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Help me solve a mystery!
Mar. 21st, 2026 08:09 amEDIT: I deciphered the name! It's Kruesel! Frank is the FIL of the man my relative worked for :-D
Folks!!!
Just the other day I was tingling with excitement. I checked Ancestry, and it coughed up a border card for my long-lost great-grand aunt Katie. I've written about Katie here for ages--and it was a very hilarious series of mistakes to find anything out about her.
Was she called Kolya? Nope!
Was my cousin "Aunt" Daisy on the right track 20 years ago when she tracked Katie down to Chicago? Heck nope!
Was the family lore about Katie accurate in any way? Mostly nope!
But this...this is concrete proof that Katie existed! It's full of more facts about her than I ever knew before--she was 5'6", had brown eyes and hair, was single, and worked for a family as a domestic (one bit about family lore that turned out to be true).
I was so excited and bummed that I had to go into the office that day. It was so tempting to take a sick day, and a little searching had my imagination running wild--that is, until I realized I can't read the name of the family she was travelling with.
My initial searching revealed someone named Bernard J. Krussel, and funnily enough, one of his relatives married a Catherine Marie. Catherine Marie died at the age of 95 in 2014--which was conceivable given the long-livedness of my maternal relatives. As I have a cluster of relatives in Connecticut, I have to be broad-minded when making these connections.
ANYWAY I could not find a border crossing card for a Krussel in Ancestry, which has me looking at the card again. I could not find cards for Kreesel, Kruesel, Kriesel, Kreisel, which leads me to believe Bernard J.'s last name is not a K.
So my big ask is...can anyone please take a look at the border crossing card and tell me what the handwritten name under Stasko is?
Also, would American citizens have to fill out a border crossing card, or only non-Americans?
On a whim, I even asked ChatGPT to look at it, but it was not helpful.
At least this part checked out...the destination and name of the person they were visiting was easily verifiable. Frank F. Spring Sr. lived in Rossland, BC. He met his wife there, and they later moved to Cranbrook, BC, in 1952.
Folks!!!
Just the other day I was tingling with excitement. I checked Ancestry, and it coughed up a border card for my long-lost great-grand aunt Katie. I've written about Katie here for ages--and it was a very hilarious series of mistakes to find anything out about her.
Was she called Kolya? Nope!
Was my cousin "Aunt" Daisy on the right track 20 years ago when she tracked Katie down to Chicago? Heck nope!
Was the family lore about Katie accurate in any way? Mostly nope!
But this...this is concrete proof that Katie existed! It's full of more facts about her than I ever knew before--she was 5'6", had brown eyes and hair, was single, and worked for a family as a domestic (one bit about family lore that turned out to be true).
I was so excited and bummed that I had to go into the office that day. It was so tempting to take a sick day, and a little searching had my imagination running wild--that is, until I realized I can't read the name of the family she was travelling with.
My initial searching revealed someone named Bernard J. Krussel, and funnily enough, one of his relatives married a Catherine Marie. Catherine Marie died at the age of 95 in 2014--which was conceivable given the long-livedness of my maternal relatives. As I have a cluster of relatives in Connecticut, I have to be broad-minded when making these connections.
ANYWAY I could not find a border crossing card for a Krussel in Ancestry, which has me looking at the card again. I could not find cards for Kreesel, Kruesel, Kriesel, Kreisel, which leads me to believe Bernard J.'s last name is not a K.
So my big ask is...can anyone please take a look at the border crossing card and tell me what the handwritten name under Stasko is?
Also, would American citizens have to fill out a border crossing card, or only non-Americans?
On a whim, I even asked ChatGPT to look at it, but it was not helpful.
At least this part checked out...the destination and name of the person they were visiting was easily verifiable. Frank F. Spring Sr. lived in Rossland, BC. He met his wife there, and they later moved to Cranbrook, BC, in 1952.
