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May 22nd UPDATE:  My friend Werner in Germany observed that the initial 1732 Christening for my 5x Great Grandmother Maria Agatha Lampert, was probably not the correct one since she would have been 53 years old in 1785 when their 9th child Jacobus Rist was born.  Today, I revisited the microfilm at Family History Center, and found another Maria Agatha Lampert, this one born 9 Sep 1740 and this one matches the death record found previously for Maria Agatha Lampert, wife of Franz Joseph Rist. The 1732 born Maria Agatha probably died young before 1740, and the parents reused the Maria Agatha name.  The information below has been updated to reflect the correct birth information.  The databases on this website have also been updated.

There are very few early photographs of my grandfather William Edward Bersett.  When I started my genealogy research many years ago all I had was a one photograph of him, and then also a few additional photos of less than perfect quality.  in the 1990's, after a twenty plus year absence, I started to attend the annual Bersett Family Reunion in St. Louis, and since then have been going at least every couple of years.  During that time, I gathered additional information about the Bersett Family, and I learned that there were two portrait images one of William (1880-1949) and one of his sister Emma Victorine Bersett (1878-1908).  For years these had been kept by William's eldest daughter Julia (Bersett) Bach.  I knew Julia because she often visited with my parents.  Julia was 21 years older than my mother, and she raised my mother and younger sister after William's second wife died in 1931.