Descendants of
Charles Henry Barker Jr.
Charles Henry Barker Jr. and granddaughter, Joan Ruth Johnson, circa 1929.
Charles Henry Barker Jr. as a young man
Sara Elizabeth Barker
Charles' daughters: Sara Elizabeth, center; Jessie, right of Sara, with friends.
  Charles Henry Barker Jr. was commonly known as Harry.  He maried Clara Loretta Sieffert, who was born September 26, 1864, in Pittsburgh, PA.  He married her on October 15, 1880, in Pittsburgh.  There are many different spelling variations of the name Seifert, including: Seiffert, Siefert, and Sieffert.  According to the 1900 census, Clara's father was born in France and her mother in Pennsylvania.  Her father's name was Michiel Sieffert and her mother's was Mary B.  It is likely that Michiel Sieffert is the one spoken in family lore who was from Alsace-Lorraine since according to the 1880 census, he and both his parents were born i n France.  His wife, Mary B., was born in Pennsylvania and her parents were born in France and Bavaria.

    According to family lore, Clara's parents were not too happy about their daughter's marriage.  Clara's family was by no means rich, but to think of marrying "a gambler and an orphan" was unthinkable.  Eventually Clara's parents must have relented, as Charles Jr. helped run the saloon they owned.  The saloon was supposedly found on Federal Street in Pittsburgh, though it is now believe to be on Perrysville Avenue.  Charles and Clara exemplified their closeness with their famillies by naming their seven children with family surnames, after parents or themselves, or siblings:  Michiel Charles, Clara Estella, Effie Marie, Charles Henry III, John Lukin, Jessie Nunn, and Sara Elizabeth Barker. 

   Though not many traditions passed through the Barker family line, tragedy seems to have been one of them.  The two oldest children, Michiel Charles and Clara Estella, died as babies.  The next eldest child, Effie Marie, died in agony at age sixteen.  The youngest son, John Lukin, would later die in his thirties in a car accident.

    Dark features seemed to run in the family, almost as if there was a hint of Mediterranean blood.  Charles Henry Barker Jr. displayed dark brown hair and so did his daughter, Sara, and other cousins on the John Lukin Barker side.  I believe that Charles Henry Barker Sr. had dark brown hair and rather large eyes since the Harriet Nunn in a family photo does not possess these features.  Also, Sara Elizabeth Barker had a somewhat yellowish skin tone.

    Charles Henry Barker died on April 7, 1935, at 37 Divinity Street, North Side of Pittsburgh, PA, of Chronic Cardio Vascular Disease.  He was interred April 10, 1935, at Highwood Cemetery in Section M.  His wife, Clara, would outlive him for many years. She was even alive when her grandaughter, Joan Ruth Johnson, married Joseph Kidd McAdams. On February 13, 1951, Clara died at 2 Marshall Road, North Side of Pittsburgh, PA, of Cardio Renal Disease.  She was interred at Highwood Cemetery on February 16, 1951, in Section S.E. 1/2-78, beside her sixteen-year old daughter who had died so many years before.
 





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