Genealogical Uber-Sleuthing at its finest!

Our great grandmother, Mary Otremba, had a sister named Martha, who married Joe Hortsch. Joe was Franz' brother, so Math and Ted were just looking-up their aunt's brother-in-law when they were in Europe:

When Larry and I were first looking at Math's diary, he asked if I knew of Frank Hortsch--was he on my tree...did I recognize the name?

I'd certainly heard the Hortsch name at home, and I thought they were related, but I didn't know how.

So, when we were looking for Otrembas in the Kattowice Adressbuch from 1914 , we looked for Frank there as well, but we didn't know if he owned the gasthaus, so we didn't look hard. Still, Larry found HORTSCH genealogies online, and here's what came of that:

One hit, a genealogy, was posted by someone named Kathie. I e-mailed her, and she e-mailed her cousin, Michael. They had no way of knowing that an 11 page journal of a 1914 trip was buried somewhere in a Historical Society Museum in Minnesota, or that it mentioned their Great Grandpa!

(These are photos they sent:)
THIS is the first gasthaus Frank owned, in Sysslau, near Lorzendorf (Lorenzdorf), and it's the one Math and Ted visited.

Later, Frank owned another pub in Waschelwitz, his mothers' home village, but in 1914, he was here, near Lorzendorf (Lorenzdorf), a village name that Math goofed up...lol

And THIS is Frank himself, with his second wife, Thekla Goliasch.

Another cool thing here is that Kathie and Michael didn't know that Great Grandpa Franz had been shot in the forehead or that he was blind in one eye as a result.

As Larry says, genealogical answers ALWAYS open more questions...lol

These folks (below) are Franz' son Frank, with his wife Margaret, and Martha (Otremba) Hortsch.

MARTHA was the connecting link here:

Our great grandmother, Mary Otremba, had a sister named Martha, who married Joe Hortsch. Joe was Franz' brother, so Math and Ted were looking-up their aunt's brother-in-law when they were in Europe.

Now, THAT'S cool!

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Clarification from Michael Hortsch: "The photo shows Martha Otremba Hortsch (1867-1946) on the right. She was the wife of Joseph Hortsch (1864-1938). In the middle is Frank (Franz) Hortsch junior (1880-1962), the oldest son of the innkeeper Franz Hortsch (1860-1926) back in Silesia. On the left is Frank's wife Margaret Terhaar (1883-1961). Franz Hortsch senior and Joseph Hortsch were brothers".

Thanks, Michael!