MySource:Aunthoot/Email from Basil Poulos, 18 Oct 2006

So good to hear from you! I already know about you and appreciate your posting of the pictures of "Grandma Bender". They were a real find for me. My mother often spoke of "Grandma Bender" but her knowledge of the family was limited. The story goes mom's mother, Augusta Christina Knifer, attempted a do-it-yourself abortion which led to her death from septicemia. That's not what the death certificate says but apparently there was a cover up with or without the complicity of the doctor. My mother was just 10 years old when this happened. I do have pictures of my grandmother. My grandfather, Charles William Ake, Jr., remarried the following year. Mom didn't have a very happy childhood after that and ran away from home before finishing high school. She told me she went to live with an aunt. My guess is that it was with her aunt, Marie Knipfer/Schumacher. My guess is based on census research I've recently done and the only Knipfer I ever met as a boy in Ohio was this "Aunt Marie". Mom's sister, Eleanor, shows up in a census as a household member of Marie's. I think I can guess what the Knipfers and Akes were up to in Petersburg, KY and Lawrenceburg, IN. They were involved one way or another with the Seagrams distillery or farming. I'm just finishing up a study of the Akes line that does clear back to Yorkshire, England in the 14th Century. Those English people surely kept nice records! I'm nowhere with my Greek ancestry. What interests me most is what motivated the Knipfers to leave Bavaria. There was failed populist revolution about that time that led to many coming to the U.S. This genealogy interest of mine has led me to become better informed on European and American History. Fortunately. I'm retired now and can broaden my perspectives. It's gotten to be passion with me. My BA degree was in Psychology and I worked for 30+ years in marketing and consumer research. Basil Poulos