Rosa’s married names, the qualified 1871 Jacob identity, and the separate records for her children. Anna and Juliana are not silently merged.
A January 1871 marriage at St. Paul in Highland may help fill in the family. The groom, Jacob Widmer, married Rosa Strobel, whose maiden name was Walter. His parents were listed as Joseph and Anna Widmer; hers were Franz and Cäcilia Walter. Joseph’s name and the timing fit what we know of Wilhelmina’s father. We still need to confirm that this is the same Jacob.
St. Paul, Highland, marriage register, January 1871, first entry; Ancestry collection 61682, image 48917_302022005545_0283-00146. The day appears to be the 24th. Anna’s maiden name may read Bauk or Bank, and Cäcilia’s may read Buchmüller or Burkmüller. The entry gives no age or hometown for Jacob and does not mention a previous wife or child, so it cannot settle his identity by itself.
The county marriage book records Vincent Strobel and Rosa Walter marrying on February 9, 1864. A later probate entry gives us a direct link between her married names: it calls his widow “Rosa Widmer formerly Strobel.” The October 16, 1871 entry reports that Vinzens died on or about September 4, 1867, and names two children, Maria, five, and Anna, four. We have not yet established whether Anna was the Juliana discussed below.
Marriage source note: Madison County, Illinois, marriage register, volume 6, page 189, license 564. The register gives February 9, 1864 for both the license and marriage, and February 19 as the return date. This is a register entry, not the individual license, and it supplies no church, parents or residence.
Probate source note: Madison County probate record PR23, page 116 and page 116a, October 16, 1871. The court entry describes Vinzens Strobel as late of Highland. His death date is an approximate date reported in probate four years later, not a contemporary death registration.
An October 1902 newspaper notice records Juliana Emmerich’s marriage to Thomas McAvan in Salisbury. Juliana McAvan’s 1955 Missouri death certificate identifies her as Thomas McAvan’s widow and records her death near Keytesville on July 12. It gives her birth as December 31, 1867. These dates and her husband’s name closely match the binder’s Julianna Strobel. The certificate names her parents as Vincent Stobel and Rosa Walters, using those spellings. It gives Highland, Illinois, as her birthplace, rather than the binder’s Mascoutah. These birth and parentage details were reported many years later and still need testing against an original birth or baptismal record.
Source note: Chariton Courier (Keytesville, Missouri), October 31, 1902, page 1, column 3, “Cupid’s Capers.” The heading reads McAvan–Emmerich; the body calls the couple Thos. J. McAven and Mrs. Juliana Emmerich, both of Salisbury, and names the Rev. Father John Hennes. It prints “Tuesday Nov. 28, 1902,” a date later than the issue. October 28 fits the weekday and binder, but remains an inferred correction, not the date printed in this notice.
Certificate note: Missouri State Archives, Juliana McAvan death certificate, July 12, 1955. Informant Mrs. John Bixenman’s relationship is not stated. The index/PDF locator is 21480; the visible State File stamp reads 21482. Compared with the family compilation in Widmer3.pdf, PDF page 29. Neither original image is reproduced here.