Talk:Peter V. Deuster

Deuster family connections
Nice work on the Deuster articles. I'm curious about what source you're relying on to say Peter and Joseph Deuster were brothers. The problem I find is that Peter V. Deuster's father is repeatedly identified as Mathias Deuster who emigrated to Milwaukee in 1847. But sources on Joseph Deuster identify him as the son of John (or Johannes) Hubert Deuster, who emigrated to Milwaukee in 1844. The age of the Assembly members Joseph and John H. Deuster also appear to line up closely with the New Koln sources, though not exactly. The New Koln docs say Joseph was born 1835, whereas the Blue Book has it as 1833. Joseph Deuster's Blue Book bio also refers to him as a "dealer of wines and liquors", which lines up with the idea that he was the same Joseph Deuster who was manager of Deuster's saloon, which previously belonged to John H. Deuster. The bio of Emil F. Deuster in Watrous' Memoirs of Milwaukee County also really backs up the connection between Joseph and John Deuster. So My feeling is that the most reliable family connection we have is Joseph and John. The only thing I've seen that implies Peter and Joseph were brothers is the bit about the suicide of Joseph's wife, which refers to her as a sister-in-law of P.V. -- and I suspect this might be an error. Did you find any other info that connects them? --Asdasdasdff (talk) 04:21, 9 November 2021 (UTC)
 * The suicide article says Joseph was Peter's brother. The 1898 Catholic Knights convention in Fond du Lac featured reportage on Joseph and Peter being there, and that Joseph "enjoys the distinction of being a brother" of Peter. Find-A-Grave features a metric s**tload of genealogical content by a woman (now deceased) who claimed to have compiled an extensive Deuster genealogy, which identifies John H as Peter and Joseph's brother father, and as being the same John Hubert Deuster who moved to Sutton's Bay, Michigan, ran a tavern and was unjustly convicted of murder, only to be vindicated by a deathbed confession. -- Orange Mike &#124;  Talk  05:20, 9 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Man. That's tough.  I guess we can punt for now.  I'm hoping to get access to the full Milwaukee Sentinel and Journal archives that might have more information on this.  It's a major black hole in the newspapers.com archive that their Milwaukee coverage is so spotty.  I found some more info on another son of John Hubert Deuster named John Deuster  but it doesn't clear up anything else. I wonder if there are German language sources. --Asdasdasdff (talk) 16:24, 9 November 2021 (UTC)
 * There's a lot more to Milwaukee press in those days than just the Journal and Sentinel (the Journal was originally a campaign paper to attract more English-speaking voters to P.V.'s side; he didn't care much about it, and thus sold it to Nieman for a pittance).
 * I'm inclined to suspect that the narrative from the Find-a-Grave lady is correct: that John Hubert was Joseph and P.V.'s dad; but not confident enough to put it into all three articles. Part of the problem with the "Mathias version" is that it also clearly asserts that P.V. was an only son! -- Orange Mike &#124;  Talk  16:53, 9 November 2021 (UTC)
 * I have another possible theory. Both P.V. and Joseph's mother's name is given as "Anna".  It's possible they were half brothers via their mother.  John H.'s 2nd wife Gertrude was formerly married to his brother Theodore.  It's plausible to me that Mathias could have been a brother or cousin of John H. and the "Anna" mentioned could have been married to both men at different times.. I'll need to check what the sources have to say about the mother's maiden name(s). --Asdasdasdff (talk) 17:29, 9 November 2021 (UTC)