Katie Heitert Wilkinson's Page

By pure conincidence, my dad's birthday and Mother's day are nearly back to back .... and sometimes, depending on the year, they fall on the same day.  Robert Daniel Heitert was born on May 9, 1922, in St. Louis, Missouri ...the youngest child of R. G. Heitert and Helen Wethmar Heitert.

"Big Pop" died in 2001after a lengthy struggle with congestive heart failure...just four days after his birthday.  He was a bit of a hell raiser as a young man ...at least that's what I've been told. …

Do you have days when you wish your interest in documenting your family's history had sprouted and put down roots when you were ....oh, about 10 or 11 years old?  I certainly do.  Why didn't I notice that we never seemed to talk about my dad's side of the family in our home?  Why didn't we ask his parents all those great questions like "how did you meet?" or "what were your brothers and sisters like?"  Perhaps because my maternal grandmother lived with us and the fact that she was actually…

I've learned from my research over the last two years that my paternal great great grandmother Catherine Josephine Connelly Jones was a survivor of the first degree.  Born in County Leitrim, Ireland, about 1829, she endured the Great Hunger.  A letter found in her Civil War Widow's Pension file came all the way from Mohill, County Leitrim, from the priest who married Catherine and her husband James R. Jones in 1849.  Nearly 15 years later, her remebered them both well.  The information that…

James R. Jones ...now there's a name I'd never heard until becoming addicted to family research.

Jamie, me bucko, you're my 3rd great grand pop on my dad's side of the clan. It's been great to meet you .... even if only through paper documents. A terrible shame it is that not one of the Heiterts of the last generation knew your story. Then again .... perhaps they did but decided to take the better part of caution. Trust me, Jamie; I never…