Right now I am corresponding with several new people from the Noffke branch of the family, as well as from my dad’s family. The Noffkes are connected with the Waldecks and Kuschs and possibly immigrated from East Prussia. I’ve also got a really busy two months ahead of me, so I can’t share all the information or move very quickly on any of the leads I have.
I’ve met another roadblock, though, in learning the name of the town these people actually came from. I tried to get the death certificates of all the Waldeck kids. By kids I mean my great-grandmother and her siblings. I found Godfrey’s. He is the only one I actually knew. His certificate says he was born in Germany. No help there.
I really wanted to find Fred’s because he is the one who was catastrophically injured in a streetcar and wagon accident and had to live out his life at the State Hospital in Kalamazoo. At first, I thought his certificate was lost, but then I found it under the name Walback, rather than Waldeck. Sadly, it gives the time he lived at the psychiatric hospital. 53 years, 11 months, 1 day. They don’t even know his last name, but they knew how long he was there to a day. Since he died on January 22, 1953. That would mean that he was injured before February 21, 1899. Imagine living in that institution for almost 54 years!
Of course, Fred’s death certificate also says he was born in Germany. No other origin info. For “citizen of what country?” they typed in “Unknown.”
On the 1900 census, his wife Caroline was found living with a farm couple out in the country, working as their servant. Their son Edward (the boy who was hit by the car when he was a young teen) would have been a toddler and probably was living in Grand Rapids with his maternal grandmother while his mother sent money to them. What a tragedy for that young family.
Several Waldeck siblings died while still in Europe, apparently as babies or children. But that leaves my great-grandmother Clara, her sisters Ada and Annie, and brother August. I haven’t been able to find any of their death certificates yet! A lot of the databases only go until 1952 in Kent County, and Clara died in 1953, the same year as Fred. August died during WWI, but I can find no information about him. If I can find these death certificates, maybe, just maybe, somebody will have something more definitive on there for origin than “Germany.”
Apparently, the State Hospital (Kalamazoo Psychiatric Hospital) had several buildings on their campus. Maybe Fred lived in this building, called Edwards, which housed male residents. This photo belongs to the Kalamazoo Public Library and can be found with others on their site. Click through the photo to enter.
The Family Kalamazoo 
Good Posting. As always, very thorough with lots of detail. I will play around with the names to see what I can find.
Jose, that would be great! I noticed that the death certificate says Fred lived in Chester when he entered the State Hospital. IF that is accurate, it means that the accident he had could have occurred in Chester before February 21, 1899. I keep thinking the accident should have been in the newspaper. I don’t even know where Chester is. Is there more than one Chester in Michigan? I found one in Eaton County, but that seems far from Grand Rapids.
I think I read that Ellis Island records are now online. Might that help with his place of birth and arrival in the states?
Barb, that is brilliant. I’ve gotten so used to not being able to do anything with Ellis Island that I didn’t even think of it. Thank you!
Also, I assume you have searched ship manifests and naturalization papers? I’ve found town names more likely in those documents than on census records or even death certificates.
As much as I’ve been able to find so far. I feel as if I am drowning in too many branches, but I jump around as I get leads. Do you ever feel that way or are you too organized?
Well, I do try to stay on one line, and I don’t look for new sources myself. But when I get leads from others on a different line, I pursue them. In fact, this week I will post about six different “new” leads I have gotten, most of which have nothing to do with the Schoenthal line I am now focused on. Exciting, but confusing…
Whew, what a sad story! It really makes me want to know more about Fred, and the nature and extent of his injuries. 53+ years is an incredibly long time to live in a psychiatric hospital.
I know, me too! What a terrible thing to have happen to him and a sad life for him. And for his young wife and very young son, so tragic.
What tough lives people have led!
It astonishes me to find out the tragic things that have happened to ancestors and yet nobody ever spoke of them as I was growing up. The incidents and sometimes the people themselves became forgotten to the younger family members.
Good luck with the search for the death certificates and finding the place of origin in Germany. Once you know the location in Germany it is a process to find records and then make progress on the family tree. We’ve lived overseas for almost 17 years, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands and just did some research in Germany for my husband’s family. He is a first generation so that made it a bit easier. We used a good company recommended by a professional genealogist http://www.routes.de/ to assist some of our research.
It makes you shudder to think of spending 53 years in a state hospital. Today, his life would be so different.
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[…] was born in 1869 and died in 1953, so he would have been 81 in 1951. You can read more about him at Waldeck Family Research. This man does look the right age, but would he have been in good shape like this? Dressed up in a […]
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