Following up on the Boiling Blood Letter

This is something of a followup post to the "Boiling Blood in the Prairie Farmer." If you're a reader who is after some genealogy methodology advice, source suggestions, research hints, or Standards waxings, consider moving on...this isn't really one of those posts.

Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery, Harmony Township, Hancock County,
 Illinois, tombstones of Tena and Fred Ufkes-
central part of cemetery--west of Ufkes brothers' stone.
 Picture taken by Michael John Neill, December 2013

I thought quite a bit before posting the letter my Great-granddad Fred Ufkes had published in the Prairie Farmer in 1944. It wasn't a simple factual letter about the goings on during the war or the price of grain, which is what I had really expected. The letter was filled with the emotion and frustration of a father with two sons in a war on another continent. My families are not ones that leave behind troves of letters and other documents that provide a glimpse into their political and personal views. The letter in the Prairie Farmer is one of the few letters I have written by any ancestor.

Fred Ufkes, about 1920
original in collection
of Michael John Neill

Ufkes would have been fifty-one at the time he wrote the letter. Three of his five children were still in Illinois. His oldest son was married with a three-year old daughter. The two younger children (a son and a daughter) were still living at home. Times were still not easy-the Great Depression was not yet over and Ufkes still had a mortgage on his farm.

The telephone workers strike of 1944 was what precipitated Ufkes' letter to the Prairie Farmer. It is not known if he wrote similar letters to local papers. What is clear is that he thought war time was not an ideal time for workers to strike. Despite his frustration, his letter ends on the hope that the situation that precipitated the strike can be solved. It is clear how he felt about those who told their members to strike during war time and he even goes so far as to compare the telephone workers' wages with that of soldiers serving in the war.

Two of Ufkes' sons were serving in World War II at the time. Both would have been in their early twenties. Communication during the war was limited and there's no doubt that the family was concerned about the welfare of their two sons. Fortunately both sons returned home from the war, attended college under the GI Bill, married, and raised families.

Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery, Harmony Township, Hancock County, Illinois,
 tombstones of Ufkes brothers LeRoy, Alvin, and Herbert.
These graves are in the "back" of the cemetery, along the east side.
Picture taken by Michael John Neill, December 2013.
[Date of birth for living individuals have been removed.
That is the only modification made to this image]

Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery, Harmony Township, Hancock County, Illinois, tombstones of
 John H. and Dorothy Ufkes-- directly north of Fred and Tena Ufkes stone.
 Picture taken by Michael John Neill, December 2013.

During an earlier war, times were different and German families were reticent. In fact, Ufkes' father was asked in 1915 about his opinion on President Wilson and he did not have anything to say. Times were different in 1915 than they were in 1944.

Family tradition has it that during the World War I era, there was an altercation at the nearby Lutheran Church involving the minister and group opposed to the congregation's use of German in church services and during Sunday School. Family story is that one of the non-Germans spoke up in their defense and diffused the situation. Fred and his wife, Tena, would have been a young couple at this time with only one child. The rest of their children were born after World War I was over.


By the time of the next world war, times had changed. The Ufkes family was not the only one from their German Lutheran congregation to send sons to fight in the war. They were fortunate in that their sons came home. Not every family was so lucky.

Today Fred and Tena Ufkes and their four sons rest in the Illinois prairie at the Lutheran cemetery a few miles from their home. The oldest son John, his wife, and their two infant children are buried in the same lot as their parents. The sons who were in the service, Alvin and LeRoy, are buried along with their younger brother, Herb, east of the other family members.

Like most of their generation, my two uncles who were in the war rarely discussed it. The statement was made once that they were simply glad to be home and I imagine that they were.

98 Years of Marriage and a 7:30 Evening Wedding

In a few days my great-grandparents will have been married 98 years. 

Friederich J. Ufkes and Trientje Maria Janssen were married at the Immanuel Lutheran Church near Basco, Illinois, on 7 March 1916. The entry in the church register indicates that he was a farmer living in Bear Creek Township where he was also born. There were no real surprises in the church record fo their marriage.

part of pages 228 and 229 from church register of Immanuel Lutheran Church (left hand side), Basco, Hancock County, Illinois; marriage entries from 1915-1917; digital image, Archives.com

The entry for my great-grandparents is not the only Ufkes entry on the page. There are entries for two of his siblings as well. His brother Gerd married in 1915 (entry 62 which has been underlined in green) and his sister Lina married in 1917 (entry 66 which has been underlined in red).  Great-grandma Trientje was also born in Bear Creek Township to Jans Janssen and Friedericka M. Sartorius. Her family was not as large as her husbands or she probably would have had siblings with marriage entries on the same page as well.

part of pages 228 and 229 from church register of Immanuel Lutheran Church (right hand side), Basco, Hancock County, Illinois; marriage entries from 1915-1917; digital image, Archives.com

The church register makes no mention of the time of the marriage, but an entry in the Quincy Daily Journal from 10 March 1916 mentions the ceremony as having taken place at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday. I never really gave much thought to the time of day the ceremony took place although spring marriages during this time period were fairly common.

The newspaper account indicates the couple were "favorably known" and would take up housekeeping on the William Schuster farm, two miles east of Basco. That would not have been far from where Ufkes grew up which was also east of Basco. A plat map hopefully will confirm the location.

In fact, Fred grew up in the shadow of the Immanuel Lutheran Church as indicated in this picture of him taken on his parents farm some time before his marriage.

I've mentioned the picture before, but if one looks closely an outline of a church can be seen in the background on the left hand side "above" the fence. That's the Immanuel Lutheran Church.

 Fred and Tena later moved back to the farm where he grew up sometime after their marriage and sometime before 1924 when his father John H. Ufkes died. After 1924 they stopped attending the nearby church and started attending Trinity Lutheran Church in Carthage.

But that's another story.

Boiling Blood in the Prairie Farmer

In all honesty, I thought this letter to the editor of the Prairie Farmer in 1944 would be about grain prices.

Was I ever in for a surprise when I received a digital image of the letter my great-grandfather Ufkes wrote in 1944.

I knew my great-grandfather had two sons who served in World War II. I was not aware of the 1944 telephone strike and his feelings about it.

Sometimes researchers are tempted to ignore those "non-genealogy items" that may appear in trade publications at times when someone is not being born, getting married, or dying.

That is a mistake.

There were no new genealogical facts in the letter Great-granddad wrote. But there was plenty of opinion. There are no letters or other family mementos passed down in the family. And it is easy to see the frustration he felt when one considers that at the time he wrote this letter two of his five children were serving in the American forces in Europe.

It appears that the strike was ended in November of 1944, per the clipping from the Freeport Journal-Standard that appears in this post. The telephone strike apparently did not reach rural Illinois, but at the time Ufkes probably wrote this letter the strike may have still been going on or not yet resolved. It is also difficult to know in my elementary searches just what other media were saying about the potential for extended strikes as Ufkes references "radio" in his letter.

I'm anxiously waiting for the rural newspapers in the area where Ufkes and other family members lived to be digitized to see if there are other letters or commentary written by family members.

Genealogists find county biographies that generically describe their ancestor as a Republican or a Democrat without really any specifics of what that means for them personally.

It's been a long time since a genealogical discovery gave me a history lesson and I never dreamed that it would be from one of my rural farming ancestors.

It just goes to show you never know what you may find.

And the point must be made that it is important to never judge an ancestor by what you find. Ufkes was in the position of having two sons in the war. That's a position that I'm certain most of us would not want to find ourselves.

Great-Granddad Ufkes Writes a Letter to the Prairie Farmer in 1944

The most surprising finds are the ones that we are not looking for.

A search on Google Books for something else located this 1944 reference in the Prairie Farmer for my great-grandfather, Fred Ufkes.

The "snippet" view is illegible (of course), but it's clearly a Fred Ufkes in Hancock County, Illinois, and there's was only one Fred Ufkes in Hancock County in 1944 (actually there's only been one resident of Hancock County, Illinois, named Fred Ufkes period).

1944 issues of Prairie Farmer are not available in the University of Illinois' "Farm, Field, and Fireside" collection.

Hopefully I can get a copy of the publication in some format. We'll have an update when it is warranted.

Stay tuned.

An 1893 Baptism at Immanuel Church Brings Two Questions

It is always fun to locate things you "already have."

The Ufkes family  has published several genealogies since the 1950s and is one family that's very proud and knowledgable about their heritage. However nowArchives.com that allows users to browse images, I decided to search for as many relatives as I can in the digital ELCA records that are on Archives.com. (More information on these records can be seen here.)

The entries below are from the baptismal entry for Friedrich Janssen Ufkes, born in Bear Creek Township in 1893.

Baptisms from Immanuel Lutheran Church, Harmony Township, Hancock County, Illinois, pp. 30-31; digital image from Archives.com

Friedrich Janssen, child of Joh. Ufkes and Lina geb.Grass, born in Bear Cr[eek Township] on 8 October 1893 at 10 a.m. Baptised on 15 October 1893 with sponsors A. Mueller, Fr. M. Rosenboom and Mina Geissler, pastor B. Geissler.

Baptisms from Immanuel Lutheran Church, Harmony Township, Hancock County, Illinois, pp. 30-31; digital image from Archives.com

Friedrich was not named for one of his sponsors as happens in some churches and ethnic groups. The Ostfriesens were strong practicers of using family names for children, which was the case wth Friedrich.

On my list is to detemine who the sponsors are. Mina Geissler probably is the wife of the pastor. I'm not certain about the other two, but based upon what I know about the well-documented Ufkes family they don't appear to be relatives.

Even when you think you know everything, there's still more questions.

Police Pups For Sale-Mother A Good Driver-Owner My Great-Grandfather

Discovers of all sorts await on Google Books, including this item from the May 1928 issue of the Hancock County [Illinois] Farm Bureau Bulletin.

The article wasn't one of those "major finds," but dovetailed nicely with a picture of my grandfather and two of his younger brothers that included the family dog Scamper. Apparently in 1928, great-grandfather Ufkes had a few pups to sell as evidenced by his advertisement shown below.

 "Police pups, color wolf gray, 7 weeks old, can be registered. Mother dog is a good cattle driver and watch dog. Price reasonable. Fred ufkes, Carthage, R. 2"

Hancock County [Illinois] Farm Bureau Bulletin,  Volume VIII, Number 10, May 1928, p 7; digital image GoogleBooks (http://books.google.com)--made from copy at the University of Illinois Library.

Of course, "police pups" would be an old style reference to a German Shepherd. The picture in which the dog (Scamper) appears is undated, but based upon the apparent ages of the brothers in the picture it would have been in the mid to late 1930s.

The Hancock County Farm Bureau Bulletin contains several other references to my great-grandfather Ufkes--enough to generate at least one additional blog post.

Great-granddad Ufkes is the only one of my direct line relatives to appear in the pages of the Hancock County Farm Bureau Bulletin. I  looked for Great-grandpa Habben, but family tradition told me his name would not be in the pages of the Bulletin. The reason why has been lost to history, but the fact that he was not a fan of the Farm Bureau is a story that's been passed down.

A 1917 Baptism

Chances are the actual baptismal certificate for my grandfather is long gone and I'll never see it. It likely was destroyed in a 1923 house fire which destroyed the family home. I never really thought about looking for the church record of Granddad's baptism.

Granddad Ufkes was one of those Germans with four names: a first name, two middle names, and his surname. Granddad was the oldest in his family and the only child to get a German name. He was named for his Grandfather Ufkes, who had the exact same name as he did. Both grandfather's Anglicized first names were John, but the Ufkes grandfather had a High German name (Johann) and his maternal grandfather had a low-German name (Jans).  To the Ostfriesen ethnic community Johann and Jans were different.

Granddad's younger siblings were all given "English names."  Born in 1917, he was arrived before the First World War brought an end to the use of the German and Platt names that had been passed down for generations.

Baptismal entry for Johann Heinrich Friederich Ufkes, Immanuel Lutheran Church, Basco, Hancock County, Illinois; digital image, Archves.com. 

The entry really isn't all that noteworthy. The information about his birth and the names of his parents are all details I have known forever--in fact, his mother lived long enough to see me graduate from high school, nearly seventy years after Granddad's birth. His parents are listed correctly as Fred[rich] and Trientje Janssen Ufkes and the indication is that he was born on 27 January 1917 in Bear Creek Township. His baptism was 22 days later on Sunday, 18 February 1917. His sponsors were his father's brother Eielt Ufkes and his wife Antje. The name of the sponsors and the date of his baptism were the only pieces of information I did not already have.

Granddad's brother's baptism is recorded a few years later in 1923 and that's the last entry for the family in the Immanuel Lutheran Church record book. His three younger siblings are not there. The reason they are not there is simple, but it took longer than it should have for the reason to dawn on me.

It was one of those things that never made sense, but was never questioned. My grandparents lived on the Ufkes "homeplace," west of Basco and maybe a half a mile from Immanuel Lutheran Church where Granddad was baptized in 1917. Yet my Grandparents didn't attend the rural church. They, Grandad's mother, and my family attended the Lutheran church several miles north in Carthage. I always thought it odd that despite their proximity to the "south church," they went to church in town. Granddad's mother lived in Carthage my whole life and I lived north of Carthage, so it going there for us made perfect sense to me.

The story, which I learned sometime later, was that Fred Ufkes wanted his children to learn English, which was spoken in the town church while the south church continued to have services in German.

When I remembered that story, I knew exactly why the younger children were not listed in the records of the south church. They were born after the family had transferred their membership to the town church. I had it in my head that the transfer happened during the First World War, but it did not as my uncle was born in 1923.

The timing of the family's transfer probably was not the war. It most likely was the fact that Johann Ufkes, Fred's father, died in 1924. There are no entries for the Fred Ufkes family after that time. Johann was an early council member of the south church and it was where all his children were baptized and confirmed and it was in that church cemetery where Johann's wife Noentje and infant son were buried. It seems more reasonable that there was a wait to leave the church until the grandfather passed away in 1924.

Confirmation Records of My Great-Grandparents

I've been playing a little more with the scanned images of church records from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America which are on the Archives.com website. With a little work, I discovered the confirmation records of my great-grandparents at the Immanuel Lutheran Church in Basco, Hancock County, Illinois. 

I can't determine if the actual baptismal records from the church are on Archives.com as their interface does not allow for browsing. But at this point, indexed access is better than nothing.

My great-grandfather Ufkes is the second entry on this list--Friederick Janssen Ufkes, son of J. Ufkes u. frau. All the parents were listed as the father and the wife. 

Confirmation record from Immanuel Lutheran Church, 4 April 1909, Basco, Hancock County, Illinois; digital image on Archives.com. 

 My great-grandmother Ufkes is listed a year later--Trientje Maria Janssen.

Confirmation record from Immanuel Lutheran Church,20 March 1910, Basco, Hancock County, Illinois; digital image on Archives.com.

I'm hoping to make a few more discoveries in these records. Some churches would record the confirmation verses in these records. Apparently Pastor Geissler didn't do that.

My great-grandmother Habben is probably in these records as well. However her name did not come up in the index. Finding her, with the inability to browse, may be a little bit of a trick.