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Posts Tagged ‘Klein family history’

How Did I Miss This?

Posted in DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo history, Michigan history, Mulder, Zuidweg, tagged , , , , , on May 30, 2017| 5 Comments »

Here’s a lovely mention in a great post about genealogy and researching family history. It’s from February, but somehow I missed seeing it.

 

Cheri Lucas Rowlands blog

 

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Tragedy in the Early 30s in Elmhurst

Posted in Chicago history, Family History, Genealogy, Illinois history, Klein, tagged , , , , , , , on February 8, 2017| 22 Comments »

On 23 February 1931, my father’s uncle, Frank Anthony Klein, had some sort of possibly epileptic seizure and crashed his automobile into a tree. He died from his injuries, and his mother grieved deeply for him. She had already lost her oldest daughter and Frank was her only son.

A little over a year after that tragic event, his mother, Margarethe Wendel Klein, died of cancer, or so my father told me, in her home in Elmhurst, Illinois. I think these photos are of her grave at the cemetery because I don’t see her sitting next to her husband, my great-grandfather, Frank Klein. He is wearing glasses and has a mustache.

Here’s a close-up of the grave with its flowers.

The family is buried at Elm Lawn Cemetery in Elmhurst. Margarethe would have had a Catholic funeral service.

One twist (isn’t there always a twist or a mystery?): Margarethe’s death certificate says she died of Diabetic Coma. And that she had had Myocarditis for 10 years and Nephritis (institial) for 6 years. Myocarditis is an inflammation of the middle layer of the heart wall, and apparently it can be caused by a virus and may resolve. Interstitial nephritis is a kidney disorder. So she had diabetes. So did her daughter, my grandmother.

Why did my father think she died of cancer? He and his siblings and mother lived with his grandparents at the time, and he remembers his grandmother “lying in the library dying, while we played outside.”

Margarethe Wendel Klein

Helen, Marie, Elizabeth, Margarethe, Peter (SIL)

Frank Sr. on the ground with his grandkids

Uncle Frank and Grandma Marie Klein c. 1920

Uncle Frank and Grandma Marie Klein c. 1920

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What Do We Know About the Girls in This Photograph?

Posted in Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Klein, Photography early 20th century, Photography late 19th century, Richard DeKorn, Zeeland, the Netherlands, history, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 30, 2013| 39 Comments »

Here’s another photo I need a little (OK, a lot of) help understanding.  Here is what I know:

  • The photo was in my aunt’s photo collection, and it presumably comes from photographs belonging to my father’s grandmother who lived in Elmhurst, Illinois
  • The family came from Budesheim, a village outside of Bingen. This is in the district of Bitburg-Prüm, in Rhineland-Palatinate, an area along the Rhine river in western Germany.
  • The family was Catholic.

What are the ways I can discover more about the photograph?  Any ideas on how to find information on the photographer? What do you think is the occasion of the photo? The girls’ dresses are what kind of lace? What is the pole behind the girls? Why does the window appear to be barred? Does the umlaut over the “a” in the photographer’s name indicate that the photograph was taken in Germany, rather than the United States?

I will say that from the time I first saw this photograph, because its appearance is so different from the rest of the family photographs, I assumed it was either brought with the family from Germany or was sent from a family member in Germany to my great-grandparents in the U.S.

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Any Ideas on This Old Photo?

Posted in Family History, Genealogy, Illinois history, Klein, Photography early 20th century, tagged , , , , , , , on November 6, 2013| 35 Comments »

Here is a photo I need some help with. I wonder what you think is going on here. The house in the background is my father’s grandparents’ home in Elmhurst, Illinois. The lady in the window is Dad’s grandmother, Margarethe Klein. She passed away from cancer in 1932.

The only other person I can identify is my grandmother’s youngest sister Helen. She’s the young blonde at the right side of the photo, back row. Helen was born in 1910. What year do you think this photo is?

And what in the world do you think they are doing? Any ideas on what brought them all together for the photo?

Elmhurst, Illinois

Elmhurst, Illinois

Next week:  back to my Dutch ancestors . . .

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