WLM | generations
FROM RUSSIA TO WYOMING
with Love…
A
By Kati Hime
Images courtesy Stover & Hime families and AHSGR
couple of years ago, Levi
and our oldest child decided
to embark upon a genealogy
project. It was early summer, and
what began as a small summer
project grew and grew until it
involved our whole family, and took
us to amazing places where we never
knew we had ancestors. Ancestry.
com, we thank you!
We learned many fascinating things
about both Levi’s and my family.
We learned the origins and fates of
great-grandparents and beyond, plus
discovered that Levi’s grandfather
served in World War II and saw his
draft card! It also brought us closer
to departed family members than we
had been previously.
My Grandpa Albert Stover and I
were not able to meet until I was 19,
and we spent three years enjoying
our relationship before Levi and
I lost him suddenly in 2001 to
cancer. One of the blessings of my
relationship with my grandpa was
learning about, and inheriting some
family heirlooms from, his ancestors.
I had learned some about his mother,
but I had never heard the story of
her heritage. When Levi started
researching my grandpa’s ancestry,
we stumbled upon a gold mine of
information.
My grandfather’s mother, Hulda
Lena Troudt Stover, was born
in 1901 in Harrison, Kansas (in
Jewell County almost right on
the Kansas-Nebraska border near
Superior, Nebraska), the daughter
42
Albert & Huldy Stover
of Christina Weidenkeller and
Henry Troudt Jr. The name Troudt
of course was spelled a variety
of ways throughout the census
data, from Troudt to Traudt to
Trout. My great-great grandfather,
Henry Troudt Jr. (son of Heinrich
Troudt) was
born in Norka,
Saratov, Russia
in 1870, and
immigrated
to the United
States as a boy
with his parents
in 1876, settling
in Harrison,
Kansas. My
great-great
grandmother,
Christina
Weidenkeller,
Wyoming Lifestyle Magazine | Spring 2015
was also born in Norka, Saratov,
Russia in 1870, immigrating
to the United States with her
family between 1886 and 1888
as a teenager, and also settling
in Harrison, Kansas. Henry
and Christina, my great-great
AHSGR Library