KRUSE

My 2nd great-grandfather Johann Joachim Heinrich Kruse was born in/near Kapern/Holtorf Schnackenburg, Germany in 1833. He arrived in the US in 1854. Holforf is on the Elbe River which separates Brandenburg from Lower Saxony (formerly, it separated East Germany from West Germany).

My 2nd great-grandmother Johanna Ritter was born in Hannover, Niedersachsen, Germany in 1844. She arrived in the US 1850.

Johann and Johanna were married in Niles, Illinois in 1864.

My great-grandfather William Heinrich Friedrerich Kruse is their third child, born in 1869. He married Engel Marie Katherine Sophia (Sophie) Seegers (born 1870) in Des Plaines, Illinois in 1892.

My grandfather Rudolph Conrad Heinrich Kruse was their first child, born in 1893. He married Ottilie Caroline Emilie Rateike (born 1890) in Des Plaines in 1916.

ADAIR

My 2nd great-grandfather David Adair was born in Deer Creek, Ohio in 1832.

My 2nd great-grandmother Margaret Ann Young was born on Virginia (now, West Virginia) in 1837. West Virginia became a state in 1861 and admitted to the Union in 1863. Her parents married in Monroe, West Virginia in 1835.

David and Margaret were married in Mokane, Missouri. Mokane is on the Missouri River near Jefferson City, but soon lived with David’s parents Robert Adair and Margaret Garrett in/near Oskaloosa, Iowa.

My great-grandfather John Wesley Adair was born in 1865; he had 10 siblings. JW married Margaret Jane Miller in Redding, Iowa in 1890. Maggie was born in Redding in 1867; she had 10 siblings (one died as an infant). Her parents were born in Rockbridge County, Virginia.

My grandfather Earl David Adair was born in 1895; he had three brothers. He married Mary Emma Bailey (born 1894) in Des Moines, Iowa in 1920. She was born in Durham, Maine.