Seeking info on Tom J. Kissle
Hello all, I am new to the forum, and a new to genealogy, although my mother has been studding our for years. She deadended on Tom, and I am trying to pick up the trail. He is my great, great, great grandfather, on my mother's father's side. We've got tons of info and pics, but we don't know exactly what happened to him. What we know: His father owned a farm next door to the Gottfried family in Warrick Co, Owen Township, Indiana and he was four on the 1880 census. His parents were Christopher (b. IN, 1856) and Caroline (Chris is in some relation to Jacob Kissle who's name I've seen on this forum). Chris' father immigrated from Prussia, and married a woman from Indiana. According to my mother's grandmother's marriage license, Tom was a barber. As mentioned above, he grew up next to the Gottfried farm, and was the same age as Emma Gottfried. We have a very curious studio photograph of them together in their late teen, early 20s. As the story goes, they were more than just friends, and Emma got pregnant. They were not married, and I suspect they may have been courting the time of the picture, meaning they may have had it done during a date, or perhaps they WERE planning to marry, it's unclear. The baby's name was Ester Gottfried (b IN, 1899), my mother's grandmother on her father's side. (She was never given the Kissle name). In the late 80's, Ester was sitting alone with my mother and father, and with much embarrassment, whispered she was a bastard. My mom and dad tried to comfort her, and tell her that kind of thing didn't matter anymore and not to be upset, but to no avail. We have established he left and went to St. Louis, and was buried there or Independence City, MO (I've got a date, but my program is freezing up on me, and don't have access to the date right now). There are a lot of unanswered questions surrounding his departure. We've speculated that Emma's family drove him off, he ran off, or he's not the father of Ester at all. We'd like to know if anyone has the answer to those questions, and what his life was like in St. Louis. I would imagine he eventually started another family, but at one time, we think, Emma went to join him, and came back. The time she was gone, she left baby Ester with her parents Joseph and Mary Gottfried immigrants from Bohemia (Not Bohemia, NY). *Joseph may have already been dead at this time* She later returned, remarried a man named Homer Spradley, and had two more children Gurly (a man) and Elsie. We have wondered if he ever returned, if he had another family, what his life was like, and if there are any of his descendants, do they know there was another child. If anyone has any information they can provide here, or to my email, please contact me. We have pics and documents we can share. I am a filmmaker and I also do digital editing, and have greatly enhanced digital copies of the original images.
Thanks in advance,
Nicolette Olivier