Family lives

Ida Falkenrath

March 12, 1866 – November 27, 1944

Milly’s mother, whose work helped sustain the Dortzbach household through moves, businesses and family losses.

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.

Ida Falkenrath

Recorded birth and home locations for Ida FalkenrathNORWAYSWEDENFINLANDCANADAATLANTIC OCEANMarch 12, 1866 · Birth — Remscheid area, Germany1Remscheid areaAbout 1881–1882 · Home — Racine, Wisconsin, United States2RacineAfter March 1889 · Home — Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States3Milwaukee1896 · Peter’s recollection · Home — Cripple Creek, Colorado, United States4Cripple Creek1929–1944 · Eileen’s recollection · Home — Centralia area, Washington, United States5Centralia area

Dated entries correspond to the numbered places. Enable JavaScript to select entries and zoom.

  1. Profile explicitly places Ida’s birth in the Remscheid area; heading supplies date. Marker precision: city area.

    Source for this place

  2. Profile describes the family migration and Racine neighboring households where Ida met Peter. Exact immigration date and travel arrangements differ among family accounts.

    Source for this place

  3. Profile explicitly says they moved to Milwaukee and opened a shoe shop after the wedding.

    Source for this place

  4. Peter’s linked biography explicitly dates the family move to 1896. Family memoir chronology; do not mistake his 1895 visit for the move.

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  5. Profile expressly dates the grandparents’ home in the Hilpert household from 1929 until their deaths. Marker precision: town area; farm sites are not pinpointed.

    Source for this place

Boulder, Denver and California are described as homes/moves but this profile does not supply their exact residence dates; broad dated Denver phase is available in Peter’s linked biography.

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

From Germany to Racine

Ida was born in the Remscheid area of Germany, a daughter of Carl Falkenrath and Emilie Pleis. She came to Wisconsin with her family while young. Eileen later recorded her grandmother’s memories of severe seasickness on the journey and of encountering unfamiliar foods in America.

Marriage and children

Ida met Peter Dortzbach through neighboring households in Racine. They married there on March 23, 1889, then moved to Milwaukee and opened a shoe shop. Their children were Emilie, known as Milly; Annie Hulda Helen; George Karl; and Carl George. George Karl died in childhood in Cripple Creek.

Work alongside Peter

Peter’s memoir repeatedly credits Ida’s help. In Colorado she took in boarders, and in Boulder she and their daughters helped run a hotel. After the daughters became ill, the family moved to Denver. Their later moves took them through California to Centralia, where Ida and Peter lived with Milly and Otto.

The grandparents at home

Eileen remembered her grandparents as members of the Hilpert household from 1929 until their deaths. Ida and Peter celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1939. Peter died in May 1942; Ida died on November 27, 1944. The family records place her burial with Peter at Crown Hill Cemetery in Colorado.

A note on the records

Accounts place the family’s immigration around 1881–1882, with differing ages and travel arrangements. Ida’s remembered journey is retained without assigning an exact age.

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.