2.12.3.5.1. Joseph Kenneth Shartiag (1938-2015)

Joseph "Joe" Kenneth Shartiag was born on 2 February 1938, likely in East St. Louis, Illinois, to Henrietta Muir. His mother was not married at the time of his birth and never told her son who his father was. According to my grandmother, Joe searched for his father for several years and took the surname Shartiag because he, at one time at least, believed that was his father's name.

Joe graduated from East St. Louis Senior High School in 1956 and was awarded a four-year scholarship to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut. He graduated from the academy in 1960. He spent some years as an officer in the U.S. Coast Guard and received his doctorate degree from Northwestern University.

Joseph Kenneth Shartiag, C Company, 1958 U.S. Coast Guard
Academy Yearbook; image courtesy of Ancestry.com

He married Lois Ann Siegel, daughter of Norman Siegel and Norma Kramer, in about 1961. Lois also grew up in East St. Louis. The couple had two children. The family lived in and around Chicago for most of their married life after Joe left the Coast Guard.

Joseph Kenneth Shartiag died on 25 January 2015 and was interred at the McHenry County Jewish Cemetery in Woodstock, Illinois.

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'Joseph Kenneth Shartiag, C Company,' Ancestry.com
Alice (Muir) Jennings Genealogy Notebook, page 13
Chicago Tribune, 9 February 2015
Global, Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current, Memorial No. 141992394
US, Cemetery and Funeral Home Collection, 1947-2015, 2015 Shartiag, Joseph
US, Cemetery and Funeral Home Collection, 1947-2015, 2015 Shartiag, Joseph Kenneth
US, City Directories, 1822-1995, 1958 New London, CT (Shartiag, Joseph Kenneth, Jr.)
US, City Directories, 1822-1995, 1959 New London, CT (Shartiag, Joseph Kenneth, Jr.)
US, Obituary Collection, 1930-2015, 2015 Shartiag, Joseph Kenneth
US, Phone and Address Directories, 1993-2002, 1998-2002 Shartiag, J K (Barrington Hills, IL)
US, Phone and Address Directories, 1993-2002, 1993-1994 Shartiag, Joseph K (Chicago, IL)
US, Public Records Index, Volume 1, 1993 Chicago, IL (Shartiag, Dr. Joseph K)
US, Public Records Index, Volume 2, 1950-1993 Shartiag, Joseph K (Lincolnwood, IL)
US, School Yearbooks, 1880-2012, 1958 U.S. Coast Guard Academy Yearbook, pages 130, 188 and 218