Hi Carol Sue
My comment is in reference to the spelling of WALTER on Henrietta's
certificate.
The spelling may be WALTER to you, but it may have been something else to the
person who wrote it, after all it was written many years ago.
I spent some considerable time looking for my great grandmother's nonexistent
family, because I was looking for the family name I saw, not the one that was
written. There are many letters in old German script which many of us
interpret to be another letter because it looks similar to one we use today.
In my case I saw a capital "H", which later turned to be a capital "N".
When I started looking for the name starting with the N, I found the family
with little effort.
There is a spiral leaf book (booklet) ISBN 0-9615420-0-4 by Edna M. Bentz,
which may help you (and others). It is titled: "If I can You can Decipher
Germanic Records."
As I said it "May" help you. She has over 20 variations for each letter for
each the high and low cases. She also has a separate section for the areas
influenced by Danish and another section influenced by Latin. The Latin
influence was of course in Catholic churches. Now, I can add another
problem. Many early records in the U S were written in English, but using
old German script, as a result the writing did not appear to be German or
English.
On the other hand, it may really be WALTER, after all, anyone can spell their
name anyway they want to.
In reading this e-mail over for errors, it appears that I have been less than
helpful. In other words disregard this, scan the document and sent a copy to
a professional.
Gale Bosche
Sunny CA