2010 - Page 7 of 9 - Zalewski Family Genealogy

Weekly History: March 7th-13th

Posted on 7 March 2010by Brian Zalewski

Here are the weekly events in my family history for this week. As always, you can browse them yourself on the “Dates & Anniversaries” page.

March 7th

1888 – Born – William H LAST – William is my great-granduncle on my mother’s side. He was born in Grafton, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin, the third child (of 16) of Charles and Augusta (LUEDTKE) LAST. He married Johann SCHMITZ in about 1913 and had two children. He passed away 10 Aug 1965 in Port Washington, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin and is buried there at St. Mary’s Cemetery.

March 8th

1787 -Died – Anna Catherina CROX – Anna is my 6th-great-grandmother on my mother’s side. She was born 11 Jun 1857 in Genk, Limburg, Belgium. She married Wilhelmus van CRAYBECK in 1778 and had 4 children. She passed away at 30 years of age at Genk.

March 9th

1817 – Born – Claude-FranÃ§oise QUINET – Claude-FranÃ§oise, better known as Francesca, is my 4th-great-grandmother on my father’s side. She was born at Menoux, DÃ©partement de Haute-SaÃ´ne (Franche-ComtÃ©), France to Pierre-Jean & Marie-FranÃ§oise (GRANGIER) QUINET. She married William Henry THOMPSON in 1839 at Syracuse, Onondaga Co., New York. They later moved to Granville, Milwaukee Co., Wisconsin where they had 9 of their 10 children. The last child was born in Morrison, Brown Co., Wisconsin. Francesca passed away on 31 Jan 1899 at Wrightstown, Brown Co., Wisconsin and is buried there at St. Paul’s Cemetery. A few years ago, we tracked her final resting place down and I did a post on it.

Belgian DeBroux Surname Saturday

Surname Saturday: DEBROUX

Posted on 6 March 2010by Brian Zalewski

The DeBroux surname first enters my family tree as my maternal grandmother’s maiden name. The surname itself is Belgian, at least when I trace it back from America. According to Ancestry.com, the surname along with the preposition de (“˜from’), denoting someone from either of two places called Broux, in RhÃ´ne and Vienne. Both RhÃ´ne and Vienne are located in France, which a lot of my Belgian and Dutch surnames tend to originate from.

I’ve been able to trace it back the early 1800s. First through my great-grandfather, Leon DeBroux, who was born in 1901 in Phlox, Langlade Co., Wisconsin. Another piece of information for the DeBroux surname is that the DeBroux family seemed to have settled mostly in Wisconsin, which is good for me. Leon’s father was Joseph DeBroux, who was born in May 1865 in Grand Chute, Outagamie Co., Wisconsin. The Grand Chute and Little Chute area is a very high-percentage Belgian and Dutch area. It’s obvious by all of the “Van” and “De” surnames and businesses in the area.

I originally had Joseph’s parents listed a Desire and Desiree DeBroux. I know it sounds like they were a traveling folk duet, but I’m pretty sure they were just normal people. Even though they sound like a unique name combination, I had no luck in finding any more information about them…until. I ran across a site called “Netradyle” (which is all in French) that seems to be a location of a lot of Belgian vital records. Thanks to Google Translate, I was able to find my way around and after some searching I found my DeBroux family. It turns out that Desire and Desiree were their middles names. They probably used them to separate themselves from the others since it seemed that every family named their children either Jean Joseph or Marie. I know why, but it does confuse things now.

So, it turns out the Desire’s full name is Jean Joseph Desire DeBroux and he was born 16 Feb 1830 in PiÃ©trebais, Walloon Brabant, Wallonia, Belgium, which is a small town in central Belgium just east of Brussel. Desiree’s full name was Marie Desiree LOOD. After that I was only able to find Jean Joseph’s parent’s names, but not any specific information from the records on the site. His parents were Jean Joseph DeBroux (go figure) and Anne Catherine LANGELE.

I did some mapping of the DeBroux family using Google Maps, in case you wanted to see all of the locations. It may include other parts of my maternal line, too.

Any other DeBroux families out there?

Follow Friday

Posted on 5 March 2010by Brian Zalewski

Here are some good geneablog reads for this week from around the tubes.

Sadly, Elyse’s mother passed away this week. Elyse posted a wonderful, heartfelt post about her mother on her blog, Elyse’s Genealogy Blog. Send your thoughts and prayers her way this week.
Jasia at Creative Gene wrote an interesting post about genealogy as therapy. I know that it can help me calm down and zone out during tough times.
Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings was puzzled, as was I, about some of the genetic genealogy claims on the last episode of “Faces of America.” He analyzes the info in his post.

Corrigan Way Back Wednesday

Way Back Wednesday

Posted on 3 March 2010by Brian Zalewski

This is a photo from my grandmother’s 8th Grade class in November 1939. My grandmother, Mary Jane CORRIGAN, is in the 3rd row from the left and 4th from the back. Her twin brother, my great-uncle, Tommy is also in the class. He is the boy the in the far bottom right corner, closest to the camera.

Military Saturday in the Attic Zalewski

Sunday in the Attic

Posted on 28 February 2010by Brian Zalewski

One of the big mysteries I am trying to solve in my genealogy is to find more information on my great-grandfather, Joseph Zalewski’s, military history. According to a previous family researcher, all of his military files were burned in the extremely destructive 1973 National Personnel Records Center fire. So, all the information I had was that he served in World War I, possibly in France at some point. By sheer luck, during a random Google Books search, I found him listed in a book about the 86th Division headquartered at Camp Grant in Illinois. From there I was able to determine that they were shipped to France in 1918, but never saw combat due to the Armistice. Though, it did mention that a lot of the division was broken apart and used in other divisions at the time. I did a more in-depth post about this find about a year ago.

In this huge collection of photos and documents that I currently have from my grandmother, there are some documents about my great-grandfather including a military record. It looks to be his “Honorable Discharge” papers. About half-way down on the “Enlistment Record” side it has a hand-written line that says:

5th Co. 161 Depot Brigade. Last assignment to 323rd Machine Gun Bn.

Unfortunately, it looks as though the previous line may be missing, but I do now have more information on where he may have went after the 86th Division broke apart. I have yet to find much information on the 323rd Machine Gun Battalion, which looked to be part of the 83rd Division. I mostly find information on Ohio, since it looked to be originally stationed there.

Here are the two documents. Click the for larger versions.

Way Back Wednesday

Posted on 24 February 2010by Brian Zalewski

Braatz Family — Click for larger version

This photo was found in my grandmother’s collection and labeled “great-grandparents Braatz” which should make this couple, Wilhelm & Maria (KLEGIN) BRAATZ, my 3rd-great-grandparents on my father’s side. The child is not labeled, but I’m assuming it’s my great-great-grandfather, Frank BRAATZ, since he is their first child. I would also assume the photo was taken sometime in 1870 or so.

Weekly History

Weekly History: February 21 – 27

Posted on 21 February 2010by Brian Zalewski

February 22

1890 – Died – William Henry THOMPSON – William is my 4th-great-grandfather on my father’s side. Unfortunately, I’m not exactly sure where and when he was born. The census and other records span from 1810 to 1816 and mention England, Ireland, and Scotland. He married Francis QUINET in 1839 and had 10 children. He passed away in Wrightstown, Brown Co., Wisconsin and is buried there at St. Paul’s Cemetery.

February 23

1831 – Born – Herman RATHKE – Herman is my 3rd-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born in Germany and married Fredericke C HENKE. They had 3 children in Germany before immigrating to Wisconsin. Herman passed away on 9 Feb 1898 and is buried at Union Cemetery in Port Washington, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin.

February 25

1632 – Married – Herman van CREIJBECK & Joanna PANSARS – Herman and Joanna are my 10th-great-grandparents on my mother’s side. They were both born in 1610 in Belgium. In 1646, they had a baby boy, Nicolaes van CRAYBECK, my ancestor. Herman passed away in 1649 and Joanna in 1653, which makes me wonder where Nicolaes grew up.

1883 – Married – Carl F H LAST & Augusta Johanna Wilkelumire LUEDTKE – Carl and Augusta are my great-great-grandparents on my mother’s side. They were married in Milwaukee Co., Wisconsin after immigrating with their families from Prussia. Together, Carl and Augusta had a whopping 16 children. Carl passed away in 1926, but Augusta lived to be 100-years-old and passed away in 1963.

February 27

1945 – Died – Marianna ZALEWSKI – Marianna is my great-grandaunt on my father’s side. Her birth location and dates differ depending on the record, though tracking this information could help me track the ZALEWSKI family. The dates I have are: March 1890 in Poland/Germany; 22 Mar 1891 in Baltimore; Maryland, 22 Mar 1891 in Ohio; and 1891 in Wisconsin. Since I do have a record of the ZALEWSKI family arriving in Baltimore in 1889 with no mention of Marianna, I can cancel out the Poland/Germany option. They were first found in Milwaukee in the 1892 city directory, so all of the other options still work. Marianna married Frank GIERSZEWSKI (before changing it to GIERSCH) in 1913 and passed away in 1945 in Milwaukee. She is buried with her husband at Holy Cross Cemetery in Milwaukee.

Featured Milwaukee Technology Tips & Tricks

Maps. Maps. Maps.

Posted on 20 February 2010by Brian Zalewski

I started using the Google Maps system to plot some of my family’s locations awhile back, but I never got around to finishing it. Recently, I plotted most of the major Milwaukee locations for my family and it’s interesting to see how it looks once you know where things are. I’ve always had an idea, but it’s better to see it in it’s final state.

An interesting thing about Milwaukee is that it went through a massive addressing overhaul in 1931, so a lot of the address information from census records is different today. Fortunately, I found a website that has some basic conversion tools and was able to (hopefully) pinpoint these addresses. Give it a try sometime. It’s neat to see how your family moved around.

View Milwaukee Locations in a larger map and access to the legend.

Follow Friday

Posted on 19 February 2010by Brian Zalewski

Here are some good posts and links I ran across in the last week.

Dan Curtis gives you some helpful steps on how to handle and preserve you old, historic photos. I’ve been doing stuff with old photos lately, so this will be helpful.
Dean at Genlighten has a geeky post about Genealogy sites and their APIs. Since I come from a geeky background, this was an interesting read for me. It’s also a good read for people interested in other ways sites are allowing people to access their huge amounts of data.
Linda at Documenting the Details has a great link on the problems with the “Point-and-Click” Genealogy at some of the major Genealogy websites. I know I have the same issues. Hopefully, the post will help spread the word.
Episode 2 of “Faces of America” is now available to view online. This one talks more about the great century of immigration and what some ancestors went through to get to America.

Way Back Wednesday

Posted on 17 February 2010by Brian Zalewski

The lady at the left is my great-great-grandmother, Anna (LINDNER) ZALEWSKI. There is no year on the photo, but it is before 1939 when Anna passed away. Maybe someone can tell from the car in the back. The remaininge two individuals were not noted on the photo, but I’m pretty sure the other lady is somehow related to Harry Potter.

Fun Milwaukee Polish

Fat Tuesday

Posted on 16 February 2010by Brian Zalewski

Fat Tuesday around here in Milwaukee, home to a large Polish heritage, is celebrated as PÄ…czki Day. The most popular local bakery in the area, National Bakery and Deli, expects to sell 45,000 of them.

A pÄ…czki is a deep-fried piece of dough shaped into a flattened sphere and filled with confiture or other sweet filling. I bet you’re like, “Wait! Isn’t this just a donut?” According to Wikipedia, although they look like bismarcks or jelly doughnuts, pÄ…czki are made from especially rich dough containing eggs, fats, sugar and sometimes milk.

Sadly, I didn’t get one today. No one brought any in to the office and I didn’t think driving that far for one was worth it. Though, I am always for any sort of ethnic celebration that includes eating lots of donut-like foods.