Kalloch Family Webmaster

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Frames | No Frames

Welcome to my page, I'm Ken Kalloch, webmaster of this site, and historian for the Kalloch Reunion Association, along with Paul Hobbs Wilson, co-historian, and Peter Richardson, historian emeritus.  I'm also webmaster and an assistant historian for the Killough Reunion Association.

This page is divided into five sections which cover some of my experiences and interests. 

The sections are: 1) My family, work, etc., 2) Family history & genealogy, 3) Computers 4) Religion & Mission to Argentina, 5) Lakota (Sioux) Language & Culture, 6) Other Languages/Cultures

 

My Family, work, etc.

I grew up and still live in Concord, NH.  I have four children, to whom I've dedicated this site.  It's my hope that this website can help all of us and our children to learn more about our heritage and our connections as a family. 

After graduating from Concord High in 1978, I went to work in the composing room of Rumford Press, where my parents had both worked since the 1940's.  I thought that printing would be a good career, but after 4 years of working there I was laid off and the plant closed in 1983.  At the time that I went to work there, they were printing more than sixty different magazines.  The largest was Consumer Reports with about 2 million issues per month.  They also printed Atlantic Monthly and many magazines for McGraw Hill, Hearst, and other large publishers.  Both of my parents went to work at Rumford Press after graduating from High School.   In 1942, my mother, Catherine was one of only a few women hired to operate the Monotype caster, due to the lack of men because of WWII.  My parents brought me in there frequently as I grew up.  I remember when I was young seeing my father operating a monotype caster.  Then in the early 1970's I remember seeing the transformation to computer typesetting, and when I went to work there I saw further transformations in typesetting, which also led to the demise of the composing room.  Typesetting went from a very skilled  profession which required 4 years of apprenticeship, a large composing room and many workers, to something where publishers could set up their own typesetting in their own office with less people with less experience and less cost.  Now any one of us we can do virtually the same thing on our own home computers.  As Rumford started phasing out their composing room, I went to work in the bindery for about a year, and then was laid off in December 1982 as the plant continued moving closer to permanent closure.  During the time prior to lay off, I volunteered to be a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I ended up serving an 18 month mission to Argentina in the "Argentina Rosario Mission" from May 1983 to Nov. 1984.

After I came home from Argentina, I went to work at the New Hampshire State Hospital in the kitchen, (a woman that I had worked with at Rumford Press now worked in the kitchen and told me that they were hiring).  I worked there for 2 years, then in 1987 I switched jobs at the State Hospital and worked until 1997 as a Nursing Assistant.  After a decade of taking care of psychiatric patients, I decided that I wanted to go back into printing and graphic arts, since I had previously enjoyed that type of work.  So in 1997 I quit work at NHH and went to work at a printing company called Concord Litho [now called Concord Direct].  I worked in the sheet-fed press department first as a helper, then as a feeder (load the pallets of paper into the end of the press).  In the Fall of 2000 I had to stop work there because of an illness called sarcoidosis.

Family History and Genealogy

This is how I connect with the Kalloch & Killough family tree:  My father was David H. Kalloch, son of Sumner Boyd Kalloch, who grew up at Wiley's Corner in St. George, Maine.  Sumner was a son of Adam Boyd Kalloch, who was a son of Capt. Adam Kelloch, son of Hanse Kelloch, who was a son of Matthew, son of Finley (Killough) Kelloch, who came from Northern Ireland to Boston, Mass. when he was 7 years old in 1718 and settled in St. Georges, Maine in 1735.  My Kalloch line from Robert & Mary Killough to me in register book format.  Here are a couple pages with photos of myself and family: My "Portrait Pedigree",  My Photo Album page.

When I was pretty young, I remember going with my mother and grandmother Mabel many times to visit old cemeteries to look at old stones for genealogical information.  My grandmother enjoyed history and genealogy and did a lot of good research which helped me get started with my research.  One day she let me photocopy all her research, this got me started and I expanded from there.

Serendipity has also helped.  The most prominent case of serendipity that I've experienced was on January 13th of 1983 when I was at the old record's room of N.H. Vital records trying to research my mother's Messer family.  I had gotten back to her grandfather or great-grandfather, but that was only as far back as I had been able to get to.  I wrote "Messer " on a piece of paper and was going to hand it to one of the research volunteers in charge of the old records, so that they could retrieve the Messer records for me.  But then a guy whom I had never met, who was also there doing research, saw "Messer" on my piece of paper and introduced himself as Tracy Messer.  I showed Tracy the information that I had so far for this line and he immediately recognized the names that I had.  It turned out that his great-great-grandfather Hollis Messer was a brother to my great-great-grandfather Curtis Messer.  The best part of our meeting was that Tracy had traced this line and related lines extensively back to the 1600's and I was able to photo-copy his Family group sheets and Pedigree charts!!! 

Most of the research that I did on my genealogy, was in the 1980's, mostly at the Tuck Library of New Hampshire Historical Society.  I made a lot of progress, but I haven't done very much work on it since then and there's still a lot more work to do.  My genealogical priority now is to help my Kalloch cousins to connect with our family tree and to verify that their information in the genealogy is correct and up-to-date, also to help our family members to learn more about our family history via this website.

I first learned about the Kalloch Family Reunion Association when I was in high school around 1975.  One day I was at the NH State Library and I looked in the card catalog for any books related to Kallochs.  They had a book called The Golden Voice, which was a biography of Rev. Isaac S. Kalloch.  On page 352 it has, "in Maine to this day members of the Kalloch Reunion Association gather each year."  I asked my father, we have a reunion association?  He said yes, but he hadn't been since he was young.  He probably then called his uncle Harold Kalloch to ask for information about the reunions, because soon after we started visiting him and his wife Maria in Auburn, Mass.  Harold and Paul Merriam were working on a genealogy project of our branch of the Kalloch family descended from Adam Boyd Kalloch and this really interested me.  I think my mom got interested too, because in December 1976, she bought the 2 volume history of Rockland, Thomaston, and South Thomaston, Maine which I still have.  The 2nd volume has genealogies which include the first few generations of our Kalloch family.  To the right is a photo of Paul Merriam and I taken in 1977 or '78 looking at the Kalloch genealogy with his wife Doris standing behind him. 

Another thing that really interested me in our Kalloch history was at one of the first reunions that I attended.  Peter T. Richardson had made a large wall chart of the first generations of our Kalloch family.  I thought this was very cool! 

In August 1999 I started typing the Kalloch genealogy into my computer using the information that I had from Paul Merriam and from the Rockland, Thomaston history books.  I wrote to Peter telling him about this and asked him for a copy of the Kalloch Genealogy Manuscript.  In Oct. 2001, Peter wrote to me and told me that he had finished typing and making revisions to it, and he brought a copy of the 1830 page manuscript to my house shortly after Jan. 1, 2002. 

I finished typing it into the computer in March and I printed a copy of our Kalloch genealogy in register book format with an index.  That first edition was 325 pages including the index.  To the left is a photo of me holding it with the manuscript behind me at our 2002 Kalloch reunion.

The most recent edition of our Kalloch genealogy book, Descendants of Finley Kelloch of Warren, Maine, 1735 can be found on our Kalloch Genealogy Page. 

Computers

The first computer that I used was in 1976 at Concord High.  The school had a Digital PDP-8e running BASIC, with two model ASR-33 Teletype keyboards connected which printed everything out onto paper instead of a monitor, and programs were saved on punched paper tape.  In my junior year, 1977 (Photo - I'm in the right photo in the back), I got very interested in it.  I thought that it was the coolest thing, and I spent all my free periods using it and stayed after school many days to use it.  That year I received an award from the school for "computer science".  This was the first year that the school held Achievement Awards night (according to the school history Timeline on their website), so I probably received the first computer science award that the school gave out!  Another thing at this time was the printing company (Rumford Press) that my parents both worked at (and which I later went to work at) printed all the books for DEC's computers (PDP-8's, PDP-11's, etc.) and also printed BYTE and Creative Computing magazine, so the occasional copy of these magazines/books that my father brought home also helped fuel my interest in computers.  I thought about a career with computers and took some classes at NHTI during the summer and fall after graduation, but mainly for financial reasons, I decided to go to work at Rumford Press where my parents worked.

The first computer that I wanted was either an Altair or IMSAI, but I didn't buy a computer until 1982 (a TRS-80).  I tried it out for a while, but ended up taking it back and I used the money for my trip to Utah in 1982.  I didn't buy another computer until the Spring of 1992 when I bought a Tandy 1000-RL.  The 1000-RL rekindled my interest in computers and I wanted to learn as much as I could, and by December 1992 I wanted a better computer so that I could learn more.  The one that caught my attention was the Tandy Sensation (this was the first personal computer based on the MPC  (Multimedia PC) format), and I ended up getting it (with the help of my mother, nice x-mas present!).  The Sensation came with a modem which allowed me to call online services such as Prodigy and America On Line, so within a short time I had downloaded a lot of free/shareware software, games, etc.

The next significant event that happened was a girl who I worked with told me that I should meet her boyfriend, because he was also very interested in computers.  This other guy lived on the other side of the city and we would drive back and forth to each other's apartments to swap the newest software files that we had downloaded.  I had the idea that maybe there might be an easier way to share files, perhaps some type of software that would allow us to call each others computers to exchange files, instead of needing to drive back and forth.  So I found BBS software that was available for download on AOL.  I tried several of them, but the BBS software that I liked the best was called Spitfire, it worked very well and allowed us to share files over the phone line.  I also found a BBS list of other BBS's in the area and started calling them. 

In April 1993, I got a separate phone line for the BBS and made my BBS available to the public as the "Starlite BBS."  (One of the first BBSs that I called, because it was running Spitfire was the "Up All Nite BBS", I think maybe located in Chicago.  The spelling of "Nite" was part of my inspiration for my spelling of "Starlite," the other was, I was standing outside one evening looking at the stars, trying to think up a name for it.).  This allowed people to call my home computer using a modem.  A year later in April of 1994 our local newspaper did an article about mine and a couple other BBS's.  I ended up shutting down the BBS in 1998 (after 5 years of running 24/7), and because my main interest changed to learning as much as I could about the Lakota and their language, I didn't do very much with computers until July 2001, when I started this website.  A very positive outcome of of my interest in computers and the BBS, was that it led me to finding the Lakota for which I'm very happy.  I wrote some more about the BBS in that section and how I was introduced to the Lakota by it.  Another positive outcome of my earlier computer interest, is that it probably made it easier for me to learn what I needed, to build this website and make our history and genealogy available online.

Religion & Mission to Argentina Rosario

When I was young, I attended Sunday school (picture of me and my first Bible) at a Congregational church which was the same church where my parents were married.  I had close to perfect attendance every year of Sunday school, and I'm grateful that my parents encouraged me to do this, but my spiritual path changed in 1975 when I was in the 10th grade and I dated a girl who was LDS ( a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints).  I still remember the blue covered Book of Mormon with the angel Moroni on the cover which was sitting on the living room table of her house the first time that I went there.  I was curious about it and her mom told me that I could bring it home.  We attended lots of church youth activities together and I liked the church and it's teachings, so I met with the missionaries and was baptized in December 1975.  I'm grateful that my parents allowed me to do this, because I needed their permission, because of my age.

In the summer of 1982 a friend and I drove cross country to Utah (photo of me at the Utah border), and I visited many of church historic sites along the way in New York, Ohio, Illinois and Missouri.  We stayed the entire month of August 1982 with a family that he knew who lived near Salt Lake City in West Jordan, Utah.

I don't remember when I actually applied to be a missionary, but I know that I was thinking about serving a mission in June of 1982.  My mission call came the following March (1983) to the Argentina Rosario Mission to serve for 18 months.  The mission was in the northeastern part of the country - see the map on my Mission Photos page.  (In 1990 the mission area was divided with the northern part becoming the Argentina Resistencia Mission).  On May 5th, 1983, I entered the Missionary Training Center (MTC) for 8 weeks of study.  There were 8 of us in our MTC district, called the "Galvez District."  The 5 other Elders also went to Argentina Rosario, the 2 sisters went to Chile or Bolivia (I don't remember exactly).  The eight of us spent all our our class time together, which was about 9 hours per day.  Long days, but we learned a real lot very quickly!

I arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina on July 8th 1983, (this was just one year after the Falklands/Malvinas war, and the military still goverened the country).  After arriving in B. A., we rode to another airport and took a flight to the city of Rosario.  My first mission area was in the Rosario 3rd ward, Saladillo, then my next area was in downtown Rosario, 7th ward, Parque Independencia.  On the evening of Oct. 30th, it was quite a sight to watch from our 2nd floor apartment, the streets and sidewalks below fill with multitudes of jubilant Argentines after elections were held and Raul Alfonsín was elected president.  On Oct. 31st, I left Rosario, province of Santa Fe and traveled to La Paz, (prov. of Entre Ríos where I served for about 2 months, then I journeyed up north to Misiones province to Apóstoles & Posadas 2nd branch.  (Apóstoles & Posadas are now part of the Argentina Resistencia mission, instead of the Argentina Rosario mission).  After about 7 months in Misiones, I then went back to Santa Fe province, this time to the city of Santa Fe, Pompeya branch, and finally to the city of Rafaela.  On Nov. 6, '84, fifteen of us (the other 5 Elders that I started with, plus 7 others from the U.S. & 2 Argentines) who served missions from July '83 to Nov. '84, gathered at the mission house.  I received an honorable release from my mission and arrived back home on Nov. 8, 1984.  My Mission Photos page.  Here are a couple web pages which might be of interested: What to Expect in Argentina for Missionaries and Different Things in Argentina (I experienced most of the things on this list).

Serving as a missionary in Argentina was one of the best experiences of my life.  I'm extremely happy and grateful that I was able to visit another country and experience another culture, learn another language, and share the message of the gospel with the people of Argentina.  Even after 30+ years, I still try to practice and learn more of the Spanish language (Castellano), and I still like many Argentine things such as dulce de leche, empanadas, yerba maté (the national drink of Argentina), tango music (link to site with streaming music from Buenos Aires), and Argentine rock music called "rock nacional", & internet stream music.

Lakota (Sioux) Language and Culture

In September 1994 a person called the BBS that I was running (newspaper article about it), and wrote a message saying that he had an interest in Plains Indian culture, "partially the Lakota Sioux".  This was the first time that I had seen Lakota & Sioux written together.  I had heard of the Sioux and knew that they were a plains tribe, and I had seen the name Lakota, but I didn't know that Lakota & Sioux were two names for the same people, also I knew close to nothing about them, so I looked up "Lakota" to in the World Book encyclopedia that was in the bookcase behind me.  It didn't have an article under "Lakota", so I looked up "Sioux", but that didn't have very much information, other than they were located in South Dakota, so I looked at a National Geographic map of South Dakota that I had, and I saw where the Reservations (map) were located.  Afterwards I looked for more information on the computer BBS networks that I had access to (this was prior to Internet web access).  I found a series of Dakota/Lakota language messages: "ieska wowapi dakota" on "Native Network" (an "echo-mail" network similar to FidoNet which was available on BBS systems) which really interested me and got me interested in learning more about the language and culture.

The person who called my BBS had taken a Lakota Philosophy course at Sinte Gleska University with Albert White Hat (link to Albert's Lakota language book), and a short time after first meeting him on the BBS he gave me a bookstore list for Sinte Gleska University (on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota), and I ordered some Lakota language books.  He also loaned me some cultural/history books by Luther Standing Bear, Black Elk and James R. Walker. 

In March of 1995, 7 months after beginning my Lakota studies, I was curious to hear what the ceremonial songs sounded like, because I'd been seeing a listing for it on the Sinte Gleska University bookstore list, so I ordered the cassette and book of Lakota Ceremonial Songs, by John Around Him, from Sinte Gleska University.  My order came and within a week after it came, I saw a newspaper notice that John Around Him was coming to New Hampshire to do a workshop not far from my home.  I looked at the name in the paper and said to myself, geez, isn't that the same name as the guy on the tape and book?  I checked and it was!  John conducted a two-day workshop at local Indian Museum in April 1995 which I attended.  John spoke about the traditional Lakota culture, history and values, and he stressed the importance of the Lakota language (he said: "language comes first, language is everything, without the language we have no culture").  Since the early 1980's, both John Around Him and Albert White Hat visited NH and helped with the Native American studies program at Proctor Academy in Andover, NH.

The following year after meeting John Around Him, we traveled to the "Around Him Sundance" between Kyle and Allen, SD, on the Pine Ridge reservation.  Only our youngest son, who was 2 months old at the time traveled with us, our other children stayed in NH.  The following year our entire family was able to travel to South Dakota (click to view a picture of our family at Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota in 1997).  (A Lakota perspective of Mt. Rushmore and the Black Hills of South Dakota).

Anyone studying the Lakota language, or who would like to hear what the Lakota language sounds like, might like to visit my KILI Radio Lakota Language Recordings page where there are mp3 audio recordings for two Lakota language shows which were weekly on KILI radio located in Porcupine, SD on the Pine Ridge (Oglala Lakota) reservation.  At the bottom of the page is a list of Lakota language learning resources.  The language recordings are also available on YouTube. 

Other Languages / Cultures

Before going on my mission to Argentina in 1983 I had a friend at my church who had served a mission in Germany.  I studied German for a while and was able to say some things with him, I was hoping to go to Germany also, but ended up learning Spanish.  I think the German language that I studied before my mission helped prepare me for language learning.  After my mission I studied French for a while and got to the point where I could understand it pretty well (Parisian more so than Quebec French).  I also tried Portuguese, Russian, Scots Gaelic, Greek, and Latin, but didn't get very far with any of them.

I studied the Hebrew language (modern Israeli Hebrew) pretty diligently for a couple of years, mainly with HebrewPod101 and Duolingo.  I started using Duolingo in the Summer of 2016 as a Spanish review, then I did Duolingo French & German for a short while before switching my focus to the Hebrew course.  My interest in Hebrew goes back to when I was in the 10th grade.  I visited the rabbi of our local synagogue Temple Beth Jacob and he loaned me a hard cover language book, and gave me an exercise book, which I still have, that I could write in to learn the alphabet and some basic words.  I learned the alphabet and could read and pronounce Hebrew words pretty well, but after a couple months my interest shifted to something else. In addition to the language, I'm also interested in learning more about Jewish history, foods, and culture.  I love the story of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language.  I hope someday the Lakota language and other endangered languages can have such revivals.  Currently I'm studying Brazilian Portuguese with Duolingo and there are two YouTube channels that I like, PortuguesePod101 and Speaking Brazilian Language School.  I don't know how far I'll get with Portuguese, but I love the sound of the language and it's been fun, because I already understand it pretty well, because of leaning Spanish from my time in Argentina.  The two languages are very similar and seeing/hearing the differences and similarities with each language is fun. 

I love hearing foreign languages and music and learning about other cultures, even if I don't understand the language.  I think serving my church mission in a foreign country helped me to appreciate other cultures, and I think it is one reason why I was so interested in learning about the Lakota (Sioux) language and culture.

 

My Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/ken.kalloch

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