My Grandfather, Eloi Koch, died when my father was four years old. Eloi and his siblings were separated at very young ages and lost contact with one another. We have never known any of our great aunts, uncles or cousins on my dad's Koch...side of the family. This morning I received an email.. Through the tears of thanksgiving...I write this blog! I have worked on this family line to only hit dead ends.... and then out of the blue...thanks to my Uncle Al and his wife Eve...(thank you, thank you, thank you!) I may be able to put together more of the piece of the Koch puzzle!
Hello Krissy,
I got your name from Eve – she is one of my high school classmates and we met her and Allan at a class reunion this past summer. It was a huge surprise to discover my husband Dennis and Allan are first cousins. Dennis has wanted to make contact with his extended family for a long time. After the reunion we drove to Marshall, Minneota, and Ghent to check out the cemeteries and try to find more family. We did find several. We also found many Koch names in the phone books for the area, but don’t know how they are all connected. Eve sent me a Christmas Card with Steve and Stan’s addresses, as well as your email address. She says you have been working on a family tree. We would sure love a get a copy of what you’ve got done so far.
Dennis’ dad is Ed, who has been dead many years from a car accident. His wife Betty still lives in St. Peter. Dennis has 3 brothers (Danny, Greg, Gary) and one sister (Cheryl Peters). Dennis has 4 children: Mark, Brian, Eric, and Tanya Hagen. If you want more information, I’ll be happy to provide that. I attached a copy of my Christmas letter for this year so you can see a picture of Dennis and me. Our address and email addresses are on the letter.
Do you know if any of Ed’s brothers and sisters are still alive? Ed never told Betty anything much about his family, so anything you can tell us would be appreciated. Do you know anything about where their mother and father came from?
Are you Steve’s only child? Where are you living?
We are so excited to make this connection with you and your side of the family. Eve is going to try to plan a get-together next summer so we can all meet and we are very excited about that. In the meantime, we very much look forward to hearing about what you have been able to learn about the family.
Have a blessed Christmas and a wonderful new year.
Hugs and love,
Sharon
8 comments:
WOW Thank heaven for chance meetings. What a small world We are very excited to maybe have a chance to meet some of Dad's relatives and learn more about their family.
It is a joyous season and what a wonderful Christmas gift.
Thanks for having the determination to keep looking at our family tree for your Dad.
That is so amazing! I had chills reading it. How amazing to feel like you're at a dead end and then out of no where something shines through! I hope this opens up many more doors for you! Thanks for sharing!
yeah! That is so wonderful! best of luck!
Hello Koch family, Kristen told me about this blog and it's taken me a bit to figure it out. I've never done this before - about time, huh? What a fun site - I can't wait to share it with Dennis (nickname Cookie). He works nights at Unimin, a sand mining company, and right now is getting his beauty sleep. His sister Cheryl Peters is here from Wisconsin and we are going out to eat later, so we will be able to share this news with her too. Yippee skippee, as Dennis often says. By the way, who are Kathy and Korbi and the Seaman family? How do you all fit into the family tree? You (and Kristin) seem to be the age of Dennis' daughter Tanya Hagen who lives in Henderson, MN.
That is sooo cool, and what a great gift to give to your Dad!!
How thrilling to find that connection and make progress on your family tree. Awesome blessing.
Very cool. That is the best feeling, to connect with relatives you didn't know you had who are also interested in genealogy. Yay!
That is such an awesome thing to be able to sit down with your kids one day and show them your family tree. I remember being so curious when I was younger. Good luck with the hunt!
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