52 Ancestors in 2019 - Week 2: Challenge, Part I: Grandson George

 The prompt for week 2 is ‘Challenge’. George Kolk has DEFINITELY been a challenge to me! Who is George Kolk? I only wish I could tell you.

The first time I came across the name ‘George Kolk’ was listed among the survivors in the probate file of Jacob Kolk, dated Dec 1900.

 “and George Kolk - son of a deceased child of said Jacob Kolk - (said George Kolk being a minor, under the aged of twenty one years)”

That sounds pretty straight-forward, but….  I have only found four sons for Jacob, all under age 10 in the 1870 census, and all are still living at the time of Jacob’s death in 1900. The only unaccounted for child is a daughter, Anna, who was 2 at the time of the 1870 census.

 Anna has not been seen since! By 1878, when Anna would have been approximately 10, her mother, Mary Kolk, has died. Is it possible that Anna’s father found that raising a young daughter along with four boys too difficult, and that he sent her to liive with relatives or neighbors? Could George be a child of Anna? The surname Kolk seems to imply he was the child of a dead son, but perhaps Anna gave birth to him outside of marriage?

Whoever George is the son of, in 1908 the Alton, Illinois city directory shows he is living at the same address as his guardian, his uncle William Kolk, the youngest of the sons of Jacob. In a 1908 court filing, William has posted a $1000 bond as George’s guardian. In 1913, George is defendant in a partition suit instituted by his uncles for the estate of Jacob Kolk.

I have found a George Kolk living in Centralia, Illinois who is of the right age, and there is some evidence that he is ‘my’ George, but there is other evidence that makes me wonder. But I’ll share more about this George in part II of ‘Challenge'!

To learn more about 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow, visit her website here.

Sources:

• 1870 U.S. Census, KOLK, Jacob Family, Monticello Post Office, Township 6, Range 9, Madison County, Illinois, 26 Jul 1870, FamilySearch.org, viewed in “United States Census, 1870," index and images,” image 35 of 44, citing NARA microfilm publication M593, accessed 1 Jun 2015.
• KOLK, Jacob, Probate File, Madison County, Illinois, 1901, Box 79 Tray 241, IRAD, Carbondale, Illinois.
• KOLK, George, guardian approved, “Edwardsville Intelligencer,” Edwardsville, Illinois, 29 Jan 1908, page 1, NewspaperArchive.com, accessed 7 Aug 2018.
• KOLK, George et al, Probate Book PR105, Madison County Illinois Circuit Clerk , Madison County, Illinois, Declaration of Intention, page 201, 215, Jan 1908, Madison County Circuit Court, accessed 9 Jan 2019.
• KOLK, George, partition suit, “Alton Evening Telegraph,” Alton, Illinois, 18 Dec 1902, NewspaperArchive.com, accessed 7 Jan 2019.
• KOLK, U.S. City Directories, 1822-1989, Alton, Madison County, Illinois, McCoy Directory Co, 1908-1909, page 173, Ancestry.com, image 90 of 220, accessed 21 Sep 2015.