Author Archives: CaySedai

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 2

The Wikitree 52 Ancestors challenge continues with week 2 theme of Generations. I have figured out how to add my photos to Wikitree profiles and to the challenge pages. Because not everyone in the photo below had a Wikitree profile, I had to add a couple: Heinrich Muhs and Johanna Cornilsen Muhs. They were the parents of Frieda Muhs Korn, who was the mother of Florence Korn Burrell, who was the mother of Janice Burrell Snyder, who was my mom. […]

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 1

I’m coming to this slightly late, but hope it still counts. The Wikitree 52 Ancestors challenge begins here. This is a photo of my mom, Janice Burrell Snyder, as a baby. I’m guessing she was about a year old in this photo, which would make it 1939.

The Case of the Missing Sister

Augusta Hermanie Meyn Burrell was my great-grandmother. I am descended from her son, Arthur Burrell, who married Florence Korn. My mother was their oldest daughter. (No, I don’t use mother’s maiden name for passwords or login information.) But there is a family story that she had a sister who disappeared under mysterious circumstances. And each branch of the family has a different version. I was told that the sister would spend the night with the childless neighbors and one night […]

Franklin Francis Lutz

A hint on FamilySearch.org about an obituary for Cleva Florene Lutz Burrell led me in roundabout ways to this gem about her father. I downloaded the PDF, but here is the transcription. History of Fort Dodge and Webster County Iowa Volume II Chicago The Pioneer Publishing Company 1913 http://iagenweb.org/webster/history-ft-dodge/historyoffortdod02prat.pdf PDF pages 179-180 Francis Franklin Lutz Francis F. Lutz follows the trade of tiling in Duncombe, Iowa, and also conducts a pool hall in that city. His career has come to […]

New Family Search collection

Family Search has released Iowa, Death Records, 1921-1940, index and images of death records from the State Historical Society of Iowa. As the description says, the images are included. It’s a short time frame, however. But I looked up the two people I knew off-hand who died in that time period: Lydia Carr Caylor Burrell Baxter (my great-great-grandmother) and her third husband, John Baxter. I found them both and downloaded the images of their death certificates and also attached them […]

Don’t fence me in

I called Dad for Father’s Day and ended up talking to Michele for 30 minutes of the 35-minute call because Dad can’t hear well. I mentioned that Mary Greeley Medical Center is trying to get people who were born there, together on Aug. 7 for an attempt at a world record. I was born there because Dad was attending Iowa State University. We lived in Pammel Court, which was the married housing area. At the time, it was mostly quonset […]

Anna Sohl

While doing research last week, I came across marriage information for Anna M. Sohl and John J. Kruger. I think that Anna Sohl is the daughter of Peter Sohl and Anna Rush – the same Anna Rush who married Herman Meyn. The marriage information gives us this: Groom: John J. Kruger Parents: Christian Kruger, None (?) Lorhalt (It looks like None and is indexed that way. Maybe pronounced Nona?). Born in Germany (Holland was written in and crossed out), white, […]

Diptheria

In November and December of 1879, there was a diphtheria epidemic in Sioux County, Iowa. Below is the U.S. Federal Census Mortality Schedule for Sioux County. Four members of the Herman Meyn family died in a brief period: Herman, Katie, Carl (Charles in the document) and Johan (John in the document). The gravestone lists the dates of death of Herman and their three children who died of diptheria, and Anna, who died in 1910. A newspaper notice (above) mentions that […]

Henry J. Korn

I found a new tidbit on Ancestry today. The obituary for Henry J. Korn (my great-grandfather), who died in October 1962. It lists survivors: his wife, Frieda, children Florence Burrell and Arthur Korn, his mother Anna Dengg, eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild. That would be me. Three of his grandchildren have died: Janice (my mom), Diane and Nancy, all children of Florence. As far as I know, Arthur’s children are still living, so I won’t mention them by name. It’s […]

A few live ones

In the course of doing research on David Caylor and his family, I discovered that there are a few lively characters in our family tree. David is the first son of Lydia Carr. She was married to a Caylor, but I don’t know if her husband’s name was David or John. I’ve seen both in various public trees. She married William Burrell and had William, Walter, Bertha, Blanche and Lulu. She divorced William for abandonment (I got this info from […]