Harry SEDERBURG, lost in 1927, found in 2015
SEDERBURG, HAMAKER, ROUSH, SEATER, TIPPIE, DAVIS, DRISCOLL, WENSTRAND, HADLEY, KYLE, SEATERS, COLWELL
Posted By: Joey Stark
Date: 8/4/2016 at 16:24:10
"The Fairfield Ledger"
Friday, July 15, 2016
Front Page and Page 790-year-old mystery solved
By Rusty Ebert
Ledger correspondentMOUNT STERLING - In 1927, Harry Emory Willard SEDERBURG walked away from his job at a Des Moines automobile dealership and just vanished.
He left behind a young family of a beautiful wife, Stella Mae HAMAKER SEDERBURG, and two young boys, Miles Owen SEDERBURG and Marvin Harry SEDERBURG. They never saw him again.
The first inkling anybody knew about the disappearance was when Harry's parents got a call from the owner of the dealership asking the question, "Where's Harry?"
"My dad [Miles] was 4 when Harry left and Marvin was just 6 months," said Brenda ROUSH, Miles's daughter. "It's not like he was a criminal or something and trying to hide from the law. He wasn't wanted for anything. We always asked why and where's Harry."
No one knew why, then, and they still don't, but at least a 90-year old mystery of *where* he went has been solved, thanks to research done by his new family on Ancestry.com.
A family reunion was held this month in Red Oak and Mount Sterling to unite a family neither knew until now. The one link in the two families is Harry.
Shortly after Harry abandoned his family, Mae's parents hired a private investigator, to no avail. From 1927 until Dec. 31, 2015, the SEDERBURG family were left in the dark.
And now they know. After he left Des Moines, Harry SEDERBURG went out west to start a new life. He eventually changed his name to Harry SEATER and married Alma TIPPIE in Walla Walla, Washington in 1931, four years after leaving Mae.
No one knew his history and he wasn't going to tell his "new" family the truth, ROUSH said.
"He told his family that his parents were killed and that he had two sisters who were adopted out and that he had no family. He kinda controlled what he wanted his kids to know," she said.
Harry and Alma had two sons, named Mike and Marion, who ironically were similarly named as the two sons he left behind in Iowa.
Harry told the "new" family that his father William homesteaded in Montana, according to Kathleen SEATER. When Harry was between the age of 1 or 2 years old, William was killed in a wagon accident, he told his family. Harry said he enlisted in the Army during World War I and said that he was injured and the Army declared him missing or dead.
He also told them he was a sheep shearer in Montana. He was evasive when asked for more details.
"The family is guessing that he sheared sheep after leaving Iowa from 1927 to 1931," according to a letter posted online by Kathleen SEATER.
Harry was experienced in sheep shearing, they noted.
"Meanwhile, after Harry left in 1927, my Aunt Grace DAVIS married a man from Mount Sterling, so Mae moved down to be with her," said ROUSH. "My grandma was a hard worker. She bought two farms down here, raising two boys on her own. That's pretty good, I'd say."
Later, Mae moved to Iowa City, but Miles and brother Marvin stayed in the area.
"Grandma took care of him in a home for the elderly. She took care of five. Grandma did pretty good for herself," ROUSH said.
Mae remarried to John DRISCOLL. She died in 1992. Harry died in 1991.
Miles (Mike) Owen SEDERBURG died in 2014 at the age of 90. He was born in 1923 in Red Oak.
All those years, both families searched for answers. The SEATER family knew there was more to the story than what he told them and the SEDERBURG family wanted to know where Harry ended up. They spent more than 30 years searching for clues.
ROUSH put information online that told of Harry's family tree, which included his mother, Hilma WENSTRAND. She also put that Harry and Mae had two sons, Miles (Mike) and Marvin SEDERBURG.
Marion SEATER's daughter, Cheryl HADLEY, also was searching, plugging in what little tidbits Harry told the family.
Cheryl HADLEY kept researching the name SEATER and found nothing.
"Harry's biggest 'mistake' was that he told them my great-grandmother's real name, which was Hilma WENSTRAND," ROUSH said.
Kathy KYLE SEATERS, daughter-in-law of Harry, found that on Harry's marriage certificate he listed Hilma WENDSTRAND as his mother from Iowa. She followed that lead to connect Hilma WENSTRAND SEDERBURG (wife of Sven William) as the likely mother of Harry. She then connected her research with that of Brenda ROUSH, Mount Sterling, (granddaughter of Harry) from Harry's first family.
One day HADLEY typed in "Hilma WENSTRAND" in Ancestry.com and up popped William SEDERBURG, who married Hilma. Then, there was Harry SEDERBURG, according to Kathleen SEATER, Marion's wife.
The name SEDERBURG was similar to SEATER and for confirmation, they noted that they had boys by the same first name.
The results showed that Harry SEATER was the missing Harry SEDERBURG.
"Cheryl was ecstatic," wrote Kathleen SEATER. "And on the phone she told me that we found our missing mystery family."
"We had been looking for years," said HADLEY. "I found out that my grandpa - Harry SEATER - was actually Harry SEDERBURG."
HADLEY says it's all thanks to the popular genealogy website, Ancestry.com that she was able to find that missing link that connected the SEATERs and the SEDERBURGs.
"Since then, we've had three other relatives that have done DNA tests, just to re-confirm," said Mike SEATERS, now of Sacramento, California.
Late last year, ROUSH said she was contacted by a member of the SEATER family who shared the news.
"When they first messaged me, some said it might be a scam, but this was too weird to be a scam. Then I learned that this was the answer to the question we were looking for these many years," she said.
"We showed them the photo that we had of Harry from 1926 or 1927 which the SEATER family compared with the one they had of Harry just four years later and they looked alike and they knew it was one and the same."
Now, the two families are working to become one, building lifelong relationships - relationships that were strengthened through a reunion in early June at the Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Red Oak.
The next week, a reunion was celebrated in Mount Sterling and Bonaparte.
Family members say they couldn't be more happy with how the reunions went.
"Everybody is so wonderful. What a nice family the SEDERBURGs are here in Iowa," said Mike SEATER.
"It's just truly a reunion. It's a reuniting of two lost families for 90-some years," said Bill SEDERBURG.
ROUSH said she has enjoyed meeting her "new" relatives.
"Their Marvin passed away and our Miles passed away. It's amazing, their Mike even acts like my dad," ROUSH said. "Our Marvin SEDERBURG was shocked when he found out."
"I couldn't have picked better people. When we hugged I felt connected. It's like I have known them all my life."
Despite the decades it took for this reunion to happen, the family said it's important to never give up. "If you can't find them, keep looking. You will dig up a loose end and find the answers you need," said Cheryl HADLEY.
*Transcribed for genealogy purposes; I have no relation to the person(s) mentioned.
Photo of Harry SEDERBURG:
http://iagenweb.org/jefferson/General_Interest/2016/Sederburg-Harry.jpgIn the photo below, Marvin SEDERBURG, bottom left, with his half-siblings on the SEATER side, who are, clockwise from left, Micheal SEATER, Milton SEATER and Ethel COLWELL.
Jefferson Documents maintained by Joey Stark.
WebBBS 4.33 Genealogy Modification Package by WebJourneymen
