Hello this site has birth and death indexes for Minnesota and there are 5 births and many deaths for the name of Kanthack, including Sophie. http://people.mnhs.org/bci/ I would think her death registration information might list maiden name, place of birth, etc. Do you know what religion she was - there are church records that may help you if you knew what religion. Does the write up mention what church she was buried out of? You could track down the church records. Your father (Edward Kamthack) shows up on the Minnesota death index as being born in 1914. How old was Sofie when she died? On the 1900 census if you can find her there would be a lot of information available that might help you. I don't have access to that though. from this 1880 census is the following family http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp William KANTHAK Self M Male W 55 RUSSIA Laborer RUSSIA RUSSIA Mary F. KANTHAK Wife M Female W 47 RUSSIA Keeping House RUSSIA RUSSIA Albert KANTHAK Son S Male W 17 MN Candy Maker RUSSIA RUSSIA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Source Information: Census Place St. Paul, Ramsey, Minnesota Family History Library Film 1254631 NA Film Number T9-0631 Page Number 401B If you search on this site you will find mentions of the name (spelled both Kanthack and Kanthak) http://www.odessa3.org/search.html If you search here there are about 4 pages of different Kanthack's that may help you. http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/ Maybe someon can track her down on the US censuses and fill in some of the blanks. Good luck Thelma