Though, while looking through their wiki pages on the records, I did happen to somehow find my way over to the Digital Archives: State Regional Archives Trebon. According to their site, “users can research digitalized materials of State Regional Archives Trebon and State District Archives of South Bohemia.” That sounded promising since our records indicate the family was from the Netolice region of South Bohemia in the Czech Republic. I jumped right into their “Parish Registers” section and then into “Roman Catholic Church.” Fortunately, they had a map of all of the parishes, so I was able to see which parish Netolice was in. It happens to be its own parish, so that’s good.

It’s a pretty amazing website, if you have Czech ancestors from this region. Dozens and dozens of digitized parish records from as far back as the 14th and 15th centuries. Some are in the process of being indexed. Their system even allows you to bookmark pages, etc. While the viewer and website and slightly clunky, I wouldn’t say they’re any worse than Ancestry or FamilySearch, just different.

I opened the list of registers. Netolice seems like a big area.

They have parish records from 1656 to 1929 inside of 62 books. I spent a few hours, on and off, searching through the birth records around the time of her birth, but found nothing. I also tried some of her siblings with no luck. I also had no luck finding their parent’s marriage record. I actually didn’t even see the HUIZEL surname or anything similar, though I did run across her mother’s maiden name (REINDL) once, which was a glimmer of hope.

I decided to start searching the parishes around Netolice since it was a larger area and may have been written down since it was the biggest place in the area. No luck in the first few, but then I started on the Němčice parish records. I found a marriage record for Jan HUISL and Barbara REINDL in the 1856-1885 Marriage record book. Jackpot! I was somewhat lucky since their marriage was listed as 1864, which I didn’t find, but I kept browsing the records looking for common names and just happened to run across it in 1868. After some work on translation, it seems like they also list the bride and groom’s parents along with both of their mother’s fathers and the current occupation and location of everyone. It lists Jan’s parents as Vacslav HUISL and Terezie VYNEIK and her father as Josef VYNEIK. Barbara’s parents are Andreje REINDL and Anna BOHM and her father is Vacslav BOHM. Most of them were farmers (sedlaka), though Andreje wasn’t but I can’t seem to translate/transcribe his occupation, yet.

Click for larger version

I still didn’t have a lot of luck with Anna’s siblings, but then I noticed they have some records broken down into villages in the parish. I went through those and had good luck in the village of Zvěřetice. This was listed as Jan and Barbara’s residence in their marriage record, though it was spelled slightly different. Interesting to note on the baptism records of their first two children is that they were born before Jan and Barbara were married. Mary in 1865 and Jan Nep (or something similar) in early 1868. Both records were updated to make the children “legitimate” when their marriage was finalized. This is probably why other records indicate they were married in 1864. I did notice a lot of “illegitimate” births in the records (or entries that only had a mother listed.) That seems surprising in this time period.

I have yet to find my wife’s great-grandmother’s records. It doesn’t look like they have the records for the 1881 area available online, yet. From what I can tell it looks like they have some missing due to privacy issues, though I have also seem some that are for more recent time periods, so I don’t know. All I can see is this message when I hover over the records for her baptism book, “This parish register will be available online after 2033” so I may have some time to wait.

So, if you have Czech ancestors, definitely give the digital archives site a look. Besides parish registers they also look to have photos and other useful information about the area.

1. List your matrilineal line – your mother, her mother, etc. back to the first identifiable mother. Note: this line is how your mitochondrial DNA was passed to you!
2. Tell us if you have had your mitochondrial DNA tested, and if so, which Haplogroup you are in.
3. Post your responses on your own blog post, in Comments to this blog post, or in a Status line on Facebook or in your Stream at Google Plus.
4. If you have done this before, please do your father’s matrilineal line, or your grandfather’s matrilineal line, or your spouse’s matriliuneal line.
5. Does this list spur you to find distant cousins that might share one of your matrilineal lines?

According to my blog, it seems I did this line for myself already. Though, I will post it again in case something is more up-to-date. I will do my father’s line and also my wife’s line since I haven’t really inspected those before. Here is mine, first.

1. Brian J ZALEWSKI
2. Sharon THIELKE married John ZALEWSKI
3. Marge DeBROUX married LeRoy THIELKE
4. Mildred Vida VAN PRICE (5 Jul 1903 Mattoon, Shawano Co., Wisconsin – 29 Oct 1994 Port Washington, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin) married Leon DeBROUX
5. Minnie May MUHM (12 Jul 1879 Norwood, Langlade Co., Wisconsin – 6 Jul 1959 Port Washington, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin) married Pieter Fransiscus VAN PARIJS
6. Ida W SCHAVANDIE (6 Sep 1852 Germany – 12 Nov 1934 Antigo, Langlade Co., Wisconsin) married Peter MUHM
7. Anna RASCH (? in Germany – ??) married Lawrence SCHAVANDIE

Unfortunately, my matrilineal line is one of the few lines in my tree that is somewhat short, though I have not done a ton of research on it. I have done a DNA test, so I do have my mtDNA information. According to the latest 23AndMe info, my Maternal Haplogroup in H11a. I have made my 23AndMe Maternal Line page public, so you can view more details there. It does match the German ancestry that I find in my research.

Next is my father’s matrilineal line, though there is no mtDNA haplogroup info since my DNA does not have that information. Only his DNA (or his sibling’s) would show that.

When I first arrived, I just double-checked some of the local Milwaukee church records for some more information and also to try to find Frank ZALEWSKI’s brother’s marriage record (Jacob to Pauline WONDKOWSKI.) Still no luck in finding that record. I had thought that maybe they got married at another church, but there were no other churches in the area with records back to 1891-92. Only St. Hedwig’s church had records that old from that area. Jacob and Pauline baptised most of their children there, but I could not find a marriage record. I’m hoping they didn’t get married before they came to Milwaukee since that would be tough to track down.

After lunch I got back and I asked the volunteer on site about my order. She was somewhat new, but she tried looking through all of the orders from the past to see if maybe it didn’t get sent out, etc. She then asked me to get the film number from the Family Search website and she’d look it up that way. Before I could sit and check, she found my order. In big letters written over the card it said, “Film already here. Needs refund.” I guess the film was already on-site when I ordered it, though the volunteer that day obviously didn’t help me check. Either way the news is great.

When  I first sat down to browse the microfilm, I wasn’t sure if it was the right place. It’s been so long since I originally ordered it. The title page said “Schwenten, West Prussia.” I had thought for some reason that West Prussia was more west, so I had wondered if this area was in present day Germany, not Poland. It was not and I was wrong, this was the right microfilm. I first went to try to find my great-great grandfather’s, Frank ZALEWSKI’s, baptism record in about 1858. I had no luck. Actually, as I was browsing I was disheartened by the fact that I saw no Zalewski or similar surnames in any of the listings. I was starting to think I had the wrong area. Then in about 1865, I ran across the surname “LINDNER.” Then I saw the baptism was for an Anna LINDNER. Her parents names basically matched the names I was given over a decade ago from another researcher. This was my great-great grandmother’s baptism record. She was baptised in Schwenten and her parents were Johan LINDNER and Eva SOŃEFELD (I originally had Eva Zemfeld.) Schwenten is now called Święte and it’s located in Gmina Łasin, Grudziądz County, Poland. (Google Map Link)

That was a refreshing find and it gave me hope for more finds. I only had a little over an hour before the FHL closed for the day. I ended up finding more siblings of Anna while browsing including her sisters Catharine, Josephine, Marianne, and Eva. I ended up finding Catharine and Josephine in marriage records in Milwaukee, so it looks like a lot of that family came here, too. That’s a new avenue of research. I also found the baptism records of Frank and Anna’s first three children: Martha, Angelika, and Elisabeth, all baptised in Schwenten. Elisabeth was named “Elsa” on the passenger list, but it seems she died not long after the voyage.

The kicker in my finds was the marriage record of Frank and Anna in 1884. All my notes always said they were married in Poznan, Poland, which is nearby but not that close. Obviously, it was pulling my research in the wrong direction. Their marriage records states that they were married in Schwenten on 2 Nov 1884. Frank is listed as Frank SALEWSKI. Sadly, no parent’s names listed. It lists Frank as residing in Gottschalk which is the location I found previously that pointed me in this direction. Gottschalk is now called Goczałki which is just south of Święte.

I also happened upon Anna’s parent’s marriage record for 2 Mar 1862. It also listed their ages so I was able to get approximate birth years. I found this right near the end so I will need to do more research when I have another chance. I will hopefully be able to keep going back generation by generation, though the records get tougher to read back then. Overall, it was an immensely successful trip. I have now pinpointed the origination location of my ZALEWSKI ancestors which is one of the big goals I’ve had for the last decade. Now comes the fun part of finding more information from that area.

Photo: hr.icio@flickr

Richard & Mary Jane (Corrigan) Zalewski.
Wedding Day, October 11, 1947

Today we lost my grandmother, Mary Jane Zalewski, one of the world’s biggest fans of Irish heritage. Born in Ashland, Wisconsin on April 27, 1926 along with her twin brother, Tommy, to Maurice & Agnes (Braatz) Corrigan. Story has it that they were born so small that my great-grandmother would bundle them up and put them on the stove door to keep them warm. While in Milwaukee visiting her aunt Ethel Corrigan, who ended up marrying my grandfather’s cousin, Edy Strelka, she met my grandfather, Richard Zalewski. They tied the knot on October 11, 1947 and had their first child, my uncle, in 1948. My dad soon followed in 1951 and then my aunt in 1960.

Throughout my life, they always lived in the little house in Cedarburg, Wisconsin that we used to visit for Christmas Eve and many other times throughout the year. My paternal grandparents were very loving, as most grandparents, but they were also stern. Grandpa would scold us for sneaking into the basement or jumping into the window wells, but Grandpa and Grandma also used to have the greatest toys to play with including the matchbox car track and the puzzles. She was always a big fan of Ireland and anything Irish. Even though she was probably just as much German (and some French) than she was Irish, no one dared to correct her on it. She was a CORRIGAN and she was full-blooded Irish and that’s that!

When I was in my first year of college, my grandfather got sick and passed away on April 18, 1999. It was very sad to me since this was the first major death in my family and the first loss of a grandparent. I didn’t know how my grandmother would handle it. It turns out she did very well with herself. She drove (albeit slowly) where she needed to go, met with friends, knitted like she always did, and was usually in good spirits. Sadly, she fell while living alone and had to move to an assisted living center, but she still made the best of it. I ended up buying my grandparent’s old house from my grandmother and we currently still live here. It’s comforting at times. Unfortunately, during the last few years, Grandma started to forget things and had trouble getting around, but she was her normal self a lot of the time. Even at 85, she still loved her pizza and beer. I’m told that she passed away peacefully in her sleep and now she is in a better place, probably catching up with my Grandpa. He’s probably got the “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” vinyl record already playing on the record player.

We’ll miss you, Grandma. Thanks for everything. Ireland has one less fan today.

How do I live without the ones I love?
Time still turns the pages of the book it’s burned
Place in time always on my mind
And the light you left remains but it’s so hard to stay
When I have so much to say and you’re so far away

I love you, you were ready
The pain is strong and urges rise
But I’ll see you when it let’s me
Your pain is gone, your hands untied

- Avenged Sevenfold, “So Far Away”

This one is about my maternal great-great grandfather, Johann THIELKE. This is the first one I’ve done on my maternal line. It’s also actually the first one I’ve done with not a lot of information. The first two I did, for Frank ZALEWSKI and Mathias FIRMENICH actually had a good deal of information. After doing this one for Johann, I started to notice how much info I didn’t have. I’m hoping the site will help me find more information or more avenues to research.

Take a look at the Johann THIELKE site or even browse the other sites I’ve done.

I  ran across more information and was also able to add more generations to my paternal line. Thanks to FamilySearch’s German records, including their Germany Births and Baptisms, 1558-1898, I was able to find ancestors of my great-great grandmother, Barbara Margaretha Magdalena (Maggie) STEARNS. So, I was able to add surnames like KELLER, HEINZ, and BAUER.

I was also able to find more information on an unknown line on my wife’s tree. Following her maternal line, I was able to add a surname to her 3rd-great grandmother, Nancy (WHIPPLE) CLEVELAND. From there I’ve been able to trace her via more records and also some WHIPPLE researchers.

To prepare for the future, I’ve also merged my “Everything I Know” sites into one place (currently just one for Frank ZALEWSKI and one for Mathias FIRMENICH.) The reason is more technical than anything else, but it will pave the way for easier “Everything I Know” sites. I really enjoy putting those sites together. They not only allow me to do some web work, which I enjoy, but they also require me to go through an individual’s information with a fine-toothed comb. I sometimes find new information or new leads doing this. Plus, it may help someone else in the future.

We also have a mini-reunion coming up in the middle of August with some of the CORRIGAN descendants. When I was a kid, we used to go up north to the upper peninsula of Michigan or to Wausau, Wisconsin for a family reuinion for the descendants of Thomas CORRIGAN. They were pretty large. But, now since a lot of the elders are no longer with us, we haven’t done that in many years. So, they put together a small one with mainly descendants of Thomas’ son, and my great-grandfather, Maurice CORRIGAN.

I just wanted to make a quick trip and look over the records they had on “perpetual” loan. The lady who showed me around seemed confused when I said that, though all of the records I used said that they were on “indefinite” loan, so I’m sure it’s the same thing. They have all of the Milwaukee church records and vital records on-hand. I really wanted to look through the church records for both St. Hedwig’s and St. Casimir’s churches on the east side of Milwaukee since those two are where most of my Polish family attended. My main ZALEWSKI ancestors first went to Hedwig’s and then Casimir’s when they moved.

I was also really hoping to find the marriage record of Frank ZALEWSKI’s brother, Jacob to his wife Pauline WONDKOWSKI. I am somewhat lucky in the fact that Jacob was unmarried when he immigrated. This should hopefully allow me to find his marriage record and maybe his parent’s names (which would also be Frank’s parents, my 3rd-great-grandparents.) As luck would (not) have it, I couldn’t find the record. Jacob and Pauline baptised all of their children at St. Hedwig’s, but I could not find their marriage record. I looked countless times going back and forward a few years, too. It is possible that they may have been married at another church in the area, which I will pursue or there is a very rare possibility that they married elsewhere before coming to Milwaukee, which would not be fun to track down. Plus, I also found many spellings of Pauline’s last name, from WADKOWSKI to LUTKOWSKI.

I did, again, solidify the relationship between the ZALEWSKI, GWIAZDOWSKI, and GORALSKI families. A lot of both Frank’s and Jacob’s children were sponsored by one or more of the families. Frank and Anna ZALEWSKI’s last child, Agnes, was sponsored by both August and Anna GWIAZDOWSKI. It also seems that in some of the earlier baptism records, they listed the female sponsors with their maiden names as I found Pauline listed as Pauline LANDKOWSKA on my great-grandfather Joseph’s baptism record (which I posted about earlier this week.) Also, on their next child, Frances Dorothy ZALEWSKI, I found the female sponsor listed as Maria GWIAZDOWSKI, better known as Mary GORALSKI, which now (somewhat) proves that she is the daughter of both August & Anna, though it still messes up the fact that she is listed as Frank ZALEWSKI’s sister.

I also found some other possible family connections that I need to pursue, mainly on the LINDNER side, though some on the TROKA side, too. I ordered the records from what I hope is the original location of my ZALEWSKI and LINDNER ancestors, Goczałki (or more specifically, the parish of Święte.) We’ll see how that turns out once the records arrive, usually in about 6 weeks.

Image from crowderb@flickr

Let’s start from the beginning, though instead of writing it all out again, I will point you to an older post and one recent post. Though, you should just be able to skim over the newer one. Long story short, this has to do with the GWIAZDOWSKI – GORALSKI – ZALEWSKI connection I have been researching recently.

After finding the passenger list and 1910-1920 Census records for the GWIAZDOWSKI – GORALSKI families, this is how it was all laid out in my head (Thanks to Google Draw for this easy to make figure):

Gwiazdowski Connection - Exhibit AClick for larger

That makes sense to me. Either August or Anna is Frank’s uncle or aunt, respectively. I can deal with that. It helps me a little bit.

Fast forward to last night. I “run across” the website for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee Catholic Cemeteries. I use quotes there because I’ve been to this site before, it’s been there for years. I just never knew they had such a wonderful genealogy/burial record search. Not only does it have up-to-date burial records for eight prominent cemeteries in Milwaukee, it includes death date, burial date, last know address, marital status at death, and burial location. That’s not even the best part. It also includes a link to “Search for nearby graves or crypts.” With this feature, I can see which graves are nearby to this one. I was able to make (pretty confident) connections between people. More than likely people were buried near family.

So, with this I not only found the death date of Jacob ZALEWSKI (on the figure above) that I’ve been trying to find, but I also found the burial information on a Mrs. Mary GORALSKA (as it’s listed on the site.) She is buried near her husband Joseph and Mr. and Mrs. August GWIAZDOWSKI. On a related note (har har), also buried in the same location is a Jacob George ZALEWSKI (the above Jacob’s son) and his wife Alice. Now that doesn’t prove that Jacob is related to them (which also includes Frank, his brother) but it gives hope.

Now, this information is very helpful on it’s own, but when I use it along with the century of archives of The Milwaukee Journal, it gets even more powerful. Unfortunately, before about 1930 or so, they didn’t list much in the death notices. I found both August and Anna GWIAZDOWSKI, listed in the paper, but it’s just their name, address, death date, and cemetery. What I did find was Mary’s obituary from April 2, 1940.

You see it, don’t you? “…also survived by 1 brother, Frank Zalewski…” I was elated at this point. I thought to myself, “I found Frank’s parents!” Then, I started doing the math.. How can Mary be Frank’s brother if there is no way, under normal circumstances, that she would ever have the last name of ZALEWSKI? She was a GORALSKI when she was married and according to the other documents, her parent’s last name was GWIAZDOWSKI. How does that work? Then I thought, maybe it’s not my Frank Zalewski, but another Frank. So, Mary would be my Frank’s cousin. That makes sense logically and follows the info in the passenger list, but again doesn’t solve the name issue. Here, again I visualized it, which helped a bit.

Gwiazdowski Connect - Exhibit BClick for larger

So, after all of that running through my head I decided the only outcome that made sense is that Mary is my Frank’s cousin (the brother is another Frank), which is safe with the “nephew” info from the passenger list. The only way I was able to solve the surname issue was assuming that Anna is Mary’s real mother and August is her step-dad. Maybe Anna’s first husband (Mary’s father) passed away and she re-married before travelling to the US. Now, this is only true if all of the information is correct, which is another possibility.

I’m still no further in my research, though I now have things I can do. Unfortunately, it seems Joseph & Mary had no children, so I probably need to order Mary’s death certificate from the Wisconsin Vital Records office to find her maiden name. Hopefully, she also lists her parent’s names on it. I should maybe even order Jacob’s or Anna’s. I’ll have $20 riding on that hope.

Did that all make sense? Can you follow it and come up with another conclusion?

I was going to try to work my way down their trees, from Frank & Anna and then Jacob & Pauline’s families, and see what I could find using tools from early 20th century newspapers all the way to Facebook. With a few tools at my disposal, I was actually able to get much more information than I thought I would in only a few days.

First, I used Ancestry.com and other basic genealogy sites to get the standard information on the main families including birth dates, death dates, marriages, etc. Once I had these, I could use both the Social Security Death Index and Ancestry’s “Wisconsin Deaths 1959-1997″ index to find exact death dates. This next step only works so well because Google’s New Archive has The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel papers from 1885-2007 for free. It is still one of the most complete archives that I can find in there. Not only do you get all of those dates, but any time before 1995 you get two options since The Milwaukee Journal and The Milwaukee Sentinel didn’t merge until 1995, which is good because a few days are missing here and there.

With the exact death dates, I was able to search through the archives and find obituaries. I had trouble finding a few. The early ones, before like 1940, were sometimes either not listed or they were not scanned very well. Inside of the obituaries, it usually listed living family members and spouses and sometimes you got even more. I was then able to use this to find more information on these descendants, and so on.

I even got very lucky sometimes by just typing the names into Google and hoping for the best. Note on Google searches for people’s names: you will get a ton of spam sites and content farms in your results. These sites just pull info from phone books and throw it all into a pile hoping to sell ads, they’re mostly useless and they spread like wildfire. There is a wonderful extension by Google, called Personal Blocklist, for Google Chrome that allows you to block specific sites from your search results. My recommendation: get it. It not only makes your searches cleaner, but it also helps Google find these sites and remove them from most searches.

I hit a few lucky searches doing this and found some other obituaries that way, moving further down the trees. Once I felt like I was in the generation that was either close to my age or my parents’ age, I then checked Facebook. If the person was found, I usually browsed their friends list for other people that looked familiar. If I was like 90% sure that this was the right person, I would send them a nice message telling them who I was and how they may be related to me. I also said they were free to respond or they could just ignore me if I was off-base or creepy. My first try at this still has not responded, so that lowered my expectations a bit. Though, as my wife said, some older people may not use Facebook a lot and may not even have seen it yet.

I sent a few more in the last few days and fortunately I’ve had 3 positive responses now. One of the people I contacted, I have probably already met before, but I didn’t even think about it. The back story on this is that my grandfather’s cousin (the side of the family I’m working with right now) married my grandmother’s aunt, which is how my grandparents actually met. So, I’m technically related to him on both sides. My grandmother’s family put together family reunions for years when I was growing up and he would’ve been to most of those.

The other two people responded and were very surprised and happy that I decided to contact them. We’re planning to meet/talk more in the future. Hopefully, these meetings will bring in more information and stories. I can’t wait. Have you contacted distant cousins on Facebook with success?

Photo from itchys@Flickr

William Henry THOMPSON was born sometime between 1810 and 1816 in either Ireland, England, or Scotland, depending on which record you look at. In the 1870 Census of Morrison, Brown Co., Wisconsin, he is listed as being born in 1810 in England. On his headstone, the listing of his daughter in the 1905 Wisconsin State Census, and the Wisconsin Deaths and Burials, 1835-1968 entry, he was born in 1813 in Ireland. In the 1880 and 1860 Morrison, Brown Co., Wisconsin census records, he was born in 1816 in Ireland. Finally, in the 1850 Census of Granville, Milwaukee Co., Wisconsin and listed as his birthplace in entries for his daughter, Pauline (THOMPSON) FIRMENICH, he was born in 1816 in Scotland. Adding to the fact that the name William THOMPSON covered about 15 billion people back then, he has been a tough one to find.

What I do know is that William married Claude-Françoise “Francesca” QUINET in about 1839. I have their marriage location listed as Syracuse, Onondaga Co., New York, but not a lot of source information for it. Both the QUINET and THOMPSON families seemed to have been in the area before they traveled to Wisconsin. The family first settled in Granville, Milwaukee Co., Wisconsin which is now part of northwestern Milwaukee. I have William recorded in the 1842 Wisconsin State Census in this area and in the 1850 Census.

1850 Census - Granville, Milwaukee Co., Wisconsin

They must have moved up to the north to the town of Morrison in Brown Co., Wisconsin sometime between 1852 and 1857 as their daughter Margaret was born in Granville in 1854 and their daughter Catharine in 1857 in Brown County. They are first listed in Morrison in the 1860 Census.

1860 Census - Morrison, Brown Co., Wisconsin - Click to enlarge

As noted on the record, they are also living next to a John THOMPSON family, which from further research seems like a good candidate to be William’s brother. That may help in deeper research. William and his family lived in the Morrison area through the 1880 Census. Originally, I wasn’t sure when William passed away, but I did know when his wife Francis (QUINET) THOMPSON passed away. One summer, my wife and I traveled to the Wrightstown, Wisconsin area near to Morrison to search for her headstone. We not only found her headstone, but also William’s. On his headstone his is listed as having died on 22 Feb 1890.

Click for larger image

I’m not exactly sure where to start on finding more information on William since his name is so common and his information is so different in each record. Somewhere in my searching, possibly on an uploaded family tree, his mother’s name was listed as Isabella. I have no proof of this, but I have kept it in mind. Last year, using the new FamilySearch website, I found a Wisconsin Death record for a Wm THOMPSON with dates extremely close to my William’s dates. I have no proof at the moment that this is my William, but if so, it lists his parents as William & Fasmie (RUINNET) THOMPSON.

Have you ever needed to research a very common name? How did you go about doing it?