Franklin married Margaret Gemma Kurch on 4 Feb 1961 in Buffalo, Erie County, New York, USA. Margaret (daughter of Frank Kurek Kurch and Johanna Dörrzapf) was born on 31 Oct 1933 in Buffalo, Erie County, New York, USA; died on 23 Mar 2020 in Jekyll Island, Glynn Country, Georgia, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

BIOGRAPHY: Our Family Tree
Entries: 3418 Updated: Sat Aug 25 17:58:19 2001 Contact: Kevin Ellis elliskey@yahoo.com
He may have been born near Cologne. His mother may have died when young. He was brought up by a Polish stepmother. He adamantly denied being Polish.He was a POW in Russia during WWI.He left Germany under hurried circumstances. Supposedly, fascists in Germany after WWI approached him. They asked him to design a munitions plant that looked like something else, as Germany was demilitarized after WWI. He refused, wanting nothing to do with it. Whether he was threatened because of this refusal is not clear, but he left Germany shortly thereafter. It is said that he was given 50 deutschmarks and a pistol, which he sold, and told to leave Germany.He changed his name in US, supposedly because he was blacklisted by the fascists back in Germany who had some influence in US labor unions.He reportedly was a very fun-loving man prone to mischief. According to one story, his brother-in-law Jacob Doerzaph, who worked at the church, ran a still in the basement of that church. One night, Frank, Jacob, and Leo, a brother of Jacob, were drinking heavily and decided to work with the still, which exploded, doing damage to the church. All three spent a weekend in jail. Frank's wife, Joan, refused to bail them out.

Frank married Johanna Dörrzapf on 12 Jun 1926 in Buffalo, Erie County, New York, USA. Johanna (daughter of Johannes Dörrzapf and Karolina Magdalena Holleritter) was born on 27 Dec 1897 in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg; died on 12 Aug 1980 in Buffalo, Erie County, New York, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

BIOGRAPHY: Our Family Tree
Entries: 3418 Updated: Sat Aug 25 17:58:19 2001 Contact: Kevin Ellis elliskey@yahoo.com
Came to US to be a nun. Had to work to send money back to family in post-WWI Germany. Because of the dire situation in Germany, she was never able to become a nun.
When she arrived in the US, she was sent to a TB sanitarium in Colorado, where it was determined that she did not have TB, but pneumonia. She recovered at the sanitarium, then went to Buffalo, where her uncle Benno Hollaritter was working as a Franciscan Monk.
She met her husband, Frank Kurch, in night school. She, at the time, still planned on becoming a nun. He "fell in love at first sight" with her. She declined his advances, but he persevered. The story is that he had a car and offered to drive her home, every night, from school. Every night she declined, so he would drive very slowly, talking to her as she walked home. After receiving word from her mother in Germany that the family would continue to need money sent, she gave up her goal of becoming a nun. She decided to accept Frank's continual marriage proposals. One night, as he was driving alongside her, she stopped walking. He noticed this and asked her why she had stopped. She told him that if she was going to be his wife, she should ride in his car.

Johannes married Karolina Magdalena Holleritter on 27 Feb 1897 in Bundenthal, Pfalz, Bayern. Karolina (daughter of Michael Holleritter and Johanna Deiss) was born on 17 Jun 1874 in Bundenthal, Pfalz, Bayern; died on 19 Apr 1947 in Blankenborn, Pfalz, Bayern. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]