Cousin Connections

Dorothy Nelson
and her cousin
Phoebe Powell
A few years ago I was able to connect with a distant cousin in South Dakota who is the great grandson of Mortimer and Mary Kallis Powell. I am very greatful to the information he has given about the Kallis family. I have been able to take the information he has given me and take it farther. I am still working on trying to find burial places on Frank Kallis and Lena Selinger (Frank's mother-in-law). And also I need to find death information on both. If I can find the death certificate for either Frank Kallis or Lena Selinger, I will be able to find the parent's names of both of them, along with other pertinent information.
Through Rod & Clan I have managed to find a very distant Czech cousin and her father. The father is married to a Kallis and still lives in Nosálov. Sadly, they only speak Czech and I have not kept up with my Czech lessons. So I have temporarily lost contact with them. I will be getting back to my Czech lessons and trying to reconnect with them. This family is somehow related to our Kallis family. They spell the surname as Kalis. I just need to find that missing link to figure out how they are related. The oldest Kalis ancestor they know of is a Josef
I also have managed to find a pen-pal through Lidé on Seznam, a Czech search engine like Yahoo. He is not related, but he is into genealogy and gave me a few pointers for searching Bohemian genealogy. He according to him, he found a František and Josef (pronounced Yosef) Kališ in Nosálov, who would be the same age around the same time as our Kallis family. So that is another person I need to reconnect with. Not really for the genealogy stuff, since he is not related, but he was a fun and cool person to talk to plus it helps me get in practice for when I finally do get to the Czech Republic. Look out Prague, here I come!

Frank J. Kallis/
Cousin of Dorothy Nelson
Even though Frank and Elizabeth Selinger Kallis had a total of twelve children, this figure includes little Maria who died at sea, there is only three of their children who have living descendants. Of course we know of Elizabeth Kallis marrying Henry Nelson (Nielsen) and Mary Kallis marrying Mortimer Powell. But Frank Kallis, the second youngest son of Frank and Elizabeth, married Minnie Seymour. According to the 1900 census in Lead City, Lawrence County, South Dakota they had been married for four months. Since the census was take in June, that would mean they were married in February of 1900. According to our Powell cousin in South Dakota, Frank and Minnie had a son named Frank J. Kallis. To our knowledge this was the only son. Our Powell cousin also says that Frank and Minnie divorced. The Powell cousin's family believes that Frank J. Kallis grew up in Washington state. I would love to find descendants of this cousin and exchange any knowledge I or they may have. Internet and Ancestry.com searches have shown quite a few multiple generations of Frank Kallises in Pennsylvania.

Some people are coming to this blog via searches for Reimel, Nelson, Kallis or Selinger names or combinations of the names. So I know there are cousins out there looking. I have found family trees on Ancestry.com that were entered by definite cousins. I have messaged some of those people. I don't mind if anyone uses any of this information that I have posted, for their personal family record. That's why I have posted it. I would love to hear from and connect with any of the family. Even those that I have never met. If you are able to take information I have given and go farther, please let me know what you have found. The best way to get all the information we all need is to work together. If you are shy and don't want to comment on this blog, please email me at gypzychik (at) yahoo (dot) com. My Ancestry.com name is nosalov, so you can also send me a private message.