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.
CategoriesWay Back Wednesday
Way Back Wednesday
Tag: Braatz
CategoriesWeekly History
Weekly History: January 31st – February 6th
February 1st
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.
February 4th
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.
CategoriesTell Me Thursday
Tell Me Thursday: Braatz Sisters
This is a photo of my great-grandmother, Agnes (Braatz) Corrigan (left), and her sister Alice Braatz. It’s label says that Agnes is 13-years-old which would make the year of the photo 1916. I’m not sure what’s going on in the photo, but one of them is giving the other one flowers, but it almost looks staged.
CategoriesTombstone Tuesday
Tombstone Tuesday: Maria BRAATZ
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.
CategoriesWeekly History
Weekly History: July 5th-11th
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.
CategoriesWeekly History
Weekly History: May 31st – June 6th
June 1
1996 – Died – Irene (ZALEWSKI) LUTZENBERGER – Irene is my great-aunt, sister of my Grandpa Zalewski. She was born 17 Jul 1920 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I know I met her sometime in my life, but I really don’t remember ever meeting her. She is buried with her husband Ervin at Holy Cross Cemetery in Milwaukee.
June 3
1704 – Died – Marie Anne (DELEUGRE) ST. LOUIS – Marie is my 8th-great-grandmother on my mother’s side. She was born 14 Jun 1665 in Chateau Richer, Montmorency, Quebec, Canada. She married Gilles Gadious ST. LOUIS. She passed away in Montreal, Ile de Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
1910 – Died – Paulina Henrietta (THOMPSON) FIRMENICH – Paulina is my 3rd-great-grandmother on my father’s side. She was born 5 May 1849 in Granville, Milwaukee Co., Wisconsin (which is now the Brown Deer area.) On 11 Apr 1867 she married Mathias FIRMENICH and together they had 13 children. She passed away at Morrison, Brown Co., Wisconsin and is buried with her husband at St. Agnes Cemetery in Ashland, Ashland Co., Wisconsin.
June 4
1891 – Married – Frank F BRAATZ & Margaret K STEARNS – Frank and Margaret are my great-great-grandparents on my father’s side. Frank was born 17 Apr 1867 in Germany and Margaret was born 30 Aug 1866, also in Germany. They married in Bear Creek, Outagamie Co., Wisconsin. Margaret passed away in 1943 at Ashland, Wisconsin and Frank followed 5 years later, also at Ashland. They are buried at Mt. Hope Cemetery in Ashland.
This is also my father’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Dad.
June 5
1926 – Died – Carl F H Last – Carl (also known as Charles in some records) is my great-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. Carl was born 26 Sep 1851 in Doeringshagen, Pommerania. He married Augusta LUEDTKE on 25 Feb 1883 in Milwaukee and (amazingly) had 16 children. He passed away at his home in Port Washington, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin and is buried at Union Cemetery in Port Washington.
June 6
1974 – Died – Roman J TROKA – Roman is my great-great-uncle on my father’s side. He was born 1 Feb 1897 in Milwaukee, Wisconson to Joseph & Clara (SZULTA) TROKA. He is buried around the rest of the Troka family at Holy Cross Cemetery in Milwaukee.
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Wow, doesn’t seem like a happy beginning on the month. A lot of deaths at the beginning of June. It’s a big change from May where we saw a lot of births.
CategoriesWeekly History
Weekly History: April 12 – 18
Sorry, I haven’t been posting recently. I had other things going on and I was also not doing much research. But, I will get back on the horse today. Happy Easter.
April 12
1923 – Married – Maurice CORRIGAN and Agnes BRAATZ. My great-grandparents were married in Iron Mountain, Dickinson Co., Michigan. Maurice and Agnes grew up somewhat near each other in Ashland, Wisconsin which is where they probably met.
April 14
1856 – Died – Jacobus Franciscus KREBBEKX. Jacobus is my 4th-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born 1 Mar 1818 in Hoofdplaat, Zeeland, Netherlands. He married Maria Sophia SCHALLOIR in 1819.
April 15
1895 – Born – Frances Dorothy ZALEWSKI. Frances is my great-great-aunt on my father’s side. She was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She married Edwin G CYBELA in about 1916. She passed away on 18 Jul 1965 in Milwaukee.
April 17
1867 – Born – Frank F BRAATZ. Frank is my great-great-grandfather on my father’s side. He was born in Germany to Wilhelm & Marie BRAATZ. He married Margaret K STEARNS in 1891. He passed away on 10 Jul 1948 in Ashland, Ashland Co. Wisconsin and is buried there at Mt. Hope Cemetery.
April 18
1870 – Married – Peter MUHM and Ida SCHAVANDIE. Peter & Ida are my 3rd-great-grandparents on my mother’s side. They were married in Germantown, Washington Co., Wisconsin. Their third child is my great-great-grandmother, Minnie M MUHM.
1892 – Married – Thomas J CORRIGAN and Emma Jane FIRMENICH. Thomas & Emma are my great-great-grandparents on my father’s side. They were married in Sanborn, Ashland Co., Wisconsin. This was Thomas’ second marriage and Emma’s first. Their first child, Maurice CORRIGAN, is my great-grandfather.
1999 – Died – Richard Joseph ZALEWSKI. Richard is my grandfather. He was born 9 Dec 1921 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and married my grandmother, Mary Jane CORRIGAN, on 11 Oct 1947. He lived part of his life in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and then settled down in Cedarburg, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin for the remainder of his life. His death was one of the reasons I got into genealogy and one of the reasons I wish I would’ve got into it sooner.
Tell Me Thursday: Unknown
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.
Dusty Old Letters
When I bought my house in 2005, I ended up purchasing my grandparent’s house. My grandpa had passed away in 1999 and my grandma was moving into an assisted living apartment since she hurt herself in a little fall. I did get a very nice deal on the house. It’s perfect “starter” house, being the house that they bought new in 1955 and that my dad and his siblings grew up in.
When she moved, a bunch of boxes were left in the basement. Most of it was just things like blankets and pots and pans, things she doesn’t need right now. I found one box a few months back when I was taking inventory that I saw had funeral cards and old newspaper clippings in it. Today, I decided to just browse through them to see if there were any of my ancestors that I could use to squeeze out some more information.
I only found a few funeral cards on the top and they were probably of old friends, I assume, and not relatives. But, I did find a nice collection in the news clippings box. Most of the items were just random clippings of recent photos and articles from the newspapers. But, I did find a nice selection of old obituaries, though. A couple were straight from the newspapers and a few others were copies. The obituaries that I found were from Emma Jane (FIRMENICH) COOK (my gg-grandmother), George S COOK (Emma’s 3rd husband), Margaret (STEARNS) BRAATZ (my gg-grandmother), Frank F BRAATZ, Sr (her husband and my gg-grandfather), and Margaret (SCHUMACHER) STEARNS (her mother and my ggg-grandmother.) Most of the obituaries didn’t have any new info of note, but the big find was the last one. In my tree, all I had was “Margaret” listed and her death date. This obituary gave me her birth info and her surname, which is brand new to me. Plus, it listed all of her siblings and locations. I need to start looking for SCHUMACHER now, any tips?
Another treasure find in the box was some old letters written to my grandfather from his parents in 1941. It seems, from the address that he was in navy school in Pensacola, Florida. There are about 5-10 letters all written from March 31, 1941 to April 27, 1941. One weird note here is that my great-grandmother, his mother, Emily (TROKA) ZALEWSKI, passed away on May 1, 1941. In the later letters that I just quickly scanned through, there is no mention of being sick, etc. So, this points to her death being quite sudden as she was only 45 years old at the time. Maybe my grandfather saved these letters due to the fact that he was away in Florida when his mother died. There are no letters beyond the April 27th one. I am in the process of scanning them so I can read them and archive them. This is the only comunication from my great-grandmother that I’ve found. Then, I plan on taking this box over to my grandmother since I’m assuming she’ll want it.