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.
I’m starting to run out of tombstone photos. I’ll need to start posting those from my wife’s family tree pretty soon. This one is from my family tree and is that of Jean-Baptiste (John) LAURENT, 3rd-great-grandfather. He was born about 1825 is Belgium, according to census records. He married my 3rd-great-grandmother, Olivie ST. LOUIS, on 7 Sep 1857 in Little Chute, Outagamie Co., Wisconsin. Together they had 9 children including my great-great-grandmother, Mary Philomene LAURENT. He passed away on 31 Jul 1886 in Phlox, Langlade Co., Wisconsin and is buried at St. Joseph’s Catholic Cemetery in Norwood, Langlade Co., Wisconsin. This photo was graciously taken for me by a volunteer in the area.
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The dates and anniversaries in my family tree for this week.
March 22
1732 – Died – Marie Anna GUEDON – Marie is my 9th-great-grandmother on my mother’s side. She was born in 1641 in Bourg de Magny, Normandie, France and married Gabriel BENOIT in 1665. She passed away in Yamachiche, St. Maurice, Quebec, Canada.
1891 – Born – Marianna ZALEWSKI – Better known as Mary, I’m not exactly sure where she was born. I have found entries for Poland, Baltimore, Ohio and Wisconsin. Mary is my great-great-aunt. She married Frank GIERSZEWSKI and lived out her life in Milwaukee, passing away on 27 Feb 1945.
March 23
1729 – Died – Catherine GENÉVOIS – Catherine is my 8th-great-grandmother on my father’s side. She was born about 1689 in Polaincourt(?), Haute-Saône, France. She married Georges QUINET in 1711.
March 25
1736 – Born – Nicholas Joseph ST. LOUIS – Nicholas is my 6th-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. He married Charlotte LEMAITRE-AUGER and passed away in 1814 in Quebec.
1990 – Died – Maurice Earl CORRIGAN – Maurice is my great-grandfather. I had the pleasure of knowing him until I was about 10-years-old. I don’t remember him too much, since I was so young. He was born 28 Dec 1898 in Sanborn, Ashland Co., Wisconsin to Thomas CORRIGAN and Emma Jane FIRMENICH. Since his father died so early on, he was given the job of taking care of the family, including 9 children, when he was only 17. On 12 Apr 1923, he married my great-grandmother, Agnes Catherine BRAATZ.
March 26
1721 – Died – Nicolaes van CRAYBECK – Nicolaes is my 9th-great-grandmother on my mother’s side. He was born 22 May 1646 in St. Lambertus, Herck, Belgium. He married Helena WAGEMANS on 9 Aug 1671.
March 27
1892 – Died – Ephraim Gadiou dit ST. LOUIS – Ephraim is my 4th-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born on 16 Jul 1810 in Yamachiche, St. Maurice, Quebec, Canada. He married Marie DesAnges MANSEAU on 4 Oct 1831. He moved his family to Phlox, Langlade Co., Wisconsin where he lived the rest of his life.
My entry for the 13th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture. Here is what this carnival is about. Share with us the surnames in your Irish family tree, but don’t just stop there. Do a little research and tell us the origin of one or more of those surnames, the stories of how they might have changed over the years, or tales of how they’ve been mixed up and mispelled, etc.
The big Irish surname in my tree is CORRIGAN. The name starts at my paternal grandmother, who is always the family’s biggest Irish supporter. I can trace the surname back to Michael John CORRIGAN who immigrated from Killeeshil Parish, County Tyrone, Ireland to Ontario, Canada in the 1820s. The family lived there for many years before my great-great-grandfather, Thomas CORRIGAN, moved to Wisconsin with his family. The history of the CORRIGAN surname according to Wikipedia is:
The Corrigan (O’Corrigan, Carrigan, Corocan, Courigan, Currigan) surname is of Irish descent. Translated Corrigan means “Spear”. The name is believed to have originated from Coirdhecan of the Cineal Eoghain. It is also believed to be connected to the Maguire clan. The Corrigan surname was popular in the 17th century in County Fermanagh in Ireland. Today, the name is spread out across most counties in Ireland and some of the United States and Canada.
Via my genealogy research, I have met and talked to a lot of CORRIGAN researchers, a lot of whom descended from the same Michael John CORRIGAN family. I have yet to trace back into Ireland, besides County Tyrone as listed above.
There are also few famous individuals with the CORRIGAN surname such as the actor Ray “Crash” Corrigan and Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan, who I posted about in the past.
I actually haven’t run into many misspellings of the name, other than the few listed in the Wikipedia entry above. Soundex usually handles most of the common spelling changes. The few other Irish surnames I have in my tree are MCCANN, THOMPSON, NUGENT, BOYLE and CRONIN, but none of these go as far or are researched as deep as CORRIGAN.
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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.
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Well, it’s St. Patrick’s Day and I am without a true Irish headstone. I have a lot of Irish ancestors, but not a lot of headstone photos for them. Most of them passed away in mysterious, far away lands (like Canada.)
This headstone of my 4th-great-grandfather will have to do for today. From my research William Henry THOMPSON was either born in 1810, 1813 or 1816 and he was either born at Scotland, England or Ireland. I’ve found sources mentioning all three of these. At least it puts him in the United Kingdom, so it counts.
William is one of my brick-wall ancestors. I can find no more information on him or his family. He is also one of the only ancestors that I need to research that has a very common name. I’m so used to looking for surnames like ZALEWSKI or SZULTA, which require a different sort of mindset. I’m not used to getting back 12,000 results when searching. The plus side is that a lot of people are probably doing THOMPSON research, so maybe I’ll come across something.
It’s listed that William married Claude-Françoise QUINET in 1839 in Syracuse, Onondaga Co., New York. I haven’t been able to find any info from here either including using the Onondaga Co. GenWeb site. William and Frances moved to Wrightstown, Brown Co., Wisconsin where they lived out the rest of their lives. They were both buried at St. Paul’s Cemetery in Wrightstown. I did a Tombstone Tuesday on Frances a few weeks back.
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