52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 16 Prompt - Air

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 16

Prompt – Air

Airing one's dirty laundry is an idiom.  To me it means that there is someone that has a secret that very few people know about and those surrounding that person don't want it to become common knowledge.   In my opinion often good stories are made up to cover the truth and become what I call  "the family story".

Discovering or knowing about these secrets or indiscretions as a genealogist poses a problem.  Should I or shouldn't I report the real story?   I was told that when writing family history one should take the high ground and give respect.  However I have also discovered that moral compasses change with time.   So does information that is available online to anyone with a computer.

Last week I blogged about Bill's two times great grandfather – Johann Jahnke.   Johann has a brother – Leonhard Heinrich Jahnke.  If you recall these two brothers married twin sisters in Bromberg, Germany and immigrated to America on the same ship.  Johann married Ernestine “Emilie” Hein. Leonhard married Henriette “Amalie” Hein.

Leonhard and Amalie had two sons,Theodore and Julius Jahnke. These two are cousins of Bill's grandfather – Arthur Jahnke. (Stay with me).  Julius and Arthur married sisters.   Arthur married Ida Anna Bachmann and Julius married Ida's sister – Dorothea Bachmann.  Not too complicated, right?

Dorthea and Julius Jahnke had 5 children.

They all go by their second name as is a German tradition.  Harvey is still alive and living on Vancouver Island.   Harvey is 92 and one of my contacts that I have spoke to a few times.  Bill's mother is Clara who just turned 93 a month ago and living in Saskatoon.  Harvey and Clara are first and second cousins (which I explained in another blog last year) and are very close.

As an aside I spoke of Robert and his unfortunate death in a plane crash over England during the WWII.

Today I want to talk about Ida Jahnke.

Ida & Anthony Okapiec Wedding Photograph

In 2009 Clara and I were going through her boxes of photos.  We came upon this one.  She tried to explain who she was.  She said they had a child as well.  So I began to dig into clues to try and fill out their story.  I found a Province of Ontario – Certificate of Registration of Death for Ida.   I could not believe what I was reading. I had not heard about this.

Coroner's Report of Death For Ida Okapiec.

It indicates that her death was a coroner's case and that she died of suicide by cutting her throat. Oh how tragic.

Years go by and in March of 2017, I have the pleasure of chatting with Harvey about his family. Somewhere along we were discussing his siblings.  When he mentioned Ida, I said oh I know she committed suicide.  He was quite taken aback and said quite tersely “no she died in childbirth”.  I was going to go into finding her death registration online but had a 6^th sense that his story was the family story and I let it go.

In the past couple of months I have subscribed to Newspaper.com.  It is crazy the things I have found on this site. I was hoping to find the obituary for my records of Ida Okapiec.  What I found was even more astounding than the Coroner's report.  I found the story Ida's demise. It was chilling.  

On page 3 of The Windsor Star dated July 11, 1944 is the following headline. “Mother Who Killed Her Baby Fights For Life in Hospital”.

Mrs. E. Jahnke is Ernest Jahnke's wife and they were living in Windsor at the same time as Ida and Anthony Okapiec. 

The first attempted suicide of the previous week must have been the reason that Mrs. E. Jahnke was with Ida Okapiec.

 

Today we would call this "poor health"  postpartum depression. 

The next day in The Windsor Star is another article.

So very tragic and sad.  I might be "airing dirty laundry" but I feel Ida and Marlene Jean deserve to be remembered despite the circumstances.  Postpartum depression is as serious as this story would indicate.  In a sense Ida's brother, Harvey was not far from truth when he said Ida had died in childbirth. 

Wendy