Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Louis H. Reiter Family


Again, I don't know who is in these photos, but I suspect that it's the Lana Wiley and Louis Reiter family---possibly in Montana, since the hills in the background don't have the rolling quality seen in Missouri. Plus, their ages look about right: Eloise Reiter a baby (1914); Nina Reiter 16 (b. 1898), Ina Mae Reiter 9 (b. 1905) and Gladys Reiter 6 (b.1908) with Lana holding the baby. But, please correct me if I'm wrong.
This above is the marriage announcement of Mae Reiter to Elmer Voth. Below is a note from Lana Reiter to "Aunt Mary". If this is Lana Wiley, I thought it was curious that she addressed the letter to her sister-in-law as "Aunt Mary," but then I recalled that Thomas H. Long's first wife was Celecy Wiley. After she died, he married Mary Reiter. If Lana was Celecy's neice, then she might have just been in the habit of calling her "Aunt Mary" because Mary was married to "Uncle Tom".But, it is also possible that one of Louis and Lana's children was a daughter named Lana Reiter that I didn't see in the census. Someone on Ancestry.com listed them as only having two daughters Lana and Nina. Obviously they missed a few daughters like Mae, Gladys and Eloise.

2 comments:

Ken said...

My name is Marilyn Voth Curtis; I have an older brother, Robert and we are children of Elmer and Lana "Mae" Reiter Voth. This mystery photo is indeed my grandmother, Lana Melissa Reiter holding baby Eloise on the right, with Nina on the left and my mother, "Mae" in front with Gladys on her right. This was probably taken in Missoula, MT where they moved in 1916 when mother was 10. Mother claims she was born in 1906 but there has been some question about whether it was actually 1905. We don't know what the birth records show. Louis and Lana also had a daughter, Lulu Ellen who was born in 1899 and died in infancy. Their only son, Albert, who was born in 1903 was killed in a horse and buggy accident in 1918 in Missoula.

It was amazing to read the handwritten invitation to my Mother and Dad's wedding. In fact, it looks like Mother's writing.

Jaclyn Morgan said...

Marilyn, I'm so glad I guessed correctly on that---the landscape just did NOT look like Missouri. I looked at the ages of the girls and concluded they were Reiters. You also answered a question about the son---I didn't know his name and had just heard that died young. Thank you!