This is from Uncle Tom:

Yes, Mother's maiden name was Aydt, and yes her Mother's maiden name was Paul, first name, Mary, (we called her "Big grandma" as opposed to "Little grandma" because she was much larger physically than Dad's mother, a very tiny little woman. Her maiden name was Schmidt, and her first name, Sophia. Full names of our grandfathers were "Solomon Aydt" and "John Breidenbach". I have no memory of Grandpa Breidenbach cause he died when I was a baby. A family story was told to me that he lived long enough to see me, but had tears in his eyes when he held me in his arms. Grandpa Aydt I remember very well cause we actually visited our Mother's family in Dahlgren on a number of occasions. The house did not have plumbing and we all hated to have to use the "out house." And the water you drank in the house came out of a cistern which stored rain water and always tasted "funny." Grandpa Aydt was a grand old man, the "patriarch" of the town you might say. At times when the priest from a nearby town couldn't make it to Dahlgren for Sunday Mass, Grandpa would read the bible for the congregation, not from the sanctuary but from the choir loft, and the parishioners would call that "Solomon's Mass."

Aunt Marie's married name was Bourne, and her husband was Uncle Carl. No, Aunt Cecelia never married. She lived with little grandma until her death and then moved in with Aunt Marie. Of course, we kids always called both of them "Tanta", the german name for Aunt.............namely, "Tanta Marie" and "Tanta Ceal," and since neither of them had any children of their own, they "adopted" us four boys as their own. Of course, our Dad, whom they both called "Boy", was the youngest child in the family and their favorite "little brother." There were three older brothers, John, Martin and Joe, who all continued to live in Belleville till their deaths.

Thanks, Uncle Tom! Great stuff.

Love,

Susie