Emil Mielke

Lifespan: April 29, 1881 – April 20, 1970

Born April 29, 1881 to Fred Meikle and Mary (Johnsen) Meikle (per FindAGrave). Father of Hazel P. Mielke (1902–1987). Married Margaret Pfister (1876–1962, b. Fish Creek, Door Co, WI) on October 16, 1902 — the marriage record may render her surname as “Pfisterer,” the older German form of Pfister. At least 5 children. Divorced from Margaret before 1930 (per 1930 census), then later married Tillie H. Karnopp (1883–1967) — supersedes the previous assumption that Emil was widowed; Margaret kept the Mielke surname and lived until 1962. Died April 20, 1970, age 88. Buried at Bayside Cemetery, Sturgeon Bay, Door County, Wisconsin.

Relationships

• Parents: Fred Meikle & Mary (Johnsen) Meikle — per FindAGrave entry for Emil. No further details captured (per stop rule: 3x-greats, log and move on).
• First wife: Margaret Pfister (Aug 16, 1876–Feb 17, 1962) — born Fish Creek, Door Co, WI. Hazel’s mother. Married October 16, 1902 (marriage record reportedly spelled her surname “Pfisterer” — older German form). Divorced before 1930 (per 1930 census). Margaret kept the Mielke surname and lived until 1962.
• Second wife: Tillie H. Karnopp (1883–Sep 19, 1967) — married after Emil’s divorce from Margaret (exact date unknown; previously assumed post-1962 widowhood, now known to be post-divorce). Also buried at Bayside Cemetery.
• Children:
  • Charles Mielke — Milwaukee, WI (1962)
  • Hazel P. Mielke (Jul 12, 1902–Apr 8, 1987) — direct line. m. Gerald Martin Sr., then Clarence Lau
  • Earl Mielke — Sturgeon Bay, WI (1987)
  • Mrs. Harold (Mildred) Gritzmacher — Milwaukee/New Berlin, WI
  • Pearl (m. Kline/Klien) — Milwaukee, WI (1962) / California (1987)

Sources

• Find A Grave: Memorial #126311941, Bayside Cemetery, Sturgeon Bay — birth/death dates; parents listed as Fred and Mary (Johnsen) Meikle.
• Hazel P. Lau obituary (1987) — names parents as “the late Emil and Margaret Miekle”, names siblings Earl, Mildred, Pearl.
• Marriage record (Door Co, WI?): marriage to Margaret October 16, 1902; Margaret’s surname reportedly spelled “Pfisterer” on the record.
• 1930 US Census: Emil and Margaret listed as divorced — supersedes earlier assumption that they remained married until Margaret’s 1962 death.

Research Notes

• Surname variants: Mielke (German), Meikle (Find A Grave + parents’ surname), Miekle (Hazel’s obituary).
• Ethnicity ambiguity — possible reframe. With his parents now known as Fred Meikle + Mary (Johnsen) Meikle, the family’s traditional placement on the German side of the tree may be wrong. Meikle is a Scottish surname; Johnsen is Scandinavian (Norwegian/Danish). It’s possible the Mielke line is actually a Scottish/Norwegian American family that got Germanized in some records (the “Mielke” spelling) because they were embedded in a heavily German Door County community. Alternatively, a clerk-induced spelling drift in the other direction (German → Meikle). Worth keeping the reframe in mind without committing to it yet.
• Buried at Bayside Cemetery — same cemetery as daughter Hazel and son-in-law Clarence Lau.
• Lived to 88 — died 9 days before his 89th birthday.
• Sturgeon Bay, Door County is the family’s base — Emil, Hazel, and Earl all associated with Sturgeon Bay.
• Hazel’s pre-marital birth: Hazel was born July 12, 1902 — three months before her parents’ October 16, 1902 marriage. Three plausible readings: (a) Hazel was born to Margaret out of wedlock and Emil & Margaret legitimized the relationship that fall; (b) one of the two dates is off in the records; (c) Hazel was Emil’s child by an earlier relationship that Margaret then raised. Catholic Door County would make (a) common-but-quietly-handled. Worth a single targeted check of Hazel’s actual birth/baptism record if it ever falls into your lap, but per stop rule, don’t go hunting.
• Divorce as story shift: the previous record framed Emil as “widowed by Margaret in 1962, then remarried Tillie” — a tidy late-life remarriage. The actual story is messier: married Oct 1902, divorced before 1930 (so by their late 40s), then both remarried separately. Margaret kept the Mielke name. All three (Emil, Margaret, Tillie) are buried in the same Bayside Cemetery in Sturgeon Bay despite the divorce — small-town Door County reality.
• Ruled-out candidate (do not re-investigate): Fredrick D. Mielke (1877–1959), son of Johann Mielke + Wilhelmine Mielke (born Germany), surfaced as a possible sibling because his sibling list includes “Emil Mielke.” Not our Emil — different parents (Fred Meikle + Mary Johnsen, not Johann + Wilhelmine), different surname-spelling pattern (consistently Mielke, not the Meikle/Miekle drift), different children’s names. Mielke is one of the most common German surnames; multiple unrelated Emil Mielkes existed in late-1800s Wisconsin. Logged here so this candidate doesn’t get re-chased in future sessions.
• Stop-rule status: thread closed. Active research on Emil is done. Parents known (Fred Meikle + Mary Johnsen per FindAGrave); birth-place still open but unrecoverable from desktop sources. The Scottish-Meikle / Norwegian-Johnsen ethnicity hypothesis remains a flagged maybe — held loosely, not confirmed. Per bounded-set rule, Fred & Mary are 3x-greats and out of scope.