The mother of the Emerado Seebarts children was Ella Henrietta Weier. She was born in Sand Lake Township, Rensselaer County, New York, on March 11, 1856. She was married to George Henry Ziebarth (Seebart) in 1881 (possibly late 1880). She bore him eight children (Four boys and four girls). This family is referred to throughout this manuscript as the Emerado Seebarts. The father of Ella Henrietta was Christian Weier. He was born in what was called the Prussian Province of East Germany; 48 kilometers (about 56 miles) Southeast of Berlin in 1816. He had two brothers, one of whom was named William. The name of the other brother is unknown. There were also two sisters: Tina and the other name is unknown. Of these five children, only Christian migrated from Germany to America.

Wilhelm II was King of Prussia when Christian and William were young men. It was the time of the German Revolution. Universal male conscription was the order of the day. William was a conscientious objector. He had made up his mind that he would not be drafted. When he learned that the soldiers were coming to take him, he hid in the hayloft of the barn. When the soldiers could not find him elsewhere, they took pitchforks and ran the tines up between the boards that held up the hay, and when they drew blood, they knew they had their man. They put a rope around his neck, tied him to the back of a wagon and raced the team of horses drawing it. He was dragged until he was dead. In light of such suppression, it may well be, as brother Ed says: "The Ziebarths and the Weiers fled Germany to escape conscription into the Prussian Army." Ella Henrietta made this observation to me: "They hated it, and all of them wanted to get away from it."