The Freises in America know little about Bertha Kalinke's family in Germany. When her husband, Hermann Freise, died Nov. 11, 1912, his obituary mentions that he left a 90-year-old mother-in-law [Johanne] and four brothers- and sisters-in-law in Germany. Lacking better evidence, one can only infer that Johanne Kalinke was born about 1822, died after 1912, and had at least four children besides Bertha.

By the time of her death, Johanne Kalinke would have been known as Johanne Mecke because, after her first husband (Kalinke) died, she married a man named Mecke. He may have been the foreman at her first husband's shoe factory. Family lore says that to this marriage were born at least four sons and daughters. At least one of Bertha and Herman's children, Tillie, spoke of her mother's last name as Bertha Mecke, not Bertha Kalinke.

It is thought that Bertha visited her family in Germany in about 1908. A family story says that Hermann was angry at her for making that expensive trip, though he visited Germany himself four years later.