A Baptism Provides Confirmation

As a followup to my post "An 1893 Baptism....Brings Two Questions," I'm posting the baptismal entry for my great-grandmother Trientje Marie (Janssen) Ufkes.

Great-grandma was baptized at the same church as her future husband: Immanuel Lutheran Church in Hancock County, Illinois' Harmony Township.

This time there were no surprises from the entry which comes from pages 34 and 35 of the church record and was obtained digitally on Archives.com.

The entry indicates that Trientje Maria, daughter of Jans Janssen and Friedericka (geb. Sartorius) was born in Bear Cr[eek] T[ownship] on 17 April 1895 at 3 in the morning. She was baptized on 28 April 1895 by pastor B[ernard] Geissler and had Tj[ark] Janssen and his wife [Meta Flick] as her sponsors.

I didn't know who great-grandma's sponsors were, but the names were no surprise to me. Tjark Janssen was her father's brother who also lived in the area.

The only thing I "learned" was that great-grandma was born at 3 in the morning.

Actually I was glad to obtain this record. Sometimes it's good to find something "new."

I was unable to find great-grandma's birth record in the birth records of Hancock County, Illinois Clerk and Recorder despite several attempts to locate the record. The birth date is consistent with more recent records on great-grandma, but it is nice to have a record contemporary to her birth that provides the same date "we always knew."

Of course, given that great-grandma's parents were members of a denomination that practiced infant baptism (Lutheran), the record of her baptism (which also includes her date of birth) would be a record contemporary with her date of birth. The baptismal record who have to be given more credence than other records. Fortunately in this case all the records agree.

Except that this is the only one that provides her time of birth.

Who are four of these people?

I only know who one of the people in this photo is.

The young lady on the far right is Tena/Trientje Janssen Ufkes (1895-1986).

Tena was born in Bear Creek Township in February of 1895 and died in Carthage, Hancock County, Illinois, in 1986.

I do not know who the others are in the picture. This photograph was one that my grandparents had. Tena's son John H. Ufkes (1917-2003), was my grandfather.

Any suggestions as to who the others are would be greatly appreciated.

The Drawbacks of Writing on the Back

Years ago, when I made many copies of items from the Ostfriesische Nachrichten, I wrote on pencil the date of the paper. Unfortunately when I scanned these at work using our auto feed scanner I forgot this minor detail and the newspaper dates were not included in my scan. One has to be careful writing on copies of documents so that the writing cannot be confused with the actual document. In this case that would not be a problem.

Somewhere I have the original copy that I made with the date on the back. Unfortunately, until I can locate that I will have to try and estimate the date of the item.

This letter was written by Tjark Janssen, my uncle. Fortunately, he mentions Eilt Ufkes, another uncle, Poppe Fooken, another uncle, and Mrs. Jans Janssen, my great-great-grandmother. So I know right away that the article was written before her death in October of 1913. The article mentions her travelling to Colorado for her health. Jan Janssen was a brother to Tjark Janssen, who wrote the letter.