Wake up! What the older generation doesn't tell the younger generation wont be passed on to the next generation

A large part of my paternal line was research by my distant cousins years before I was ever born and some fair chunk of my maternal line was researched to a lesser degree by an older cousin as well so I had a lot less work to do over all when I go around to researching my family tree. Then my paternal grandmother showed me stuff a distand cousin of hers had sent about part of the family (sadly that stuff is mostly lost now but I found an online copy of the book said cousin had photo copied from this last year so that was a great relief).

(Edit: I was given my uncle's copy but I still have no idea what became of my grandmother's copy.)

However some things weren't researched for me and much of my family's history wasn't passed down for whatever reason. Now my paternal grandmother was the one that told me stories about her childhood in Oklahoma and about my dad's childhood here in California and bits about her parents and her in-laws.
I did not think to ask my paternal grandfather about his family because I could just ask my grandmother. I regret not asking more now that both are passed away. I only have one grandparent left and she's from the side of the family (maternal side) that seems to have a bad habit of not asking questions or telling stories about past relations. Lots of brick walls on that side I tell you.

Most of my lines I have done work on or have worked on from others don't go back to other countries except in two or three cases. In one case the famous Hostetlers who descended from Swiss immigrants though I don't know where in Switzerland they were from and likely never will know as it was so long ago.

Edit: know where in Austria the Hostetler's were from.

Then there are the Blankenbecklers from my Paternal grandmother's side who if you go far enough back probably came from Germany long before it was Germany and almost before the USA was the USA.

Edit: Know know the place down to the very farm that still shares the Blankenbeckler name(though it's not spelled or likely pronounced as Blankenbeckler).

The most recent immigrants in the family (not counting my sister's mother-in-law) are the Long family.


Now happily for me (John Fredrick) "Dutch" Long's photo hung in my paternal grandparent's family room since before 1984 and I was familiar with the photo growing up and spending nearly every day across the street at Grandma Helen and Grandpa's house. Now by the time I got around to asking questions I should have asked much sooner I think my grandfather had half forgotten who the man in the photo was as when I did ask he said he was 'Oddball Long'. Much research and agonizing over it for years later I know much more about the man.

He I am told, was called Dutch by some and spoken no English aside from some four letter words. (census says he spoke English so that's wrong). His given name was Johan Friederich Long and he, his wife Mary and their first five two children were all born in Germany.

I've piece together from census records and death certificates a few things about the German Longs:

John Freiderich went by Fred more than not.

He was born in 1824 in somewhere which is now Germany(maybe). He gave Germany as his birthplace from 1880 onward on the census though I don't know where in Germany he was from.

His wife was Cathrine Mary Shultz and she went by Mary.

They had five children before they immigrated and infant mortality was high in their family.

Here are the five born in Germany:

Dates are estimated when not known

1. Friederich Long
b. Germany 1860s
d. Germany 1860s

2.  Mary (Long) Gada(unsure of spelling for her married name)
b. Germany 14 August 1865

3.  Augest Long
b. Germany 1860s
d. Germany 1860s

4. Unknown daughter
b. Germany 1860s
d. Germany 1860s

5. Armina "Minnie" (Long) Graham
b. Germany 20 September 1871

Fred and Mary Long immigrated from Germany to Missouri, USA with daughters Mary and Armina in 1873. An alternate date for their immigration is 1885, but Armina was listed with her parents in 1880 making it impossible for her to have immigrated in 1885 when she was already living in Missouri at the time.

Children born after they settled in Misouri:

6. Emma (Long) Hollow
b. 7 November 1874 Missouri
d. 25 May 1906 Missouri

7. John Henry Long
b. 30 July 1877 Missouri
d. 19 April 1957 Missouri

8. Martha Rose (Long) Foster
b. December 1878 Missouri
d. 20 March 1935 Missouri

9. Charles William Long
b. 1883? Missouri
d. 1883? Missouri

It is said that Charles William Long died shortly after he was born and that his mother Mary died around the same time.

It is not known if this is true, but Mary Long did die after 1880 and before 1900. She only appears in one census with the family and every other census records John Friederich Long as a widower who never remarried.

I have a copy of Fred Long's death certificate but like is too often the case it had 'don't know' in the blanks where his parents names would go. Thankfully a death certificate of his daughter Martha Rose doesn't have blanks for her parents as that is the only place so far I've found that gives a maiden name for Fred's wife Mary.

Sadly the death records online for Missouri do not before back before 1910 so I can't look up Mary (Shultz) Long's death certificate very easily or her daughter Emma (Long) Holloway died 1906.

I found John Henry Long's death certificate today. His wife was the informant it seems and she gave Elizabeth Gaiety as the name of her husband's mother. John's brother-in-law James Monroe Foster had given Mary Shultz as his wife Martha's mother on her death certificate.

Martha (Long) Foster was younger than her brother John Henry Long and in 1880 their parents are given as Fred and Mary Long when John was about 3 years old. His parents immiraged in 1873 and thus do not show up in the 1870 census and Mary Long died about 1883 or before 1900 and does not show up with the family in the later censuses. In none of the censuses from 1900 - 1920 is John's father Fred ever listed with another wife or as married. It find it hard to believe that John is not Mary (Shultz) Long's son. It is likely that the name Elizabeth Gaiety was a mistake on the part of John's wife. It is possible that John's father remarried between 1920 and his death in 1926 but nothing has been found to suggest that this was so.