This ia photo from my wife’s collection. The photo label says that this is her grandmother’s class at “country school.” We can’t specifically pick her out, but we have some ideas. I like how all the boys are in overalls. they probably need to go back and finish up their farm work when school is over. This school is probably located in the rural areas of southwestern Wisconsin, which is where her grandmother grew up.
I’m not sure who is in this photo. It was located in the BRAATZ area of my grandmother’s photo album, but it is no labeled. I have yet to ask her personally if she knows. The girl in the middle does somewhat resemble a photo of my 3rd-great-grandmother, Margaret (SCHUMACHER) STEARNS, so maybe it’s her and some relation to her.
According to the note for this photo, this is a picture of my grandfather, Richard Zalewski (middle), with his sister Irene to his left and Eugene Nowiski to his right. I don’t know off-hand who Eugene Nowiski is, but it does look like he’s ready to change someone’s oil. Multiple people have said that my grandfather looks a bit like me in this photo when I was a kid. I can see it. I assume the photo was taken in Milwaukee, Wisconsin as Richard lived there most of his life.
The only person I can correctly pick out of this image is my 3rd great-grandfather, Mathias Firmenich, in the back. I’m pretty sure the other two women are two of his daughters and the one on the left may possibly be my great-great-grandmother, Emma Jane Firmenich. I do like the caption, “lot of little people.” The photo was probably taken in the Sanborn or Ashland, Wisconsin area in Ashland Co. since Mathias lived there most of his later life.
This is one of the newest photos I was able to scan. I finally got some photos from my mother’s side and this one was a good one since it has 3 generations back starting from my grandparents. This was taken in 1948 on my grandparent’s wedding day.
The names from left to right: my gg-grandather Peter VAN PRICE (Van Parijs), my great-grandmother Mildred (VAN PRICE) DEBROUX, my gg-grandmother Minnie (MUHM) VAN PRICE, my grandmother Marjorie (DEBROUX) THIELKE, my grandfather LeRoy THIELKE, my great-grandfather Leon DEBROUX, my gg-grandmother Augusta (LUEDTKE) LAST, and my great-grandmother Madora (LAST) THIELKE.
From what I figured out, this is my great-great-grandfather Thomas CORRIGAN and his first wife Ellen FERGUSON (1854- abt 1890.) I had originally tabbed it as Thomas Corrigan and his second wife, my great-great-grandmother Emma Jane FIRMENICH. Then one day I looked closer at it and at Tom and Emma’s children and they didn’t seem to match up. It occurred to me that this was probably his first family since the kids line up pretty well with their ages. Tom was a busy man. He had 5 children with Ellen and then married my gg-grandmother and had 9 more.
The people in this photo (as far as I know) are: Ellen Ferguson and Thomas Corrigan in the back row. Joseph M. and William J. S. Corrigan (or vice versa) in the middle row. Mary Ellen, Agnes Alvina, and Thomas Francis Corrigan in the front row. This must be very close to Ellen’s death since little Thomas would only have been about 4 or 5 when that happened.
Wordless Wednesday’s Photo is labeled “trokas&szultas” in my list. Unfortunately, when I first scanned a few photos from my grandmother, I didn’t label them very well. Though, it was probably labeled something like that in the album itself. There are only two people I think I can pick out. My great-grandfather, Joseph Zalewski, in the middle of the back row and my great-great-grandmother, Clara (Szulta) Troka, third from the left in the middle row. I’m hoping to meet with my grandma and maybe go over some of these photos and see if she knows who they may be.
Wordless Wednesday’s photo is a picture of my grandfather Richard Zalewski (in the back) and my great-great grandparents, Joseph & Clara (Szulta) Troka. I don’t have a date down for it, but I assume it’s sometime in the 1950s. Clara passed away in 1959 at the tough ol’ age of 83. Joseph died in on New Year’s Day in 1962 at the age of 90. He probably would have lived much longer, but he was hit by a drunk driver on his way to church in Milwaukee. You can read an excerpt from the newspaper article on my family tree site. Both Clara and Joseph were born in the Poland area and immigrated to the United States. They were married in Milwaukee in 1894.
