Who Is George Schrub?

So here's the story. Back in 1995, when I went to Rose Hill cemetery in Chicago to take photos of the Ruch family graves, I also found a stone for George Schrub. It's a simple stone giving only his name and b & d dates, 1844-1911. However, the design does match the stones for the Ruch family members. (That is with the exception of Fred Siegler's which I'm sure his wife and sons placed there.) George is also listed on the plat record.

I asked my father-in-law and mother-in-law if they knew who he was. They didn't but they thought Margaret Ruch would know because she had been doing some Ruch family history. We set up a meeting and Margaret generously came and shared a great deal of information with me. However, all she could say about George was that he was a "friend from the old country."

Since then I've pretty much just left him alone but for some reason he was bothering me today. I tried to find him using Ancestry this afternoon but came up with nothing; literally - nothing. Since I have his death date from the plat record, I went to the Family Search Pilot site and, happily, found his death certificate.

The record states he was born in Germany (Alsace was part of Germany in 1911); he was a widower; he worked at a tannery from 1886 to 1908 and then was employed as a laborer at the Kellogg Switchboard Co. until his death. Also noted was he father's name, George, but his mother's name was unknown. He had been a resident of the US for 38 years putting his immigration at about 1873.

So who knew all of this information about this man? Why, Selma (aka Salome) Ruch of 1514 Tell Place. Our Salome. Most likely he was indeed a friend of the family and probably from the "old county".

So far, I haven't found anything else about him. For now, this will do. At least, I know more than I did this morning.