The name is different but the same.

Darling/Huber/Trumpi Line
By Don Taylor

The mother of great-grand uncle Ernest Lorraine Trumpy [Trümpi] has long been a question. His father, Bernard Trümpi has long been known, but his mother has been something of a mystery. You see, family oral history said that Bernard’s first wife’s name was Bertha, and his second wife’s name was also named Bertha. And to great-grandmother Bertha Barbara Trumpi I had ascribed the surname of Koch to the mother of Bertha Barbara (Trumpi) Huber and “unknown” as the surname for her step-mother, Bertha.

Detail of Ernest Trumpi’s death certificate

Then, cousin Carl sent me a copy of the death certificate of Ernest L. Trumpy. It showed the name of his mother as Bertha Cook. The informant was Ernest’s sister, so I was confident she would know Ernest’s mother’s surname.  My initial thought was, “Wow – I finally have the names.”  Bertha Barbara’s (the oldest child in the family) mother was Bertha Koch and Ernest’s (the youngest child in the family) mother was Bertha Cook. Got it.

Something was niggling at me though.  Maybe it was my subconscious, maybe it was intuition, in any event I decided to look up “Cook” in Google Translate.  Sure enough, it came back, “cook” in English is “Koch” in German. The same name was just translated by Frieda. That tells me that Bertha Barbara’s mother’s surname is unknown and her stepmother’s surname is Koch/Cook, not the other way around.

Thanks to cousin Carl I have a better idea of the family relationships.

List of Grandparents

• 1^st Great-grandmother: Bertha Barbara Trumpi [Trümpi]
  • 2^nd Great-grandfather: Bernard Trümpi
  • 2^nd Great-grandmother: Bertha [Trümpi]
    • 2^nd Step great-grandmother: Bertha Koch/Cook
• Great Grand Uncle Ernest Lorraine Trumpy [Trumpi] (Bertha Barbara’s brother)

Sources:

Indiana Death Certificates (Illinois State Board of Health), Indiana Death Certificate – Ernest L Trumpy.