The Julien De Keyser Family

ABOVE:  Julien De Keyser (1868-1954), Walter and Josephine’s sixth child, married Anastasia Sprintles (1875-1957), shown above with three of their children: Desire, the oldest in this photo in the center; Henry is on the left and Samuel is the baby who must have died shortly after this picture was taken.  Their oldest child, Sedonie, was born in 1894 and died in 1895.  Desire was born in 1898, Henry in 1900, and Samuel was born in 1904 and died in 1905.  The photo was taken about 1905.

RIGHT:  Anastasia is shown with two of her younger children: Virginia, born in 1913, and Archibald, born in 1908.  The photo was taken about 1914 or 1915.  Their Golden Wedding writeup said that four of their children died in infancy.  One of these was Eleanor, born in 1906.  Perhaps they lost the other child between Archie and Virginia.  How hard that must have been to have buried half of their children as infants.

Aunt Tuzzie, as she was affectionately called by her nieces and nephews, was a Spiritualist medium and healer.  Carol Verhagen Gerke told this story abut her own birth.  Aunt Tuzzie was the midwife that had delivered her, and Tuzzie was absolutely insistent that she be named Anastasia, after her.  Alma (Aldrich) Verhagen, Carol’s mother, stood firm with her refusal.  She had been waiting to name a daughter Carol for her last three children, but they were all boys.  She finally had another girl and she was determined to name her Carol Erma.  So Carol Erma it was - and she was baptized as such.  Years later, when Carol got a copy of her birth certificate from the county, she was shocked to find that it said Carol Anastasia on it so she had them correct it to Carol Erma.  When she came home and told her mother, Aunt Alma laughed until she almost cried.  “That Aunt Tuzzie!” she said.  “This is all her doing!  She must have registered that name on the birth record because she wanted me to name you after her.”  She then told Carol the story and they both had a good laugh over it.