THE 2004 GUELFF GENEALOGICAL EXPEDITION: CLUES AND QUESTIONS

THE 2004 GUELFF GENEALOGICAL EXPEDITION: CLUES AND QUESTIONS

You never really know what you will find out about your family when you start asking questions, or better yet, fact checking the answers that you get or the stories that you hear. You also just might find out something about yourself in the process. Such was the case in the 2004 Guelff Genealogical Expedition.

My grandmother’s notes, some family stories and a letter written by a distant relative pinpointed the village of Guelff near Habergy in Belgium as the European birthplace of Michael Guelff, my great grandfather. I also learned from my mother and some preliminary research she had done that Michael Guelff settled with his wife, Anne Grein, in Eden Valley, Minnesota before the family moved to eastern Montana in the first decade of the 20th century.

In 2003 – nearly a hundred years later -- I took up genealogy as a way of having a real conversation with my mother whose short term memory was rapidly fading after several strokes. She could, however, remember an amazing amount of detail from her childhood and early adulthood. She also did very well when prompted with familiar photographs from the 1920’s and 1930’s.

Before her first stroke in early 2000, she had written a brief family history. The part about the Guelffs provided a few clues: “Anna Grein came to Eden Valley, Minnesota in 1876 at the age of 16 [remember the age, it comes back to haunt]. She was born in Haberge, Belgium, 3 miles from France. Met Michael Guelff on the ship. Married _______. They had 14 children, 9 grew to adulthood – Nicholas, Marie, Elizabeth, Michael, Regina, twins Catherine & Anna, Alphonse & Antony. Michael was drowned in a lake near Eden Valley. Anna then married Pete? Grote and moved to Yates, Mont. in 1906, then homesteaded near Brockway a few years later.” [Probably written by Doris Bell Holzworth before 1990]

She wrote another version, probably after doing some research and talking to other relatives: “Anna Grein was born in Haberge, Belgium – 1860. In 1876 her family sailed to the U.S. with Peter & ____ Russ. They settled in Eden Valley, Minn. She met her husband Michael Guelff on the boat. They had a saloon & lived above it. There were 14 children born to them. Michael, Elizabeth & Gertrude dies in infancy. John died at age 10 or appendix rupture. Nicholas, Marie, Elizabeth, Regina, Michael, twins, Anna & Catherine, Alphonse & Anthony. After husband Michael died --- the family moved to Yates, N.D. Anna married Fred Grote. About 1910 they settled on a homestead near Brockway. Marie married Hal Corkery & lived on a ranch near Medora, N.D. They had two sons Fred & Jack. Nick married Eva – 4 children Irene, Eugenia, Evelyn & Larry. Regina (Gene) married George Hutchinson – one sone Richard – Cheyenne, Wyo. Anna married James Campbell – 2 children Lavonne & Max – Omaha, Neb. Catherine married James Cashman – 2 children Joyce & Russell who was kille din the Phillipines in W.W. 2. Michael married Florence Russ – 3 children, Marguerite, Robert & Keith – Glendice. Alphonse married Marvel Joubert – 5 children Donald, Shirley, Dianne & David & _______, Missoula. Anthony dies age 30 of typhoid fever.”

I knew that Mom had santized her account of the death of Great Grandfather Michael Guelff. A hundred years ago -- and probably even today – much goes unspoken and even more unasked. My mother once mentioned that Great Grandfather Michael Guelff had probably committed suicide, but never elaborated other than to say that, according to Grandmother Bell, “She drove him to it.” Mom also told me, without going into detail, that Grandma Bell and her mother did not get along very well. My guess: this had something to do with Grandma Bell marrying outside the Catholic Church and, accordingly, being ex-communicated. Perhaps it was also because Grandma Bell was the oldest surviving child at the time Great Grandpa Michael Guelff died in 1905. Nevertheless, Grandma Bell and her four young children lived in one of Grandma Grote’s houses after Grandpa Dudley Bell died in the 1918 Spanish Influenza epidemic. My mother had fond memories of Grandma Grote.

More from Mom’s family sketch: “Elizabeth Guelff was born May 6, 1892 in Eden Valley, Minn. Moved to Yates N.D. in 1906. She helped her sister Marie at the Don Short ranch and Tom Mix of movie fame worked there. She married Dudly H. Bell on Dec. __, 1913 and they homesteaded near Brockway, Mt. Four children were born. Kenneth, Nov. 21, 1914 – Lucille, Jan. 18, 1916 – Gerald, Sept, 19, 1917 & Doris Jan. 30, 1919. Dudley died Nov. 11, 1918 while taking a load of wheat to Terry, MT This was when the influenza was so rampant. Her sister in law _______, Charles Bells wife, also died that same winter of flue. Doris [Mom] was born at Michael’s homestead at Pleasant View near Glendive. Elizabeth mover to her mother’s [Grandma Grote’s] house at 217 E. Hughes in Glendive that spring. She spent 8 months at Galen T.B. [Tuberculosis] Hospital near Butte that year [1920] while Grandmother Grote took care of the children. She lived there 16 years with a widows pension & taking in washing & cleaning for others. All the children graduated from High School & Gerald from U. of Montana. Kenneth & Gerald both were in the army during W.W.2. In 1948 she started working at Yellowstone Cleaners and doing alterations of clothing for several years.”

This paragraph also omits the real reason that Grandma Bell spent 8 months at Galen. Following Dudley’s death and Mom’s birth, she had a nervous breakdown.