Family lives

Ernst Emil Falkenrath

March 28, 1880 – May 9, 1945

The youngest of Ida’s siblings to survive to adulthood, Ernst spent his working life in Racine manufacturing.

Children
Milton · Ruth

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.

Ernst Emil Falkenrath

Recorded birth and home locations for Ernst Emil FalkenrathNORWAYSWEDENDENMARKFINLANDCANADAATLANTIC OCEANMarch 28, 1880 · Birth — Remscheid area, Germany1Remscheid area1945 · Home — Racine, Wisconsin, United States2Racine

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  1. Profile explicitly says Ernst was born in Remscheid; heading supplies date. Marker precision: city area.

    Source for this place

  2. Profile describes his Racine home and career and states that he died at home the month after his April 1945 retirement. The map does not back-calculate a precise residence start from forty-three years of employment.

    Source for this place

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

The youngest child in the Racine home

Ernst was born in Remscheid and came to Racine as a small child. He attended local public schools and later married Clara Henrietta Schlegel. Their children were Milton and Ruth. After Carl’s death, Ernst and Clara lived in the family home and helped care for Emilie.

A long career

His transcribed obituary records forty-three years with the George Gorton Machine Company, including twenty-nine as superintendent. He retired in April 1945 and died suddenly at home the following month. He belonged to the First Evangelical Lutheran Church and its men’s society.

Family connections

Ernst and Clara remained connected with the wider family through visits and letters. The Otto and Milly correspondence collection includes their 1943 letter. Ernst was buried at Mound Cemetery in Racine. His grandson Wayne Kelm’s wife, Dawn Kelm, compiled the 2010 Falkenrath family history used in these biographies.

A note on the records

The two compiled histories give different marriage years, 1907 and 1909. The marriage year is therefore left unspecified here.

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.

  • 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.