I imported my complete family tree file yesterday. Be aware that I probably don’t have information on anyone in the tree that is not a direct ancestor. Everything I have is on the site, so if you email me about them, don’t expect much more information. Thanks.

The family tree area of the site may temporarily be down this afternoon while I install a more robust system (from what I hear.) Stay tuned.

The family tree is back up. I installed some new software called The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding. It’s a bit of a long name, but it works nicely. I’ve always used phpGEDView, which worked fine most of the time, but it seemed to choke on large databases. I don’t mind shelling out a few bucks for something that works and is designed well. I’ll run with it for awhile and see how it pans out. Take a look, it’s pretty neat. It’ll be a lot neater once I get more info into it.

I setup a wiki-based area of my genealogy site that I can use to store all of the miscellaneous information from my tree. Tidbits, letters, information, etc. The first thing I posted is a letter that my great-great uncle, Edwin Corrigan, had wrote to some other family members. Sadly, Edwin died just last June at the age of 95. The letter includes a lot of insight into life in the early 1900s in northern Wisconsin. It’s a very interesting read for anyone who enjoys history. Here is a small excerpt, but you can read the whole thing on the wiki if you’d like, but it is pretty long. Plan on more than few minutes.

To begin with, the were two Corrigan families – the first four children were born in Orillia (Mara county, Ontario.) Pa’s first wife, Ellen Ferguson, was buried in Washburn, WI across the bay from Ashland. Don’t know just when they came to the area – nor how long they lived in Washburn. The youngest child, Thomas Francis, was born in Washburn, Sept. 15, 1886. Shortly after that they must have moved to Sanborn, where Pa built a saloon and boarding house (the building is still there, but has had an addition put on it.) Three of our family members were born while the folks lived in Sanborn, the rest born (at the Summit) in Ashland. Due to an early stroke, Pa had to get out of the business. He did some kind of a trade with property and got property on the outskirts of Ashland, which included a small five room house and building which house a saloon, dance hall and gambling rooms. Remember these were in the early logging days when Ashland housed many saloons, houses of ill-repute, etc. They lived a short time in the large building and then had the small house moved closer to the road – eventually he sold the building (the hall, etc) to the Town of Sanborn to be used as the Town Hall.

Read the whole thing - Edwin Corrigan Letter

I added more photos to the photo gallery including the Corrigan and Braatz families.

I get a lot of requests looking for photos of my genealogy research. I had them up for awhile, but it was hard to administer. Well, I’m starting to put them back online. Currently, I just have my Zalewski photos online, but I will be working on getting everything I have. You can view them using the Photos link on top of the site, or clicking here. Enjoy!

I’ve moved my “weblog” posts into this area because this allows me more control over everything. Watch this site for the latest info on my major surnames, genealogy news, genetic genealogy, and all kinds of other genealogy-related stuff. I promise to keep it updated and fresh. Feel free to comment.

I’ll be moving all of my surname info and other items over here in the next few days.

I’ve published my basic family tree/ancestors using phpGedView again. Hopefully, they fixed the problem with the last version that I had. Cross our fingers.

I only exported my direct ancestral line because I didn’t want the file to be too big so it caused any issues. We’ll see how it goes for now. If you need any more info on anyone in the tree, let me know.

You can view it via this link, or click on the “Family Tree” link on the top menu: Ancestors of Brian Zalewski