The search for answers started with a picture of four children, three boys and a little girl, Avery, Clare, Dale and Isabelle, holding hands on the porch of what appeared to be a country house. Mike Coulter of Petoskey, Mich., and his sister, Carol Coulter, of Cross Village, Mich., children of Avery Coulter, turned into family detectives, piecing together the story of their family, especially their late grandparents, Albert and Lillian Coulter, who were buried in unmarked graves.

Through their detective work, they found out Lillian was buried in Le Mars in 1913.

They knew Albert was buried in Great Falls, Mont., in 1914.

Mike and Carol were in Le Mars last weekend, seeking closure on a project they started five years earlier, but also still searching for more information.

"We want to put the pieces of our past together," said Mike Coulter.

Their late grandparents Lillian Wilson and Albert Coulter were married in 1904 at Parker, S.D.

Albert worked for an Iowa Tractor company, and at the time of his wife's death, had been assigned a service territory around Great Falls, Mont.

The family lived in Parker, S.D., where Lillian took ill. She was taken to Sioux City, where she died May 9, 1913, at St Joseph's Hospital in Sioux City.

The family said it was tuberculosis. She was 32 years, 4 months and 11 days old.

Lillian, who once lived in and worked at Dietrich Millery store, was buried in an unmarked grave in a Scott family plot at Memorial Cemetery in Le Mars.

Albert continued his job in Montana, and the children stayed with family in Parker, S.D.

Albert was murdered in December 1914 in Great Falls, Mont., in a shootout on the street near the Hart-Parr company office. Albert had been staying on there as unofficial watchman during the evening because of burglaries, according to an article in the Great Falls Tribune.

He was buried in an unmarked grave there.

At the time of his death, his three sons Avery, Clare and Dale were living in a Sioux Falls orphanage, and his daughter Isabelle with an aunt.

Mike and Connie knew bits of the story, Albert's death in Montana, Lillian's illness and death, and a bit about the children, the oldest son being their father Avery, but not much else.

"Dad died in 1972 and he never said much of his childhood or growing up," Mike said. "That's part of the mystery."

Several years ago, Mike's job with Petoskey Plastics assigned him a distributor in Great Falls, Mont.

Four months after contacting his distributor for work and, by chance, telling the man the story of his grandfather, Mike went to Great Falls.

The distributor and his son researched Mike's story, found the article about the circumstances of Albert's death and found his grave in Highland Cemetery.

"There wasn't a stone on the grave," Mike said. "The next question was, where's grandma?"

A one-paragraph news clipping of Lillian's death brought the Coulters to Le Mars in May 2008.

Mike and Connie had been in contact with Northwest Iowa Genealogy Society's corresponding secretary Betty Winterringer. She was able to find Lillian's obituary in the Le Mars Semi-Weekly Sentinel.

"This was good," Mike said of the obituary. "The only thing we had before was a one paragraph news clipping about her death."

The Coulters searched records at the Le Mars Public Library for the cemetery plot.

Unable to find the exact location, they contacted the Le Mars city department head for parks and cemeteries, and an employee there arranged to have the grave marked.

In May 2008, Mike and Connie were able to put flowers in their grandmother's grave for the first time.

In 2004, Mike had returned to Great Falls to put a stone on his grandfather's grave.

The inscription: "Albert A. Coulter, July 7, 1881 - December 9, 1914. Slain in his prime: remembered in time."

Last weekend, Mike and Connie completed their mission by placing a stone on their grandmother's grave.

It bears a similar inscription: "Lillian Coulter, December 29, 1880 - May 9, 1913. Lost in her prime, remembered in time."

They placed soil from Albert's grave on Lillian's grave.

From Le Mars, they traveled Great Falls, to place soil from Lillian's grave on Albert's grave, completing the circle.

Soil from both the gravesites will be placed on their own father Avery's grave in Michigan.

Mike and Connie's cousins -- children of Clare, Dale and Isabelle -- helped with the cost of placing the stones on the gravesites.

"They were here with us in spirit," said Connie of the other grandchildren.

On Sunday, the two went to Parker, S.D., to the cemetery where their great-grandparents, John and Anna Coulter, and the couple's daughter, are buried.

"The local funeral director showed us the plots, and there were stones for the three of them in two different locations," Mike said.

The stones, they were told, were probably placed there in the 1960s.

"The stones presented us with another mystery," said Mike. "Who put the stones there? They didn't put stones on our grandparents graves."

The two also visited the children's home in Sioux Falls, where their father Avery and his brothers Clare and Dale were taken.

For a time, Avery used the last name of a foster family, Mix. Five of his seven children carry the Mix name. Connie and Mike are the only two with the the Coulter name from their father's family.

Clare and Dale were adopted and lived at Wood, S.D. Avery was not adopted with them. He eventually found his brothers in the 1930s.

"One brother died in 1956, and that was the first time my father saw the other brother," said Mike. The second brother died in 1957.

Mike and Connie also met a sister of their grandfather about seven years ago. She was 98 years old.

"She was clear, her mind was sharp as a tack," Connie remembers.

"She confirmed a lot of the stories we'd heard about the orphanage, and the breakup of the families," Mike said.

The Coulter siblings still have lots of questions. How long was their grandmother Lillian in the hospital? When did she last see her husband and children? Why were the boys in an orphanage before Albert's death? Newspaper clippings also give conflicting information they hope to sift through.

Still, the brother and sister were smiling after their recent visit to Le Mars.

"It's nice to put a closure to this part of it, putting the stone on grandma's grave," Mike said. "Even more so, we found our great-grandparents graves."

Mike also hopes their story encourages other families to ask questions and learn about their history.

Their search may still continue, Connie said.

"Whatever we come up with now is just for curiosity," she said. The closure is there for us."

source : http://www.lemarssentinel.com