Finding Uncle Ted

On the eastern slope of Mount Olivet cemetery, near a large old pine tree, you'll find the grave of my Uncle Ted. There's very little to tie the headstone marking the grave to my uncle or to my family. His name is listed as Theros an abbreviation of his Greek name Theodoros. And our surname is misspelled Kates. The only other clues are the years 1922-1924, a transliterated message, "A gift from your godfather," and the smiling photo of a toddler.

Uncle Ted always fascinated me. As a child because he had passed away so young. But as an adult, I was haunted by something my grandmother had told me growing up: her son had died because he grew too fast.  But what did that mean? How could that be? Was there some form of gigantism in a family of arguably quite petite people? (I had heard that a larger than usual coffin was needed to bury him.)

Since moving back to Salt Lake I had tried to find out what really had happened to my uncle. But my attempts to find a death certificate on the State's online records site led nowhere. Then I stumbled across The Research Center for the Utah State Archives and Utah State History. After a quick call and an email they went to work trying to track down a 90-year old death certificate.

Armed only with the years of his birth and death and potential variations of his name, they started searching. After just one day they'd found his death certificate.  I quickly realized why I had never been successful in my previous searches: his name is listed as Master Theros Katex. And his parents are Mahe Katex and Alexander Mastore - a misspelled feminine version of Mastoris. I've no explanation how Mike Katis became Mahe Katex.

In that document, I learned my Uncle Ted was born on August 20, 1922 and died March 20, 1924 at 1:00 p.m.  He had been ill the last several days of his young life - the doctor first saw him on March 11th. I thought of my poor grandmother trying to care for her little boy, as well as her 6-month old baby, while (likely) unaware she was pregnant with her third child. It's strange how much that image of her hurts me.

Then I saw it: CAUSE OF DEATH: "Pneumonia - bronchial." Nothing else.

Did he grow too fast? Maybe. I don't know. I'm satisfied in believing that his tragic early death was caused by bronchitis leading to pneumonia. But more importantly, I'm incredibly grateful to have found my Uncle Ted.