Fred Gloede - Son or Step-Son of Theodore Gloede?

My last post, The Tale of Two Gloede’s of Wisconsin . I introduced my husband’s 2^nd Great Grandfather, Theodore Gloede.

In 1900, Fred Gloede was living in Oshkosh Ward 13, Winnebago County. Wisconsin with his wife Saraphrena and his children, Rose, Lydia and Leona along with his “father” Theodore Gloede.

In the 1900 Census, we learn that Fred was born in Dec 1866 in Germany. That he immigrated in 1885.

However, one short year later, Theodore died and in his obituary Fred is referenced as his Step-son.

This at first did not make sense to me; however I did not know the wedding date of Theodore and his wife Maria until recently. In my last blog, I shared their marriage record which shows that they were married on 18 Dec 1877, 11 years before Fred’s birth. Thus, Fred might not actually be a Gloede.

I also found a passenger list for a 17 year old Fritz Neubecker who arrived on 6 Oct 1884, a young man who’s date of birth would be around 1866-67.

Fred’s Naturalization record shows his birth date of 1866 and that his year of arrival is 1884. Interesting how this matches the passenger list found for Fritz Neubecker.

This leads me to believe that Fred is not Theodore’s biological son but the illegitimate son of Marie Neubecker who would have been 19-20 years old at the time of Fred’s birth. I have found no direct evidence that clearly states this fact. Our only recourse might be to use DNA to help solve this mystery.

One method is to use YDNA and compare a direct male descendant of Fred Gloede to a direct male descendant of a brother of Theodore or one of his Uncles. Actually any direct male descendant from a male relative of Theodore who shares the Gloede surname. It just can’t be through any of Theodore's other male sons, since their mother might also be Marie Neubecker.

A harder method is to use Autosomal DNA and to compare descendants of Fred Gloede to descendants of the siblings of Theodore or descendants of his parent’s siblings. The relationship might be close enough to allow this type of testing, however the amount of DNA still left in the descendants might be quite small and numerous testers may be required to get a confirmation of the relationship. Of course if there is no relationship, it won’t matter the number of testers used because all of them will come back negative. YIKES!