Detours and family history

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From Niagara we headed down through Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois, with Springfield Illinois being the planned crossing point in the big “figure of eight” of our trip. On the journey up, however, we discovered from relatives that we had missed the town where Tom’s grandparents were married by only a few miles. So, now on the way back, we were able to put that right by visiting Altamont, the small town in question.

We had seen pictures of the church and eventually found it. By chance, there was a lady there to show us around - she informed us that the Priest was quite interested in history and would probably be keen to show us the church records. Sure enough, the next morning we met with Father Jack after Mass, and he gave us print outs of various church records and copies of the original entries. Father Jack is an interesting character - elderly, a heavy smoker with a very dry sense of humor and a very comprehensive knowledge and opinion of the British monarchy, which he delighted in sharing with us at some length.

Visits to two of the local cemeteries did not yield any Koelker or Keolker graves (thanks to Bob, a newly discovered cousin, for showing us around), so we headed over to nearby Carlyle, where Tom’s grandfather was born. Again we found the right church, and a very helpful lady in the Church centre was able to provide us with print outs of several records of births, deaths and marriages relating to Koelkers (at some point around the turn of the century the name was changed from Koelker to Keolker - it’s a bit of a family mystery that we didn’t shed any more light on during our visit). We did find out from the records that Tom’s great grandparents actually stayed in the area for much longer than we originally thought, and a visit to the church cemetery eventually revealed a Koelker grave (although, frustratingly, there were no names or dates engraved on it).

All in all an interesting diversion, especially for Tom, that yielded some new information for the family tree.

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Comments

[Yvette Keolker]

Way Cool!!
How cool is this! It is wonderful to connect with this side of our heritage. Stay safe Joey and Louie! Looking forward to seeing you soon.