Treasure Chest Thursday - Finally into the church records!

After several months, I've finally waded through all the stuff in my "Stuff to file" folder! Now I'm into the church records I ordered from Christ Lutheran Church in Manitoba, Canada. I've only read through six of the 48 so far, but I ran across one that just tugged at the heartstrings a bit. My great-great-grandfather, Samuel Joseph, came from a family of seven children, of which he was the second-oldest. Some (most? I still haven't done the timeline yet) of his family got to Manitoba before he did, in late 1905, including his older brother Gottlieb and his family, and his parents Ludwig and Justine (Witt) Joseph. But the record I reviewed today was the death record for Samuel's youngest brother, Michael, who died at age 21 on 21 April 1905. Michael's death occurred just six months before Samuel and his family landed in Quebec, so I wonder if they even knew of the death before arriving in Manitoba. That would be one of the worst things to have happen - to travel thousands of miles to be with your family, only to find out your littlest brother died just months before you got there.

I'm not sure how they used this, but there's a scripture noted in the death record (it's a church record, after all). The verse is 2 Samuel 1:26, which reads: "I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women." The verse is very fitting, and shows the love the family members had for each other. I can't imagine Ludwig and Justine's heartbreak at losing a son just before their family would have been reunited after many years apart.