Elizabeth connects Charles's business years with the extended household recorded in 1950. After his death she continued as the parent whose home later included Florette's young family. 12
The 1950 schedule gives her age as sixty-five and her birthplace as Wisconsin. A Cuba City funeral card for Elizabeth M. Loeffelholz gives April 9, 1884 through August 13, 1971. Those dates fit the age of the woman enumerated on April 3, 1950, six days before an April 9 birthday. The card is a strong candidate for the same Elizabeth, although it does not state her maiden name or name Florette. Its identification remains probable. 237
Sisters and a brother
Elizabeth's Gubbels connections appear in a contemporary obituary for her sister Margaret Gubbels Splinter. The notice, published in the Dubuque Telegraph-Herald on October 16, 1955, names Mrs. Henry (Mary) Lange of Platteville, Mrs. Elizabeth Loeffelholz of Cuba City, and John Gubbels of Cuba City as Margaret's surviving siblings. Margaret had been born near Dickeyville in 1887 and later lived in Shullsburg and East Dubuque. 35
That notice supplies a family network across several nearby communities. It is stronger evidence of the sibling group than a surname shared by unrelated households. It also helps explain the Lange name in the 1920 Detroit party: Henry Lange traveled with Charles's family, although the precise identification of that traveler with Mary's husband remains an inference from the matching name and network. 2835
A possible earlier generation
A compiled Lange family record identifies Mary Henrietta Gubbels's parents as John Theodore Gubbels and Johanna Hubertina Franzen. Because the contemporary obituary identifies Mary and Elizabeth as sisters, this couple is a plausible parental generation for Elizabeth. Her own birth, marriage, or parental household record is still needed to confirm that link. The proposed relationship is shown as such in the family outline. 3536
The same compilation records Carolus and Elisabeth Loeffelhoz as baptismal sponsors for Mary's son Joseph Charles Lange at Holy Ghost, Dickeyville, on March 29, 1908. The Latin name forms and spelling are preserved from the transcription. This is a suggestive link between the two households, but it remains a compiled account rather than a reproduced parish register. 36
The family connections are therefore of different kinds. Elizabeth's 1950 relationship to Florette is explicit in an original census. Her sibling group is named in a contemporary obituary. The John and Johanna generation is proposed through a later compilation. Each can contribute to the history without being made to carry more certainty than its source provides.
Florette after the early loss
Florette's father died too early for an ordinary remembered relationship with him, if the family dates are followed. The sources do not say who told her about him, what photographs she kept, or how his loss affected the family's finances. What survives is the setting: his business on Main Street, relatives such as Wilbur and Hannah, Elizabeth's later household, and Florette's own family with George. 122528
Her indexed birth and death information gives a Cuba City origin and May 4, 2003 death. The April 18 or 19 birthday difference remains a small but specific question. The 1950 record, made shortly before that birthday, agrees with the 1923 birth year and places her in the household as Elizabeth's married daughter. 24
The name Freda belongs beside Florette throughout the family account. Formal names connect records across time; a familiar name connects the person to relatives' memories. There is no need to substitute one for the other. 1