Family lives

Emilie Pleis

December 15, 1842 – March 15, 1915

Ida’s mother and Milly’s maternal grandmother, at the center of the Falkenrath family’s Racine home.

Children
Ida · Herman · Charles · Albert Otto · Hulda · Ernst Emil · Peter Ernst · Emilie Augusta; two unnamed children were stillborn.

Places in a Life

Follow recorded birthplaces and homes through the years. Numbers connect the map to dated records; gold marks a birthplace. Markers show approximate towns or regions, not exact houses. A recorded year does not establish an uninterrupted stay.

Emilie Pleis

Recorded birth and home locations for Emilie PleisAfter 1901, before 1915 · Home — Racine, Wisconsin, United States1Racine

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  1. The profile explicitly says she remained in the Racine family home after Carl’s death and Ernst and Clara moved in to care for her. Broad dated period anchored by Carl’s 1901 death and Emilie’s 1915 death; move date is unknown.

    Source for this place

The heading provides December 15, 1842 birth, but no birthplace. Do not infer Germany or Remscheid from her husband’s origin.

Present-day coastline: Natural Earth. Historical place names are retained in the records. The map and dated list also remain available without JavaScript.

Family roots

Peter Dortzbach described Emilie as the daughter of a music teacher whose household had a small farm and a large house. She married Carl Falkenrath and became the mother of a large family. The histories also record her name as Amelia or Amelie; Emilie is the spelling given for her gravestone.

Children and losses

The 2010 family history names six children who grew to adulthood, as well as Peter Ernst, who died in infancy, and Emilie Augusta, who died at three in Germany. It also remembers an unnamed boy and girl who were stillborn in Racine. These losses are part of the family’s story even though fewer details survive about them.

The Racine household

After Carl’s death, their youngest son Ernst and his wife Clara moved into the family home to care for Emilie. The 2010 history says their children Milton and Ruth were born there and that Emilie lived to know Milton. She died in Racine on March 15, 1915, and was buried at Mound Cemetery. Milly’s name honored Emilie as well as her paternal grandmother Kjesten.

Sources for this biography

Based on the family’s written histories. Recollections and compiled records are identified here so they can be revisited as the archive grows.

  • Peter P. Dortzbach’s biography — Peter’s recollections, recorded by his granddaughter Eileen Townsend; Word transcript and scanned versions RB010–RB015 and RB022–RB025B.
  • The Falkenrath Family: Germany to America — Compiled by Dawn Kelm, September 7, 2010, including genealogical notes, photographs and family recollections. Her husband, Wayne Kelm, is a grandson of Ernest (Ernst) Falkenrath, Ida’s brother.
  • Descendants of Carl F. “Charles” Falkenrath — Family genealogy, scans RB046–RB053; includes census summaries and transcribed obituaries.
  • Family tree supplied by the family — Relationship chart provided by the owner in October 2026. Used alongside the written histories.