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From Jeanne Broderick Shelton Jan 20, 2016:
I did a lot of research. I was obsessed for quite some time. My father knew growing up that their J Herman Belz was a member of the J H Belz Provision Co, the faimily that ran the "Sausage Room" and were known for being butchers. The difinitive detail though is J Herman's death certificate which lists John Belz as his father and Wilhelmina Reichert as his mother. I then was able to tie Wilhelmina Reichert to Leslie Bel'z family tree. I found the death cert for J Herman Belz and it lists Wilhelmina Reichers as his mother and John Belz as his father.
Once i made the connection showing our J Herman Belz lived at 3217 Longfellow Blvd, St Louis MO 63104, i was able to show that indeed is the J Herman that was President of the JH Belz Meat Co. The articles below show the house was built for Herman Belz. The address on our J Herman Belz' death cert is the same. And there is a 1916 directory showing his wife Elizabeth was still residing in the house 2 years after his 1914 death. I suppose it is possible he lived there with other Belz family members. But nonetheless this is conclusive that he himself did live at this residence.
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I finally found J Herman Belz death certificate with an address, 3217 longfellow road.
Searching that address I found a July 20, 2001 newspaper article.
The info in those two documents tied our J Herman back to the meat packing company. Curious however who the woman was mentioned in the attached newspaper article. It is unclear who she is, but clear the house was built for the Belz Family. So I tied together the data from the newspaper article to our John Herman's death cert. |
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Another document with the 3217 Longfellow address. But even more important this 1913 travel document shows Elizabeth Schmitt Belz was born in Bad Ems. Sidenote most of her documents show her to be from Darmstadt Germany
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Another interesting find: This 1916 business directory. This is interesting as it lists many of the Belz family. Also the first listed is Elizabeth Schmitt Belz ("Granny's" mother and Frank X Muckerman's mother in law) is also listed as living at 3217 Longfellow. |
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Then I discovered the 1870 census which listed a sister Annie.
It is thru Annie that I was able to tie us to another family tree
1870 Census
shows J Herman born 1820, WilHelmina Reichert Belz (aka Mina) born 1821, a daughter Mina born 1850, A sister Annie born abt 1857/1858, and our J Herman 1860-1914. Interesting note here, the parents and the daughter Mina were born in Germany. Annie and Herman were born in the US. 
| There is a ncie YouTube video showing the inside of the lovely 3 story house. Note it specifically says it was built for Herman Belz. I have also found J Herman's death certificate listed 3217 Longfellow Blvd as the place of death/address. |
Uploaded on Dec 30, 2011 $379,000
3217 Longfellow Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63104
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| Live in one of the most affordable homes in fashionable Upper Compton Heights. Built in 1908 by Henry Schaumburg, Jr. for Herman Belz. You will love the original stained glass windows, decorative fireplace and woodwork. Updated kitchen with butler's pantry. 5 bedrooms, and 3 full renovated baths with one on the main level. Drive through your porte-cochere on the side to a large garage/carriage house in back. Handsome slate roof on house and carriage house. Copper decorative finials on the roof. You will appreciate the workmanship of the brickwork with narrow mortar joints. The exterior of the house was fully restored in 2002 along with a new flat roof and new gutters. Large fenced and gated lot with side yard. |
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Spoke with Paul Broderick tonight. He reminded me of a story where Elizebeth Schmitt Belz was working at a store in Bad Ems Germany. And J Herman Belz came in and fell in love with her. He courted her pretty heavily.
Paul think her parents had died prior to her arriving in the US.
I was in contact with Hank Belz. Hank sent me thsee great images from the J H Belz Provision Co (meat packing company).
Then I will reach out to Hank Belz and Leslie Belz and see if I can get any new info or pictures.
1941 bankruptcy document of the J H Belz Provision Co
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Email from Beth August 11, 2010 |
Today I saw the name Wilhelmina Belz written by Mother in her personal bible.
Our Grandmother, Mina Muckerman, was born Wilhelmina Belz.
Mother wrote this in the front of her personal bible as her mother's name.
There was "Our Family Records" where she had written the names of
her parents and their birthdays. |
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From Beth Broderick to Jeanne
May 13, 2012
Subject: My Great Grandmother Elizabeth Schmidt Belz born in Bad Ems, Germany
Hi Jeanne,
I have the correct spelling of Schmidt or Schmitt in my baby book in Miami and will advise you
after I return to Miami for a visit.
(sidenote, Jeanne found elsa belz death cert shows mother elizabeth schmitt)
I think I sent this info to you before but you may want to keep this info for later on in case you ever go to Germany.
 I found this image attached to a passport on ancestry.com ~Jeanne
 This is interesting. Dad just told me that Elizabeth travelled to Japan and China to find servants. it may not be coincidence that the passport just before hers has a picture of a young asian male.
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Mina Belz Muckerman's mother, Elizabeth, was from a different area than her husband's family - both
from Germany but from different towns. Her mother owned and ran a small gift shop in Bad-Ems and the Crown Prince visited her shop which was a great honor. Also, she met her husband in her shop when he was traveling there from St. Louis and his name was Herman Belz. |
Below is re my Grandmother's (Mina) forebearers and not my Grandfather (Francis X) forebearers. So this means that the below information is not anywhere in the large Muckerman Family Book which is only the Francis X Muckerman's side of the family.
Maybe in the parishes in Bad-Ems Mina's mother's info could be found if you ever decide to
visit Germany.
Beth |
Mar 2013 |
Spoke with Dad tonight. He said he recalled his mother (Betty Muckerman Broderick) said she travelled to Europe 8 times with her mother (Mina Muckerman Belz). I have vound several occurances of where Mina's mother Elizabeth Schmitt Belz travelled back and forth to Europe.
1929 trip elizabeth belz - traveled from france
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email from jeanne to beth 2010 |
Feb 7, 2010
I did find a lot of J herman Belz born in 1916 and in the military, but that is clearly not us.
Then I also found Butchers with a father and son everywhere.
So I believe J Herman’s father was a butcher. There are several city directorys where the meat packing plant show father & son butchers. And his name was henry belz. So I believe that to be his father. I believe it was John Henry Belz the father of John Herman Belz who was Mina’s father. |
2/20/2010 |
Hi Jeanne,
My mom told me that her great grandfather was called Henry. So that was his nickname. And
to confirm that I found a family tree showing that name.
However, on the Bellefontaine records that mom gave me regarding him, it does show
J. Hermann Belz.
Beth |
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The dates I give below are their burial dates and not their death dates.
I also just noticed the below:
a photocopy of the sale receipt for J. Herman's plot and/or casket and
expense for burial (w/o Elizabeth's signature on it, for $1800.00 sold on April 14th,
one day prior to the burial.
I also have a receipt for Mina's headstone purchase from Calvary by her Estate and paid by her trust company, St. Louis Union Trust Co. and it shows that the headstone was to
be:
M I N A
1894 1959 |
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********************* HUGE**** Finally found J Herman's family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bit the bullet...renewed my ancestry subscription, and it was worth it.. ***********
Ok. I better go to bed now as I am very tired. But I am confident I have found J Herman’s family, occupation, parents and their birth dates, and two more siblings, for a total of 5 children from his parents.
I found an ancestry page matches up to my J Herman (link below). So I now must draw the path from our documents to her history.
If I start with his death certificate that matches the Bellefontaine records, I get J Herman’s parents names and his birthday. Then I take that info to the 1870 census which lists parents of John and Whilelmina, and siblings Mina, and Annie. Herman is listed at the bottom at age 9. Both parents confirmed from Hesse Darnmstat, Germany.
For the first time here I see that sister Mina was born in Germany, so Annie and Herman were born in the US.
The most interesting is the 1900 census which shows a ton of information that is so valueable: that J Herman’s parents John & Whilelmina (listed as “Minnie”) shows both of their birth months and years, shows when they married in 1844 and also shows he emigrated in 1851 and she in 1854.
Then I found these trees below. Now this is interesting. There are more siblings of J Herman Belz here, and they were born considerably earlier.
This first tree link below is very interesting. I don’t know who owns this tree, but it is not mine for sure. This tree actually shows our Mina “Granny” and her mother Elizabeth Schmitt (correct spelling). The interesting thing here is that there are 2 more children than I see on the census from J Herman’s Childhood, and this makes sense as these children were adults, so not living in the same household at the time of the census. So these new kids are Katherina born 1844 (16 years older than our J Herman) and Henry (15 years older).
It is clear that the owner of this tree Is descendent from Katherina. I have sent her a message and hope to get a reply.
http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/43798808/person/12706676816?pgNum=1
same family I think with a different tree.
http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/47091402/person/6691243916?ssrc=
I do still have questions, and one is J Herman Belz's mother's maiden name. this site shows it to be Reichert. I do see it on J Herman's death cert, but the handwriting is so bad. I wondered if it was Reichard. But i think it is most likely as shown in the image above.
~Jeanne
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Hi Jeanne,
When I told Connie at Bellefontaine that the burial date for Elsa Belz was 1904 and not 1914,
she said that she cannot just change form like the one we received without an investigation
being completed. She did not say how long it would take.
At some point, we will want to send for a corrected copy of that printout so you can scan
the corrected one into the computer. Let's both try to remember this.
Beth
 here is a map of the Belz Plot, street name, and relation to the Bascom Plot. You can see that both are on Birch Ave. it is just so amazing to me we just happened on the Bascom plot. It could have been anywhere, but just right in front of us as we turned on the Birch curve.
if you look closely on the Bascom plot, you can see the huge stones for JDB and his wife from the arial shot, and pictured farther below, you see how huge they are. These were approx 3 feet wide by 6 feet long, and laying on the ground in front of the huge family stone. I wish I’d taken wide angle pics.
On the belz plot, if you look at the map above, you can see the huge round monument, and that one also is labeled on the arial as “tall monument”.
Then you can see the house as well on the map with the large shadow.
If we ever could find a relative that would be terrific.
I do know that our J. Herman was very rich at a young age. I know there were Belz that were
butchers. But I think that ours "owned" the packing house. And that was in addition to being
a bank president. I am thinking that maybe the meat packing house was his father's and that
his father had lots of money because J.H. went over to Germany about the age of 30-35 and
met our great grandmother there.
Beth
Our Elizabeth Belz is at Belfontaine and she died in 1943.
It shows how the plots are situated at Belfontaine Cemetary and names:
According to what I am looking at, it says - Block 331, and #5479.
They may have relabeled their plots Cemetery there.
Belz's burial dates; two buried in April 1914 and one buried in Nov. 1943.
Also will scan this to you.
I did see mother's writing in pencil with the dates that both grandparents
actually died and not just the burial dates.
Date of Death: J. Herman Belz 4-12-1914 (buried on 4-15-1914)
Elizabeth Belz 11-20-1943 (buried on 11-22-1943)
Elsa Belz on headstone (buried on 4-17- 1914)
Beth
___________
My Great Grandmother Belz had her husband and daughter buried within 2 days of each
other.
And she died 8 months after John, your dad, was born.
more questions:
still need to find out the story about Elizabeth Schmitt working in a store in Bad Ems Germany when she met husband. maybe her parents owned a watch company.
there is an Elizabethe Schmitt with an Augs. Schmitt. when i asked my dad he said he thought her parents had passed away in germany and that she came here without her parents. so that could explain augs schmitt. however, it was unlikely she would have come here as early as 17 years old. It is believed that J Herman met her in Germany, and then he came back at some point later to ask her to marry him.
What do we think of this find....Augs Schmitt with Elizabeth Schmitt on the 1880 census. He was 52 making him born approx. 1828. She was 17, making her line up perfectly with her birthdate of May 13, 1862. Both from Darmstadt Germany.
Augs was a widower.
We have on Elizabeth’s death cert (given by Granny) that her parents were William and Catherine. However we know nothing about them.
Has anyone heard stories about Elizabeth’s parents (Granny’s grandparents?
Only the Belz. And there will probably be "other" Belz buried there but I don't know if they
are relatives and I do think that they some of them most likely are and the reason is below.
Both the Broderick and the Muckerman families had been using Calvary Cemetary for many,
many years. So why didn't Grandma Belz, when her husband died, go to Calvary? It is my
firm belief that it was because her husband already had some of "his" relatives buried there and
so she wanted to honor that. The Belz family from the time Herman was young must have had
plenty of money because remember that he sailed over to Germany for some reason and that
is when he met his future wife in her little shop and fell in love with her then.
I sent again today in an email the information on the full names and burial dates of our 3 relatives
there.
Beth
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