I usually post a Weekly History on Sunday, but there were not a lot of entries for this week. I received a neat newspaper clipping from my Aunt this week that I will post instead.
This is the original newspaper ad for the house/subdivision I live in now, which was originally purchased by my grandparents. Do you think if I take this ad to my mortgage company that they would match it?
This week I decided to do a Surname Saturday on one of my wife’s surnames, Moran.
The MORAN surname first shows up in her tree with Robert MORAN who was born in Ireland in 1820. We’re not exactly sure where in Ireland. Tracing this name into Ireland is like tracing the JOHNSON surname in America we’re told, it’s very common. I have that problem in my tree with the surname THOMPSON into the UK somewhere.
It looks like Robert first came through Canada (as did my Irish ancestors) and then made it to southwestern Wisconsin. It seems like he immigrated with his wife, Dorothea COOK, who was born in County Cork, Ireland (which may point at Robert’s origin, too.) There is no hard evidence of this information besides some online trees and family information, but it’s something to start with.
Dorothea died in 1872 and Robert re-married to Margaret ENYARD. It says Robert died on 16 Jun 1897 in Tarver, Wisconsin but I can’t find a Tarver in Wisconsin. I’m pretty sure he died somewhere in southwestern Wisconsin. It’s probably an old, unincorporated town. We have a lot of those.
She then descends from Robert and Dorothea’s son, Charles Christopher MORAN, who was born 23 Nov 1864 in Montfort, Grant Co., Wisconsin. Charles married a German, Emma Amelia DIETER in about 1889.
Her MORAN line continues down to her great-grandfather, Frederick H MORAN, who was born on 20 Feb 1891. He married Norma POWELL in 1915. After that it continues all the way down to my wife.
Wikipedia tells us about the MORAN surname [link]:
Moran (Irish: Ó Móráin) is a modern Irish surname and derived from membership of a medieval dynastic sept. The name means a descendent of Mórán, translated as Big One. Morans were a respected sept of the Uà Fiachrach dynasty in the western counties of Mayo and Sligo. In Ireland, where the name descended from the Gaelic, it is generally pronounced (phonetically) “more-in”, an anglicized approximate of the Irish pronunciation. Elsewhere, pronunciation follows the French surname, Mo rant, anglicized to (phonetically) “more-anne”.
Surprisingly, the top countries with the Moran surname are Ireland (obviously) followed by Spain, Argentina, and Australia according to the World Names Profiler.
Here are some interesting and helpful links I’ve run across recently.
Any other interesting posts out there? Feel free to send them my way.
This is a photo of my great-grandmother, Agnes (BRAATZ) CORRIGAN and her younger brother, Frank BRAATZ, Jr. There is no date on the photo, but if I had to guess I’d say it’s probably in 1910-11 or so.
I wrote this for another site, so it may have more general genealogy info than I would have written if it was on this blog. But, you already know about all of this stuff.
As you know from other posts and podcasts, I do enjoy genealogy and the research that goes into unraveling my family tree. Last year, I came across a show on BBC Television in the UK called Who Do You Think You Are? I was able to watch most of the last (seventh) season and scattered other episodes from different seasons in the English and Australian versions via YouTube and other methods. (Since it’s only on British television and the DVDs are only Europe and UK region-coded, so I can’t watch them easily.) I have yet to watch an episode didn’t completely captivate me. Maybe it’s my love of Genealogy, or my love of hunting down a mystery, but the show grew on me.
February 9th
1898 – Died – Herman RATHKE – Herman is my 3rd-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born 23 Feb 1831 in Germany and immigrated with his family to Wisconsin in 1887. He passed away in Grafton, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin and is buried at Union Cemetery in Port Washington, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin.
February 11th
1674 – Born – Petrus van CRAYBECK – Petrus is my 8th-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born in Kuringen, Belgium. He married Elisabeth BROUCKX in 1707. He passed away sometime before 1745 at Genk, Limburg, Belgium.
1867 – Married – Mathias Balthazar FIRMENICH & Paulina Henrietta THOMPSON – Mathias & Paulina are my 3rd-great-grandparents on my father’s side. They were married at Holland, Brown Co., Wisconsin and together had 13 children including my great-great-grandmother, Emma Jane FIRMENICH. Their marriage ended in 1910 when Paulina passed away.
February 12th
1779 – Died – Jean Claude MARIZOT – Jean Claude is my 7th-great-grandfather on my father’s side. He was born about 1720 in Contréglise, Haute-Saône, France. He married Thérèse DARD in 1751. He passed away at Contréglise, Haute-Saône, France.
February 13th
1811 – Married – Pierre-Jean QUINET & Marie-Françoise GRANGIER – Pierre and Marie are my 5th-great-grandparents on my father’s side. They were married at Menoux, Département de Haute-Saône (Franche-Comté), France and later immigrated to Wisconsin with their family. They had 9 children including my ancestor, Claude-Françoise (Francesca) QUINET. I am able to last track them to Fredonia, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin in the 1860 census and then I can no longer find them. I’m assuming they passed away are buried in the Ozaukee County area, but have yet to locate their headstones.
1899 – Died – Henry Peter THIELKE – Henry is my 3rd-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born October 1813 in Mecklenberg, Germany. He married Marie SPECHT sometime before 1840 in Germany. He and his family immigrated to Wisconsin and settled in the Grafton area. He passed away in Grafton, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin and is buried at Union Cemetery in Port Washington, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin.
Here are some useful posts I’ve read this week.
My first Treasure Chest Thursday. It seems like this will replace the “Tell Me Thursday” posts I used to do. I compressed that into Wordless Wednesday. I can’t guarantee I’ll have a post for every Thursday, but I’ll try.
This is my great-grandfather, Joseph Zalewski’s, badge from when he was a Milwaukee Police Officer. He became a police officer on February 1, 1918 after returning from World War I. He served until he retired on September 21, 1951. In the recent collection of documents I received was a letter written to him from the Chief of Police about his resignation.
I’ve decided to start putting the descriptions with my Wordless Wednesday posts instead of posting them the next day. I feel it’s sometimes confusing and more work to post the same thing twice rather than just saying it all on one day. I will still call it Wordless Wednesday, since that’s the name that everyone uses, but it will have words. Sue me.
This is a photo of my great-great-grandother, Clara (Szulta) Troka and her two daughters, Francis & Emily. Emily is my great-grandmother who married Joseph Zalewski. Francis was better known as Sister Mary Clarentine when she joined the convent. There is no exact date written on this photo, but if I would have to guess I would say it was taken around 1910-1911 since Francis looks very young.
1849 – Born – Ignatz Peter SZULTA – Ignatz is my 3rd-great-grandfather on my father’s side. New evidence that I found may actually move his birth date to January 30th. Recently, I had found that Ignatz was born in what is now SulÄ™czyno Parish, Kartuzy County, Pomorskie, Poland. He married Nepomuncena SYLDATK in 1875 and immigrated to Milwaukee. He passed away on 25 May 1922 in Milwaukee and is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery. Here is part of Ignatz’s birth record showing what looks like 30 Jan for his birth and 31 Jan as his christening.
1903 – Born – Agnes Catherine BRAATZ – Agnes is my great-grandmother on my father’s side. She was born in Mellen, Ashland Co., Wisconsin to Frank & Margaret (STEARNS) BRAATZ. She married Maurice CORRIGAN in 1923 and had 5 children. I had the pleasure of knowing my great-grandmother, since she was alive for all of my childhood. She was my last great-grandparent to pass away when she died on 9 Apr 1998. She is buried with her husband at St. Agnes Cemetery in Ashland, Wisconsin.
No, not a last name, the name LAST. You should see how difficult it is to do any sort of search on this surname. Typing in “last surname” or just “last” into search engines usually gets me a lot more than I need. Sometimes it gives me “Did you mean ‘last name’?” It’s even tough on genealogy sites like Ancestry, since some records put in “Last” if the person’s surname was unknown.
The LAST surname first shows up in my tree from my great-grandmother on my maternal side, Madora Martha Louisa LAST, who married Arthur THIELKE. Madora was one of 16 children! She was the tenth child for Charles Carl LAST and Augusta Johanna LUEDTKE, born in Grafton, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin. Charles was born in Doeringshagen, Pommerania, which is located in present day Poland. His parents were Johann W G LAST (a Civil War veteran) and Charlotte STRASSMAN. Charles has immigrated to Wisconsin with his parents in 1857 and shows up in the 1860 Census in Wisconsin.
According Ancestry’s surname information page, LAST was most common in Wisconsin in 1880. Also, they note it to mean a metonymic occupational name for a porter, from Middle High German last; German Last or Yiddish last “˜burden’, “˜load’. A porter is more than likely someone who was in charge of a door or a gate (similar to a doorman.)
There are many LASTs in this area, most of which probably descend from Augusta & Charles and their 16 children. Augusta not only had 16 children, but she lived to be 100-years-old. Now comes the part when I need to research back in Poland.
