I seemed the have missed last week’s post, probably due to July 4th throwing everything off.
July 12th
1811 – Died – Philemon SUTHERLAND – Philemon is my wife’s 7th-great-grandfather on her father’s side. He was born about 1718 in Prince Edward Co., Virginia. He married Mildred ARCHER. He passed away in Franklin Co., Virginia.
1879 – Born – Minnie M MUHM – Minnie is my great-great-grandmother on my mother’s side. She was born in Norwood Township, Langlade Co., Wisconsin to Peter & Ida MUHM. She married Pieter Franciscus VAN PARIJS (Peter VAN PRICE) in 1895 and had 6 children. She passed away on 6 Jul 1959 in Port Washington, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin and is buried there at Union Cemetery.
July 13th
1876 – Died – William CORRIGAN – William, known as Curly Bill, is my 3rd-great-grandfather on my father’s side. He was born in about 1823 on either the voyage to America or somewhere in New York State. He married Mary MCCANN in 1848 and had 12 children, including my ancestor Thomas J CORRIGAN. He passed away at Mara Township, Brechin, Ontario, Canada.
July 14th
1963 – Died – Augusta Johanna LUEDTKE – Augusta is my great-great-grandmother on my mother’s side. She was born 3 Jul 1863 in Storkow, Pommerania. She married Carl F H LAST in 1883 and had 16 children. She passed away 2 weeks after her 100th birthday in Grafton, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin and is buried in Port Washington at Union Cemetery.
July 16th
1810 – Born – Ephraim Gadious dit ST. LOUIS – Ephraim is my 4th-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born in Yamachiche, St. Maurice, Quebec, Canada. He married Marie DesAnges MANSEAU in 1831 and later settled in Wisconsin. He passed away on 27 Mar 1891 in Phlox, Langlade Co., Wisconsin.
From Geneabloggers.com: The meme is called “What I Do” and you basically list what you use in terms of technology to either run your genealogy business or pursue your family history as a hobby.
Why is this important? Very often we operate in a vacuum. We have no idea what other people are using unless they mention it in an email or a blog post. Or we have to ask for a recommendation.
So take a look. Copy and use the list below if you want to participate at your blog. Use the words “What I Do” in the post title and I’ll list it here:
Hardware: HP Pavilion Elite m9040n Core 2 Quad Q6600 Desktop Computer with 3GB RAM, 640GB SATA with Windows 7 (I didn’t memorize that, I swear. It’s from the receipt.)
External storage: 1TB Maxtor USB drive
Online storage: None, besides some of my web host FTP space which gives me like 8GB.
Backup: A few things. Windows 7 backup, manual backup, and also SyncBack.
Other tech stuff:Google Picasa for photos, UltraEdit for my web developing (no cheesy WYSIWYG editor for me), VSO Image Resizer for quick image resizing, and probably lots of other things I’m forgetting.
This photo is of my dad and his brother at the Covered Bridge in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. This is the now the only covered bridge left standing in Wisconsin. It looks like it was still used for vehicle traffic back then, but it is now just open for foot traffic. It’s located just north of the city on (surprise!) Covered Bridge Rd. Here is a Google Street View of it.
That’s what the banners and balloons should read in November when our baby arrives. According to the Ultrasound technician, we’re having a girl and she sounded pretty confident. Finding out now is exciting to us. People always seem like we should wait until it’s born to find out, but we’d rather find out now. It gives us a fun surprise early and from what I’ve heard, you sometimes don’t get to enjoy the surprise during the delivery since there is so much other stuff going on.
As for having a girl, I’m very excited. I’d be just as excited either way, but I was secretly hoping for a girl (maybe 60/40 girl/boy.) I grew up a boy (surprise!) and I had two brothers, so a baby boy didn’t seem that crazy to me. I know how to handle a boy. Having a girl is another story. I have very little experience with little girls. Thankfully, my wife is a girl (no way!) so I’ll have help there. When you find out the gender a lot of things go through your mind. Now you can get a clearer picture of the future. Beforehand, it was somewhat blurry. All thoughts had the baby replaced with “generic child” in my brain, now I can put a face, or at least gender, on it. Obvious thoughts of “Daddy’s Little Girl” and all that stuff float on through sometimes. It’ll sure be an experience and I’m ready for it.
As for a genealogy point-of-view, we’ll be able to give her a pretty clear picture of where she gets certain traits. Obviously, as a girl, she won’t get my Y-DNA passed down to her, but she will get her mother’s mtDNA. We just need to get her mother an mtDNA test at some point to pinpoint her maternal genetic genealogy. The way it looks, it’s possibly English or at least from somewhere in the UK, but we don’t have enough info, yet.
My wife, who is much better with the written word than I am, has been blogging about the new baby experience on our website. Feel free to pop on over there.
I missed the Way Back Wednesday this week, oops. Anyway, here is the weekly history for this week. As always, you can find this on the Dates & Anniversaries page.
June 28th
2005 – Died – Edwin Bernard CORRIGAN – Edwin is my great-granduncle on my father’s side. He was the last surviving child of Thomas & Emma Jane CORRIGAN. I met him many times at a few of the family reunions. He was a very nice man and was very interested in genealogy, which was good for that side of the family. I transcribed a few of his letters in the past and put them on my site. He was born 4 Oct 1909 in Ashland, Ashland Co., Wisconsin. He married Esther Mae EIDE and has one child. He passed away in L’Anse, Baraga Co., Michigan at the age of 95.
1664 – Born – Ernest Ludwig FABER – Ernest is my wife’s 8th-great-grandfather on her father’s side. He was born at Neipperg, Baden, Germany. In 1691, he married Maria Catherina STOLTZENHABER and had 4 children. He passed away on 10 Mar 1739 at Neipperg, Baden, Germany.
1941 – Married – Keith R MORAN and Barbara COLLINS – Keith and Barbara are my wife’s grandparents. They were married at the Little Brown Church in Nashua, Iowa. Together they had two boys. Keith passed away in 1985.
July 3rd
1863 – Born – Augusta Johanna LUEDTKE – Augusta is my 3rd-great-grandmother on my mother’s side. She was born in Storkow, Pommerania which is now just east of Szczecin, Poland. She immigrated to the US at an early age and married Carl F H LAST in 1883. Together they had a whopping 16 children. Carl passed away in 1926 and Augusta lived to be 100, passing away 2 weeks after her 100th birthday on 14 Jul 1963.
History from our family trees for this week. As always, this information is available on the Dates & Anniversaries page.
June 20th
Happy Fathers Day to my dad and all of my male ancestors! This is also my last non-father’s day, or my father-to-be day.
June 21st
1891 – Married – Johann THIELKE & Wilomene RATHKE – Johann and Minnie are my great-great-grandparents on my mother’s side. They were married in Milwaukee Co., Wisconsin. This was Minnie’s second marriage and, as far as I know, Johann’s first. My great-grandfather, Arthur THIELKE, is their only child that I am aware of. Johann passed away in 1927 and Minnie in 1929. They are both buried at St. Peter’s Cemetery in Grafton, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin.
1894 – Born – Margaret S BRAATZ – Margaret is my great-grandaunt on my father’s side. She was born in Philips, Price Co., Wisconsin, the older sister to my great-grandmother, Agnes (BRAATZ) CORRIGAN. According to my info, she married Louis PETERSON. She passed away on 2 Dec 1974 at Munising, Alger Co., Michigan and is buried in Ashland, Wisconsin.
1931 – Born – Robert John ZALEWSKI – Robert is my great uncle on my father’s side. He was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, younger brother of my grandfather, Richard ZALEWSKI. He married Elizabeth PFEIFFER and had 4 children. He passed away not long after my grandfather on 7 Sep 1999 in Bowie, Prince Georges Co., Maryland.
June 23rd
1615 – Born – Richard CUTTS – Richard is my wife’s 10th-great-grandfather on her mother’s side. He was born in Portsmouth, Rockingham Co., New Hampshire. In 1649 he married Eleanor ALDERSEY. My wife’s ancestor is their daughter Margaret CUTTS. Richard passed away on 10 May 1675 in Portsmouth.
1809 – Born – Sophia Elizabeth STRASSMAN – Sophia is my 4th-great-grandmother on my mother’s side. She was born in Wahmbeck, Hanover, Germany. She married Frederick MUHM in 1844 in New York State before moving to Wisconsin. They had 2 children, including my ancestor Peter MUHM. She passed away on 23 Nov 1869 in Germantown, Washington Co., Wisconsin and is supposedly buried nearby at Christ Evangelical Cemetery in Dheinsville, Washington Co., Wisconsin. We looked for her headstone a few years back and did not find it, though it may be missing or very worn by now.
1873 – Born – Emma Jane FIRMENICH – Emma is my great-great-grandmother on my father’s side. She was born at Wrightstown, Brown Co., Wisconsin, the 4th of 13 children for Mathias & Paulina FIRMENICH. She married Thomas CORRIGAN in 1892 and had 9 children. The last child, Sadie, was actually born on the day Thomas died. She married twice more before she passed away on 28 Apr 1941 in Ashland, Ashland Co., Wisconsin. She is buried there next to Thomas at St. Agnes Cemetery.
June 24th
1800 – Born – Rachel MINK – Rachel is my wife’s 4th-great-grandmother on her father’s side. She was born in Virginia and married her husband, Peyton WEY, there at Lovettsville in Loudon Co. They later traveled to Ohio and then to Wisconsin where Rachel passed away on 24 Dec 1870 at West Fork, Richwood Co., Wisconsin.
June 25th
1908 – Born – Mary Elizabeth WEY – Mary is my wife’s 3rd-great-grandmother on her father’s side, daughter to Rachel and Peyton above. She was born in Ohio. She married Jesse TONEY in 1851 in Preble Co., Ohio. She passed away on 25 Jun 1908 at West Fork, Richwood Co., Wisconsin.
1919 – Married – Joseph ZALEWSKI & Emily TROKA – Joseph and Emily are my great-grandparents on my father’s side. They were married at St. Hedwig’s Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They had 3 children from 1920-1931. Emily died early at the age of 45 in 1941. They are buried together at Holy Cross Cemetery in Milwaukee.
June 26th
1778 – Married – Christoph DIETER & Elisabeth VENNINGER – Christoph and Elisabeth are my wife’s 4th-great-grandparents on her father’s side. They were married at Evangelisch, Adelshofen, Heidelberg, Baden, Germany. They had 7 children, including her ancestor, Frederick DIETER. Christoph died in 1863 and Elisabeth in 1876. They are both buried in Richland Co., Wisconsin.
1929 – Died – Wilomene C RATHKE – Minnie is my great-great-grandmother on my mother’s side. She was born 1 Sep 1857 in Pommerania, Prussia. She married Johann THIELKE in 1891 (above) and had one child. She is buried at St. Peter’s Cemetery in Grafton, Wisconsin.
This isn’t a direct ancestor of mine, but I’ve always like the photo. Maybe it’s her eyes. They seem to pop out compared to the rest of the photo. I don’t have any proof on this, but the photo seems to be of Margaret DeBroux, who according to my guess is my great-grandaunt (or my great-grandfather’s sister) on my mother’s side.
When we were last visiting my in-laws up in central Wisconsin, we decided to take a trip a few miles east to the Plover, Wisconsin area. It turns out that a few of my wife’s ancestors settled in that area and were supposed to be buried nearby. We took a drive out there one morning and happened to find a cemetery in Whiting, Wisconsin where our info said they were buried. It turned out to be the correct one, fortunately. We were looking specifically for Nathaniel & Rosina (ARNOLD) SHANNON, my wife’s maternal great-great-grandparents. There were a lot of SHANNONs in the cemetery and we did find Rosina’s headstone. Unfortunately, due to the position of the sun, it is very hard to make anything out on the stone. I’m pretty sure it says, “Rosina – wife of N Shannon – Dec 18 1824 – Dec 20 1899.” There was an Nathaniel SHANNON buried next to her, but since it was a Civil War stone I don’t think it was her husband since he would’ve been in his 50s when that war was fought. More than likely that is their son, Nathaniel. We didn’t find her husband’s burial spot, but we may have missed it on the side of her’s or another’s.
1774 – Died – Josephte CHEVREFILS-BELISLE – Josephte is my 7th-great-grandmother on my mother’s side. She was born 11 Nov 1719 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She married Antoine LAFOND in 1750. She passed away in Baie-du-Febvre, Yamaska, Quebec, Canada.
1897 – Died – Robert MORAN – Robert is my wife’s 3rd-great-grandfather on her father’s side. He was born about 1820 somewhere in Ireland. In 1845. he married Dorothea COOK in either Canada or Ireland and together they had 9 children and then finally settling in Wisconsin. He passed away in Tarver, Wisconsin, located in the southwestern section.
June 19th
1807 – Died – Pieter JUNIS – Pieter is my 6th-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born about 1753 and married Jacoba KNUDDE. They had 5 children including my ancestor, Anna Threzia JUNIS. He passed away at Hoofdplaat, Zeeland, Netherlands.
I thought I’d do a general post about recent updates to family tree research and the site itself.
I just updated the Family Tree section of the website to the latest release of The Next Generation of Genealogy Site Building (TNG) to version 8.0. I have yet to see all of the new features and changes, but if previous versions are any indication, it should be pretty nice. So far, there is now a Calendar on the Dates & Anniversaries area, a nice photo viewer and slideshow (example), and many other “under-the-hood” tweaks. I also changed the background image/color of the family tree site to be a bit lighter. I noticed, even for my young 30-year-old eyes, that some of the smaller text was hard to read. It seems better. As always, please let me know if anything is hard to read or broken on the site. More than likely I just didn’t notice it yet.
On the family tree research front, I’m still going back through every census record for our families and inserting much more detailed source information, including house and family numbers and exact pages, etc. My previous sourcing wasn’t too good and I had accidentally deleted a lot of the details when I merged sources in my software. Anyway, it’s good to go back through. I’ve noticed some small details that I missed.
I haven’t broken down any major brick walls on my family recently, but I have added more people to my wife’s family tree. They are temporarily inserted as I find more credible sources. For example, some info was only found in Ancestry.com’s family trees area and I don’t exactly trust it due to many problems/wrong info in the past. But, it’s good to at least get the data in there so I can research it more in-depth. Again, her family history is much more “exciting” than mine. I say that with much humor, because all family breakthroughs are exciting. Her’s just has a lot more history with it, especially early American history. This latest line ties back into the ROGERS family of Connecticut, which seems to be pretty well-researched and rumored to be both possibly connected to the Mayflower and John the Martyr, but more research is obviously pending on those. We’ll just add that to the list with her connection to English royalty. *sarcastic eye roll* All kidding aside, doing Colonial American research is fun for me since my family is basically all European straight from Wisconsin (and some Canadian.)
I plan on doing an export and updating the info on the online family tree soon.
This is a photo from July 1940 of my great-great-grandmother, Emma Jane FIRMENICH, on the left with her 3rd husband, George Cook. On the right is my great-great-aunt, Sadie CORRIGAN.
