Frederick Peters is my great-great-grandfather.

Frederick Peters was born in Alsace-Loraine sometime about 1860. (See below for the story of how I determined this.) We don't know when he and his first wife Catharina Morlang emigrated to America. He and Catharina had two daughters, Emma (1882-1967) and Sophia (abt 1883- bef 1967: these are guesses). Catharina Morlang Peters is said to have died by drowning in a canal in Cincinnati, Ohio sometime in the mid-1880's. Frederick remarried the woman above by 1889, and they had a son, Harry Walters (1889-1969).

We don't know the details or the circumstances, but Harry was placed with a family of the surname 'Walters' as sort of an 'adoptee/indentured servant' for a good period of his adolescence, and he adopted Walters as his name.

We don't know if Frederick Peters separated from his 2nd wife or if she died young. We do know that Frederick married a third wife Fannie E. Schwartz (1875-1956) who bore him two more children. The children of this union were Frederick Peters and Clara Peters. We don't have any dates for these children, but I have seen a picture of them as children with their niece Myrtle Agnes Smith (1901-1991) and in that picture they appear to be just a few years older than she, which would have them being born in the late 1890's. Frederick and Fannie were separated by about 1910. (This is an estimate determined by stories told by Frederick's granddaughter - see below).

Fannie E. Schwartz came to the marriage with a daughter Martha Jane "Mattie" Schwartz (1895-1991). Harry Walters fell in love with his step-sister Mattie, and they were married in 1910.

Frederick Peter's granddaughter Myrtle Agnes Smith McBirney (1901-1991) was recorded by her son-in-law Gordon Elliott Thomas (1922) reminiscing about her grandfather. The date of the tape is unsure, but Myrtle was a visitor at the Thomas household in Milford, CT. in May of 1971 for the high school graduation of Ronald Earl Thomas (1953) and May of 1975 for the wedding of Pamela June Thomas Tiernan (1955).

She mentions that her grandfather was about 10 when the Germans took over Alsace-Lorraine and commanded that the citizenry had to stop speaking French and speak German (the Franco-Prussian War was 1870-1871). From this I have estimated a birthdate of about 1860.

Myrtle also recalled that when Frederick took sick "with a shock" (stroke?) and wanted to move in with his daughter Emma Peters Smith he couldn't because Emma was laid-up with rheumatism. Myrtle recalled bundling up her first child Virginia at that time and taking a trolley to care for her mother Emma. That would have been after 1923 but before 1926. She then said that he returned to Alsace-Lorraine and died a few years later. From this I have estimated a death date of about 1927.

Myrtle also recalled that Frederick went back and forth between Alsace-Lorraine and America many times, and that there was an inheritance to be claimed after he died, but his daughter Emma never went over to see about it. Any letter about this matter has disappeared.