This was taken in the early 1990s; her sister Kate is on the left.
Julia’s Divorce from Vaclav
Julia’s Story
Here is a short biography of Julia that Laurel included with her Early Settlers of Montana application.
The difficult divorce of Julia and her husband Vaclav was reported in a Billings, Montana, newspaper in 1911.
"Court Grants Three Divorces," Billings (Montana) Daily Gazette, 10 Dec 1911, p. 1; digital images, MyHeritage.com (http://myheritage.com : accessed 14 Apr 2016).
Obituary
Below is Julia’s obituary in a 1914 Billings newspaper. Her death was likely caused by an attempted abortion. She is buried in Mountainview Cemetery in Billings.
"Funeral Today," The Billings Gazette (Billings, Montana), 8 Apr 1914, p. 5; digital images, Newspapers.com (http://newspapers.com : accessed 3 Oct 2020).
Julia Hoffman
1877-1914
Laurel and Lowell’s paternal grandmother was Julia Hoffman. She was born in January 1877 in Chicago, Illinois, the second child of Bohemian immigrants Joseph Hoffman and Marie Kolar. Julia married Vaclav Klaisner, also from Bohemia, on 19 Aug 1896 in Elma, Iowa. They had five sons and a daughter between 1897 and 1910. Julia divorced Vaclav in 1911 and died tragically in 1914.
Photographs
We only have two photographs of Julia. This one appears to be taken when she was a teenager.
Early Settlers of Montana
Julia Hoffman Klaisner qualifies as an Early Settler of Montana, someone who became a resident of Montana in the first 40 years of statehood (1889-1929). In 2019, Laurel submitted Julia’s application to the program, sponsored by the Montana State Genealogical Society, providing proof of eligibility. The application, shown below along with the pedigree, was accepted.
Death Certificate
Ancestry.com. Montana, U.S., State Deaths, 1907-2018, Montana Death Records > Apr 1914, image 190 of 465; https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/5437/images/47791_1220706333_0200-00190?pId=758159 : accessed 7 Sep 2024.