52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 13 "Light a Candle"

Both my paternal and maternal grandparents lost their first child only two days after they were born. With this blog post, I am lighting two candles in memory of my aunt and uncle.

Paul Joseph Huigens

My Uncle Paul was born in 1914 in Knox County, Nebraska, most likely on his parent's farm in Logan Township. 

He is not forgotten.

Ardis Rosemary Ogden

My Aunt Ardis was born in 1930 in Sheridan County, Nebraska, most likely at her parent's home in Rushville. 

She is not forgotten.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 12 "Membership"

My great-grandfather Frank J. Kain (pamapa) was a member of the Knights of Columbus in Creighton, NE. I know this thanks to the book "Knights of Columbus - Nebraska State Council Proceedings, 1905-1926." This book has been transcribed and appears on the Nebraska GenWeb Resource Center site under "Religious Information" and "Catholic Church." As far as I can tell, this is the only place in the universe that you can find it. Neither Worldcat nor Family Search has any mention of it. This mystery book contains the proceedings for each annual Nebraska Knights of Columbus state council held in May between 1905 and 1926.

Francis J. Kain (1861-1930)

According to the book, the Creighton Council sent its first delegates in 1907. Frank Kain attended for the first time as a delegate from Creighton in 1913. He went that year with his brother-in-law J.J. (John) Kennedy, who was also attending for the first time. They had known each other since childhood, having grown up together on adjacent farms in Clinton County, Iowa. In the following year of 1914, J.J. went as a Creighton delegate but Frank did not. 

Frank then attended in 1915, 1916, 1918, and every year of 1920 through 1929. J.J. and he attended together as the Creighton delegates in 1915 and again in 1927. Frank was on the Committee on Resolutions in 1915 and was also an alternate to a member of the Supreme Council that year. In 1916, 1918, and 1920 he was on the Credentials Committee. In 1924 and 1925 the other delegate from Creighton was B.J. Huigens, brother of Frank's son-in-law Joe Huigens (my grandfather). 

The book only goes through 1926. However, I did find Creighton newspaper articles from 1927, 1928, and 1929 that show he attended those years. In the 1930 US Census, Frank and his wife are living with their son in Yankton, SD. Frank died in December 1930 so 1929 was his last state council. 

1927

1928

1929

Frank is listed as a Grand Knight (the highest elected leader of his council) in 1921 and 1924 and as a Past Grand Knight in 1925.

But his shining moment appears in the 1921 proceedings:

Among the meritorious activities of Nebraska Knighthood must be included the courageous effort of Grand Knight Frank J. Kain of Creighton, unanimously supported by the entire membership of Count Creighton Council, to enlist the Supreme Officers in [sic] behalf of suffering Ireland. The correspondence on this question has been printed and circulated by the Creighton Council, and it shows upon its face that this council, in the interchange of letters and arguments with the Supreme Advocate, had decidedly the best of the controversy. And it bore fruit, for no sooner had the last letter of Brother Kain been received at headquarters, than telegrams from the Supreme Knight were despatched [sic] all over the country calling upon the state officers to enter vigorously into the campaign for Irish relief, In my opinion, the thanks of this State Council should be expressed and recorded toward Brother Kain and his council for their determined and successful efforts on behalf of the heroic victims of the most heartless and damnable militarism that has ever yet cursed the earth.

Both of Frank's parents were Irish immigrants, so this must have been an issue close to his heart. In May of 1921, when this state council was held, the bloody Irish War of Independence, begun in 1919, was nearly at an end. "Brother Kain" may have even known of cousins back in Ireland who were involved. For him, this "courageous effort" was personal. Good on you, great-grandpa. Good on you.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 11 "Lucky"

 When I think of  "Lucky," I think of my parents' marriage of sixty-two years. You cannot get any luckier than to find someone to love who also loves you for that long.

Joseph A. Huigens, Jr. and Shirley Ann Ogden were married on 7 September 1950 at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Rushville, Nebraska. They met when they were both working at a hardware store in Rushville.

Shirley Ogden and Joe Huigens 
7 September 1950

My dad probably proposed to my mom sometime in the fall of 1949. According to my mom's sister, Marge, my mom's dad was angry and worried because my mom was Protestant and my dad's family were Roman Catholic. At Christmas in 1949 my grandfather packed his family into the car and drove to my grandmother's parents home in Minnesota. He may have thought that separating my parents for a while would give him a chance to talk my mom out of it. According to Aunt Marge, he got even madder when he found out my mom had been making secret long-distance phone calls from Minnesota to Nebraska to talk to my dad. That's what a teen-ager in love will do.

I am sure there were rough patches that only they ever new about and still, despite all that life threw at them, they saw it through together. 

Here they are on their 50th Wedding Anniversary.

Joe and Shirley Huigens
September 2000

Here they are in December 2010 after 60 years of marriage.

My dad died in May of 2013 after spending six years in a nursing home following a stroke. My mother died suddenly and unexpectedly eleven months later in April 2014. 

My brother, Ross, tells the story of the time a nurse at the nursing home told my mom that my dad had a beautiful smile. Ross says that my mom's face took on the look of that teen-age girl in love as she replied "I know."

If you are lucky in love like my parents, be sure to let that person know it.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 9 "Gone Too Soon"

 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.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 6 "Social Media"

 I need to get caught up with the 52 Ancestors prompts. I plan to do several this week until I can get caught up. We'll see how this goes.

Social media. I thought I'd share a few items from the social media of its day: Newspapers. When I found the on-line archives of the Creighton News from Creighton, Knox County, Nebraska, I spent several hours playing around in it. So much to look for between my Huigens, Kain, and Fitzler paternal ancestors who settled there, and some Kennedy relatives, too. Like most small town newspapers there was a lot of local news about the goings and comings of locals and visitors. 

One of the interesting things I found was several mentions of my dad, Joseph Huigens, Jr. Shortly before he was born, his parents moved their family from Know County to Sheridan County on the other side of state. Nevertheless, news of his birth on 12 February 1927 was published in Creighton for his parents' friends in the area.

Creighton News, 24 February 1927

In the news about visitors, I was able to track many of the times  that my dad went back to visit his many grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. 

Creighton News, 10 Jan 1929

My almost 2-year-old dad would have been among those "and children."

Creighton News, 16 October 1930

A few month later my dad, then 3 years old, went with his mother to visit her parents and then to visit her in-laws. That was the last time my grandmother would see her father, He died later that year in December.

Creighton News, 19 November 1931

My dad, now 4 years old would most likely have been the "and son," He was the only one of his brothers and sisters too young to have been in school at that time. 

Creighton News, 3 December 1931

The recovery of my grandmother's mother did not last long--she died five days after my dad and his mother returned home. I'm glad my grandmother got to spend some time with her mother before she passed. 

Creighton News, 8 February 1934

Here is news of a visit on a happier occasion. At almost 7 years old my dad finally gets a mention by name. 

These are all the Creighton News articles that mention my dad that I have found so far. It's fun to think of this little boy going across Nebraska to visit his grandparents and other relatives. I wish I had found these when my dad was still alive. I would have liked to know what he remembered about any of these trips. 

Joseph Anthony Huigens (1927-2013)

"And the walls came tumbling down"

Another major genealogy brick wall has tumbled to the ground. I have managed to locate a Dutch birth record for my 2nd great grandfather, Evert Huigen! We have been working on finding this info for decades. Suddenly it's like I poked a hole in the dyke and the water came rushing in! OK, bad analogy, but you understand what I mean.

It began with an oft repeated search on Ancestry.com finally turning up a useful link to what must be a new record in the Dutch genealogy website, Wie Was Wie. The record was a birth record for an Everardus Huigen born 7 Dec 1827 to Evert Huigens and Evardina Sloot in Didam, Gelderland, Netherlands. The birth date was a day off from the date we calculated based on the info from his broken tombstone (for more details, see here) and the name of his father matched one of the names he used in America. I was pretty sure this was my 2nd great grandfather, but I still had lingering doubts about whether Everardus was really Evert.

Later that night, lying in bed, it hit me--the  "-us" at the end of his name was the Latin nominative ending used for baptisms. His first name was really "Everard" which matched the German version "Eberhard" that was on his tombstone! Everything fell into place. I got up and right back on Ancestry and WieWasWie and was up until 2:30 in the morning tearing down as much of the brick wall as I could.

One of the first finds was a birth record for his father, who was also listed as "Everardus" in his birth record, but went by "Evert." I'm guessing "Evert" is a nickname for "Everard" and I'm working verifying that.

In addition to Everard's birth record, I found birth records for his parents, Everard "Evert" Huigen and Everdina Sloot, and a variety of birth, death and marriage records for them and their other children: sons Herman, Joann (Johann), Jacob, the twins Gerard and Bernard and daughters Gerarda and Elisabeth. My great grandfather, John Huigens, was named for his uncle, Joann (That's Johann, not Jo Ann). His brother, Bernard Haugens, was named for another uncle. Herman and Jacob may be buried in a Catholic cemetery in Damiansville, Clinton Co., IL. It's possible my ancestor was not the only one to make his way to America.

I was able to go back another generation and find info on all four of Everard's grandparents: Herman Huigen and Agatha van den Berg and Johann Sloot and Gerharda Koning. I even found info on Agatha's parents: Peter van den Berg and Johanna Hatting.

Here is what I have so far in taking this branch back:

1. Everard "Evert" HUIGEN, Jr.(b. 7 Dec 1827 in Didam, Gelderland, Netherlands; d. 27 Feb 1864 in Marshall Co., IL)
2. Everard "Evert" HUIGEN, Sr. (b. 31 Mar 1788 in Groessen, Gelderland, Netherlands; d. 5 Mar 1832 in Didam, Gelderland, Netherlands)
3. Everdina SLOOT (b. 25 Apr 1789 in Didam, Gelderland Netherlands; d. Unknown)
4. Herman HUIGEN (b. 3 Mar 1730 in Leiden, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands; d. 27 Mar 1805 in Duiven, Gelderland, Netherlands)
5. Agatha VAN DEN BERG (b. about 1740 in Amersfoort, Utrecht, Netherlands; d 5 Jan 1823 in Duiven, Gelderland, Netherlands)
6. Johann SLOOT (b. Unknown; d. 24 Feb 1810 in Didam, Gelderland, Netherlands)
7. Gerharda KONING (b. Unknown; d. 15 May 1808 in Didam, Gelderland, Netherlands)
8. Unknown HUIGENS
9. Unknown
10. Peter VAN DEN BERG (b. Unknown; d. 1 Apr 1747 in Hoogland, Utrecht, Netherlands)
11. Johanna HATTING (b. Unknown; d. Unknown)
12.Unknown SLOOT
13. Unknown
14. Unknown KONING
15. Unknown

You can understand why I was up until 2:30 in the morning tracking all of this down and doing my genealogy happy dance. I also found records for several more children of Herman and Agatha. Evert Sr. and Herman Huigen gave their occupation as "day laborer." We do not come from the upper class. Not a surprise.

Next steps are to have my daughter's Dutch friend, Anne, help translate the wording on the civil birth, marriage and death records and the church records for baptisms, marriages and funerals. I still need to verify that "Evert" is a nickname for "Everard." I plan on tracing all of the branches of the various families down to find some living relatives. I hope I can find a living male Huigen or Huigens who will take a Y-DNA test to lay to rest all doubts that we've finally found our Dutch family.

Mystery Solved: Farm Located

I have finally been able to locate the farm in Sheridan County, Nebraska that my dad grew up on. Here is how I managed to find it.

I had two pieces of information from my mother to go on:

1. Logan C. Musser owned it--my grandfather just leased it 
2. It was northwest of Rushville, within walking distance 

Yesterday I learned that World War 2 "Old Man's Draft" registration cards from April, 1942 had two sides. The indexed images of the front side that are available on ancestry.com, I knew about. I did not know that if you click through to the next image, you can see the back side of the card, which contains height, weight, eye color, hair color and a few more pieces of information. You can read more about that draft here and here. I immediately went online to check out the second image for my male relatives in that age range. From my grandfather, Joseph Andrew Huigens' card, I learned that he had hazel eyes like mine.

But what really caught my eye, and what I had failed to notice before, was that he listed his address on the front of the card as "section 22-32-44." That was exciting because it gave me what I hoped were the section, township and range in which the farm was located.

It took me a while to track down a set of online historic plat maps for Nebraska Sheridan County, but I finally located a set from 1914 in an ancestry.com database: Indexed County Land Ownership Maps, 1860-1918. Townships in some western Nebraska counties were not named but use a number instead. I was able to find the image for Township 32 N in Range 44 W.

Section 22 is listed as being owned by M. P. Musser and not Logan C. Musser, but I guessed they were related and ownership had changed between 1914 and 1926. It was also just north of Rushville and very much within walking distance of the town.

Further research in the book Recollections of Sheridan County Nebraska (Sheridan County Historical Society (Neb.). 1976. [Place of publication not identified]: Printed by Iron Man Industries.) turned up the fact that banker M. P. Musser died in 1914, the year of the plat map and his son was Logan C. Musser. So Logan had indeed inherited the land after his father died and owned it when my grandfather arrived in 1926.

Here is what Section 22 looks like on Google Maps today.



I still need to discover why my father moved the family west in 1926 and when they left the farm and moved into Rushville. I'm also intrigued by the fairgrounds shown in section 22 in 1914. My dad never mentioned any fairgrounds and the Sheridan County Fair takes place in Gordon. I'm guessing they moved the fair long before my grandfather came and leased the land. I'll need to contact the Sheridan County Historical Society about that.

NE/SD Family History Road Trip (part 3)

Day 5, Wednesday, Oct. 23

Before leaving O'Neill, we stopped off at the quilt store so I could drop off the family history of our parents’ family that I had written in 2006 for my dad’s 80th birthday. My cousin Julie wasn't there yet, so I left it with one of her employees and my wife bought a pattern for a patchwork quilt skirt for our granddaughter. Then it was on to Creighton, NE.

We were early in arriving in Creighton so we drove around a little (very little since it’s so small) and saw the Catholic church, which is a newer construction than the building where my grandparents were baptized and married and where their kids (except for my dad) were baptized.

We went to the café and Pat arrived with her 86-year-old aunt, Flora Jean, who was married to my dad’s first cousin, Lawrence Mattern. Pat is my second cousin through one of my dad’s other Mattern cousins. Phyllis, one of my dad’s other cousins who still lives in Creighton, had business in Norfolk, NE that day so she was not able to join us. I learned that Mary Ann, another of my dad’s cousins with whom I had corresponded had passed away a couple of years ago.

Flora Jean knew our great-grandparents, John and Mary Huigens. She remembers them as very kind and warm people. I shared some of the documents and pictures I had brought about John and Mary’s life near Henry, IL and that of their parents. They told us how to find John and Mary’s old house in Creighton, but did not know where the farm was located. I had been unable to get the 1903 Knox County plat map I have to match up with Google maps and was counting on someone there being able to direct me. Pat and her husband own an appliance repair business and have a current plat map, so she took a copy of the old map with her to figure out who lives there now. Flora Jean also gave me a wonderful photocopy of a pair of large photos of John and Mary.

After we said good-by to Pat and Flora Jean, we drove by John and Mary's house. 

Julie knows the location of the house of our other great-grandparents, Frank and Margaret (Kennedy) Kain, but she couldn't figure out a good way to explain how to find it. She didn't know the address, just how to find it if she needed to.

Our next stop was St. Ludger's Cemetery. My brother and mother had been to Creighton three years ago and had sent me lots of photos of grave markers, but it was nice to be able to visit in person and pay my respects. My brother said it was strange seeing our rare name all over on tombstones. It did seem like every few feet Anne Marie and I were finding another Huigens grave marker. Not to mention Tharnishes and Matterns. We found the graves of both sets of great-grandparents who are buried there and that of a great-great-grandmother, Mary's mother.

Although we didn't find the Kain's house in town, I had, been able to find their farm in the 1903 plat map and had succeeded in locating it’s location on Google maps. We drove by the farm and I collected a small sample of dirt from it on our way out of town after visiting the cemetery. It felt good to be at the site where my Grandma Julia had been born. 

As we headed north to South Dakota, we passed through the little town of Bazille Mills, which my grandmother claimed as her birthplace.

Later that evening, we crossed over the Missouri River into South Dakota, land of my birth. OK, so I was born hundreds of miles from where we were, but still. We spent the night in Vermillion, home of the University of South Dakota, where several of my high school classmates had attended college. We stayed across from the street from the Dakota Dome, the schools stadium. I had been to USD a couple of times with the high school French Club to attend plays in French by Moliere and Ionesco. I probably also played there with the high school marching band. That was so long ago, I don’t remember everywhere that we played.

(to be continued)

NE/SD Family History Road Trip (part 2)

Day 4, Tuesday, Oct. 22

On Tuesday, we drove from Grand Island to Osceola, NE to visit my mom’s sister and her husband, Roselyn and Alan. They have a lovely home that, like ours, is next to a fire station and has freight train tracks running nearby. Their basement walls are covered with family photos of their five children (my first cousins including Nancy who lives in Grand Island), their grandchildren and their great-grandchildren. Several years ago they made a trip to Sweden and visited Locknevi, where my great-great-grandparents, Carl Jacob and Christina (Jonsdotter) Johnson, lived when my great-grandfather Gustaf was born. They even have a painting of the house where he was born.

After lunch with them, we drove 122 miles north to O’Neill, NE. This is a photo of a barn quilt square we saw on our drive. 

In O’Neill we visited my cousin Julie, who I had not seen since our Aunt Toots’s funeral in 1976. Julie is the daughter of my dad’s sister, Berneice AKA Babe. She manages a quilt shop in O’Neill, which is where we met her. (The quilt leitmotif to this tale was for the benefit of my wife, who loves all things quilt related. I really appreciate her for making this trek with me and tried to do everything I could to keep it interesting for her.)

Julie and I talked a lot of family history. She says I look like my father, which I get a lot. She shared with me the story of how her parents met. Her mother served in Europe as a WAC in WWII. After she returned from the war, she took a job as a switchboard operator in O’Neill. She used her GI Bill money to take flying lessons out at the airport. One day she met Louis Coker, who was a pilot, and he became my Uncle Louie. Her mother did get her pilot’s license, but never had a driver’s license.

One of our great-grandparents, John and Mary (Fitzler) Huigens, our parent’s paternal grandparents, died 38 miles due east of O’Neill in Creighton, NE during the blizzard of 1949. The roads were impassable, so Louie flew Aunt Babe to the funeral. There are advantages to knowing how to fly a plane.

She also told me the story of how our parent’s mother, our Grandma Julia, came home from church one Sunday, opened the trunk of the car and discovered she had forgotten to deliver the Memorial Day flower arrangements. She uttered a four-letter expletive for manure, a word I cannot imagine my grandmother using. This caused my Aunt Babe and Aunt Sis to laugh until their sides hurt, although my grandmother saw no humor in the situation.

Julie then took us out to the cemetery where her mother is buried, so I could pay my respects. We both had a good cry. Then she showed me the grave of our grandmother’s sister and her husband, Leo and Margaret (Kain) Carney.

After we said good-bye to Julie, we headed to our hotel in O’Neill, NE. That evening I got an email and a phone call from a second cousin from Creighton that found me through this blog. I had let her know that I would be visiting and we made arrangements to meet at a café in Creighton the next morning. 

(to be continued)

Census Sunday: Joseph Huigens family in the 1940 US Census

Here is my transcription of the census entry for my father's family from the 1940 US Census. This was his second appearance in the US Census.

State: NE
County: Sheridan
Township, or other division of county: Rushville pct
S. D. No. 5
E.D. No. 81-26

Location
1. Street, avenue, road, etc.
2. House number (in cities and towns)

Household Data
3. Number of Household: 88
4. Home owned or rented: R
5. Value of home (if owned) or monthly rental (if rented): 8
6. Does this household live on a farm? Yes

7. Name of person:	Higgins, Joseph A*	Higgins, Julia M	Higgins, Arnold F	Higgins, Lawrence J	Higgins, Rita	Higgins, Bernice M	Higgins, Joseph A
8. Relationship of this person to head of household:	Head	Wife	Son	Son	Daughter	Daughter	Son
9. Sex:	M	F	M	M	F	F	M
10. Color or Race:	W	W	W	W	W	W	W
11. Age at last birthday:	49	45	23	22	21	18	13
12. Marital Status:	M	M	S	S	S	S	S
13. Attended school or college any time since March 1, 1940:	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
14. Highest grade of school  completed:	H2	8	H4	7	H4	H3	6
15. Place of birth:	Nebraska	Nebraska	Nebraska	Nebraska	Nebraska	Nebraska	Nebraska
16. Citizenship of foreign born:
17. Residence on 1 April, 1935 - City or town:	Same house	Same house	Same house	Same house	Same house	Same house	Same house
18. Residence on 1 April, 1935 - County:
19. Residence on 1 April, 1935 - State or foreign country:
20. On a farm?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
21. Was this person AT WORK for pay or profit in private or nonemergency Gov't. work during week of March 24-30? (Yes or No):	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
22. If not, was he at work on, or assigned to, public EMERGENCY WORK (WPA, NYA, CCC, etc.) during -week of March 24-30? (Yes or No):	-	No	Yes	-	-	No
23. If neither at work nor assigned to public emergency work. ("No" in Cols. 21 and 22), Was this person SEEKING WORK?(Yes or No):	-	No	-	-	-	No
24. If not seeking work, did he HAVE A JOB, business, etc.? (Yes or No):	-	No	-	-	-	No
25. Indicate whether engaged in home house-work (H), in school (S), unable to work (U), or other (Ot):	-	H	-	-	-	S
26. Number of hours worked during week of March 24-30, 1940:	60			60	50
27. Duration of unemployment up to March 30, 1940 - in weeks:			52
28. Occupation: Trade, profession, or particular kind of work, as frame spinner, salesman, rivet heater ,music teacher:	farmer		CCC painter	carpenter helper	waitress
29. Industry: Industry or business, as cotton mill, retail grocery, farm, shipyard, public school:	on farm		building constr	building consruction	restaurant
30. Class of worker:	OA	NP	GW	PW	PW	NP
31. Number of weeks worked in 1939 (Equivalent full-time weeks):	52	52	46	30	28	12
32, Income in 1939 (12 months ended December 31, 1939): Amount of money wages or salary received (including commissions):	0	0	230	225	80
33. Did this person receive income of $50 or more from sources other than money wages or salary (Yes or No):	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No
34. Number of farm schedule:	63

Source citation: 

1940 U.S. census, Sheridan County, Nebraska,  Rushville pct , population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 81-26, Sheet No. 5B, household 88, line 47, Joseph Higgins; digital image, Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census (Beta) [database on-line, accessed 5-Aug-2012]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. T627, 4,643 rolls.

Obit for Mrs. Helena Fitzler

Last night I was looking for Nebraska newspaper archives to see where I might be able to get access to news papers for Knox County or the town of Creighton. I came across the Nebraska's Newspapers site. This is a joint venture of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and the Nebraska State Historical Society. I clicked on the Browse link and a map of Nebraska appeared with seven cities indicated. One of them was Norfolk, which is near Creighton, so I clicked on it. They had digitized images of issues from 1899 to 1912. A quick check in ancestry.com showed me that my great-great-grandmother Anna Helena (Schmitt) Fitzler died on 20 May 1904. So, I went looking for the issue of the Norfolk Weekly News-Journal for that week. Lo and behold, in the upper left hand corner of page 2 for the issue of 27 May 1904 was the headline "North Nebraska Deaths" and there it was.

NORTH NEBRASKA DEATHS

---

"GRANDMA" FITZLER OF CREIGHT-
TON PASSES AWAY

---

.
.
.
    Creighton, Neb. May 21.-- Special
to The News:  Mrs. Helena Fitzler of
Creighton died here yesterday after-
noon at 3 o'clock of old age.  She was
seventy-two years old and was born 
in Germany.  She came to this coun-
try with her parents, locating in Hen-
ry, Ill.  After the death of her hus-
band, Mrs. Fitzler moved to Creighton
and has made this her home for the 
past twelve years.  She owned prop-
erty in Illinois and owned her home 
in Creighton.
    She leaves six daughters and one 
son, John Fitzler, who is unmarried, 
and who is employed in the store of
Loeble & Son, of Creighton.  Maggie
Rublow, Mary Higgons, Lizzie Bloom,
of Knox county;  Mr. and Mrs. Peter
John of Sheldon, Ia., Helen Boisbors
of Mendota, Ill, Kate Schubert of 
Manson, Ia., were all here at the bed-
side of Mrs. Fitzler when the end 
came.
    The funeral will be held Sunday af-
ternoon at 3 o'clock from the Catholic
church, Rev. Father Windols in
charge.
    Helena Fitzler was a good old lady
and will be greatly missed by the cit-
izens and people of Creighton.  She
was known universally as "Grandma" 
Fitzler and her kindly nature had
made for her friends in every corner
of Knox county.

 Lots of great information! First, a more accurate date for her husband's death. I had been assuming it was between his appearance in the 1880 US Census and the 1900 US Census when Helena was listed alone in Creighton. This narrows that range down to sometime around 1892, twelve years before Helena's death. Awesome! Second, I now have the married names of all her daughters, even though the spelling on some is horribly butchered (it's Richling, Boisdorf and Huigens). These are my Grandpa Joe's aunts on his mother's side. Wunderbar!

However, I don't believe she came to America with her parents. I have her a on passenger list for the Charles Cooper with her future sister-in-law. I'll check the list for other Schmitt's but I'll be surprised if I find any. On the other hand, they would have been the grandparents for these seven children. If one of the daughters was the informant for this article, they probably knew better than me. On the third hand, on her death certificate, Helena's parents are listed as "Mr. Smith" and "Mrs. Helena Schmitt." If they knew their grandparents, why didn't they know their grandfather's name?

Several questions answered and a new one raised.