Person:Elizabeth Oldenburg (1)

Eliz.Oldenburg parents=Dr.Daniel Oldenburg and Mary Lauersuler. Marriage #1 to Phillip Imboden when she was age 19 and they had Rebecca Imboden, born 12 Jan 1793. Philip Imboden remarried to Eliz. Miller about 1793 and they had Imboden children. Obviously Phillip and Eliz. divorced before 1794.We Suspect this may have been a very brief marriage (particularly if Rebecca Imboden is the only child of this marriage -- both remarried soon after). Calculating all dates helps guess at events here. Due to later history, it is likely that Rebecca Imboden remained with her mother and was reared with the McAllister children when her mother (Eliz. Oldenburg Imboden) married Alexander McAllister. It seems reasonable that this may have also been the #2 marriage for McAllister and there may have been children with him from a prior marriage. However, it seems the family always considered all children to be of equal status in his will. In Daniel Braucht's long diary he states clearly that Grandma McAlister IS Elizabeth Oldenberg Imboden McAlister, and that both she and her husband married again. He said that his mother, Rebecca, was reared in the Alexander McAllister family. Ruby Driskell reported that Oldenbergh, Imboden, and Diller were all Revolutionary War soldiers (need to check Archives on these). There is suggestion about the very close birth dates between Elizabeth's child with Philip Imboden, Rebecca (b.Jan12,1793) and Elizabeth's child with husband #2 Alexander McAllister, Sophia (b.Aug.12, 1793) that he had a prior marriage with children he kept. Reports mention that these two girls were extremely fond of each other. We know that after father Alexander McAllister in 1827, James McAllister became the guardian of the two youngest sibling; presumably Cahterine and Randall. We also know that Sophia McAllister then became a ward to George Pearson (not certain of his relationship) and apparently later married a Ritter.

   In grandson Daniel Braucht's journal he mentions visiting Uncles Adam Hartzell (apparently husband of a McAllister sibling), Randall McAllister, Alexander McAllister, and Daniel McAllister.  All are fitting in time frames; except Alexander McAllister who could be a half-brother to Daniel and Randall McAllister (or what more logical relation to be called "uncle"?).  Professional genealogists have suggested that relationship terms, such as uncle, were not always genetically accurate, but in this case I suspect that Daniel was referring to all of his uncles and aunts in those terms because his mother's sibling were all considered to be part of Alexander McAllister, Sr. family in the end.

The journal also mentions him visiting "Grandmother McAllister" (this Eliz.Oldenburg) at the home of Sophia Ritter at Tarrytown, IA (not on modern Iowa map) in 1849, so doubtful that he would confuse uncle Alexander and grandfather Alexander titles, deducting that there may be a child named Alexander McAllister missing in this list. In all cases, do not rely heavily on some specific data here which are based upon suspicious data from other sources.

In general, however, the family members and data are not way off as presented here  I am assuming that the theory of Alexander McAllister having children from a first marriage, mixed with the daughter of his second wife, plus children from their second marriage is very plausible.

The data I show here can not yet adequately document these relationship, so it is well to remember that another good description of the Alexander McAllister, Sr. family of eight (by either his first wife or with Elizabeth Oldenburg/Imboden; but not including Elizabeth Imboden here) could be (not necessarily in this order): Alexander, Jr., James, Mary, John, Sophia, Randall, Catherine, and probably an Elizabeth. There is most confusion regarding the Elizabeth and Rebecca names among his blood children, but if Rebecca it should not be confused with Rebecca Imboden who married Adam Braucht.

1. ↑ Aspen Cem., Burlington, DM Co., IA