Martin Charles

My father, Martin Charles Lopahs, was born in 1918 in Chicago, IL to Charles and Emma Lopahs. His father, Charles, was also born in Chicago in 1892 to Charles and Minnie Lopahs. His grandfather Charles was born in 1856 in Germany. This is the information found from one source. However, in another source both his father and grandfather are shown as Carl Lopahs and, my dad did confirm that although on his birth certificate he is named Martin Charles, on his baptismal certificate it is Martin Carl William Lopahs. I did find a William on his mother’s side of the family. In any case, he went through life as Martin Charles in every instance from birth certificate to marriage certificate to social security card to death certificate and everything in between.

Now where did his name Martin originate? I have not seen that name at all in the family records before Dad. But I would guess that growing up with a Lutheran background and having relatives set on his becoming a minister, he may have been named for Martin Luther himself. I know that in his younger years he had dreams of being a shortstop for the Chicago Cubs but at some point the idea of following in the footsteps of the Reformer became the focus of his life.

But the name Martin did not end with my dad in our family. My brother is named Martin John and he too followed in the ministry of the Lutheran church. His son is named Andrew Martin and also a grandson from daughter Deb became Lucas Martin.

In my own family we named our second son Daniel Charles, and our older son named his first son Warner Martin. My sister Ginny also has a grandson named Jared Martin.

Dad enjoyed the privilege of baptizing all four of his children as well as many of his grandchildren. Three of our four children were baptized by my dad with the exception of our oldest son, Michael, who was born 7 weeks prematurely in Kankakee, IL and so was baptized by our pastor in the hospital.

During his ministry he had baptized countless children, and adults, but not many people are aware that he had his photo taken by a professional photographer that was published in World Book Encyclopedia. The photo was taken after a baptism at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Round Lake, IL.

This page was taken out of the “R” volume under the subject of Religion. Since the encyclopedia was published in 1978, I am assuming that this picture was taken some time in the 70’s. Does anyone from St. Paul in Round Lake know who this baby is? Or the parents/godparents? Please leave a message in the comments and thank you for reading!

If you are visiting my blog for the first time, please be sure to read my Introductory Post from December 2016 shown under previous posts.