Year: 2009

CategoriesFamily TreeGerman

Any German Transcribers Out There?

Posted on 8 July 2009by Brian Zalewski
Click for larger section
Firmenich Section

I have found what I think is the passenger list for my 4th-great-grandparents (found via my 3rd-great-grandfather, Mathias FIRMENICH.) They had it transcribed as Fermainz, which is does look like, but I can see FIRMENICH in it also. Now, a lot of things match up. The list is from April 22, 1847, which is when this family supposedly immigrated according to multiple obituaries, etc.

  • The father is listed as Pet. Firmenich, male, 54 – My Peter is listed as being born in about 1792, which matches up.
  • Son, Mathias, is listed as Mathias Firmenich, male, 4 – I have records of Mathias being born in 1843, so this matches, too.
  • Daughter, Elizabeth, is a listed as Elizabeth Firmenich, female, 2 – According to some newly found information, this also matches up as I have an Elizabeth born about 1845.

Now, I’m lost on a few of the other entries. The wife is listed as what looks like either “Marie” or “Vorpal.” Peter and his wife both have another word before their names, which I can’t make out. I’m only assuming it means either “Husband” or “Father” or something similar since I seem to see it on other families in the list, which would make his wife listed as “Vorpal.” According to Mathias’ marriage record, his mother is listed as Anne Marie TURSELL. I have yet to find her in the census records since I can only find the family in 1860+ and she is not listed. Though, I’m pretty sure she made the trip since they have another son in Wisconsin in 1849.

I also don’t have records of their first two children, daughters Anna and another name I can’t read. Though, their ages would allow them to have been married and gone by the time I found them in the 1860 census, so those are completely possible.

I also can’t make out what I think is the home location. It looks like it says either “Glehy” or “Glihy.” It is also listed for another individual lower in the list. One thing that stuck out is that the “G” on that word doesn’t look much like the other G’s they’ve written, so I don’t know if it’s a G or not.

Is there anyone out there that has some talent at transcribing old German handwriting? Though, this may possibly be in Belgian/French since the port was Antwerp, Belgium. Maybe even another set of fresh eyes will help. The full image is linked below. Thanks.

[ FULL IMAGE LINK ] – Listing is about 75% down the page.

CategoriesTombstone Tuesday

Tombstone Tuesday: Maria BRAATZ

Posted on 7 July 2009by Brian Zalewski

I have a new headstone for today. Thanks to Steph F at Find-a-Grave, I now have a photo of the headstone of my 3rd-great-grandmother, Maria BRAATZ. I had run across the info from a transcription of a few cemeteries in Waupaca County, Wisconsin. She is buried at Little Wolf Cemetery in Manawa, Waupaca Co., Wisconsin. In the trascription, she was listed as “Maria frau von Wm” which roughly translates to “Maria, wife of William.” Maria’s husband is Wilhelm BRAATZ. There is no record of his burial, but it is assumed he’s buried nearby even if there is no stone. We’ll be checking into that to make sure.

Maria Braatz

[ Find-a-Grave Link ]

CategoriesBelgianDeBrouxFamily Tree

New DeBroux Info and Some Belgium Questions

Posted on 5 July 2009by Brian Zalewski

Just spent some time today browsing around random Dutch and Belgian websites looking for that one clue to break open some information. I have listed that my 3rd-great-grandparents, Desire and Desiree DeBroux (that’s a mouthful), were both born in Belgium. It specifically lists it as Brussels, Belgium, but that was a major city, so who knows. I ran across a Belgian site called “Netradyle,” and with some help from Google Translate, was able to figure out how to use it.

I originally got there while doing some random searching for some of my wife’s ancestors, but I thought I’d give the DeBroux family a shot. They both had pretty unique names, even if it was a somewhat normal Belgian name, it still sticks out. I searched birth records for DeBroux and found a lot and checked all of the Desires with no luck. I then figured out that I was only searching birth records, so I tried the marriage records. Fortunately, I did have an idea of when they were married due to census records and I had their birth dates from their headstone (as much as I could read it.) Using all of these dates, I ran across an entry for a marriage between Joseph Désiré DEBROUX and Marie Désirée LOOD on 30 Nov 1854.

A few things match up here. Désiré and Désirée both match their names in the census records. I also have their marriage as being in about 1855, due to math using the census records, and it says there were married in Wallon Brabant, Belgium, which is the same province that Brussels is in.

Using that info, I then looked up their birth records and I found Jean Joseph Désiré DEBROUX born on 16 Feb 1830 in Piétrebais, Walloon Brabant, Wallonia, Belgium. Piétrebais is a small village southeast of Brussels. Well, look at that, another match. I have that Desire DEBROUX was born on 16 Feb 1830 from both the census records and his headstone. The same thing happened with his wife. I found a Marie Désirée LOOD born on 1 Apr 1829 also in Piétrebais, Walloon Brabant, Wallonia, Belgium. I didn’t have her exact birth date, but I did have Apr 1829 from the census and the readable parts of her headstone.

Obviously, I can’t guarantee a perfect match, but this does seem to fit a lot of the required fields. Along with this information, it also lists Desire’s parents as Jean Joseph DEBROUX and Anne Catherine LANGELE (LENGELE). It also lists a village after their name in parenthesis. I’m not sure what this means exactly, but Jean has (Corroy) and Anne has (Gistoux) which are both in the same province. It then lists Desiree’s parents as Francois Eugene LOOD and Marie Catherine DUPONT. This one only lists a village after her mother’s name, Opprebais.

This brings me to my question. While typing in some other names from this search, it seems that one family gave every child the middle name of Joseph (Josephe for the girls.) But, besides that, I see Joseph an awful lot in these searches. Was there anything special about the name Joseph, or do you think it was a family name of some sort?

CategoriesWeekly History

Weekly History: July 5th-11th

Posted on 5 July 2009by Brian Zalewski

July 5th

1903 – Born – Mildred Vida VAN PRICE – Mildred is my great-grandmother on my mother’s side. She was born in Hutchins, Shawano Co., Wisconsin. In 1921, she married my great-grandfather, Leon DEBROUX. She passed away in 1994, so I was able to get to know her a little bit.

July 6th

1846 – Born – Charles Ludovicus VAN PARIJS – Charles is my 3rd-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born in Ijzendijke, Zeeland, Netherlands. You may see the resemblance in the surnames of Charles and Mildred above. It turns out that VAN PRICE is the Americanized version of VAN PARIJS. Once I figured that out, I found a ton of information as I posted about before. Charles is Mildred’s grandfather. We are not sure when Charles died, as he went missing in 1922.

1959 – Died – Minnie M MUHM – Minnie is my great-great-grandmother. She was born on 12 Jul 1879 in Wisconsin. She was married to Pieter Franciscus VAN PARIJS, who is Charles’ son, and was Mildred’s mother. I sense a theme here. She passed away at Port Washington, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin and is buried at Union Cemetery there.

July 8th

1722 – Died – Madeleine PEPIN – Madeleine is my 9th-great-grandmother on my mother’s side. She was born 19 Nov 1657 in Trois-Rivieres, St. Maurice, Quebec, Canada. She married Francois ROUSSEL in 1671. She passed away at Trois-Rivieres, St. Maurice, Quebec, Canada.

July 9th

1920 – Died – Johanna Maria KREBBEKX – Johanna is my 3rd-great-grandmother. Here we go with the theme again. Johanna was Charles’ wife and Mildred’s grandmother. Johanna was born 11 Sep 1846 in Holland. She married Charles in 1870. She passed away at Phlox, Langlade Co., Wisconsin.

July 10th

1653 – Married – Laurent GIGNAC-GIGNARD & Marie Elisabeth Sorin SORET – Laurent and Marie are my 10th-great-grandparents on my mother’s side. They had at least one child, my ancestor, Francois GRIGNAC in about 1657.

1948 – Died – Frank F BRAATZ – Frank is my great-great-grandfather on my father’s side. He was born 17 Apr 1867 in Germany. In 1891, he married Margaret K STEARNS. He passed away at Ashland, Ashland Co., Wisconsin and is buried there at Mt. Hope Cemetery.

July 11th

1715 – Died – Louise VACHON – Louise is my 9th-great-grandmother on my mother’s side. She was born 25 May 1662 at Beauport, Montmorency, Canada (which I think is in Quebec.) She married Leonard PAILLE in 1678 and passed away at Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

CategoriesCemeteriesTombstone Tuesday

Tombstone Tuesday: St. Mary’s

Posted on 30 June 2009by Brian Zalewski

This week brings another random cemetery shot. For every photo of an actual headstone from my family tree, I have dozens of generic cemetery photos.

Click for larger
Click for larger

This photo is from St. Mary’s Cemetery in Port Washington, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin. [Find-a-Grave link] My great-grandparents Leon & Mildren (Van Price) DEBROUX are buried here along with some of their other family. It’s situated in some trees and on a hill facing west. When you come into Port Washington on Interstate 43, you can see the hill in the distance.

CategoriesFun

Making My Own Family Tree

Posted on 29 June 2009by Brian Zalewski

When I’m not researching my family history, I like to dabble in video games as I’ve posted about before. A recent game that was released the The Sims 3. The Sims games have been around for a few years, so most of you probably already know about them.

The Sims 3 is a strategic life simulation video game in the popular and critically acclaimed The Sims franchise, originally created by Maxis. The games in The Sims series lack any defined goals. The player creates virtual people called “Sims” and places them in houses and helps direct their moods and satisfy their desires. Players can either place their Sims in pre-constructed homes or build them themselves.

I know it doesn’t sound that fun to play, but it can be. Depending on which traits and personality you give your Sim, many crazy things can happen. Anyway, the game keeps track of the genealogy of your active family pretty well. Though, it doesn’t let you see other family’s genealogy unless you’re playing them, which I wish they would allow. I started by creating myself and my wife as Sims. It’s usually the first thing I do since it’s natural. I kept the game at normal speed, so it plays pretty quickly in terms of your Sim’s lifespan. I’m already into my 5th-generation, so my great-great-grandkids.

I took some screenshots of the genealogy, though I had to cut-and-paste some of it together since it doesn’t show you more than a few generations and once. It also changes based on your active Sim.

My Sim-Family Tree
My Sim-Family Tree

As you can see, my wife and I only had one child, Zeus (What? You don’t like his name?) It’s my fault we only had time for one child due to the way I created us and spent time learning the game. By the time he was born, we were both “Elders” in the game and couldn’t have any more children. Zeus had two twin daughters with his wife, Daisy and Violet. When it came time to choose a new active family, I went with Daisy. She went on to have two children, Alexis and Brian (named after his great-grandfather.) Currently, I am actively playing Alexis’ family and she now has three children, Odin, Ronnie, and Freya. (I seemed to have went with a Norse god theme, didn’t I?)

I’m going to try to see how far I can go and how far it will keep track. The other family in the tree (inside of the black box) are children of my character. See, I died a natural death (while I was making hot dogs for dinner, no less) and so did my wife. All of a sudden, my son gets a letter saying if he can bring the remains of a loved one to the Science Lab, they may be able to bring him back. Well, I tried it and even though it said it failed, there I was. I was a ghost, but there I was. It automatically moved me into my son’s house, but I moved that character into his own house. It turns out the game reproduces automatically to keep the city feeling more alive (no pun intended.) So, even though I “live” by myself, I somehow had two daughters. Plus, I don’t think I am going to die again. I’ve lived through like 4 more generations.

It’s interesting to say the least. I thought it was a clever tie in to genealogy when I saw that. I’ll keep you posted if any other neat things come up. You can see some other screenshots I posted over at our gaming blog, Sideshow & Syrana (though she posts much more than I do.)

I can even visit my ancestors in the cemetery. If I go at night, I may even be able to talk to their ghost. I have yet to try that in real life.

CategoriesWeekly History

Weekly History: June 28th-July 4th

Posted on 28 June 2009by Brian Zalewski

Augusta (Luedtke) Last

June 29th

1725 – Died – Louis QUINET – Louis is my 9th-great-grandfather on my father’s side. He was born about 1635, probably somewhere in France. He married Marguerite BROSSIER and had four children. He passed away in Contréglise, Haute-Saône, France.

June 30th

1675 – Died – Louis DEGUITRE – Louis is my 9th-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born 26 Jan 1647 in Cogne, Aunis, France. In 1665, he married Renee DESEINE.

July 2nd

1892 – Born – Edna G FIRMENICH – Edna is my 3rd-great-aunt on my father’s side. She was born in Ashland, Ashland Co., Wisconsin to Mathias & Pauline FIRMENICH. She passed away on 11 Feb 1981 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

July 3rd

1705 – Married – Louis CHEVREFILS-BELISLE & Genevieve PAILLARD – Louis and Genevieve are my 8th-great-grandparents on my mother’s side. They were married in Montreal, Ile de Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

1743 – Born – Anne Modeste ROBICHAUD – Anne is my 6th-great-grandmother on my mother’s side. She was born in Port Royal, Arcadia, Nova Scotia, Canada. In 1768 she married Jacques Joseph GRIGNAC.

1863 – Born – Augusta Johanna LUEDTKE – Augusta is my great-great-grandmother on my mother’s side. She was born at Storkow, Pommerania (which, according to some basic research, I think this is now located in western Poland and named “Storkowo.”) She lived to be over 100 years old and passed away on 14 Jul 1963 in Grafton, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin.

July 4th

Happy Independence Day!

1836 – Born – Friedericke C HENKE – Friedericke is my 3rd-great-grandmother on mother’s side. She was born in Germany. She married Herman RATHKE and had 3 children. She passed away in 1908 and is buried at Union Cemetery in Port Washington, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin.

CategoriesTell Me Thursday

Tell Me Thursday: Corrigan

Posted on 25 June 2009by Brian Zalewski

Wordless WednesdayThis photo is of three of the Corrigan sons of Thomas & Emma Jane Corrigan. Maurice (my great-grandfather), Edwin, and Hank. Maurice passed away in 1990 at the age of 91. Hank passed away in 1986 at the age of 79. Edwin was the Corrigan that lived the longest out of all 9 children. I met him a few times at family reunions. He passed away only a few years ago in 2005 at the age of 95.