28 June 2009

Fritz or Fred?


This is a partial list of the expenses in the accounting of the guardianship of Ommo Fooken, etal, in Hancock County Circuit Court in 1917. The documents were really copied because I needed a sample to show my trip attendees how to use the digital scanner while at the Family History Library last May.

I'm glad now that I scanned the documents. The last line on this image indicated that the guardian bought two bushels of clover seed from my great-grandfather, styled as Fritz J. Ufkes. I knew he went by Fritz as a youth, but figured by this point in time (he was married and had a child by the date of this document) he would be shown as Fred. Actually in an entry from 1918, he is styled as Fred Ufkes when he is paid $9 on Feburuary 28, 1918 for hauling sand for a dam that was built on the Fooken farm.

His brother Eielt was the guardian of the Fooken children. Their mother was Lena Ufkes one of Fred and Eielt's two sisters. Lena and her husband Poppo died while the children were small.