In 1999 a distant cousin named Joy (Smith) Friedland contacted my mother and myself regarding our Scheck genealogy. Mom was able to identify some pictures for Joy and she and I shared some material. Frankly most of the sharing was on Joy’s side since I hadn’t really begun working on the Scheck family. As often happens, Joy and I drifted out of touch. I didn’t think much about it, even in genealogical circles that happens. Last year when I decided to get in touch with Joy before my annual trip to Salt Lake City, my e-mail came back undeliverable. I tried the SLC phone book and couldn’t find her at her former address. Ah well I thought, I’ll try again later. But I’d already left it until too late. In March, when I began working on the family website, I started trying to contact Joy again. Selfishly I wanted to post material from a brief document she sent me in 1999 regarding the Scheck family. I still hadn’t gotten around to researching the Scheck Family, so I was hoping to piggyback on Joy’s research and share her results with the larger family. So I started a more intensive hunt for Joy on the Internet. I found a phone number for Joy and her husband in Montana. I was thrilled, but before I called the number I thought I would see if I could find an address. You can imagine my shock when lower down the results page I came across Joy’s obituary. Joy (Smith) (Thompson) Friedland died on 1 July 2004 at her home in Bigfork Montana.
In Joy’s honor I am posting a scanned copy of her carefully researched document. I have been unable to contact Joy’s children to get their permission for this posting. If anyone objects to this posting I will be very willing to remove it. It seemed like the honorable way to recognize Joy’s work on the Scheck Family of Weisenmuller, Russia and Otis, Kansas. I apologize for the poor quality of the photos and for the handwritten scrawled notes on some pages. They are scanned from photocopies so are second or third generation. This is Joy’s work and it is of course copyrighted. Please credit her for anything you use in your own research.
Scheck Joy Smiths Scheck Family genealogy 1999