I have recently been sent a very nice photograph of Gertrude
Seibert in her wedding dress. It illustrates the need to check information
carefully, and ideally get more than one line of evidence for a conclusion.
On the rear of the photograph is the caption
There is a problem with this. Getrude’s marriage
certificate survives, and shows that as Gertrude Woodcock she married Robert
Seibert on September 18, 1890. Robert was a wealthy railroad man, who left her
very well provided for when he died in 1913.
The photograph could of course have been taken a
year after the wedding – the sort of thing a wife might just do if her husband
was foolish enough to forget their anniversary, but it really doesn’t look like
that sort of photograph.
The clue I believe is in the caption “Our dear Sr.
GW. Seibert.” Gertrude didn’t become “our dear Sister Seibert” to anyone until
a number of years after her marriage. Her first poem did not appear in Zion’s
Watch Tower until 1899, and her high profile stems more from the early
twentieth century, with involvement in Daily Heavenly Manna (1905), Poems of
Dawn (1912) and her own Sweet Briar Rose (1909) and In the Garden of the Lord
(1913).
The simplest answer is that whoever wrote the
caption for the photograph got it wrong. It would be an easy mistake to make
many years after the event, especially if the writer was not in direct contact
with Gertrude to check. But it shows the importance of researchers today
checking and double checking everything they find. If they can.
Gertrude’s special contribution to
Watch Tower history is probably her involvement behind the scenes in the
production of the controversial volume The Finished Mystery (1917). To read her
story and the story behind The Finished Mystery, see this old article on this
blog:
Alternatively there is a series of
articles about her from the same writer to be found if you punch in the search
term “Gertrude” on this blog:
1 comment:
Great to see Gertrude in her younger years!
Thanks forsharing this!
Bernhard
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