Kurnie Johanna Reents 1st cousin 3x removed on RootsMagic tree.

Kurnie Reents was the oldest child of Joost and Yevkea Frerichs Reents. Kurnie was born June 15, 1884, 7 months after her parents sailed from Bremen, Germany to America.  Kurnie grew up in West Point, Butler Iowa. She had 5 brothers and sisters. Kurnie’s mom and 3 of her siblings had died by 1891, probably part of the flu pandemic. Kurnie was 15 when her mom died, she would have stepped up and helped with housework and cared for  her younger brother and sister. Kurnie’s grandma, Kuna would have helped out too.

Within a year or 2 Kurnie’s family moved to Kossuth, Iowa where Kurnie’s dad Joost remarried, then in 1910 the family was in Kilborn, South Dakota, they farmed.  Kurnie married Christian Dockter on September 19 1906, they had a family and farmed in Millbank, South Dakota. Kurnie lived to age 95, her newspaper obituary is at Find  Grave with a photo. Her siblings Jennie and Casjen stayed in South Dakota too, they married, had kids and farmed.

When Kurnie and her family moved away Kuna Frerichs would have given her granddaughter Kurnie a photo to take with her, to remember her Frerichs grandparents. The photo of Kuna and Casjen Frerichs is shared on Ancestry showing Kuna and Casjen, in Parkersburg. Written on the back probably in Kurnie’s handwriting “Grandfather and Grandmother Casjen Frerichs”.

Sources

• Iowa county births 1880-1935 database at FamilySearch 
• South Dakota, Marriages, 1905-2016 at Ancestry 
• Find a Grave memorial with obituary and photo https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/30336858 
• FamilySearch.org Iowa County Births 1880-1935 Kurnie born 1884, 4th on list with parents