Slow progress....

School has really been tying me down more than I thought it would, but I've still managed a few things here and there. I realized earlier that I had very few obits for the Steinmetz family. Since I hadn't had much luck finding pictures from the Frey side, I figured I'd try to find some of these descendants. My ggg-grandmother Sophie Müller was married twice. First to Joseph Steinmetz who she had 6 children with. Second to Ulrich Frey who she had 9 children with (at least two sets of fraternal twins). I'm descended from one of the Frey children. I've located most of the relatives on the Frey side who would have photos, but it seems a lot of them were lost, thrown away, or carried off in a tornado (no exaggeration there).

I made a list of all the obits to obtain from Cresco newspapers (other sides of my mom's family as well) and go over there to slowly go through the microfilms and pull them out. I discovered as soon as I got there that someone had already indexed the papers for obits and marriage records! I had been there before and not used these indexes, wasting my time. Anyways, I now have tons and tons of obits for the Steinmetz side and a lot of people on my list to call about pictures who live not too far away. I also learned how to change the microfilm printer cartridge so I don't have to print negatives and waste all that ink (and obtain copies not worth copying!). I've already contacted one relative and found this photo.

This is Regina Steinmetz Herold with her family.

They eventually had 14 children. Here they're only halfway so it must have been taken early 1889. It was taken at McKay Studio in Cresco. Regina looks a lot like her mother, Sophie Müller Steinmetz Frey.