SGS2026: Tragedy

Christina Younker, Mother's Day, 1966
Redondo Beach, California

As we dive deeper into genealogy research, we are likely to encounter many tragedies, this month's SGS Write All About It! prompt. From mothers who died in childbirth, infant mortality, communicable diseases, accidents, and more, our ancestors were faced with the possibility of death daily. It was well understood by previous generations how perilous life is, and their approach to death was often marked by acceptance and stoicism.

My great-great-grandmother, Christina Shultz Younker, routinely and proudly stated she was the mother of ten children. However, I was only able to account for eight, including my great-grandfather, Willie, her oldest son. For many years, the details of those two missing children remained a mystery. 

After connecting with an older cousin, I learned that Christina, or Belle as she was more commonly known, had written a memoir, over eighty pages of rich details about her life, including the story of her young daughter, Opal Alberta, who died in a fire. In her memoir, Belle describes a bright, sunny girl with black curly hair. The details were unclear, but she somehow set herself on fire at about the age of two. The memoir noted Opal was born in April 1907 and died in August 1909.

At the time, the Younker family was living in Nebraska. Civil registration in Nebraska was enacted in 1904, but there was not statewide compliance until 1920. I was not able to locate either a birth or a death record for Opal. Eventually, as more small-town newspapers were digitized, I found a brief article referencing the tragedy the Younker family had experienced:

Mr. and Mrs. John Younker, whose little daughter recently died
 from the effects of an accidental burn, at their home southwest of Naper,
seem to be having more than their share of affliction.

Butte Gazette, (Butte, Nebraska), December 31, 1909, pg. 5.

The Frontier (O'Neill, Nebraska), November 18, 1909, pg. 5. 

Finally, some indirect corroboration of Belle's memoir. But, still very scant on details. As time went by, I kept checking for additional details until, just a month ago, a newspaper account appeared that furthered my understanding of what happened. Although Belle doesn't mention Opal having access to matches in her account, the two stories are similar in that both describe the little girl slipping away from her family and being engulfed in flames when she was discovered. An August death date doesn't align with the November newspaper date, which seems more likely. Opal was also said to be three years old, which would make a birth year of 1906 more likely. In addition to the lack of vital records, I have also been unsuccessful in finding a burial location for Opal. 

Records for Knoll Crest Cemetery in Naper indicate a plot was purchased by "H. Yonker," but no burials were recorded.  The Younker family's financial circumstances were frequently precarious, and they may not have been able to afford a headstone for their young child, but she may have been buried there. Several years after Opal's death, the family moved 20 miles to the north, to Herrick, South Dakota, to land that had been part of the Rosebud Indian Reservation, but had been opened for white settlement.

There is a large gap of six years, from 1896-1902, between Belle's third and fourth children, which may have been a stillborn or some other early death, but no additional information has been found to account for the missing tenth child. And, Belle herself, makes no mention of it in her memoir. Regardless, it was clearly important to her to remember those two lost children and when declaring herself to be the mother of ten children: Myrtle, Willie, Mildred, Eugene, Delbert, Opal, Ruel, Donald, and Erma. 

Copyright 2026 by Lisa A. Oberg, GeneaGator: Vignettes of Yesteryear. All Rights Reserved.