Wilhelmine Catherine Schwarz Stark (Wilma) is my maternal great grandmother. There is no known knowledge of her parents names....just stories that have been passed down through the generations. It is said that she came from Alsace-Lorraine to marry Charles Stark.
Recently a cousin sent me some old photos of Wilma as a young girl, perhaps before she married, and she was already living in the Pittsburgh area--Lawrenceville. Again, relying on old stories, there supposedly were other family living in that area; however, I have not been able to trace who they were.
Her background continues to be somewhat shrouded in mystery (which is fun!) and I have only the records from about 1880 forward to depend on for any picture of her life.
She married Charles Stark on February 6, 1878 in St. Louis Missouri. Why they traveled out of Pittsburgh to marry is anyone guess. Again, another mystery....the minister was one Charles Stark!
Wilma died on March 27, 1940 in Avalon, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania from broncho-pneumonia at the age of 88 years 7 months and 2 days.. She is buried beside her daughter, Dorothy Marie Stark Cooper, in Uniondale Cemetery, Section B 22-26, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. My mother told me that her father and his brother never spoke after their mother's death. It was my Grandfather Stark who decided his mother would be buried in Uniondale and his brother felt that their mother deserved a "better" resting place--whatever that means ;-)
Photograph of tombstone: Jeffrey Charles Hughes
© 2010, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser
She was beautiful when she was young and she was beautiful as an older woman! Sounds like her life was a bit complicated!
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