Using the research process that I described at the reunion--finding the existence of documents through ancestry.com--then obtaining those documents, I have new information about Charlie Doerr, our grandmother Amanda Doerr Lancaster's brother.

I found that his obituary was published by the Birmingham News on March 3, 1937. The obituary for his wife, Lucie Ellermann Doerr, was published in the same paper on April 7, 1943. I got copies of the obituary from the Birmingham Public Library's Government Documents Department. Here are some of the facts that those documents contain:

Charlie Doerr was not Charles J. Doerr, Jr. He was Charles Thomas Doerr. After moving to Birmingham, he worked as the purchasing agent for the Birmingham Electric Company. Then, during World War I, he served the U.S. at the government nitrate plate at Muscle Shoals, Alabama. After the war, he returned to Birmingham and became purchasing agent for the Alabama Power Company. By the time of his death on March 3, 1937, he and Lucie had only two surviving children -- Hazel and Lucille. Their other daughter, Lucie, had died before the 1910 Census. Their son, Charles, apparently died at some point between 1910 and 1937. Lucille, in 1937, was married to Joe Duncan and had five children, according to the obituary.

Lucie Ellermann Doerr's obituary reveals that she was the daughter of Henry Ellermann, "a prominent Louisiana contractor who built the Mississippi River levees at New Orleans." I would need to do research to confirm that description of her father. Her obituary also names her grandchildren, the children of Lucille Doerr Duncan: Marie Duncan, Doris Duncan, Joann Duncan, Joe Duncan, Jr., and Mrs. Paul Reuter. I have begun searching for them and their descendants. They may enjoy having a copy of a picture of their grandmother Lucille Doerr Duncan, the little girl sitting in the chair in the picture on this page.

One final note of interest from Charles T. Doerr's obituary. The newspaper account says that he was a resident of Birmingham for 33 years upon his death in 1937. That would mean he moved in 1904. Perhaps the photo is a record of a visit of Charlie and his family to Covington from Birmingham.