Monday, October 27, 2008

SPRADO FAMILY BURYING GROUND

Now that the Altamont Enterprise archives are available on line I have been able to do a lot more research in both genealogy and history of Berne. Yesterday I was searching for information on the Sprado family who in the early 1940's lived on Woodstock Road, just west of the intersection with Filkins Hill Road. The family first came to my attention when I was told that there was a Sprado Family Burying Ground there owned by the Town of Berne. My mother told me she remembered the family vaguely because two girls from up on Cole Hill use to catch the school bus from the corner where our farm was, at the intersection of Cole Hill Road and Heldeberg Trail. Mother said that the girls' mother died and was buried on the farm. A couple of years ago my brother and I tried to find the cemetery without success. Perhaps there is no stone? Anyway, with the help of the AE archives I found that she was the wife of Karl / Carl Otto Sprado. Carl and Helene were both born in Germany and immigrated in 1926. I believe they first settled in New Jersey before moving to Berne. Carl farmed and sold produce through classified advertisements in the Enterprise. They had two daughters, Helen and Charlotte, who attended Berne Knox. Helene died in Nov. 1941 when the girls were pre-teens. There were also ads in the Enterprise from a Borghaus Sprado. A few years ago when I first became aware of the cemetery I got some help in research from John Travis, Albany County Historian. John told me that he found a deed that says Carl Sprado bought the property from his sister, Emma Berghaus. So there seems to be some confusion between Berghaus and Borghaus and the relationship to Carl.