July 15, 2008

An Uncle I Didn't Know About

While searching through the genealogy information available on the Internet recently, I ran across this document...




The database that led me to it listed the name as "Harsed Stalker" and I can see how the handwritten name could be interpreted that way.  This was, of course, a name I had never heard before.  The names of the father and mother were familiar to me though, Grandpa John Stalker and Grandma Angeline Bailey.  That made Harsed a brother to Dad and my uncle.

Looking at the document a little closer, it tells a sad story.  John and Angeline's third baby boy was born February 19, 1927 and died a few days later on February 28th.  That's nine days the way I count them but the certificate lists his age as 11 days.  Doc Deskins from Elkhorn City (Praise at that time) recorded 'Pneumonia' as the cause and didn't elaborate farther.  I can't help but wonder if the cold February weather wasn't a contributing factor.

Dad had just turned two years old at this time and I wasn't sure he would know or remember anything about it.  As we drove to Prestonsburg the other day I asked him if he knew anything about Grandpa John and Grandma Angeline losing a baby that was just a few days old.

"Oh yeah, that was Harold", he replied. "When he died that made me the baby again.  Maggie and Homer used to say I was spoiled 'cause I was the baby twice.  He's buried up there on the Wilson Cemetery right near old man George Stalker."



Dad indicated he had thought about having a headstone made but he wasn't sure which of the several rocks that marked burial sites of Stalker children there was the one for baby Harold, so he never had.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I remember dad talking about him. I bet that was a sad time for them all :(

Anonymous said...

This is a rough thing to read about. We live such easy lives compaired to our ancestors. It makes me ashamed to complain about anything. Randy says he has heard dad talk about Harord. He said he was the baby twice. I can't remember hearing about him.