|--------
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|---------
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| |--------
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|------Joseph HEFFLER (1861, Illinois - 1931, Iowa)
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| | |--------
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| |---------
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| |--------
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Gertrude ``Lizzie'' HEFFLER (1888, Iowa - 1979, California)
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| |--------Balthasar NICLAUS (1793, Germany - 1854, Germany)
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| |---------Georg NICLAUS (1837, Germany - 1913, USA)
| | |
| | |--------Maria Anna BÖHNER (1796, Germany - 1862, Germany)
| |
|------Ernestine NICKLAUS (1868, Illinois - 1938, Iowa)
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| |--------
| |
|---------Catherine BENTZ (1843, Illinois - 1885)
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|--------
Investigations by Brenda (Nicklaus) Swailes found that there was a Gertrude Hunter who was postmaster in Floyd around 1950. Brenda contacted the US postal service in Cedar Rapids to ask about her and they contacted the USPS historian at headquarters in Washington, D.C. They did have information on a Gertrude Hunter in Floyd and the only info they had was a birthdate of July 16, 1888, and dates of service as postmaster: 10-19-1943 to 11-30-1954, and she resigned. That birthdate would only be a couple months after her parents' marriage and conflicts with the 1900 census by a couple years. We have matching California death and SSDI records for Gertrude Hunter, b. 16 July 1888, d. Jun 1979.
Gertrude's California death certificate names her profession as legal secretary for 60 years. Her sister Tracy's probate file calls her an attorney, licensed in Minnesota and Iowa.
Further investigation found her personnel records from her postmaster position. The following is from them.
She attended high school in Charles City, then went to Iowa State Teachers College in Cedar Falls and then graduated from the Minnesota College of Law in Minneapolis in 1918. Her previous employment is listed as: County Director, Iowa State board of Social Welfare, Jan '38 to Jul '41. Dist. and State Dir. WPA, Waterloo, Ia. and D.M. Ia., July '33 - Jul '35. She was widowed at the time of her application for Postmaster. In her resignation letter of Sept. 28, 1954, she says she is moving to California.
According to an affadavit of inspection of her passport (part of her proof of citizenship in applying for postmaster), her passport issued April 1, 1931 says she was born in Dumont, Iowa on July 16, 1888. At the date of issue, New York, NY is given as her permanent residence, height 5'2'', hair brown-grey, eyes brown, occupation Attorney at Law. In Gertrude's letter submitting this proof of her age, she stated she was admitted to the bar of Minnesota and Iowa.
But the most interesting and unexpected of all in her personnel file is a ``Request for Report on Loyalty Data'' submitted to the FBI. In it, her surname is given as Hunter Nee Hefler By Adoption, Conniston by birth! That document also states she has lived in Floyd, Iowa from 1931 to date (1948) at Cedarbook Farm. That seems sort of odd since her 1931 passport listed NYC and she worked as far away as Des Moines. Since Gertrude was adopted, maybe she isn't the same daughter named Lizzie with Joseph and Ernestine Heffler in the 1900 census.
That Conniston was Gertrude's birth name is also backed up by papers related to settling her estate. Gertrude died without a will and with no known living close relatives. As a result, her estate laid unclaimed for almost 24 years. In late 2002. an elegible distant relative was able to claim her small estate with the assistance of a California company called ``Bureau of Missing Heirs, Inc.'' By this date, to claim the estate, you had to be a minor and you had to have been a minor when probate closed on the estate in 1984 (5 years after her death).
Sources for this individual: @S314@ @S157@ @S315@ @S316@ @S63@ @S124@
