Faces I've never met

Alright. So, I'm really big into family history. This could be because of the dominant religion in my area. But I love it simply because I love history, and knowing where I come from fascinates me. I got started about a year and a half ago. Since then, I've found out so much about my family. I've even gotten to the point where I help other people out a little with their family history basics as well. I'm by no means an expert, but I love doing it and I can sometimes come up with some interesting stuff.

Some of my favorite people to research are the Grimm family, my great-great-great grandfather Martin, his wife Katherine, and their children. In 1883, they left Germany for the United States with their young son Henry. While travelling across the ocean on a ship called the S.S. Nevada, their second child was born, a son named Otto. In Utah, Martin and his wife Katherine had seven more children, including my great-great grandmother, Amelia.

They suffered a lot of hardship once they got here, losing four of their nine children at a young age, and losing another in his early thirties. Baby Otto died when he was four months old. They lost their two-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, and had a stillborn son in the same year. And their daughter, Mary, got very sick and passed away when she was just eighteen.

Who interests me the most in this family, however, is Amelia's older brother Henry. I don't have a photo of him (in fact, the only Grimm family member I have photos of is Amelia), so I can't put a face to the name. However, his story has always fascinated me, though I've never been able to quite find out as much as I'd like. He died young as well - at the age of 31. Shortly after midnight on January 12, 1909, Henry was out walking in Salt Lake City with his friend Edward. They went to get on a Sugar House car while it was still moving. However, it was icy, and Henry slipped and hit his head. He never woke up, leaving behind his wife, Violet, and four young children. His oldest son was six, and his youngest, a daughter, was just two months old.

Why was he out there so late? Where was he going? I'll probably never know. All I know are the facts stated in newspaper articles; date, time, place, etc. I did have an interesting experience, however. One day in November, my mom and I went to Salt Lake to see a play at the Capitol Theatre. To pass time before the show, we walked around the city. I remember stopping at one street corner to talk to my mom's friend, who was wishing me a happy birthday. I absentmindedly noticed that I was at the corner of 200 South and Main Street.

Later that week, I was just doing some random researching, when I came across another article about Henry's death. This one gave the address of where he died: "Second South and Main Street." The exact corner I had been standing on a few days before.

It was pretty surreal.