KasKaskiA

 Here's my weird family history find for today.

My sister-in-law’s, Jen Kaski, 2 times paternal great-grandparents are Reverend George Washington Grabe and Margaret "Maggie" Dial. They were married in Randolph, Illinois. 

Watching an ancestry show, Who Do You Think You Are? where the singer Melissa Etheridge traced her roots. While watching she traced her roots to Randolph, Illinois as well.

It turns out that Randolph used to be a major trading hub for New France (Quebec). It was the first state capital of Illinois after statehood. 

And here's the most fascinating part, Randolph was originally called

KasKaskiA.

Ok, so if your mind isn’t blown, mine is. Since Kaski is my maiden name, I know how uncommon it is, even as part of another word. You see lots of words with “ski” or some with “aski” but few with “Kaski”. 

While my maiden name, Kaski, came from the name of a farm in Finland, the town name KasKaskiA was the name of the local Native American tribe that lived in the area. 

Well, anyway, I was fascinated. 

Biography of Jurgen Schwager

The document that is shared below is an excerpt from the 1910 book An Illustrated History of Jackson County, Minnesota. It's rare to find such treasures, and for all those Untiedt's or Schwager's that come across this, I hope the archiving and sharing of this also brings you joy! 

Jurgen Schwager is my 2nd great-grandfather. Here's a brief tree to help understand the connection. A young picture of Jurgen was posted here in this link to a prior post.