Scope and Content Note I. Correspondence A. Family Correspondence. Letters to and from Frederick Kenkel and various members of his family, arranged in chronological order. Letters through the 1890s are primarily in German, and the German language appears occasionally throughout this series. Each folder contains an item list. The files for 1918 include many letters from Kenkel's sons Anthony and Fred, both of whom enlisted in the armed forces during World War two.
Letters are from both from training camp and the European front.
Letters from Fred were also sent from a military hospital following the war. Mail from Anthony from the 1920s to the 1940s provides a rare look into the arranging of trade agreements and the operations of the U. S. Tariff commission. Letters from the mid-1920s written by Sister M. Ursula detail conditions faced by Catholic missionaries in Manchuria and Korea. Letters from Fred H. Kenkel, Albertine Schuttler, and Sister Mary Callista, B.V.M. are filed separately by name rather than as part of the chronological series. B. General Correspondence.