Meiser says his parents were William Diehl and Rachel Kleckner. The 1870 Census confirms this. That his mother was Rachel E Diehl, born Kleckner, daughter of George Kleckner is absolutely proven by certain papers from George’s Union County estate file.

He was born in Mifflinburg, lived as a young adult and married in Middlecreek Township and then moved to Northumberland (borough) where he lived the remainder of his life. He may briefly have lived with his father in Kansas, but I suspect not.

1870. He is George age 7 living in Mifflinburg with his parents.

1880. George W Diehl lives in Middlecreek, Snyder County. He is age 17. He is living with George J Roush, 33 and his wife Catharine, 33. So far, I haven't figured any family connection of the Roushes. It says George W is a Farm Laborer. So is he the right George W? The age is right, I think he was still going by the name George W and the fact that he lives in Middlecreek -- and that is how he came to meet Ella Jane -- is enough to convince me he is our guy.

1900-1930. Lives in Northumberland.

As part of the estate accounting for George Kleckner’s estate, Robert Foster, guardian of George W Diehl and Edwin A Diehl filed his accounting on behalf of the Diehl brothers who he says were the grandsons of Geroge Kleckner. George W and Edwin A, in the end, received $993 each.

I first knew this man as William, the name Grandma told me, and indeed he was listed as William in Census listings for 1900-1930. And Grandma's application for Social Security listed William and Ella as her parents.

Early on in my research, I accessed a searchable copy of the 1880 Census (it can be searched for any individual, not just the head of household) and so I looked for a 17-year old William Diehl (his birth year known from those later Census records), hoping he would be found living with his parents and in that way I could learn their names. I found four persons in Pennsylvania of that name and birth year, but there was no real way to narrow down which one was him.

The breakthrough came when I found a document called "A Genealogist's Guide to Burials in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania" covering, among others, Riverview Cemetery. The author, J A Meiser, did a lot of genealogical work covering Northumberland County, and listed everyone buried in that cemetery and, to the extent he was able to figure it out, showed relationships among them maiden names and parentage. He listed William Diehl and Rachel Kleckner as the parents of Radie's father, William, and confirmed that William was born in 1863.

This finding ruled out two of the William’s in the 1880 Census because the parent’s names were not William and Rachel. The other two possible William’s were merely laborers on different farms and not living with any other Diehl family members, so there was no way to know if they were Grandma's father or not.

My next step was to go to the Census of 1870 where I found William H Diehl and his wife Rachel living in Mifflinburg. He was the only William with a wife named Rachel I could find and they just had to be the right family. The problem was that they had a son named George, born 1863 — the year of Grandma’s father’s birth. It said George, not William. So this was a mystery. Everything fit, except for the boy’s name.

I then went back to the 1880 Census looking for William H and Rachel but there was no married couple of those names, leading me to think one or the other of them had died, explaining perhaps why Grandma’s father was off on his own at age 17. But that knowledge didn't help identify him, either.

But the whole question of why a boy named George became the man named William continued to be a mystery to me until I had the opportunity to walk the Riverview Cemetery and there I found his tombstone giving his name as G William. I believe that he was George William Diehl, called George as a boy and at some point switched to being called William (possibly because George Diehl was a too common name). I also was then able to find the 17-year old George Diehl (as opposed William who I had originally searched for) working as a farm laborer on a farm in Middlecreek Township. As that is where his future bride was living and the birth year was right, I was quite sure it was the right George. Mystery solved.

Finally, in a book on Snyder County Marriages, based on newspaper and minister’s records, I then found the marriage on 1 Dec 1889 of George W Diehl and Ella J Yerger -- note it was given as George W -- so he had not yet converted to William.

I mentioned the family of Diehls in Northumberland descended from William Harrison Diehl Sr. previously. I first came across them when I found on the Internet something called ”The Birthday Book of Clara Reichley” put there by a descendant of this William Harrison Diehl and his wife Clara Reichley and it was a list of 40 different people named Diehl and their birthdays. The book was kept by Clara Reichley of Northumberland. The only one of our ancestors included was Ella who was in there as Mrs. William ? Diehl. The '?' I think meant Clara did not know the middle initial of Ella’s husband — we know he was actually G William, but Clara apparently did not know that.

William, according to Dad and confirmed by the 1900-1930 Census, worked for the railroad, he was a brakeman.

That her parents were Henry Yerger and Catherine Kramer is as stated by Meiser and confirmed by the 1870 and 1880 Census.

More importantly, after Henry’s death, all of his children sold their own share in his land to their brothers Charles F and William H. One of the named heirs was Ella Diehl wife of William.

Ella Jane Yerger, wife of George William Diehl, and mother of Radie Diehl, was born in Middlecreek Township, Snyder County and lived there until sometime after her marriage at the age of 21 and the birth of her first daughter (she eventually had 4) and then moved to Northumberland where she lived until her death.

Census Listings 1870-1930. She is with her father in 1870 and 1880 and with her husband in 1900-1930.

Her birth and death dates come from Meiser’s ”Northumberland County Burials”. The year of both is confirmed by her tombstone and the 1900 Census says she was born in September 1868. So everything seems consistent. Her birth place is assumed as that is where her parents lived all their lives. Her burial place is known as I have seen her tombstone. The event and date of her marriage comes from a book on Snyder County marriages based on early newspaper records. That she and William were Radie’s parents is proven by Radie’s Social Security Application.

We knew her, though my recollection is vague at best. She died on a cold winter day stoking her coal furnace when 83 years old.

The breakthrough in identifying the Yergers came from the aforementioned Meiser work on Riverview. He gives Ella's maiden name as Yarger or Yerger and says that her parents were Henry Yerger and Catherine Kramer. I was then able to find the Yerger family in the 1880 Census, where Ella Jane is found living with Henry Yerger and wife Catherine. Ella has 4 sisters and 1 brother. She and William must have first lived in Snyder County after their marriage, as that is where Grandma says she was born. They then moved to Northumberland sometime between 1890 and 1900. Ella named her first daughter Rachel after William's mother and her second Catherine after her own mother.

In my notes on G William Diehl, I mentioned “Clara Reichley's Birthday Book", which included this entry: "Diehl, Mrs. William ? Sep 24, 1868". Strangely, among the 40 Diehls listed, Ella is our only relative. Neither William, Radie nor her sisters were listed.

All four children of William and Ella Diehl are buried at Riverview. Meiser lists them thus: Catherine 4/30/1896-3/11/1902 d/o W&E, Helen R 8/16/1900-8/26/1956 d/o W&E w/o Adam James, Wilma w/o Harry M Cahn 9/2/1900-7/30/1968, he s/o Edward and Florence Jones. [Radie died after Meiser had done his compilation.]

Several grandchildren are in Riverview also, including: 3/31/1924, buried, infant son of A R and Helen James and John Edward Cahn 1927-1947 Seaman 1st Class (SM) USNR -- and, of course, Uncle Sox.