Branching out: The Cholos

A lot of family researchers are unsure if they should trace their step-families or not. I say go for it! My step-dad’s family is my family, because of love. Full, steps, halves, adoptees:  it’s all family, yet it is very important to state the hows and the whys, people need to know their own roots. This brings me to “Branching Out” I have learned so much about my step-dad’s family tree, I want to share a story from that side once and awhile.  

The Cholos. What can I say about the Cholos? They have an unusual surname, they were migrants and their story, it is full of mysteries.

The Cholos Andrew and Anna with Dorothy, George and Mary

My Step-Great-Grandpa was George J. Ellis, he was son of Dorothy Cholo. When I started genealogy, I looked at the photos my mom had scanned and copied a couple of years before. There in the photos was(were) the Cholo family. Dorothy was the little girl with dark hair. The parents’ names? The other girl and the baby?

George J. Ellis (who I miss dearly) 

I had a family story that Grandpa Cholo was in a Russian prison camp, and escaped by stealing a horse from a drunken guard and rode to Ukraine. The horse died and he met a farmer, he worked for the farmer and soon married the farmer’s daughter. They came to America and had Dorothy and the other children. That was about it. Then I started to ask Grandpa Ellis more precise questions, and I got some answers and I also used Ancestry.com.

I found the 1930 census with a single woman named Dorothy Ellis living in Roscommon, Michigan with her four children: Virginia, Robert, George and Leonard. Next-door were Andrew and Anna Cholo with their children, George and Helen, also two grandsons, Andrew and Nicolas Barber. It listed that Andrew and Anna were both from Yugoslavia.

Now I had names! I could search for Andrew and Anna. In 1940 they were still in Roscommon, this time they are listed as being from Germany. Living next to them was daughter Dorothy and her family; she was now married to Charles Phillips. On the other side of the Cholos was daughter Helen, now married to Gus Yak.

Then I found the 1920 census listing Andrew and Anna was being from Serbia, this time they had two other daughters, Mary and Rose. There are stories of another son, Stephan, that moved back to the old country. I have found no documents to back that up.  

Andrew and Anna Cholo about 1925

I wanted to find the names of both Anna’s and Andrew’s parents. Anna died in 1943, her death record lists her parents as Andrew Micholson and Dorothy Bechup. Locating Andrew’s death certificate, I see his daughter, Dorothy, was the informant, she didn’t know the names of her grandparents, so there were no parents listed.

Anna in the 1930's with her chickens 

    

I was contacted by the daughter of George Cholo, and she sent me a photo that turned out to be Andrew and Anna’s wedding photo.

Bride Anna and Groom Andrew(all others are unknown)

Shocked and amazed were two of the best words to describe how I felt. The timing couldn’t have been better, I was able to get it printed that day and take it to Grandpa Ellis (Andrew and Anna’s grandson) for Father’s Day. He called it the best gift he ever got. To see your grandparents as a young bride and groom for the first time in your eighty’s! I can only imagine how he felt.

I hit a dry spell in the Cholo story. Almost two years later, however, I had two big discoveries.

First I found the Americanization paper for Andrew, it listed, in his words, his place of birth! Selekluc, Austria. (So why was his birth places listed as Serbia, Yugoslavia and Germany earlier? Well, European boarders change all the time and for whatever reason, the Cholos seemed to like their secrets.)         

Then I found the marriage record for Andrew and his second wife Margaret McWatters-Ingles in late 1943. Andrew listed his parents as John Cholo and Thessa Barrow.

Andrew died in 1956, he and Anna are buried in the Elmwood Cemetery, in Grayling, Michigan. Maybe one day I’ll be able to trace the family back even further, but for now I’m pretty content.   

This photo of Andrew was taken only days before his death

      

There is a favor I would like to ask of any Cholo that might read this, please write to me with any info you have!