It was years before I realized a first cousin of my great-grandfather was ever married. I knew she died in the early 1890s in Hancock County, Illinois, and she appears on a quit claim deed from the 1880s. That quit claim deed does not mention her marital status at all (it does not say she is married nor does it say she is single). The problem is that she married a man with the same last name as hers and so her last name never changed upon her marriage.

A summary of the marriage record:

Metha Huels married Gerjet Meinert Huels at the Immanuel Lutheran Church in rural Hancock County, Illinois, in 1891. Gerjet’s parents were Meinert and Sarke  Huels. Metha’s father is only listed as Huels–with no first name given and her mother is stated as Trientje Habben. The marriage record indicated that Metha was born in Carthage, Illinois, but it is possible that she was born near Golden in Adams County as that is where her mother and her mother’s family was living at the time of her birth. Metha would not be a primary source for her place of birth as she only knows it because she has been told it.

Her father is not specifically named either and to date research has not uncovered his identity. It is also not known whether her mother and her father were ever actually married as no marriage record can be located for Trientje to a Habben either. It is also not known if there was any relationships between Metha’s father and Gerjet’s father. There was at least one other Huls family from Wiesens that settled in Hancock County, Illinois. That Huls was a Johann Huls who was married to Trientje Habben’s sister Metha. He had a son Johann by a wife before he married Metha Habben.

Are you confused yet?

This is an excellent situation where a chart would be an excellent organizational tool. It also makes the important point of researching the entire family and how people tended to migrate in chains and interact within their ethnic group.

Metha (Huls) Huls is a first cousin of my great-grandfather Mimke Habben (1881-1969).

Gerjet Huls is a first cousin of my great-grandmother Trientje (Janssen) Ufkes (1895-1986).

I’m always related to everyone in more than one way.

Metha and her only child died in the early 1890s. She has no descendants.

And we’ll discuss the spelling variants in a future post–thanks to Jim B.