Since I had so much fun setting up my single ancestor site, Everything I Know About Frank Zalewski, I thought I would set up another one for another individual in my tree. Once again, it’s an individual from my paternal line, my 3rd-great-grandfather Mathias Balthazar Firmenich.
I already had a lot of information on Mathias, which is one reason I decided on him. There is always missing information, which is one reason that these projects are helpful. It requires me to comb through all of the information I have and put it in order. I usually end up finding some detail that I had missed earlier. The sites also get to put the visitor into the life of someone who lived in the past and to see what they went through.
Mathias’ life was pretty full. From immigrating to America at a young age to traveling hundreds of miles to a new home to dealing with the loss of children during a disease outbreak, he had been through a lot.
The important dates for this week in our family history. As always, you can find this info on the Dates & Anniversaries page.
July 25th
1915 – Died – Thomas J CORRIGAN – Thomas is my great-great-grandfather on my father’s side. He was born on 3 Mar 1855 in Mara Township, Brechin, Ontario, Canada. He married Emma Jane FIRMENICH, his second marriage, in 1892 and together they had 9 children. Thomas passed away on the same day his youngest daughter, Sadie, was born. He is buried at St. Agnes Cemetery in Ashland, Ashland Co., Wisconsin.
1919 – Married – Arthur THIELKE & Madora LAST – Arthur and Madora are my great-grandparents on my mother’s side. They were married at Port Washington, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin and together had 4 children. Arthur passed away in 1964. Madora later re-married and passed away in 1979. They are buried together at St. Paul’s Cemetery in Grafton, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin.
July 27th
1921 – Married – Leon DEBROUX & Mildred VAN PRICE – Leon and Mildred are my great-grandparents on my mother’s side. They were married at Mattoon, Shawano Co., Wisconsin and together had 6 children. They later moved to Port Washington, Wisconsin where they lived the rest of their lives. Leon passed away in 1982 and Mildren later in 1994. They are buried together at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Port Washington.
July 28th
1900 – Died – Georg Heinrich STIERNS – Georg is my 3rd-great-grandfather on my father’s side. He was born in 19 April 1935 in Württemberg, Germany. He married Katherine Margaretha SCHUMACHER in about 1862. After they had 4 children in Germany, they emigrated to Wisconsin in about 1881. The name was also listed as STEARNS.
July 29th
1684 – Died – Eleanor (ALDERSEY) CUTTS – Eleanor is my wife’s 10th-great-grandmother on her mother’s side. She was born about 1682 in Portsmouth, Rockingham Co., New Hampshire. In 1649, she married Richard CUTTS. She passed away in Portsmouth 9 years after her husband.
July 31st
1886 – Died – Jean-Baptiste LAURENT – Jean-Baptiste is my 3rd-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born on 18 Jan 1825 in Biez, Chaumont-Gistoux, Walloon Brabant, Belgium to Constant and Marie (BERO) LAURENT. He later emigrated to America and married Olivine ST. LOUIS in 1857 at Little Chute, Outagamie Co., Wisconsin. He is buried at St. Joseph’s Catholic Cemetery in Norwood, Langlade Co., Wisconsin.
The TONEY surname shows up in my wife’s family tree starting with her great-great-grandmother, Idona (TONEY) POWELL. The surname is also her connection to the American Revolutionary War. So, if all data is correct she should be a proven Daughter of the American Revolution. There is much paperwork to get that finished. Maybe we’ll work on it someday for her (or my future daughter.)
The line than extends to her father, Jesse TONEY, who is known to have fought in the Civil War. Next is his father, William TONEY, born in Virginia and later died in Wisconsin. William’s father is Carey TONEY, who not only lived to 101 years of age (depending on which info is correct), his wife lived to be 100. Carey is my wife’s TONEY ancestor who served in the Revolutionary War. This was written some research that we had found:
He joined the American Army in the Revolution, passed through several campaigns; was present and took an active part in the siege of Yorktown and was an eye-witness to the surrender of Cornwallis in 1781, saw Gen Washington and Lafayette a great number of times during the siege; recollects and describes the personal appearance of Lord Cornwallis, his staff & etc.
The TONEY line than continues on to Carey’s father, William. Then it’s William’s father, Alexander William TONEY and his father William TONEY. According to the info we have, which may or may not be correct, William was born in 1660 at Buckingham County in Virginia. There is a lot of other research out there for the TONEY family, as they must have spread their seed far and wide from Virginia.
This is a photo of my great-grandfather, Joseph ZALEWSKI, and my grandfather, Richard ZALEWSKI. Date is unknown, but Richard looks to be about 2 or 3, so this is probably somewhere around 1923-25. I’m assuming it was taken in Milwaukee, Wisconsin as that was where Joseph and his family lived at the time.
The history for this week in my family tree. As always, you can find this on the Dates & Anniversaries page.
July 19th
1959 – Died – Clara (SZULTA) TROKA – Clara is my great-great-grandmother on my father’s side. She was born 6 Jan 1876 in SulÄ™czyno Parish, Kartuzy County, Pomorskie, Poland. She immigrated with her mother and siblings in 1881 and met up with her father in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He had come over earlier. She married Joseph TROKA in 1894 and had 4 children. She passed away in Milwaukee and is buried there with her husband at Holy Cross Cemetery.
July 20th
1817 – Born – Charlotte (STRASSMAN) LAST – Charlotte is my 3rd-great-grandmother on my mother’s side. She was born somewhere in Germany and married her husband, Johann LAST, there before coming to Wisconsin in about 1857. Together, they had 4 children. She passed away on 20 Apr 1900 at Grafton, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin and is (supposedly) buried at Union Cemetery in Port Washington, Wisconsin. I recently found her husband’s headstone, but have yet to find her’s as I talked about in a post.
1848 – Died – Charles PIETTE – Charles is my wife’s 5th-great-grandfather on her mother’s side. He was born 4 Mar 1773 in Malèves, Wallon Brabant, Belgium. In 1797, he married Marie RENIER and together they had 6 children. He passed away at Thorembais-les-Beguines, Brabant Wallon, Belgium.
July 22nd
1845 – Died – Leonardus CRAYBECK – Leonardus is my 5th-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born on 25 Oct 1782 in Genk, Limburg, Belgium. He married Florentina Francisca KNUDDE in about 1812. They had 6 children including my ancestor, Jacobus KREBBEKX (not sure why the name changes.) He passed away at Hoofdplaat, Zeeland, Netherlands.
I seemed the have missed last week’s post, probably due to July 4th throwing everything off.
July 12th
1811 – Died – Philemon SUTHERLAND – Philemon is my wife’s 7th-great-grandfather on her father’s side. He was born about 1718 in Prince Edward Co., Virginia. He married Mildred ARCHER. He passed away in Franklin Co., Virginia.
1879 – Born – Minnie M MUHM – Minnie is my great-great-grandmother on my mother’s side. She was born in Norwood Township, Langlade Co., Wisconsin to Peter & Ida MUHM. She married Pieter Franciscus VAN PARIJS (Peter VAN PRICE) in 1895 and had 6 children. She passed away on 6 Jul 1959 in Port Washington, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin and is buried there at Union Cemetery.
July 13th
1876 – Died – William CORRIGAN – William, known as Curly Bill, is my 3rd-great-grandfather on my father’s side. He was born in about 1823 on either the voyage to America or somewhere in New York State. He married Mary MCCANN in 1848 and had 12 children, including my ancestor Thomas J CORRIGAN. He passed away at Mara Township, Brechin, Ontario, Canada.
July 14th
1963 – Died – Augusta Johanna LUEDTKE – Augusta is my great-great-grandmother on my mother’s side. She was born 3 Jul 1863 in Storkow, Pommerania. She married Carl F H LAST in 1883 and had 16 children. She passed away 2 weeks after her 100th birthday in Grafton, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin and is buried in Port Washington at Union Cemetery.
July 16th
1810 – Born – Ephraim Gadious dit ST. LOUIS – Ephraim is my 4th-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born in Yamachiche, St. Maurice, Quebec, Canada. He married Marie DesAnges MANSEAU in 1831 and later settled in Wisconsin. He passed away on 27 Mar 1891 in Phlox, Langlade Co., Wisconsin.
From Geneabloggers.com: The meme is called “What I Do” and you basically list what you use in terms of technology to either run your genealogy business or pursue your family history as a hobby.
Why is this important? Very often we operate in a vacuum. We have no idea what other people are using unless they mention it in an email or a blog post. Or we have to ask for a recommendation.
So take a look. Copy and use the list below if you want to participate at your blog. Use the words “What I Do” in the post title and I’ll list it here:
Hardware: HP Pavilion Elite m9040n Core 2 Quad Q6600 Desktop Computer with 3GB RAM, 640GB SATA with Windows 7 (I didn’t memorize that, I swear. It’s from the receipt.)
External storage: 1TB Maxtor USB drive
Online storage: None, besides some of my web host FTP space which gives me like 8GB.
Backup: A few things. Windows 7 backup, manual backup, and also SyncBack.
Other tech stuff:Google Picasa for photos, UltraEdit for my web developing (no cheesy WYSIWYG editor for me), VSO Image Resizer for quick image resizing, and probably lots of other things I’m forgetting.
This photo is of my dad and his brother at the Covered Bridge in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. This is the now the only covered bridge left standing in Wisconsin. It looks like it was still used for vehicle traffic back then, but it is now just open for foot traffic. It’s located just north of the city on (surprise!) Covered Bridge Rd. Here is a Google Street View of it.