An Interesting Discovery

One question that I had when I started researching our family was, are we related to anyone famous?  Another question men might ask is, are we related to anyone who played professional baseball, or football or basketball?  Chances are slim on both counts, only a very small percentage of people ever become truly famous or ever play professional sports.  So it should come as no surprise that there are no Presidents or famous ball players nestled into our family tree, however last week I did discover that a direct descendant of Frederick Stembel did marry a professional baseball player.

Ella Michael was Frederick's great-great granddaughter.  Ella's father, Christopher, was the son of Frederick Michael, who was the son of Ann Catherine Stembel Michael , who was Frederick's daughter.

Sometime around 1900 Ella married Johnny Siegle in Urbana, Ohio, where they both lived.  Johnny was a local legend who played for various teams in the Urbana area.  Toward the end of the summer of 1905 he was signed by the Cincinnati Reds to play the outfield for them.  He played in 17 games and hit .304 in 56 at bats.  He returned in 1906, the magic was gone from his bat. He hit only .118 in 22 games that season and never played in the major leagues again.