This is something that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, but just never got around to it. I searched and searched looking up where I ‘came from’, and now I know… kind of.
I started out with just knowing my grandfathers first and last names and around the time he died, but ended up going all the way back to when my great great great grandfather first stepped off the boat from Europe. What an experience! I learned a lot about my family history and had fun doing it.
However, I’m not done yet. My father has said something about a ‘family bible’, but I haven’t been able to locate where it is just yet. The bible was handed down through many generations, hopefully holding the answers to my long long list of questions.
My journey began with me, luckily I knew my father’s name. Michael. From then, I went to find his father and grandfather (the grandfather was a little harder than I expected, but was done smoothely), Elmer and Frederick.
After finding the name of my great grandfather (which I already had a hunch at), I was able to do a search through the Kansas Geneological library for instances of the name Frederick, this easily led me to George and Christian, and then later finding a little more about Christian.
It sounds easy enough right? Well, I didn’t know I could do half those things along the way. The Kansas Geneological search was just a guess, and I was lucky it was in there. There aren’t many records there just yet… but they are assured it will be done soon. I’m sure other states have the same thing, however, when I looked through Ohio’s records, they don’t have many census’s done yet and have to be transcribed (reading old handwriting = VERY HARD!).
So this is what I came up with:
Gary R. Hess - Born Feb. 2, 1984
Father:
Michael L. Hess – Born Aug. 2, 1955 – Married Jun. 17, 1978 – Barbara Ann Weilert – Born May 21, 1954
Grandfather:
Elmer Joseph Hess - Born Mar. 28, 1924 – Died Oct. 3, 1989 Humboldt, Kansas – Married Apr. 15, 1950 Iola, Kansas – Evelyn Beal – Born May 3, 1929
Great Grandfather:
Frederick Alfonso Hess – Born May 8, 1880 Leon, Kansas – Died Feb. 8 1974 Iola Kansas – Married Feb. 24, 1914 – Ida Theresa Gennevieve Sculley – Born Nov. 14, 1887 – Died Dec. 4, 1970
Great Great Grandfather:
George Washington Hess (Very popular at his time and looked very highly upon, but did not enter politics. Also has his name on a stained glass window in St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Humboldt Kansas) – Born Jul. 27, 1838 – Died Feb. 24, 1923 – Married Apr. 10, 1866 – Frances Verone Kestler – Born Feb. 19, 1844 – Died Mar. 20 Humboldt, Kansas
Great Great Great Grandfather:
Christian Hess (A shoemaker) Born 1813 Baden, Germany – Died Dec. 1 1861 in Defiance Ohio – Married Jan. 31 1837 Canton, Ohio – Barbara Shutt Born 1821 France – Died Mar. 30 1891 Defiance, Ohio
This information alone probably won’t help anybody, but sooner or later hopefully I will have up sons, daughters, brothers and sisters up.
Also, if you have anymore information about Christian Hess, please help me out by posting a comment. I need to know who his parents were, his brothers and sisters and what boat he came to the US on and hopefully what port as well.
It is thought that maybe Christian Hess changed his name either before or after he landed in the USA. His name could have been Christian Hesse or even have a different first name, I just don’t know as of yet.
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My granpa was Joseph “Jimmy” Hess his dad was Henry Hess and his dad was George Hess — southeast Kansas