Zalewski Family Genealogy

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This week’s tombstone is that of my 3rd great-grandmother, Olivine Marie (St. Louis) Laurent. Olivine was born in Yamachiche, St. Maurice, Quebec, Canada in 1835 to Ephraim and Marie (Manseau) St. Louis. She married my 3rd great-grandfather, Jean-Baptiste Laurent in 1857 and then immigrated to Outagamie County, Wisconsin in 1860. Olivine was the first school teacher in Phlox, Wisconsin.  The school is now torn down.

I am grateful to the volunteer who took these photos for me via RAOGK a few years ago. I do plan on making a trip up north to visit this area. Many generations of my family from my maternal grandmother’s side lived and died up in the Outagamie and Langlade County area.

The headstone is located in St. Joseph’s Catholic Cemetery in Norwood, Langlade County, Wisconsin. I have uploaded the information to Find-a-Grave.

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The headstone this week is from my great-great grandfather, Johann THIELKE. Johann was born on 26 Oct 1843 in Württemberg, Germany. He married my great-great grandmother, Wilomene “Minnie” RATHKE on 21 June 1891 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. That marriage date makes him 47 when he married Minnie and she was married previously. This makes me wonder if Johann was previously married also, but I have yet to find any evidence of this. Johann passed away on 24 Apr 1927 in Grafton, Ozaukee County, Wisconsin. He was buried at St. Paul’s Cemetery in Grafton. Below is an image on the back of his headstone with some German writing. I can’t make it out, but if any of you can, let me know what you think it says.

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[ Johann Thielke's Information | Find-a-Grave Entry ]

Augusta (Luedtke) Last

Headstone of Augusta Johanna Wilkelumire (Luedtke) Last. She wins for having the longest name of my ancestors and for living the longest. Augusta died just shy of two weeks past her 100th birthday. I posted about an article in the local paper mentioning her 100th birthday.

The headstone is located in Union Cemetery in Port Washington, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin. It’s also near her husband and also some of her children and extended family.

[Link to headstone on Find-a-Grave]

Claude-Françoise "Frances" (Quinet) Thompson

This week’s tombstone is that of my gggg-grandmother, Frances Thompson. I’m happy about this headstone since no one had a photo of it or a location for it. My wife and I drove an hour or so up to Wrightstown and checked the few cemeteries and found it, along with her husband.

Frank & Anna Zalewski with son Frank, Holy Cross Cemetery, Milwaukee, WI

This week’s (and my first) Tombstone Tuesday is the one that helped me start my genealogy research. The first Zalewskis that came to America, Frank & Anna (Lindner) Zalewski. Their son Frank is also buried here with them. The headstone is located in Holy Cross Cemetery & Mausoleum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There are some other family members nearby including the Trokas and more of Frank & Anna’s children.

View the headstone at Find-a-Grave.

Also, in related news, I’ve started a new blog dealing with cemeteries in southeastern Wisconsin, named Graveyard Rabbit of Southeastern Wisconsin. It’s brand new, but I hope it will help many people in the future.

Update: Thanks to Julie from GenBlog, I have now applied for a membership. I also set up my website for this. It’s located here. Enjoy.

I’ve run across some of the Graveyard Rabbits websites and I think it’s a neat idea. I had a similar-type site a few years ago for cemeteries in the area. I posted pics, info and transcriptions of local cemeteries for people. Since I’ve moved hosts a few times, I haven’t had time to get the site back up. This was also back before all of these neat web programs like Wordpress and Gallery, so it was all done by hand.

Well, I would really like to start a Southeastern Wisconsin Graveyard Rabbit site, but it seems I need to be invited by a current member (wink wink.) So, if any current member out there thinks I’m good enough to keep up with being a Graveyard Rabbit, I’d be delighted. I really enjoy sharing information and tips on keeping these great research tools around for generations. Plus, I’m not too shabby at these blog things.

I know someone had posted this awhile back, but I forget where I saw it. So, I can’t take credit for it. But, I thought it was funny enough to post again for anyone who didn’t see it. You genealogists will get it.

This is a video of a poor genealogist try to find his ancestor’s final resting place. You know you’ve been in his predicament before.

I have this fascination with cemeteries. It’s nothing creepy or evil. Ever since I was young, I’ve always found them as mysterious and interesting, almost like looking directly into the local history. When I was younger, we used to sled down a large hill at our local cemetery in the winter (don’t worry, we weren’t near any headstones.)

Once I started to get into genealogy, my research has taken me to many cemeteries in search of the final resting places of my ancestors. They’re all interesting in their own ways, some more than others. You get a feel of the history of the area by just looking at the surnames and types of headstones. Large headstones may mean that it was someone of importance or wealth. A group of small headstones with children’s names on them may indicate a rash of disease.

The cemeteries that I enjoy the most are the older ones, which are usually nestled within old, towering trees. For some reason, it gives it a almost quiet, spooky feel to it. It’s usually very peaceful. I enjoy the cemeteries with a little character instead of the newer, cookie-cutter types. I’m not a huge fan of the wide-open cemeteries that are next to a busy road. It always feels like people are watching me, the weird guy in the cemetery taking photos. Fortunately, there are many of these older cemeteries in the area I live in. I sometimes just visited them to capture their “beauty” with my camera and to pay a visit to those that are no longer around.

My all-time favorite cemetery, as of now, is Forest Home Cemetery in Milwaukee. It’s so massive and it sits within the trees that it feels peaceful even though you’re inside of the city. It’s also home to many of the area’s most-famous citizens. Other cool cemeteries in the area of St. Mary’s Cemetery in Port Washington and St. Francis-Borgia Cemetery in Cedarburg.

I put a few of my images up on Flickr (feel free to comment on them), but I do have many more. I used to have a website up called “Southeastern Wisconsin Cemeteries,” but I haven’t had time to put it back up. It listed descriptions, info, photos and links to transcriptions for the local cemeteries.

Do you enjoy visiting cemeteries for your research and are there any cemeteries you enjoy?