Biography of Johan Anton "August" Menke

Known as August, Johan Anton August Menke was born November 25, 1864 in Dothen, Hanover in what would eventually become Germany. His parents were Diedrich Menke and Elizabeth Geers Menke. He was baptised on November 29 in Ankum, Hanover. Witnesses were Johan Heinrich Geers from Schwagstorf, Heinrich Kolde from Druchorn and Catharina Brinker Dollman from Schwagstorf.


He had four older half-brothers, Bernard Diedrich "Duke", 18 years old, Henry, 15 years old and Herman, 10 years old, all born to Diedrich's first wife, Anna Maria Catharina Rickelman, who died in 1856 and Bernard Heinrich, 6 years old, born to his second wife, Maria Catharina Brinker, who died in 1859. He also had one older full brother, Bernard Gerhard Heinrich "George", 3 years old. Later, younger sister Johanna Josephine was born when he was two and a half and Mary Elizabeth was born when he was almost six years old.

Web Searches and Iowa Death Certificates

Not every piece of genealogical information can be found online but knowing how to do a good web search, having patience and persistence can lead you in the right direction.

I decided to track down the death certificates of some of my ancestors. I did a search for Iowa Death Certificates and found the IAGENWEB Quick Reference to: County Vital Records found here:
http://iagenweb.org/state/research/bmdguide.htm

Clicking on Lee County brought me to the Lee County IAGenWeb page:
http://iagenweb.org/lee/

There is a link in the bottom right corner of the page for "Vital Records", which goes here:
http://iagenweb.org/lee/vr/index.htm

I then click the link for Death Records, leading here:
http://iagenweb.org/lee/vr/deaths/index.htm

There is then a link to the Lee County Death Certificate Index 1919 - 1933:
http://iagenweb.org/lee/vr/deaths/1919-33/19-33index.htm