How this all began
A school project turned into a life long quest and hobby. An introduction to our family history…
My Grandfather, Frederick Jacob Alter died when my dad, James Alter was just a baby. Granddad on Christmas Eve went to lay down for a nap in the afternoon and when my grandmother went to wake him at dinner time found that granddad had passed away in his sleep. What a Christmas that must have been! Dad did not know much about our family surname of Alter as he was raised by his stepfather, Stanley Sikora. All dad knew was that my grandmother, Rose (Tyc) had said that Alter Road, a street in Detroit, Michigan that divides Detroit from Grosse Point was the back property line of the family farm that was once owned by Frederick’s father. At that time an easement was given to the City of Detroit to build the road from Warren Ave down to the Detroit River, all of which was family farm land. In doing so, the city gave the road the name Alter Rd after my family. This interest me so when I was given a project in high school history class, I though this would be a good start for research.
Not knowing where to research I read a few books on genealogy and one of the things that was mentioned in the book as a source for research was church records. I knew my family had been Catholic. I decided to check the area around Alter Rd and where the family farm was located at 760 Lakepointe. I found that Saint Paul’s Catholic Church was not far so I went to the rectory to ask for information. Now, this was some 50 years ago. I was escorted to a reading room, ask to put on white cotton gloves, and I was allowed to page through some very old and fragile parish records. I was fortunate in that since that time the books have been put on microfiche and copies are now kept in various libraries for review. I got to view the original books. In these records I hit the jackpot. I was able to find my great grandfather, John Jacob Alter. I found that he had married Elizabeth Munsch and I found baptism records on my grandfather and his family. I was off to a good start. I found death records as well. I found when John Jacob had died and located his grave in Saint Paul’s Catholic Church Cemetery. When going to find his grave, I found many more ancestors who were buried here as well. That was the start of the Alter research. Much more on our Alter history later.
Now having a good start on my family surname, I talked to my great grandmother, Edna Ward who was still alive. She was my mother’s grandmother. Great Grandma passed away in 1986 and was almost 100 years old. She had lots of stories to tell and I will tell them later in our history. Great Grandma told me about her father, John Nelson Ward and her mother Sarah Francis Lille (nicknamed Nellie). She told me about her grandfather David Mason Lillie. He was in the Civil War for the north. His father was George Hiram Lillie, a Probate Judge who studied law with Gov. Todd of Ohio. George later moved to Kansas Territory and was a Congressional Rep. for Kansas Statehood. George was an original signer to the Kansas State Constitution and was a founding father of Eureka KS.
Great Grandma gave me a small black book titled “Ward/Munger Genealogy” This little book was wrote by Duran James Henderson Ward, a cousin and published in 1926 when he was an old man. Here in this book he did a genealogy that went forward toward descendants rather than backward to ancestry. This was unfortunate in that I have not been able to find documents that go back past John Ward who was born at Fort Ann, New York in 1765. Duran’s research however was great going forward with information he published from first hand knowledge of his own and other cousins of the time. I still have this book today and it has been invaluable to me.
All in all this is an introduction on how I started my research. I have continued on my Alter research with dates and documents to the late 1600’s. I have continued research on my late wife, Vicki Beavers. Her mother was Bertie Jo Ellen Hanks. I have researched and shown that she is a cousin of Abraham Lincoln. His mother was Nancy Hanks. As you can see, this has become a life long hobby and I am still doing research.
More in depth history on our lines will follow…
Edna Ward (my great grandmother and Suzanne Alter 1980
George Hiram Lille Headstone in Eureka Kansas
On headstone it states “Signer of Kansas Constitution”
John Nelson Ward
Abraham Lincoln