CategoriesFunGenetic Genealogy

Genetic Memory

I am a video game player. I enjoy my games. It gives me something to do that lets me escape the real world and relax after a stressful day at work. I am currently playing a unique game called Assassin’s Creed. You play Altaïr , a member of the Hashshashin sect (the original “assassins”), whose objective is to remove nine historical figures who are propagating the Crusades. As the player finds and kills these targets, a conspiracy is unveiled. The player is able to travel through three cities: Jerusalem, Acre and Damascus.

All gameplay and backstory aside, the interesting thing about the story in this game and what is has to do with genealogy/genetics. In the game you technically play the role of a descendant of Altaïr named Desmond. Desmond is taken hostage by a company who created a system called Animus that allows you to play back and live out your ancestors memories. They explain this by saying that your genes not only hold your traits, but also you ancestor’s memories. They use Desmond to do their bidding. What is their bidding? I’m not sure yet since I haven’t made it that far.

This got me thinking. What memories of my ancestors would I like to play out? Would it be their first view of America? Would it be taking a walk around their original homeland? There are a thousand things that I’d love to see in the time of my ancestors. So many places and people that it’s tough to choose. Are there any memories from your ancestors that really interest you?

CategoriesFamily Tree

A new line

I had ordered some vital records from the Wisconsin Vital Records site last week. I always forget about that option, but sometimes it is a bit much at $15 each. I had some extra money, so I ordered three records that I found.

I ordered Agnes (Braatz) Corrigan (my great-grandmother’s) birth certificate, Charlotte (Strassman) Last (my ggg-grandmother’s) death certificate and my gg-granparent’s marriage certificate (Joseph Troka and Clara Schulta.)

The birth certificate and death certificate didn’t really give me much more new information, except helping to solidify a few facts. The jackpot was hit with the marriage certificate. I didn’t have any information on Joseph Troka’s parents. I did have a sister listed, but that was it. On the certificate it lists his parents as Mich Troka (which I assume is something similar to Michael) and Joslyna(?) Grabowska. It also lists a Martin Troka as a witness to the marriage. I don’t see a Martin Troka in my family tree from there on down, so I am assuming that this is his brother. I penciled him in until I find more information.

It’s always funny how I find some of this new information after years of looking and it turns out it’s right in one of the most obvious places. I need to find some more vital records.

CategoriesCarnival of GenealogyCorriganFun

Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan

My grandmother, who’s maiden name is Corrigan, always used to tell us about some distant cousin that they called “Wrong Way” Corrigan. She talked about how he flew a plane from New York to Ireland. When I was young, I thought this was some made-up, grandma-style folk tale the old people liked to tell their grandchildren. It turns out that he is real and that he really did that. Now, is he related to us and our Corrigan surname? That is another question.

Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan was born in 1907 in Galveston, Texas as Clyde Groce Corrigan, after his father. He legally changed his name to Douglas as an adult.

In 1938, after a transcontinental flight from Long Beach, California, to New York, he flew from Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York, to Ireland, even though he was supposed to be returning to Long Beach. He claimed that his unauthorized flight was due to a navigational error, caused by heavy cloud cover that obscured landmarks and low-light conditions, causing him to misread his compass. Corrigan, however, was a skilled aircraft mechanic (he was one of the builders of Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis) and a habitual risk-taking maverick; he had made several modifications to his own plane, preparing it for transatlantic flight. Between 1935 and 1937, he applied several times, unsuccessfully, for permission to make a nonstop flight from New York to Ireland, and it is likely that his “navigational error” was a protest against government “red tape”; however, he never publicly acknowledged having flown to Ireland intentionally. – Wikipedia

Wrong Way CorriganI decided to do what I could to find out if there is a connection somewhere down the Corrigan line, at least as far back as I could go. I started by finding Clyde G Corrigan in his first census report, the 1910 US Census. Fortunately, my first search brought up a Clyde G Carrigan (or Corrigan) living in San Patricio, Texas at three years old. His father’s name is also Clyde S Corrigan. We’re two for two. He also lives with his mother, Evelyn, and his younger brother, Harry. Clyde and Harry are also listed in the Texas Birth Index, 1903-1997.

Well, as I jump through the Corrigan line, fortunately made easier by less popular names like Clyde and not Michael, I find evidence that will not help my cause. I find Douglas’ grandfather, John Corrigan, living in California in 1900 with his son Clyde S. It says that John’s parents were both born in Ireland and that he was born in Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, my Corrigan line came to North America in about 1820 and entered into the southern area of Ontario, Canada and stayed there a long time before dropping into Wisconsin. I don’t have much beyond that, so I won’t be able to connect his family with mine too quickly.

I did pinpoint two John Corrigans in Pennsylvania in the 1850 census and only one had parents that were born in Ireland. Hugh and Jane Corrigan living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I can find one Hugh Corrigan of that age that immigrated to New York from Ireland in 1841, but no other information to confirm this is him. It also doesn’t tell me which county in Ireland that Hugh came from. This would help me connect our families, since my Corrigan family came from County Tyrone. Unfortunately, I don’t have any Hugh Corrigans listed in my tree that were born around 1805 in Ireland. I can only imagine that somewhere back in Ireland, Wrong Way’s family connects to mine. How far back? We’ll never really know, I guess.

This was a fun little escape from the normal genealogy grind. It’s amazing what you can find about almost anyone that was alive before 1930 with all the data available today on the Internet. You escaped me this time, “Wrong Way” Corrigan! One day. I will find you! (Please…for my grandmother.)

CategoriesCorriganIrishWisconsin Research

Pour me a Guinness

Corrigans

The last major ethnic group that has affected my Ancestry (and a bit of Wisconsin) is the Irish. It’s probably the 3rd largest ethnicity in my family tree, behind German and Polish.

All of the Irish in my family tree comes from my paternal grandmother’s line. She herself was born a Corrigan, which is obviously an Irish name. It takes a few jumps back before you find more Irish names since Corrigan seemed like it lasted more generations than the others.

My Irish immigrated over from County Tyrone in Northern Ireland and into Canada (making a stop in New York, I think.) The Michael Corrigan family came along with most of their children. They settled in the town on Mara in Ontario. There is actually a book called, “They Came to Mara,” that has some information on my family. They seemed to have lived there for a few generations before my great-great grandfather, Thomas Corrigan, traveled to and settled in the Ashland/Sanborn area of northern Wisconsin. Ashland is up near Superior; way up in the cold part (The cold-er part to be more specific.)

My Irish family didn’t really expand out of the Ashland area. My great uncle Edwin Corrigan wrote a letter to another family member talking about life in the Ashland area in the early 1900s. I wrote about it in an earlier post and I have transcribed most of it. And, as with most ethnic groups in Milwaukee, the Irish have their own cleverly-named, annual festival: Irish Fest.

CategoriesGermanThielkeWisconsin Research

Ich bin [insert clever genealogy item here]

German Beer

The largest group that has affected my ancestry, and also the state as a whole, is the German culture. Every part of my family tree is somehow touched by this ethnicity. My maternal grandfather is almost 100% German and my maternal grandmother (who lives and breathes Irish culture) is closer to German than Irish even though her maiden name is Corrigan.

The are in which I live has examples of German culture everywhere. Cities with names such as Grafton, Hamburg, Germantown, Cedarburg, Fredonia all have German-sounding names and history. Walk into any cemetery in this area and they’ll be overrun with German surnames. Some of the surnames in my family tree with deep German heritage include Last, Thielke, Braatz, Rathke, Luedtke, and Firmenich.

Milwaukee itself was a German melting pot. Germans made up the largest percentage of immigrants in the city itself.

A great number of German immigrants had helped increase the city’s population during the 1840s and continued to migrate to the area during the following decades. Milwaukee has even been called “Deutsches Athen” (German Athens), and into the twentieth century, there were more German speakers and German-language newspapers than there were English speakers and English-language newspapers in the city. (To this day, the Milwaukee phonebook includes more than forty pages of Schmitts or Schmidts, far more than the pages of Smiths.) – Wikipedia

I always consider myself Polish and since I was a child I’ve always sided with the Polish heritage. Though, as it turns out I’m probably much more German than I am anything else. Polish only comes in on my paternal side due to my surname, Zalewski (and who knows if that’s German-Polish.)

While not a big fan of German cuisine, I plan on making it down to Milwaukee’s famous annual Germanfest celebration. As with most of Milwaukee’s ethnic festivals, I assume there will be a large genealogy-related area. Are there any ethnic fesitvals/celebrations in your area?

Photo © fensterbme

CategoriesDutchFamily TreeWisconsin Research

Where did I put my clogs?

Dutch Clogs

Another culture that helped shape Wisconsin into what it is today is the Dutch culture. I may throw in some Belgian stuff, also, since my family crosses into both and the history also crosses into both. My maternal grandmother’s ancestors were mostly Dutch and Belgian (though she’s the “mixed bag” in my tree, bringing in French, French-Canadian, Belgian, Dutch, German, and some others.)

This group seemed to congregate in the east central part of the state, up near Green Bay and Appleton, Wisconsin, which we call the Fox River Valley. You can tell this by the city, place, and family names in that area. Names like Holland and Vandenbroek and a lot of family names that start with “Van.”

Between 1840 and 1890, Wisconsin was a major center of Dutch immigration. Father Theodore Johannes Van den Brock was an early promoter of Dutch Catholic immigration to Wisconsin and beginning in 1848, he helped to bring 40,000 Catholic Dutch to Wisconsin. Most Dutch immigrants to the Fox River Valley followed the Erie Canal-Great Lakes route, landing in Green Bay where many chose to remain. Later Dutch settlements in Wisconsin were generally small agricultural communities. – WisconsinHistory.org

One of my families that came into that area was the Van Parijs family. Somewhere along the line, they changed their name to Van Price (which caused me some trouble, as I posted about earlier.) They settled in the Shawano County area (pronounced like Shaw-no.)

My maternal grandmother’s maiden name is DeBroux (Dah-broo), which is, from my research, from Belgium. They liked to hack the spelling of this surname up in the census. I found it listed by such spellings as DeBrue and Gebroux (but some of these are probably based on the transcriptions.)

The DeBroux family came from Belgium in the late 1800s and settled in Langlade County, which was a popular area for these two cultures. An interesting fact about my DeBroux ancestors that came to Wisconsin is that their names are somewhat unique and I thought that this might help me find information on them. His name is Desire DeBroux and her name was Desiree (unknown surname.) Unfortunately, this is not the case, but it was worth a shot.

Here are some good Dutch/Belgian links for Wisconsin and elsehwhere:

Photo © Jenny Rollo

CategoriesHistoryMilwaukeePolish

mill-e-wah-que

Yes, Pete, it is. In fact , it’s pronounced “mill-e-wah-que” which is Algonquin for “the good land.” – Alice Cooper, Wayne’s World

Most of the paternal side of my family tree, more specifically my paternal grandfather’s side, came to and lived in Milwaukee’s Polish Community. They all came about the same time, the late 1800s or early 1900s. By that time, Milwaukee was getting established as a major hub in Wisconsin.

The first immigrants to Milwaukee were French traders and trappers. During the 1830s, settlement occurred rapidly, and in earnest. Families established themselves here, bringing the population to several hundred by 1837. That year, under a mandate from the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature to incorporate, Milwaukee and other settlements in the state became villages. A City Charter was adopted in 1846, and Solomon Juneau was elected the first mayor. Juneau was a French trader who had settled his family in Milwaukee. – City of Milwaukee website

The polish immigrants came to Milwaukee starting in the mid nineteenth century and mostly settled in Milwaukee’s south side, though my family lived on what is considered the “east side” today. In 1906, almost one-quarter of Milwaukee’s total population was Polish. Milwaukee had one of the nation’s largest Polish communities up to 1980, getting near 200,000. Today, Milwaukee even has an annual Polish Fest to celebrate their Polish heritage.

Polish families tended to settle in one area, usually just outside of the city area. I imagine this was very helpful due to the fact that most immigrants knew little English and this would obviously help them communicate better. Even though the large Polish community was usually overshadowed by Milwaukee’s larger German community, there is no doubt that this city has been shaped and changed forever by them.

Some great Polish-related Milwaukee links:

CategoriesMilwaukeeWisconsin Research

Milwaukee and Wisconsin

Milwaukee

When trying to think of some things to write about on a constant basis, I browsed some other genealogy blogs out there and got a cool idea. Now, it may be tough to post about my genealogy research and history of the Zalewski name multiple times a week. I thought, why not write some posts about the history and culture of Wisconsin and Milwaukee throughout the years?

I’ve lived and worked in the Milwaukee area my whole life and most of my ancestors either lived in this area or in other parts of Wisconsin. I do a lot of research here and know a lot about the history. Zalewski is somewhat common name in the Milwaukee area due to Milwaukee being a large Polish community, so I’ve done a lot of research there also. Stay tuned for some articles on different parts of the state, it’s culture, and it’s history.

CategoriesFamily Tree

Mr. Goulet, I presume?

Celebrity genealogy connections are a fun thing to unearth. I don’t put this into my research as a priority, but sometimes it’s fun to run across.

It makes sense that the farther you go back in generations, the more people you are “related” to, including celebrities. There are a few sites that list this and even Ancestry.com can now do a bit of searching within your tree for you.

The only celebrity connection that I’ve run across in my genealogy is a slim connection to actor Robert Goulet. He’s something like my 8th cousin-3 times removed. I connect to him through my French-Canadian line on my maternal grandmother’s side.

Have any of you run across a celebrity connections in your genealogy research?

Update: Sad news came right after I wrote this article, but before I published it. It seems that Mr. Goulet passed away today. RIP.

CategoriesGenetic GenealogyPersonalZalewski

Ancestry DNA

As the news mentioned last week, Ancestry has opened it’s DNA area. I’ve been a user on Ancestry for many years and I also have become involved in Genetic Genealogy via the National Geographic study and also Family Tree DNA. So, I was more than happy to test our Ancestry’s system.

It was easy to transfer my data over from FTDNA to Ancestry. Currently, they can only transfer from FTDNA or National Geographic, though I imagine if you have your data handy you can convert it yourself. You just need to bring up your DNA data and type in the values into Ancestry from one of these two companies.

It took a few minutes after I entered it for it to find some matches, though unfortunately there are none before 26 generations out. They show you your matches in a nice graphical format including a map. They also give you an estimate of the number of years, along with generations, that this person and you may have a common ancestor.

If you have an Ancestry.com account and also have received your DNA info, I would recommend trying this out. Any and all data can help everyone!

Link: Ancestry DNA

CategoriesPersonalSite

Updates

Well, my Grandpa is doing much better now. My wife and I visited him in the hospital on Saturday and he was his old joking self. Hopefully, he’ll be coming home shortly.

I’ve been out of the “genealogy circuit” here for the last few weeks, so that’s why I’ve been slow on the posts. I’m working on getting more information that will allow me to post more often, even when I’m not actively researching since I don’t always have time to do family research.

For all of you genealogy bloggers out there, where do you find the inspiration and information to be able to post quite often even when not actively researching? I’d like some tips to help me get the ball rolling.