Keam Shields

GEDCOM Note

NOTES FROM SANDY WIGENT'S SEARCH IN BIG RAPIDS - OCTOBER 1998

- Birth Certificate was recorded June 16, 1984 (2 months after Keam was born). Name on certificate was Keam Shields (not Irwin Paul).

NOTES FROM HAZEL SCHUETTE

Irwin was the youngest of eight children. Renamed Doc Keam when he was 5 years old in appreciation for the doctor who saved his life when he was seriously injured from a shotgun blast, which caused the loss of one eye and very nearly lost his life. He wore a glass eye for the rest of his life.

A molder by trade.

He contacted tuberculosis when he was a young man, presumably from the dust associated with is occupation. He spent a big share of his life fighting this dread disease which eventually took his life.

NOTES FROM DANNA JUNE, March 1999

Aunt Mary was with him when he died with TB and hardening of the arteries. Doc may have died in Hastings, Michigan? Not known for sure.

He moved a lot. During WWI he lived in Chicago.

Doc Keam was alive in 1934, known because Robert G. Wigent was told that Doc Keam once held him.

GEDCOM Note

GEDCOM Source

Date - per Wilma Shield's bible

GEDCOM Source