Siblings Visiting Ancestors, Helmus and Teune families ~ October 31, 2018

Forest Home Cemetery, Forest Park, IL

We first visited the resting place of our mother's parents. Both of them passed away long before any of us were born.

Their parents, our great-grandparents, also rest in peace nearby.

There were other relatives we could have looked for but no one was quite sure where to look.

Before we stopped our 'Helmus' search, we spotted some 'Teune' gravestones here, Henry (Hendrik) & Ida Teune. Henry was the son of Jan, who was Johannes' older brother. (Johannes is our great-grandfather and his grave was found in our next stop.) More interesting is the grave here of Jacob Teune, one of Henry's sons. When we saw the year he died, we assumed it was in the war. But our geneology-studying brother informed us that Jacob was killed during his armored car robbery attempt. This makes his tombstone epitaph all the more interesting.

Henry and Ida had five other children and we found one more in the next cemetery. Before we left Forest Home, we visited the historic Haymarket Martyr's Monument. The martyrs are not relatives by blood but by spirit.

Here is a link to a complete Haymarket Monument summary:

Haymarket Tragedy Monuments

Mount Auburn Cemetery, Stickney IL

Another son of the aforementioned Henry and Ida (and brother of Jacob) was found in the 'Teune' section.

We were looking for more directly related family members, however, and found our great-grandparents on our father's side, Johannes and Grietje (John and Grace).

The daughter, Alice, while listed on this side of the gravestone, belongs to the parents on the reverse side with Daniel (son of Johannes) and his wife Alice, who also lost a baby Daniel. The baby grave sites are always the saddest.

Vader Johannes, and yes we joked about the 'Vader', had nine children and we found another one of his sons nearby, Herman (Harm).

But the son we were looking for was Edward because he is our grandfather. He died in 1968 so only the older siblings have clear recollections of him. He was married three times; his first two wives died but he and his first wife, Helen, had six children, the youngest of whom was our father.

When I was young, our parents frequently took us to visit family graves (usually on Sunday afternoons) and this gravestone of my grandmother used to freak me out since 'Helen Teune' was my name. But visiting this grave with my brother Ed now was so much more meaningful, namesakes and look-alikes :-).

We then visited our parents' grave, Rose and Garret.

All five of their children were there together and I know they would have liked that.

Before we parted ways, we found two more graves to which to pay our respects, two sisters of our father, along with their husbands, our beloved aunts and uncles.

There are other cemeteries to visit and more respects to pay but this afternoon was time well spent with family.