Zalewski Family Genealogy

The DeBroux surname first enters my family tree as my maternal grandmother’s maiden name. The surname itself is Belgian, at least when I trace it back from America. According to Ancestry.com, the surname along with the preposition de (‘from’), denoting someone from either of two places called Broux, in Rhône and Vienne. Both Rhône and Vienne are located in France, which a lot of my Belgian and Dutch surnames tend to originate from.

I’ve been able to trace it back the early 1800s. First through my great-grandfather, Leon DeBroux, who was born in 1901 in Phlox, Langlade Co., Wisconsin. Another piece of information for the DeBroux surname is that the DeBroux family seemed to have settled mostly in Wisconsin, which is good for me. Leon’s father was Joseph DeBroux, who was born in May 1865 in Grand Chute, Outagamie Co., Wisconsin. The Grand Chute and Little Chute area is a very high-percentage Belgian and Dutch area. It’s obvious by all of the “Van” and “De” surnames and businesses in the area.

I originally had Joseph’s parents listed a Desire and Desiree DeBroux. I know it sounds like they were a traveling folk duet, but I’m pretty sure they were just normal people. Even though they sound like a unique name combination, I had no luck in finding any more information about them…until. I ran across a site called “Netradyle” (which is all in French) that seems to be a location of a lot of Belgian vital records. Thanks to Google Translate, I was able to find my way around and after some searching I found my DeBroux family. It turns out that Desire and Desiree were their middles names. They probably used them to separate themselves from the others since it seemed that every family named their children either Jean Joseph or Marie. I know why, but it does confuse things now.

So, it turns out the Desire’s full name is Jean Joseph Desire DeBroux and he was born 16 Feb 1830 in Piétrebais, Walloon Brabant, Wallonia, Belgium, which is a small town in central Belgium just east of Brussel. Desiree’s full name was Marie Desiree LOOD. After that I was only able to find Jean Joseph’s parent’s names, but not any specific information from the records on the site. His parents were Jean Joseph DeBroux (go figure) and Anne Catherine LANGELE.

I did some mapping of the DeBroux family using Google Maps, in case you wanted to see all of the locations. It may include other parts of my maternal line, too.

Any other DeBroux families out there?

This week I decided to do a Surname Saturday on one of my wife’s surnames, Moran.

The MORAN surname first shows up in her tree with Robert MORAN who was born in Ireland in 1820. We’re not exactly sure where in Ireland. Tracing this name into Ireland is like tracing the JOHNSON surname in America we’re told, it’s very common. I have that problem in my tree with the surname THOMPSON into the UK somewhere.

It looks like Robert first came through Canada (as did my Irish ancestors) and then made it to southwestern Wisconsin. It seems like he immigrated with his wife, Dorothea COOK, who was born in County Cork, Ireland (which may point at Robert’s origin, too.) There is no hard evidence of this information besides some online trees and family information, but it’s something to start with.

Dorothea died in 1872 and Robert re-married to Margaret ENYARD. It says Robert died on 16 Jun 1897 in Tarver, Wisconsin but I can’t find a Tarver in Wisconsin. I’m pretty sure he died somewhere in southwestern Wisconsin. It’s probably an old, unincorporated town. We have a lot of those.

She then descends from Robert and Dorothea’s son, Charles Christopher MORAN, who was born  23 Nov 1864 in Montfort, Grant Co., Wisconsin. Charles married a German, Emma Amelia DIETER in about 1889.

Her MORAN line continues down to her great-grandfather, Frederick H MORAN, who was born on 20 Feb 1891. He married Norma POWELL in 1915. After that it continues all the way down to my wife.

Wikipedia tells us about the MORAN surname [link]:

Moran (Irish: Ó Móráin) is a modern Irish surname and derived from membership of a medieval dynastic sept. The name means a descendent of Mórán, translated as Big One. Morans were a respected sept of the Uí Fiachrach dynasty in the western counties of Mayo and Sligo. In Ireland, where the name descended from the Gaelic, it is generally pronounced (phonetically) “more-in”, an anglicized approximate of the Irish pronunciation. Elsewhere, pronunciation follows the French surname, Mo rant, anglicized to (phonetically) “more-anne”.

Surprisingly, the top countries with the Moran surname are Ireland (obviously) followed by Spain, Argentina, and Australia according to the World Names Profiler.

No, not a last name, the name LAST. You should see how difficult it is to do any sort of search on this surname. Typing in “last surname” or just “last” into search engines usually gets me a lot more than I need. Sometimes it gives me “Did you mean ‘last name’?” It’s even tough on genealogy sites like Ancestry, since some records put in “Last” if the person’s surname was unknown.

The LAST surname first shows up in my tree from my great-grandmother on my maternal side, Madora Martha Louisa LAST, who married Arthur THIELKE. Madora was one of 16 children! She was the tenth child for Charles Carl LAST and Augusta Johanna LUEDTKE, born in Grafton, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin. Charles was born in Doeringshagen, Pommerania, which is located in present day Poland. His parents were Johann W G LAST (a Civil War veteran) and Charlotte STRASSMAN. Charles has immigrated to Wisconsin with his parents in 1857 and shows up in the 1860 Census in Wisconsin.

According Ancestry’s surname information page, LAST was most common in Wisconsin in 1880. Also, they note it to mean a metonymic occupational name for a porter, from Middle High German last; German Last or Yiddish last ‘burden’, ‘load’. A porter is more than likely someone who was in charge of a door or a gate (similar to a doorman.)

There are many LASTs in this area, most of which probably descend from Augusta & Charles and their 16 children. Augusta not only had 16 children, but she lived to be 100-years-old. Now comes the part when I need to research back in Poland.

Today’s surname is another one from my Polish side. SZULTA is presumably pronounced like SCHULTA. This surname first shows up in my ancestry with my great-great-grandmother, Clara SZULTA, who was born in Poland (or Prussia or Germany, I’m not sure yet.) I can only trace it back to Clara’s father, Ignatius SZULTA, who brought his family to America from Europe.

Ignatius SZULTA was born 1 Feb 1849 in Poland (Austria, as it’s noted.) He married Nepomuncena “Annie” SYLDAKT (I’ve also seen it written as SOZAK) in 1875. Together, they had 9 children with the first 3 born in Poland; Clara, Valerian, and Martha. These three children are listed on the passenger list along with Nepomuncena. Ignatius probably came over first, but I have yet to find his record. They settled in Milwaukee. I first find an “Ignats Szulta” in the Milwaukee City Directory in 1883 living at 943 Sobieski St.

Clara was born in Poland 6 Jan 1876. She married Joseph TROKA at. St. Hedwig’s Church on the east side of Milwaukee on 29 Jan 1894. They had 4 children, including my great-grandmother, Emily M TROKA, where it finally connects to my ZALEWSKI family. Ignatius passed away 25 May 1922 and Annie shortly thereafter on 22 Dec 1925. They are both buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Milwaukee. Clara lived until 19 Jul 1959, only a few years before her husband was killed by a drunk driver on New Year’s Day in 1962.

It’s one of those surnames that is somewhat uncommon, so finding ancestors is usually simple. I search and if I find results, it’s usually a family member. I do run into some issues when it shows up under SCHULTA or SCHULTE since it usually groups names like Schultz and Schulz along with it, which makes it hard to browse. Googling SZULTA usually just brings up links to my sites and a few general Genealogy surname sites. It doesn’t seem to be very common. I have another researcher that I am in contact with that has been researching this family, as she is descended from one of Ignatius and Annie’s children. One of those lines that I get a lot of searches from is the URMANSKI family that branches out from their daughter Leocadia “Lilly” and her husband, Ignatz URMANSKI. That one seemed to spread out pretty far from the SZULTAs.

I need to spend some time searching these names but replacing SZULTA with either SCHULTA or SCHULTE and see what I get, though most sites include those using Soundex.

Anna Lindner (left)

LINDNER first shows up in my ancestry from my great-great-grandmother, Anna LINDNER. She was born 27 Nov 1865 in Prussia, but I’m not sure which area of Prussia. She married my great-great-grandfather, Frank J ZALEWSKI, in Jan 1885. They’re noted to have been married in the Poznan Province of South Prussia, which would be modern day Poland. Frank, Anna, and 3 of their daughters emigrated to America in November 1889 and finally settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Anna passed away on 8 Aug 1941 in Milwaukee and is buried there at Holy Cross Cemetery.

There is confusion as to what part of Prussia Frank and Anna were from. The name LINDNER to me sounds more German than Russian, so my guess is they were from the German side of Prussia. ZALEWSKI could be either Russian or German (or straight Polish), but Russian names usually ended in SKY rather than SKI.

I have no proven information on Anna’s parents. A previous researcher whom I talked with had listed her parents as John LINDNER and Eva ZEMFELD. He also noted that he thought ZEMFELD was Jewish, so that’s interesting. I have found no evidence for either of these names myself.

Anna’s obituary did mention that she had a brother named John LINDNER and a sister named Elizabeth KOZLOWSKI. I’m assuming they also lived in the Milwaukee area since the obituary didn’t mention a location, but that’s only speculation. There are a lot of John LINDNERs out there when searching, so I haven’t had much luck. I can only guess his birth year since I have no more information than his name. Elizabeth has been hard to find, also.

I’m hoping there are some other local LINDNER researchers out there that I can connect with. I recently contacted a local ZALEWSKI researcher who is related through Frank’s possible brother, so that’s big news for me.

THOMPSON is probably the most common surname in my ancestry. When I say “most common” I don’t mean that it shows up the most. I mean that’s the most “common” surname. Trying to search for THOMPSON is much more difficult than searching for ZALEWSKI due to the amount of names I get in return. I always assumed that searching for more uncommon names was more difficult, but I was wrong. So what if you only get a few results, at least you can look through them fast. Just try searching for “William THOMPSON” without knowing an exact birthdate or coutry or origin and tell me how fun that is.

The top THOMPSON in my tree is William Henry THOMPSON. The census records show a fuzzy picture. The 1870 census shows him as being born about 1810 in England. The 1860 census and his headstone show him as being born in about 1813 in Ireland. The 1880 census shows him as being born about 1816 in Ireland. The 1850 census and the 1900 census (as birthplace of the father of his daughter) shows him as being born in 1816 in Scotland. So, I at least know that he is from the United Kingdom, but beyond that I’m not sure. I am leaning more towards Ireland due to the fact that it’s on his headstone, but we know those aren’t always 100% accurate. Also, it usually lists his parents as being born in Ireland in his census entries.

I know that William married his wife, Claude-Françoise “Francesca” Quinet, in New York state in about 1839 according to multiple sources. Some sources note it as Syracuse, Onondaga Co., New York, but I’ve not found any useful information in that area. I do know that sometime between 1839 and 1841 William and his wife moved to Granville, Milwaukee Co., Wisconsin since they are listed in the 1842 Wisconsin State census and their first child, Mary, was born in about 1841. This would also match up with the Quinet family as they traveled to Wisconsin about the same time.

The family lived and grew in Granville until they moved up north to the small town of Morrison in Brown County, Wisconsin. Their last child Charles was born in Morrison. I assume Francesca and William lived the rest of their lives in this area as they are listed as passing away in nearby Wrightstown and are both buried at St. Paul’s Cemetery in Wrightstown. I posted about my trip up there last year and finding their headstones.

I’m not sure where I got this, since I probably copied it early in my genealogy research, but I have William’s mother listed as Isabella.

Does anybody have any tips on searching for a common name like William Henry THOMPSON or maybe some more research items for that area of New York besides the GenWeb sites? I’d really like to trace William back to Europe.

I know it’s a day late. I was oot and aboot yesterday so I didn’t get a chance to write it. I went to Milwaukee’s Germanfest because I heard they have a nice area of family history stuff. They did, but unfortunately, they didn’t have any info on my family. It didn’t hurt to try.

THIELKE is one of the four big surnames in my family tree along with ZALEWSKI, DEBROUX and CORRIGAN. Just like ZALEWSKI, I usually find a lot of THIELKEs when searching, even in this area, but they’re never connected as far as I know. Here is what I have so far.

The furthest THIELKE I have is Henry Peter THIELKE: b. Oct 1813 in Mecklenberg, Germany. Sometime (I assume) before 1840, he married Marie D C SPECHT in Germany. They immigrated to Wisconsin sometime between 1854 and 1856 since Charles “Fritz” THIELKE was born in Germany in 1854 and then Herman THIELKE was born 1856 in Wisconsin, according to the 1860/1870 census records.

That’s about all I have on Peter and Marie THIELKE. There isn’t much more on their headstones and I can’t find any vital records for them at the Wisconsin Historical Society. I did find their burial records at the Ozaukee County Historical Society, but that just gives death dates and causes.

I have more information on their son Johann or Hans, who is my great-great-grandfather. He was born 26 Oct 1843 at Schwerin, Mecklenberg, Germany, which narrows down a location. Now, I don’t have a record of Johann being married until he marries my gg-grandmother, Wilomene C RATHKE on 21 Jun 1891. This would make Johann almost 50-years-old at the time. It’s not far-fetched that it’s his first marriage, but it seems strange. Wilomene was previously married to a Franz HOLZ before she married Johann.

Johann and Minnie lived in the Grafton, Ozaukee Co. Wisconsin area where my great-grandfather, Arthur Frederick THIELKE was born. Arthur is the only child I have found for Johann and Minnie, but I have yet to talk to my grandfather about this. He may know more.

My next steps will be to do some more direct research in the Schwerin, Germany area. Searching for THIELKE is almost as hard as finding ZALEWSKI. Here are all of the ways Johann’s name is spelled just in the census records.

Johann THIELKE, John TILKIE, John TISLKE, Hans J M THIELK (marriage certificate), Joachim THIELK, John THIELKE, and Johann TIELKE. I also found Peter and Henry Peter and their last name as TILKE.

Looks like today may be a THIELKE research day, since I’ve now dusted off all of the information.