Louis Goldner - Short Biography

Louis Goldner - Chicago, Illinois

Louis Goldner was born on October 28, 1861, in Chicago. He was the middle child of three sons of Frederick Goldner (b.1829, d.1906) and Louise Ebersold (b.1830, d.1889). 

Louis Goldner, probably in Oak Park, Illinois

Frederick Roth II - Short Biography

Frederick Roth - Monroe and Chicago

My Great-Grandfather, Frederick Roth II was born on October 20, 1885. He was the oldest child and only son of Frederick Roth I and Mary Zweifel of Monroe, Wisconsin. His father had immigrated from Switzerland around 1880 and settled in Monroe, where he operated the Monroe House and later a tavern near the Illinois Central train station. Mary (or Maria) Zweifel was the daughter of Fridolin Zweifel and Regula Oswald (or Oswalt). Fridolin, along with five brothers, came to New Glarus from “old” Glarus, Switzerland in the 1850s. He settled just south of New Glarus, where he farmed 200 acres on sections 4, 8 and 9 in the Town of Washington.

The Roth family of Monroe, Wisconsin, about 1900; Frederick I,
daughter Rose, son Frederick II, and Maria (Zweifel).

The Goldners of Chicago - Finding a Lost Family 2

PART 2 – Three C's (Chicago, Census and Cemeteries)
Find Part 1 of this story here . . .

Chicago is a wonderland and when I first moved here, I spent a lot of time exploring the city. I would walk the neighborhoods I lived near, explore the loop and surrounding areas, drive the boulevards and visit some of the nearer suburbs (older towns that were once farther away from the city). I sometimes thought about the Goldners and my great-grandfather, where they might have lived, the parts of the city they inhabited. This was before I had begun my family search and I wasn’t sure how to find anything more. I didn’t know much about genealogy, there was no internet and although my grandfather was still alive, he was in South Carolina and had left Chicago as a young boy some 70 years earlier. I seemed to have very few resources available to me . . . or at least that is what I thought. But I was wrong, some clues did exist.


Goldner / Ebersold / Roth residence and Cemetery locations
on the south Side of Chicago (current map)

The Goldners of Chicago - Finding a Lost Family 1

PART 1 – Connections


The Goldners of Chicago are one of the lines in my family. Although I consider every ancestor important, this line has some particular interest for me because my great-grandmother (Louise Goldner) was very special to my father and played an important role in his life. Even so, I didn’t really know that much about the family, beyond that. After I came to Chicago to live, I started to become more interested in finding out more. Sometime in the mid-90’s the search began, albeit in a fairly modest way. I should preface this report by stating that I do not know of anyone with the name Goldner (my relations) that still reside in Chicago. There are probably some family members, distant cousins perhaps, with other surnames still around but, as of yet, I have not connected with any of them.

Louis Goldner, the father of Louise Goldner;
photo was probably taken in Oak Park, Illinois.