Herman Frederick Wilkening was my paternal great grandfather.

Herman was born July of 1865 in Chicago, Illinois. He worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad as a car inspector.

He first married Marie (Minnie) Sedvert  O'Malley in 1893.  Minnie was a widow with four children, Charles, Matilda,  Anne, and Edward by her first husband, Mr. O'Malley.
Herman and Minnie had four more daughters, Wilamina Johanna, Pauline, Bertha and Elsie Amelia.

Herman's second wife was Bertha. They divorced.

Herman married Mary Cottay (Aunt Mayme) on April 28, 1917, Cook Co, IL.
(Mary Cottay was a sister of Herman's son-in-law, George Cottay)

They had one son, Henry (Harry).

Herman died on the 24th of May, 1950.

Sources
1-1900 US Federal Census
2-Cook County, Illinois Marriage Index, 1912-1942

Pauline Wilkening

Pauline (Pearl) Wilkening was born Friday, 4 October 1895 in Cook County Illinois. She was the daughter of Marie and Herman Frederick Wilkening.
She was one of six sisters and three brothers.

My memory of Grandma and her sisters is that they always had fun when they were together. They were always laughing.
Grandma liked to cook chicken. Every Sunday she cooked chicken for supper. Chicken and dumplings was my favorite...At one time she raised chickens. She did all the work to prepare the chickens for supper herself.
Grandma lived in that house out in the country with the chickens, she lived in an apartment in the city with her friend (can't remember her name but I can see her face clearly in my mind). She lived in the back of the ice cream parlor that Dad owned for a time.

She married five times. Her first marriage was to Grandpa George when she was 19 years old. Two husbands were named Jack, Jack Moser and Jack Murgach. Mr. Sanders and Edward Gale were the fourth and fifth.

She married George Joseph Cottay on April 15, 1914 in Chicago, Illinois and they had one son together, Robert George Cottay.
On 17 July, 1930 Pearl married Jack P Murgach in Cook County, IL. (Cook County, Illinois Marriage Index, 1930-1960).

She married Edward Gale in November 1957 in Hillsborough County, Florida.

She died October 28, 1979, in Tampa, Florida, at the age of 84.