Hi,
Hope you are still around to receive this information.
John Ooms married my Grand Aunt, Hedwig (Hattie) ROSE. Hattie was b. 10 Mar 1899, a twin sister to Frank Max ROSE, the 11th & 12th children in the family. They were born in Oak Glen (now Lansing, IL) to parents, Carl (Charles) ROSE, b. 16 Dec 1861 in Germany, d. 8 Dec 1924 in Bremen, Cook Co., IL; and his wife, Hedwig SOLCOW, she b. 12 Mar 1861 in Germany, d. 18 Mar 1944 at Manteno, Kankakee Co., IL..
John and Hattie Ooms had no children of their own.
My Grandfather is Carl (Charles) ROSE, b. 27 Sept 1887 in Oak Glen, the oldest surviving son.
The family story is the the elder Carl & Hedwig left Germany late in 1884 with two small sons (and Hedwig pregnant with the third). The story is that the two boys died shortly after arriving in the USA, and the child Hedwig was pregnant with was stillborn. The younger Hedwig (Rose - DeVries) showed me the three childrens graves when I was in IL for the funeral of another Grand Aunt (her sister, Emma Rose Burton) in 1961. However, when I returned to the cemetery in 1977, the headstones were no longer there.
However, the passenger ship record for the SS America, arriving in New York on 20 Dec 1884 shows Carl Rose age 22, a farmer from Germany; his wife, Hedwig Rose, age 23, and Albert Rose, age 8 months.
As I saw the three small graves, I have no doubt that the family story is true. The first child to live born here, is Bertha A. ROSE, b. Sept 1886, m. Herbert (Henry ?) SONS, the 2nd was my Grandfather, as above.
My Grandfather left Illinois in 1905 - 6, and settled in North Dakota. I met Sarah Ooms DeVries on a couple of occasions, and her father, John. As there were rather strained relationships between the IL and the ND relatives, I am not sure that I was real well received. VBG.
I was told that there was a family tree showing the ROSE family descending from Scotland through Germany, but I have not been able to contact anybody who has seen it, or has it. I fear that somebody tossed it ...............
I also have heard the story about the fire that took the lives of John Ooms first wife and all the children but Sarah. I would very much like a copy of additional accounts. One of John's children was Sadie Ooms, b. abt 1919. Sarah was 2nd to the oldest, and Sadie followed Sarah.
Hope this information is helpful to you, and I look forward to additional information.
Sharon