Purcell Family of America

An association to help those trace the Purcell family line

Helen Habermann

In Memoriam of Helen (Endl) Habermann [October 2006]

What is the greatest gift one can give a spouse?  In marriage it is the commitment to stick with one’s spouse through thick and thin, rich and poor, sickness and health.  I was reminded of that as my wife Fran and I attended a wedding yesterday at a Beach Club on the North Shore of Long Island.   

With the above in mind, consider being in a marriage for 30 or 40+ years and having your spouse contract a life-ending illness that extends over more than a decade.  Such is the story of Helen Habermann, a wonderful 82-year-old woman who died in the last year, and who lost her husband Willard a decade earlier.  What is unusual is that in addition to taking care of her husband as his physical condition declined; she took the initiative to construct her husband’s family history.  What followed was to become a 212-page soft-cover book entitled: “Englebrechts from Brandenburg Province – Prussia

A Wisconsin Immigrant Family and Their Descendants: 1852-1991.”   In the author’s cover page, she passionately indicates the book is: “Dedicated to my husband, Willard, for his help and indulgence; also to the memory of Carl Friedrich Englebrecht, the ancestor who kept documents and records.”   

I was fortunate to meet Helen on the heels of a business trip to Watertown, Wisconsin in 2003.  She had contacted, through her research, my Aunt Dorothy Simon Olmstead of Great Falls, MT, who had provided family history of my mother Marion Simon’s family who, through marriage, had descended from Carl Friedrich Englebrecht and his wife: Sofie Schroeder (married 1854).  He was a young man from Hamburg, Germany, who ventured forth to the new America via Quebec on 15 May, 1852 aboard the ship Medea Preuss.  What is amazing is that while this contact was made in 1990s, I did not know about it until Helen took the initiative to send me a letter in 2002, advising of her research and a book she had written. On our visit she welcomed this stranger to her house for milk and cookies, and offered me photos from her family album, plus took me on a tour to local cemeteries where my forefathers are buried, plus an old family homestead, that will likely fall to ruin before the beginning of the next decade.   

Among her acknowledgments she mentions the many people who helped provide family background, as well as the many new friends she made.  “Pictures, she said, help to make the story, and for those I am indebted. Special appreciation to the late Kathryn Kreppel Heiser, born 1890, for identifying those old pictures.  My appreciation to Dorothy Simon Omstead of Great Falls, MT for all the help she gave me with the Simon family.  Without that help there would have been a void in this history.  My thanks to Rev. Robert and Joan Englebrecht for the many copies of documents, and their letters of encouragement.  Thanks also to my son, Harley Habermann, and his friends Erv and Fritz for the help with the translations of German script.   Last, but not least, my husband’s help and support.  To everybody who helped by word and deed, my everylasting gratitude and thanks.”  Signed:  Helen E. Habermann 

Genealogical research is often a solitary function, but requires many individuals, and lots of luck for it to be passed down to further generations.  Sometimes, we don’t see the ‘forest through the trees’, but perhaps someone else can.  I encourage you and and your family members to take notes (while older relatives are alive), caption photos (for future generations) and realize the passing of family history is a selfless act.

Joe Frank ‘J.F.’ Purcell

President, PF of A  

P.S. Copies of Helen’s book are available by contacting Helen’s son: William Habermann, 720 Harvard Street, Oconomowoc, WI 53055-2950   His email is: whabermann@netzero.net 

Purcell Family of America Members Area of Expertise Survey

At this year’s PFofA Reunion in Bristol, VA your board members decided that in order for the Association to thrive, we needed to access the talents of members to ascertain where we could tap into an unknown talent pool who could potentially volunteer their services.   I would like to recognize our new Vice President, Douglas C. Purcell, for the timely work he has done to format the enclosed Survey.  Please take the time to review and indicate where your talents might be helpful to the Association.  As many of you know our current editor, Robert Purcell, is soon to be an octogenarian, and will need to be replaced as Editor before our next Convention in 2009.  So, whether writing and editing is your forte, balancing books is your accounting expertise, photography or public speaking is your command, or designing websites or brochures is your artistic talent, we would like to hear from you.  Thanks.

JF Purcell

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