August 17, 1902 – May 8, 1913
When I chose a photo of this headstone as the icon for my instagram, I had no idea how it would tie into the other stories I would discover in my research. At the time, it was just a lovely headstone that I’d taken a lot of pictures of and captured the mood I was aiming for in my work.
This headstone sits back near my favorite mausoleum (Moldenhauer) near a tree-covered intersection that is one of the most peaceful and picturesque in the entire cemetery. Turns out, I learned later, that William Omar was related to the residents of that mausoleum through the sisters Ganschow who married the brothers Moldenhauer.
William Omar was the only child of the Ganschow sisters’ brother William Ganschow, Jr., and his wife Anna. William Omar was born in the second year of their marriage and died just shy of his eleventh birthday. His parents had no other children which is a sad thread that runs through this generation of Ganschow siblings.
By the time William Omar died, his grandfather had already been interred in the grand mausoleum up at the front of the cemetery and his Aunts and Uncles Moldenhauer had not yet erected their mausoleum where it now stands a few yards away from his grave, so it’s unclear why he was buried where he was, so far from existing family resting places. No one planned on his loss so young, certainly, and perhaps all the berths in the family mausoleum were spoken for. The location of the Moldenhauer Mausoleum might have been chosen to be near William Omar which is a nice thought.
An unsourced note on a family ancestry record gives William Omar’s cause of death as tetanus which would be terrible. The researcher’s information contains several easily-checked factual errors so I can’t even say with certainty that this is the correct cause of death. There is no death record and the obituary for young William, of course, gives no cause. There is nothing that would make the loss of young child bearable, but to lose him in such a terrible way must have been especially devastating.
RIP William Omar, and I hope your parents found peace in their lifetimes.
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