52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 17

Kubler family stone

With the writing prompt being Cemetery this week, I immediately thought of the cemetery plot that has me the most puzzled. My second great-grandfather, Vinzenz Josef Kubler, died 19 September 1886 and is buried in the Connersville, Indiana cemetery aptly named City Cemetery. When I went to Connersville many years ago to research that branch of my Kubler family, I headed first to the local library.

It was there that I found a newspaper article describing the death of Joseph Kubler, which is the name he went by in America. He died in the St. Gabriel's Catholic Church following Mass one Sunday morning at the age of 38. The librarian indicated that most residents of the town who died during that time period were buried in the City Cemetery. Unfortunately (at least at that time) no records existed to show where he was buried within the cemetery.

Alfred Kubler

After driving through the cemetery I did locate the tombstone for Joseph. It is to date the largest monument of any of my ancestors. On one side of the stone was listed Joseph V. Kubler, along with his death date and how old he was at the time of his death. On the other side was Alfred, son of J.V. & J. Kubler along with his death date of 3 October 1885 and the fact that he was 8 when he died. That is clear enough, but there are four other small stones on the plot: Father, Mother, Alfred, and Henry.

Alfred and Henry (my great-grandfather) were both sons of Joseph and Josephine Kubler. Initially I thought Father and Mother referred to Joseph and Josephine. However, I later discovered that Josephine remarried after Joseph died, and again following the death of her second husband. I would imagine that she was buried with her third husband and not her first husband.

It is possible that they refer to Joseph’s mother and father, though the last records I have found for them are located in Cincinnati, and some of Joseph’s brothers had remained in Cincinnati as well. It would make sense that they would have their parents buried in Cincinnati.

Unfortunately, City Cemetery does not have records that indicate who might be buried beneath those small stones. The other occupants of the Kubler plot remain a mystery for now.

smaller Kubler stones