While on my Nebraska Adventure I stopped at the Sidney Library to check out their genealogy resources. I had read on their website that they had a good collection of historical information so I was anxious to see it. Although the room was rather small and no air conditioning, I'm glad I stuck it out because I did find some interesting and unexpected information on the Nelck brothers. After going through the cemetery books, that someone painstakingly had put together, I happened along the names of Fred Nelks brothers, Charles and William. To my surprise they had all had homesteads in Cheyenne County. Charles and William both remained in the Sidney area and Fred left in 1899 for Welcome, Minnesota. Fred Nelk was married to my great grandfather's cousin Tena (Habben) so they were my primary research subject. Next time I will be more prepared to look into the lives of in-law relations. Something interesting and unexplained is why the brothers used different spellings for their last name. Charles and William both spelled their last name - “Nelck”, while Fred used the spelling “Nelk”. After some digging it appears that the German spelling may have been “Nilk”, according to Charles birth certificate. Sure makes researching a fun game!
For this weeks “Tombstone Tuesday” I present William and Kathryn (Shelley) Nelck. William and Kathryn were married in 1897. They never had any biological children, but did adopt two daughters according to some of their nieces. One daughter, Vera Grace died young at the age of 18 and is buried next to her father. In 1900 (according to the census) William, Kathryn, Charles and Emma were living together on the homestead they owned jointly. From a plat map, that I found from 1913, it appears that the two brothers owned one (160 acres) section together and each owned another section individually. So they were farming 480 acres together at that time. I also learned from the plat map that their homestead was west of the homestead that Fred and Tena had owned until 1900.
Kathryn (Shelley) Nelck raised canaries and lived to the age of 92.
William died in 1936 at the age of 68.
Terri, thank you so much for the cooment on my blog regarding the Manila Cemetery. I've been searching the National archives site all night and am driving myself nuts...where can I find information about requesting the photo? Thank you so much!!!
ReplyDeleteMelissa (mbrown4230 at yahoo dot com)
Melissa - Sorry for not being more specific. I have sent you an email.
ReplyDeleteInteresting about the different spellings of Nelck/Nelk used, especially among relatives as close as brothers. You're right, it does make research interesting!
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