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The Tragic Story of George Joseph Klein

Posted in Chicago history, Family History, Genealogy, Illinois history, Klein, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on June 3, 2020| 34 Comments »

In April I shared that I had found an Ancestry hint on my great-grandmother Margarethe Klein’s Ancestry page. The hint directed me to the index of the birth of a little boy in 1906. George Joseph Klein was born 21 August 1906 in Chicago. I had never heard about this brother of my grandmother, and I don’t think my father or uncle had known about him either.

At the time, I quickly did a search for a death record and found the index. George passed away 22 March 1909.

I didn’t believe that I could get a copy of his death certificate because of Covid-19. However, my 2nd cousin who I have met through genealogy managed to obtain the copy. What he found made me so teary for George. This is one of the saddest situations I’ve encountered.

When George was born, his brother Frank, Jr. was ten years old. His three sisters were teenagers. The family must have been thrilled to have another boy that his older sisters could dote upon.

This certificate says George was over three years old, but I don’t see that from his birth and death dates. Death date: 22 March 1909 as I mention above and as it is on the certificate. Birth date: 21 August 1906. That is only two years old, by my count. Two years, seven months.

But what killed George? According to this death certificate he died from Tubercular Basal Meningitis, a horrible disease. The symptoms include headaches, behavioral changes, fever, a stiff neck, and vomiting. Look how long George was in the hospital: One year and four months! Imagine being sick with those symptoms for that long–and only being a toddler! That breaks my heart. You have to wonder how he got this disease at such a young age.

Then the most heartbreaking fact on this certificate of all: he died without the names of his parents listed and in an orphanage.

So how did George end up in an orphanage? This is what my cousin and I believe happened. Tuberculosis is a highly contagious disease. With four other healthy children living in the home, no doubt the parents wanted to protect them and would need to quarantine George. Also, it is possible that his symptoms made it difficult to care for him–especially because this disease affects the brain. His mother Margarethe wasn’t a nurse. The nuns at the orphanage hospital would have been skilled at caring for a sick child, and they probably had the facilities for quarantining contagious patients.

Did this mean that Frank Sr. and Margarethe couldn’t see their son once they turned him over to the sisters at Angel Guardian Orphan Asylum? That I don’t know. What I know is that George effectively died an orphan. The pain must have been terrible for the family. Perhaps that is why they never talked about George.

George is buried in Saint Boniface Cemetery, and I have put in a request on Findagrave for a photo of his grave.

What was Angel Guardian Orphan Asylum like?

Angel Guardian Orphan Asylum

First line: The charitable care initiative that would become Angel Guardian Orphanage illustrates how immigrant German religious women were able to succeed in America. The Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ (PHJC), an order of German sisters newly arrived in the United States, mentored and inspired other German immigrants through their work at the German Catholic Orphanage of the Holy Guardian Angels, which would later be known more simply as Angel Guardian Orphanage. This asylum existed in West Ridge for over 100 years. The orphanage’s founding and its first 35 years of existence set the stage for its later development into a major mission for the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ and a source of pride for Chicago’s German Catholic community.

Archdiocese of Chicago Archives

First line: Angel Guardian Orphanage began as an alternative to the separate boys and girls orphanages that the diocese of Chicago operated to ensure the health, faith, and cultural heritage of German children.

Loyola University Chicago–link through image

 

What happened to the orphanage?
Today, most of the cottages are gone, Misericordia Heart of Mercy occupies the old A.G.O. grounds.  Misericordia cares for children and adults with mild to profound developmental disabilities.  If you would like to take a tour of what is left of A.G.O., Misericordia has always been very accommodating when it comes to allowing formers to visit.  History of Misericordia

from Angel Guardian Orphanage Alumni

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Family Illness

Posted in Family History, Genealogy, Kent County history, Michigan history, Mulder, Netherlands history, Paak, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on March 30, 2017| 13 Comments »

Working on family history and genealogy is a never-ending project. It also is subject to the whims of windfalls and time constraints. By that I mean that when I receive information about a branch of the family that I am not working on, I might have to move that branch to the forefront for a little while. And even when I have some wonderful “leads” to follow, if I don’t have the time, I have to postpone work on that branch.

Sometimes I get so many active branches going, I can’t even keep track of what I should work on next.

Lately, these are the branches I have been tracking down:

  • MULDER family: I have been trying to put all the most important information about the Mulder family in a timeline format. When Peter Mulder contacted me with more Mulder information (including the fascinating story of Jan Mulder), I thought I would stay with the Mulders for a long time.
  • PAAK family: but then I also heard from Ed Lawrence with more photos of the Theresa Paak Lawrence family, and I posted about Theresa’s foster parents, the Pickards. Although there is more to share on this line, something sidetracked me.
  • FLIPSE/KALLEWAARD family: I heard from Jan Denkers with his information about this branch–people who actually lived just a couple doors down from my grandfather and continued living in the same neighborhood my mother grew up in. I posted a photo of the Kallewaard house, but still have more information to sort and post.

And, of course, I always keep all the other branches in mind! To further my information about the Mulders, I ordered some very important death certificates and received them for Peter and Nellie Mulder, my great-great-grandparents.

I knew that my great-grandfather, Charles Mulder, had had tuberculosis (I visited him in a TB sanitarium when I was a kid) and that his brother Henry had died from it in 1947, at age 50. What I didn’t know was that their mother Nellie also died from “pulmonary TB” in 1932, when she was 63. Now I wonder if “only” those three were afflicted or if others in the family also had TB.

 

The names of her parents are a little garbled. Her father was Jan Gorsse and her mother Kornelia Hijman. Interestingly, after I received her death certificate, I found another one online, where it had probably been misfiled. Not sure why there are TWO? My guess is that the one above was prepared at my request, but why is it less complete than the one prepared for me about Peter?

 

The second one explains that Nellie had had TB for 15 years and also had diabetes for 5. Maybe that explains why in Peter’s letter to his brother Jan it seemed that Nellie had struggled with ill health.

Peter’s death certificate also gives his cause of death.

 

Carcinoma of the face.

I am no skin cancer expert, but I believe that basal cell and squamous cell are carcinomas, but that melanoma is not. I find it frustrating that I can’t seem to find a good source to research basic understandings of fatal illnesses and their treatments for past periods of history in the U.S. and Europe. What did this diagnosis mean in 1953? Did he have a basal or squamous cell cancer and not realize it until it was too late? These carcinoma type skin cancers are not uncommon in my family with our fair skin, but to think of my G-G-Grandfather dying from it defies the imagination. The only other major health problem he had was arthritis?

Both Nellie and Peter died in the month of October, 21 years apart. They were both buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Remember the daughter that Peter was worried about leaving behind when he died? Maybe she is the reason he lived for those 21 years past Nellie. Her whereabouts–and birth and death–were complete mysteries until I found a lead. Now I’ve ordered an obituary for her from 1968 and have to wait a few weeks to receive it. Stay tuned.

I’ll be back with more on these and other branches in the future . . . .

 

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