First off, am I the only one who did not know that there is a song called "Gone Too Soon" by an artist called Week Nine? Am I the only one who has never even heard of Week Nine? The things you learn using Google.
Anyway, "Gone Too Soon" in terms of my ancestors makes me think of my Dutch immigrant 2nd great-grandfather Everard "Evert" Huigen. He died 27 February 1864 at the age of 36. He left behind a young wife and six children, I only have info on four of the children. They are (with their age when their father died): Julia, age7; Bernard, age 5; Maria, age 3; John, age 1. John is my great-grandfather. The evidence for six children comes from his wife Catherine's obituary in 1899. It states they had six children, three of whom were living when she died. Maria and the two for whom I have no other evidence died before the 1870 US Census. Julia and Bernard are the only two listed in the 1860 US Census.
I wrote about finally finding Evert in Wie Was Wie here. I wrote about his broken headstone here. I don't have any information about his death except the date that is on his headstone. I don't even have any direct evidence that he died in Marshall County. He was living there in the 1860 US Census and that is where his grave is. There were no death vital records in Marshall County, Illinois in 1864. The county courthouse has no probate records for him. The newspaper archives at the Henry Public Library do not cover 1864. He died during the Civil War but there is no record of his having participated, let alone having died in the war. He had two brothers who were living in Clinton County, Illinois. Perhaps there is some mention of their brother's death in a local newspaper there. That is a topic for further research. For now the circumstances of Evert's death remain a memory.
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