Michael and Catherine Gilde Vogel

My grandparents Michael and Catherine Gilde Vogel both came to the United States when they were children. Their families came from a part of Europe called The Banat, which was part of the Austria-Hungary Empire of the Hapsburgs. Their documents listed their citizenship as Hungarian, but they were German ethnically. This photo is from 1977.

Grandma and Grandpa were married 14 June 1922 and had two children, my dad and Mary Vogel Graf. Both of my grandparents spoke German in their households when they were growing up and continued to speak German at home to their children. According to my father, he did not speak English at all when he started shcool. I can remember my grandmother telling me that "Bobby felt bad because he couldn't speak English." She said that it was a relief to stop speaking German at home. They still used it when they wanted to say something to each other that they didn't want us kids to hear.

Grandpa went to for Ideal Electric in Mansfield. He took a course and became a draftsman. I remember that Grandma worked as a bookbinder for a printing company in the 1960's and perhaps into the 1970's. They were both very hard working and kept an immaculate house.