One Date, Three Family Stories; More About Coat of Arms

8 TO 14 OCTOBER 2026

One Date, Three Family Stories; More About Coat of Arms

October 11 connects a wedding, a remembrance, and a baptism in Charlie's family. Rene and Janet's civil marriage fell twenty-one years after Anna Riefski's death. Further back, Catharina Szerszen's indexed baptism offers a clue to resolve long standing confusion about John Szerszen's true age.

Civil marriage certificate naming Rene C. Heckman and Janet M. Gumm, 11 October 1962, Millbourne, Pennsylvania.

Charlie's family

11 October 196264th wedding anniversary

Rene C. Heckman and Janet M. Riefski

Lived: Rene 78 years; Janet 67 yearsMarried 38 years, 6 monthsChildren: 3 togetherConfidence - 9

Family connectionRene and Janet are Charlie's parents.

Two certificates preserve two ceremonies: the civil wedding in Millbourne and the Catholic convalidation that followed in Nanticoke.

Direct lineage

Rene C. Heckman and Janet M. Riefski
Charles Rene Heckman

**Archival scan.** Janet and Rene on their wedding day, 11 October 1962.

AI-restored interpretation of Janet and Rene’s wedding-day photograph, 11 October 1962. Colors and reconstructed details are interpretive.

On 11 October 1962, Rene C. Heckman and Janet M. Gumm married in Millbourne, Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Janet appears under the surname from her earlier marriage. The civil certificate names Patricia Simone, Mayor of Millbourne, as the officiant and gives Luzerne County marriage-license number 2585 L.

The document joins two Pennsylvania communities in one family event: the license came from Luzerne County, while the ceremony took place in Millbourne. It also records Rene using the everyday spelling of his name, rather than the Renay found in his birth and wartime records.

A second certificate records a Catholic convalidation at Most Holy Trinity Church in Nanticoke on 23 February 1963. It explicitly refers back to the 11 October 1962 civil marriage. Reverend Emil M. Hussack officiated, with Stanley Kamon and Elizabeth Kamon as witnesses. The two dates belong to distinct ceremonies and should both be retained.

The October wedding fell on the twenty-first anniversary of the death of Janet's mother, Anna Riefski. The records establish that shared date, but we do not know whether it influenced the choice of wedding day.

Family Mystery

I did not connect my parents' anniversary date with my Grandmother's memoriam date until Reggie pointed it out. 11 October 1962 was a Thursday, which only makes the coincidental dates more interesting in my mind. My mother was never one to celebrate her anniversary, it was more of a footnote than a date to celebrate. She generally dismissed it as, 'oh we have multiple wedding dates', but my parents never recognized either one. My father insinuated on occasion that it was based on the Columbus Day weekend in 1962. This became a further source of confusion as my Dad would say, 'we can recognize Columbus Day, October 11th or February 23rd as our anniversary'. Plausible, Columbus Day was Friday 12 October in 1962. In hindsight, I believe the date was not entirely a coincidence. I think it may have been, at least in part, an attempt to add something positive associated with 11 October. Unfortunately, I'll never know for sure.

Anna Riefski's Pennsylvania death certificate, 11 October 1941.

Charlie's family

11 October 194185th remembrance

Anna Shershen Riefski

Lived 41 yearsMarried 19 years, 8 monthsChildren: 5Confidence - 9

Family connectionAnna is Charlie's maternal grandmother, the mother of Janet Riefski.

Remembering Janet's mother, whose death certificate preserves her Glen Lyon home and her Polish family connections.

Direct lineage

Anna Shershen Riefski
Janet Riefski
Charles Rene Heckman

Anna Shershen Riefski, undated colorized studio portrait. Colorized by a photo service 50+ years ago, not by Reggie (AI).

Photo Identification Frustrations

This portrait photo was identified by an old note as being of Felicia Riefski Reding, a note that I've found suspect for some time. After consulting with Felicia's daughter and looking at other reference photos (including the one with her daughters in this newsletter), I'm convinced this is my Grandmother Anna. In true Shershen fashion, my babcia. One frustrating thing about Reggie, or rather the handcuff's put on Reggie: Though AI is exceptional at facial recognition, the publicly available AI models are forbidden from providing photo recognition due to privacy concerns. With a collection of family photos that reaches back to the 1880's, the inability to positively identify everyone can be very frustrating. I have strong reference photos for many, but some of my ancestors are in group photos for which I do not have a corresponding reference photo at the correct age to verify.

**Archival scan.** Anna Shershen Riefski with her daughters in May 1940, in the backyard of Joseph Riefski’s home in Glen Lyon, Pennsylvania. Felicia wears the dark dress; Elizabeth wears the flowered dress; Janet stands in front, with Rita behind her; Anna is at far right.

AI-restored and colorized interpretation of Anna with her daughters, May 1940. Colors and reconstructed details are interpretive.

Reggie's Color Reconstructions

I initially saw the restored and colorized skillset that Reggie has in his toolbox as a bit of a goof, but the more I ask him to colorize photos, the more details pop out that I never spotted before, even after years of looking at very familiar photos. Anna with daughters has so much life to me after the restoration and colorization. Likewise, it was always such a disappointment to me that my parents wedding day photo's exposure was flawed. I'll keep asking Reggie to colorize as we go and see what other details I discover as a result. Interestingly, the colorized portrait photo of Anna Shershen Riefski was done many, many moons ago, by a photo processor. I don't know the backstory, but I have this colorized photo of my grandmother and another of my mother and her sister Rita at Hershey Park, as children.

Anna Riefski died at Nanticoke State Hospital on 11 October 1941, aged forty-one. Her death certificate gives her usual residence as 85 East Main Street in Glen Lyon and records a hospital stay of three days. Her husband Joseph supplied the information.

The certificate says Anna was born in Wanamie, Pennsylvania, in 1900, leaving the month and day blank. It names her parents as John Shershen and Mary Kopacz, both born in Poland. The original spelling Kopacz is especially valuable because an index renders the name differently.

Anna was the mother of Janet Riefski, who later married Rene Heckman and became Charlie's mother. These names and addresses place Anna within the family whose photographs and recollections survive, while preserving what the documents can tell us about her own life.

Her burial is recorded on 14 October 1941 at Glen Lyon, although the cemetery is not clearly identified in the available certificate. Twenty-one years after Anna's death, Janet married on the same calendar date. That coincidence connects this remembrance with the wedding story in this issue.

The Kopacz Curse

Anna Shershen's sudden death from flu-like symptoms was the midpoint of three consecutive generations of young mothers dying in similar circumstances, leaving behind young children. Her mother Mary Ann Kopacz died when Anna was about three years old. Anna died when her daughter Felicia was a teen. Felicia died before her daughters were teenagers. My mother only narrowly survived after spending two weeks in Intensive Care before the doctors discovered the culprit was blood clotting in her lungs.

Anna's death certificate identifies her cause of death as acute myocardial failure. My mother was also diagnosed with a critical cardiac condition for her first few weeks in the hospital before an internist suggested the blood clot possibility which proved to be the accurate diagnosis.

Charlie's family

11 October 1868, indexed baptism158th baptism anniversary

Catharina Szerszen

Lived: lifespan unknownMarried: not yet establishedChildren: unknownConfidence - 7

Family connectionCatharina is a probable sister of Charlie's great-grandfather John Shershen, a collateral relative rather than a direct ancestor.

A sister's baptism helps test a four-year discrepancy in John Shershen's reported birth year.

Probable connection through her brother

John Szerszen / Shershen, Catharina’s probable brother
Anna Shershen
Janet Riefski
Charles Rene Heckman

A Polish parish index records the baptism of Catharina, indexed as Szerszeri, at Zawada on 11 October 1868. It names Andreas Szerszen and Sophia Dwojak as her parents and associates the family with house 5. This is a baptism date, not an established birth date; the original parish page has not yet been retrieved.

The same indexed parents appear with Joannes Szerszen, baptized on 18 December 1864, and with other children between 1867 and 1875. Repeated names and house numbers help reconstruct a family that can be difficult to follow through spelling changes.

John Shershen's Pennsylvania death certificate gives his parents as Andrew Shershen and Sophia Dwojak but reports his birth as 16 December 1868. The matching parental names and the 1864 Joannes baptism strongly favor the earlier year. Catharina's 1868 baptism adds another dated event to this household and helps test that reconstruction.

Catharina was the sister of John Shershen, father of Anna Riefski and grandfather of Janet Riefski. A record about a collateral relative can help resolve a question in the direct line, even when little else is yet known about her life.

Family history feature

Coats of Arms: Family History or Family Decoration?

The black and white coat of arms on the left of the newsletter logo is that of Hans Heckmann, granted arms at Worms in 1497.

The wolf on a silver shield with red and silver mantling is that of Friedrich Carl von Friccius. (Friccius is a Latinized form of Frick or Fricke)

Though they match our surnames, we haven't confirmed an ancestral or collateral relationship to either family line.

A colorful shield, a helmet, and an impressive motto can make an appealing addition to a family history. Sellers offer these designs as “your family coat of arms,” often suggesting that everyone with the same surname shares an ancient heraldic inheritance. That claim confuses a name with a documented family connection.

Coats of arms have real historical significance. Emerging in medieval Europe, they served as identifying emblems for individuals and, eventually, institutions and communities. They could express identity, lineage, and status.

The important distinction is between a surname and a specific family. Two people named Heckman, Frick, or Smith do not necessarily share an ancestor who possessed arms. A design associated with one branch cannot automatically be claimed by everyone bearing that name. The College of Arms explicitly states that arms belong to specific individuals and family lines, rather than to surnames.

Establishing an inherited entitlement therefore requires genealogical evidence. We would need to identify the original bearer or an established entitled ancestor, document our connection, and determine whether that descent meets the relevant heraldic rules.

Those rules differ among countries and traditions. Typically national College of Arms require proof of qualifying descent from a recorded bearer.

Hereditary Military Societies

Much like the process required by various national College of Arms to prove descent from a qualifying arms bearer, there are a number of societies in the United States related to military service. These societies require a carefully documented, generation to generation, record of descent from a qualifying ancestor, as well as source documents that establish the ancestors service during a specific conflict. I've completed that process for my ancestry. I am a member of the Sons of the American Revolution (registered through Benjamin Leasure's service), a member of the Sons of Union Veteran's of the Civil War (registered through Michael Crissman's service), a member of the Order of the First World War (registered through Joseph Riefski's service), and a member of the Order of the Second World War (registered through Renay Heckman's service).

A commercially purchased surname print supplies none of that proof. Even if the pictured arms are historically authentic, their association with our own ancestors remains a separate, unanswered question. The artwork may represent someone else’s documented heritage.

For our family history, an unverified “family coat of arms” should therefore be treated as decoration or entertainment, with its uncertain connection clearly stated. An appropriate caption would be: “A coat of arms associated with this surname; no connection to our documented ancestral line has been established.”

Our ancestors’ significance does not depend on a shield, a title, or noble descent. Their work, migrations, relationships, hardships, and contributions provide the substance of our history. If a genuine heraldic connection is eventually documented, it can become part of that story. Until then, a surname souvenir belongs among the decorations, not among the proofs.

THIS WEEK IN THE DATE DATABASE

Family dates, October 8–14

Fourteen calendar entries from our family date database, with the evidence qualifications retained.

Date	Person	Event	Family	Generation	Evidence status
October 8, 1830	Catharine "Katie" Rohrer	Death	Frick	7	Imported tree claim; not independently verified
October 9, 1680	Christopher Boss	Birth	Heckman	9	Imported tree claim; not independently verified
October 9, 1692	Jeanne Drouot	Death	Heckman	10	Imported tree claim; not independently verified
October 10, 1759	Anna Barbara Setley	Birth	Frick	7	Imported tree claim; not independently verified
October 10, 1902	Catherine Meenan	Burial	Frick	4	Burial documented; ancestral identity probable
October 10, 1962	Renay Charles Heckman	Marriage license applications reported for Rene Heckman and Janet M. Gumm	Heckman	1	Strongly supported newspaper identification
October 11, 1941	Anna Shershen	Death	Heckman	2	Imported tree claim; not independently verified
October 11, 1962	Renay Charles Heckman & Janet Riefski	Marriage	Heckman	1	Supported by civil marriage certificate
October 12, 1718	Hanss Michel Seitzinger & Maria Catharina Krafft	Marriage	Frick	9	Imported tree claim; not independently verified
October 12, 1903	Marianna Kopacz	Death	Heckman	3	Imported tree claim; not independently verified
October 13, 1698	Matheus Terwilliger	Birth	Heckman	9	Imported tree claim; not independently verified
October 13, 1850	Maciej Muniak & Anna Skrzypek	Marriage	Heckman	5	Imported tree claim; not independently verified
October 14, 1903	Marianna Kopacz	Burial	Heckman	3	Imported tree claim; not independently verified
October 14, 1941	Anna Shershen	Burial at St. Michael parish cemetery	Heckman	2	Supported by reviewed original newspaper

Heckman identifies Charlie’s family line; Frick identifies Kathi’s. Generation 0 is Charlie or Kathi; 1 is a parent, 2 a grandparent, 3 a great-grandparent, and so on. A family-line listing does not by itself establish a proven relationship.

Evidence labels reflect the current database. Anna Shershen’s death entry has an outdated unverified label: the Evening News of October 11, 1941, and Wilkes-Barre Record of October 13, 1941, support her October 11 death. Report and publication dates are distinguished from event dates.

EVIDENCE GUIDE

Confidence scale

The rating reflects confidence in the featured person or couple, event, and stated family connection. It can change as stronger records are found. It does not make every date or child count equally certain; individual dates and counts retain their stated qualifications.

1Pure guesswork
2Speculative possibility
3Weak circumstantial clues
4Plausible but poorly documented
5GEDCOM-supported starting point
6Some independent support
7Probable from independent records
8Strongly supported by multiple records
9Nearly conclusive documentary proof
10Proven with certainty