This is Elvira and Warren standing by the creek that runs through what used to be Heinrich Christoph Krech's property near Denver, Iowa. We were standing close to where his saw mill must have been.
Elvira was a sweetie. She met us at the Bremer County Courthouse in Waverly, Iowa and we spent about 3 hours going through court records, discovering all sorts of amazing things about this ancestor of ours. Without Elvira's help, we wouldn't have known what to do.
With her help, we discovered treasures like the following:
(1) Chris had a stroke that left him with some paralysis about three years before his death. In the same time period, we found a record of several land sales, as if they were selling off their land so Susannah would have the means to take care of him.
(2) We discovered the land sales record when Thomas Fountain sold all his land holdings. It was in March of 1878. They left for South Dakota shortly after that. So the land sale was his grub stake for the supplies they needed to head to the new land.
(3) We discovered the actual cities where both Chris and Regina were born in Germany. Warren’s first words after discovering these cities was, “We are over there.” Visiting Germany would be a great adventure, going to the towns they came from, trying to discover actual birth records, family records!
Elvira was a sweetie. She met us at the Bremer County Courthouse in Waverly, Iowa and we spent about 3 hours going through court records, discovering all sorts of amazing things about this ancestor of ours. Without Elvira's help, we wouldn't have known what to do.
With her help, we discovered treasures like the following:
(1) Chris had a stroke that left him with some paralysis about three years before his death. In the same time period, we found a record of several land sales, as if they were selling off their land so Susannah would have the means to take care of him.
(2) We discovered the land sales record when Thomas Fountain sold all his land holdings. It was in March of 1878. They left for South Dakota shortly after that. So the land sale was his grub stake for the supplies they needed to head to the new land.
(3) We discovered the actual cities where both Chris and Regina were born in Germany. Warren’s first words after discovering these cities was, “We are over there.” Visiting Germany would be a great adventure, going to the towns they came from, trying to discover actual birth records, family records!
(4) The most satisfying was the probate records Warren got to open. They were in an envelope tied up with a red string. It dawned on Warren when he opened it that he was probably the first person to open it since 1906. There were a lot of yellowed documents in there including the original will and testament of Chris. Not in his handwriting but with his actual signature on it. We discovered in these probate papers that Chris kept bees. It appears that William--his son who took the trip to South Dakota many years before with the Fountains, and married the Fountain's daughter, Lina--drove a horse and buggy from SD to IA for the probate process about a year after his father's death.
Elvira also took us to the Waverly Public Library and the cemetery where H. C. was buried.
Many documents to scan and post in the upcoming weeks. Come back for another visit!
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