A quest for family history brings the Krugs to the Old Scotch Church ...

John and Judy Krug stood on the shoulders of their ancestors last Thursday, under the shade of century-old pines at Hillsboro's Old Scotch Church.

They had traveled nearly 1,000 miles from San Diego, Calif., searching for a tombstone engraved with the name of John Bernard Krug, a poor German boy who sailed to the United States in 1865. He survived the passage and learned to farm in the Midwest, moving to Washington County in 1895 with his wife and 13 children.

John Bernard was John's great-granduncle. Up until two years ago John didn't know where his forefather was buried, or that he had a family history in Oregon.

Both John, 75, and Judy, 72, come from large clans, and calling the Krugs history buffs is an understatement. They've amassed more than 40 binders worth of information about their deceased relatives, including maps, newspaper clippings and photos of grave markers.

Judy has been hunting for family stories since she was 12.When she married John in 1969, she was keen to get him going on the search for his ancestry. They've walked through many cemeteries in the past 30 years, made countless phones calls, and spent late nights at local history centers poring over microfilm, books and records.

"Sometimes, when you listen to family stories you think, 'This is impossible,' but these stories stay alive for a reason," Judy said. "They might not be exact, but there is always a grain of truth which can send you in the right direction."

The kernel that led them to Washington County began with an email to a professional genealogy group in Germany. For $300 they received the names of John's great-grandfather's siblings, which included John Bernard Krug.

From there, they began calling Krugs living in Illinois and Iowa. The trail eventually lead them to Oregon, where they reached out to the Latter-day Saints Family History Center and the Oregon Historical Society. They also contacted the Hillsboro Main Library where several librarians helped them with copies of obituaries and articles on the family printed in the Hillsboro Argus.

Judy said the most helpful group was USGenWeb, a national genealogy website run by volunteers. Within 24 hours of contacting the organization's Washington County group, a woman got back to them with family obituaries and a photocopy of John Bernard Krug and his family printed in The Oregonian in 1912. The caption states that the Krugs were one of Oregon's largest families.

Jan Bony, the Oregon coordinator of the USGenWeb project, said that when someone requests information, volunteers collect public records from courthouses, newspapers, historical societies and libraries, which are then archived online.

When John and Judy were able to locate several of John's cousins in the Portland area earlier this year, they decided to make the drive north.

"You don't know who you are unless you know where you came from," is a mantra Judy lives by.

In their light blue Ford Crown Victoria, they pulled up on the gravel path next to the Old Scotch Church. Having been established in 1878, it is one of the oldest operating churches in the state.

They walked across the damp earth, making their way to the cemetery behind the whitewashed church building.

Standing over a concrete marker, Judy shouted, "Look! It's Bernard's son!"

"And there's Ed senior and Dora and John Bernard," John said, motioning to the graves a few plots down, rattling off the names as if he knew them personally.

The couple ventured around to the front of the cemetery and 15 feet from an old tree stump, Judy gasped, "Lizzie Schmidt and Sarah Krug!"

She pulled out her camera, fixing her lens on the markers of six family members they didn't expect to find, making a total of 13 Krugs buried in the Old Scotch Church cemetery.

?Holding the binder on John Bernard in his hand, John flipped back to the picture of the Krugs, a fuzzy outline of his family from their farm in 1912.

"Why we do care so much about this?" John paused, nodding his head. "Because it's family and family will always be important."

-- Taylor Smith

Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/hillsboro/index.ssf/2013/06/a_quest_for_family_history_bri.html

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