachers College Bulletin" from October of 1943 contained a reference to my great-aunt Margaret as a 1940 graduate who was teaching at the time in Bement, Illinois.

Western Illinois State Teacher's College Bulletin, Vol. 23, Number 3, October 1943. Obtained through the "WIU Bulletin Collection," digital image Carli Digital Collections (http://collections.carli.illinois.edu). 

 Ancestry.com's U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946  indicates that Anna M. Habben enlisted on 13 November 1942 in the Women's Army Corps as an inactive reserve. There is no doubt that this is the same person despite the fact that her name is listed as Anna M. Habben instead of Margaret Habben. The year of birth matches my Aunt Margaret and the occupation/education information is correct. The branch is also the branch of the service that my Aunt Margaret was known to have enlisted in and is what is shown on her tombstone in Idaho where she is buried with her husband.

What I do need to determine is when she was actually called up. The Bulletin indicates she was teaching Bement, Illinois, in the publication dated October of 1943. It could be simply that the information in the alumni publication was not current. 

There are some additional alumni references to Aunt Margaret and her picture appears in at least two of the yearbooks for Western Illinois State Teachers' College (now Western Illinois University). 

In a future blog post, we will have additional images and a few other details about Aunt Margaret's time at Western. We are also working on blog post about whether her name was Margaret or Anna--that one is slightly more complicated than her simply switching her first and middle names.

The online newsletters were helpful because lists of alumni are not currently publicly online for WIU.

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Reminder--we don't include complete citations on blog posts--just our personal preference. Complete citations are always included in Casefile Clues or you can learn about citations in Elizabeth Shown Mills' Evidence Explained. We always do include enough background information in blog posts that readers can find our original sources.If you think we don't, please fire off an email to me at mjnrootdig@gmail.com