Tag: Wisconsin Research

CategoriesBig NewsCorriganFamily TreeFeaturedIrishPersonalZalewski

Ireland Loses a Daughter

Posted on 10 August 2011by Brian Zalewski

Mary Jane (Corrigan) Zalewski
April 27, 1926 – August 10, 2011

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 oven 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.

You can view the memorial video I made for her funeral.

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”

CategoriesFamily TreeGermanThielke

Johann Thielke

Posted on 8 August 2011by Brian Zalewski

With the change in the way I built my “Everything I Know” sites, I added a new one.

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.

CategoriesFamily TreeIrishSingle View

Single View: William Henry Thompson

Posted on 17 March 2011by Brian Zalewski

I thought I’d take an Irish theme on the latest entry into my “Single View” post series since today is St. Patrick’s Day. Though, there is some confusion to where this ancestor originally came from.

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.

Continue reading “Single View: William Henry Thompson”

CategoriesCorriganSaturday Genealogy Fun

SNGF: Ancestral Roulette

Posted on 15 January 2011by Brian Zalewski

This week on Randy Seaver’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun is Ancestral Name List Roulette. The rules are as follows:

  1. How old is one of your grandfathers now, or how old would he be if he had lived? Divide this number by 4 and round the number off to a whole number. This is your “roulette number.”
  2. Use your pedigree charts or your family tree genealogy software program to find the person with that number in your ancestral name list (some people call it an “ahnentafel”). Who is that person?
  3. Tell us three facts about that person in your ancestral name list with the “roulette number.”
  4. Write about it in a blog post on your own blog, in a Facebook note or comment, or as a comment on this blog post.
  5. If you do not have a person’s name for your “roulette number” then spin the wheel again – pick a grandmother, or yourself, a parent, a favorite aunt or cousin, or even your children!

For my grandfather, I chose my maternal grandfather who is still living. As of today, he is 85 years old. Divided by 4 that is 21.25, so rounded to 21.

Emma Jane Firmenich

Number 21 in my Ancestral Name List is Emma Jane Firmenich, my paternal great-great-grandmother. She was born 23 Jun 1873 in Wrightstown, Brown Co., Wisconsin, married Thomas Corrigan on 18 Apr 1892, and passed away on 28 Apr 1941 in Ashland, Ashland Co., Wisconsin. Here are three things I know about her:

  1. She lost 4 of her younger siblings in September 1885 due to a Diphtheria epidemic that hit Wisconsin.
  2. She was married three times. To my great-great grandfather, Thomas Corrigan, and then to T E Martin and George S Cook. She did not have more children besides the ones born during her first marriage.
  3. She lived in Milwaukee for a short time with 4 of her adult children according to the 1930 census, then moved back north to Ashland by 1932 after her second husband died.
CategoriesFeaturedTips & TricksWisconsin Research

How to Find Purchased Land

Posted on 2 August 2010by Brian Zalewski

I thought I would write a post on how to convert one of your ancestor’s Land Records into an actual physical location. Right now, I only have the information on how to do this in Wisconsin with the resources that they have available. Other states may have these items available too. Your mileage may vary.

I have Wisconsin Land Records for two of my ancestors, Mathias FIRMENICH and Jean Baptiste LAURENT. I will use Mathias’ Land Record for this example. You can view his Land Record on my Mathias site’s “Land Purchase” entry.

Step One

Find the spot on the record that lists the exact location that your ancestor purchased from the US Government. On Mathias’ record, in the first paragraph, it reads

..the claim of Mathias B. Firmenich has has been established and duly consummated in conformity to law for the southeast quarter of Section 18 in Township 46 north of Range 4 west of the 4th Principal Meridian in Wisconsin containing 160 acres.

To most people, this just looks like gibberish. It did to me at first. I knew what it meant, but I had no idea where to even start to look for it.

Continue reading “How to Find Purchased Land”
CategoriesBelgianDeBrouxSurname Saturday

Surname Saturday: DEBROUX

Posted on 6 March 2010by Brian Zalewski

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?

CategoriesWeekly History

Weekly History: Sept 13th – 19th

Posted on 13 September 2009by Brian Zalewski

September 14th

1838 – Born – Margaret SCHUMACHER – Margaret is my 3rd-great-grandmother on my father’s side. She was born in Wurttemberg, Germany. She married Henry STEARNS in about 1862 and then immigrated to Wisconsin. She passed away on 9 May 1908 at Philips, Price Co., Wisconsin and is buried nearby at Oakwood Cemetery in Weyauwega.

September 15th

1665 – Died – Etienne LAFOND dit Mongrain – Etienne is my 10th-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born about 1615 at St. Laurent, Saintonge, Xaintes, France. He married Marie BOUCHER in 1645. He passed away at Trois-Rivieres, St. Maurice, Quebec, Canada.

1982 – Died – Leon Joseph DEBROUX – Leon is my great-grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born 2 Nov 1901 at Phlox, Langlade Co., Wisconsin. He married Mildred Vida VAN PRICE in 1921 and had 5 children. He passed away at Port Washington, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin and is buried there at St. Mary’s Cemetery.

September 16th

1656 – Married – Jean CUSSON-CALLIOU & Marie FOUBERT – Jean and Marie are my 10th-great-grandparents on my mother’s side. They were married at Trois-Rivieres, St. Maurice, Quebec, Canada. They had 5 children including my ancestor, Marie-Madeleine CUSSON-CALLIOU.

September 17th

1835 – Born – Olivine Marie ST. LOUIS – Olivine is my 3rd-great-grandmother on my mother’s side. She was born at Yamachiche, St. Maurice, Quebec, Canada. She married Jean Baptiste LAURENT  in 1831. She passed away on 20 May 1920 at Phlox, Langlade Co., Wisconsin and is buried nearby at St. Joseph’s Catholic Cemetery in Norwood.

September 18th

1718 – Born – Jeanne Catherine BARBUT – Jeanne is my 7th-great-grandmother on my father’s side. She was born at Contraglise, Haute-Saune, France. She married Jean Claude MARIZOT in 1748. She passed away before 1781.

1956 – Died – Mary Philomene LAURENT – Marie is my 3rd-great-grandmother on my mother’s side. She was born in December 1865 in Wisconsin. She married Joseph DEBROUX on 8 Sep 1891 at Langlade Co., Wisconsin. She passed away at Wausau, Marathon Co., Wisconsin and is buried at St. Joseph’s Catholic Cemetery in Norwood, Wisconsin.

CategoriesTell Me Thursday

Tell Me Thursday: Firmenich Family

Posted on 6 August 2009by Brian Zalewski

Thanks to the power of the Internet, I came into possession of this digital photo. I saw via Ancestry.com’s new “Member Connect” feature that another user was researching my 3rd-great-grandparents, Mathias & Paulina Firmenich. I contacted her and we traded information and then she sent me this awesome photo.

As far as I know, my grandmother doesn’t have a photo of Pauline or of the rest of the Firmenich family. That would make this photo the first time I’ve seen Pauline. She had died early on, in 1910, so I assumed there were no good photos of her. I guess I was wrong.

I am told the photo looks to be taken in 1895, probably in Ashland, Wisconsin where the family lived. I’m guessing on the names of the rest of the family here, but using the family list as it looks to be (using the youngest children.) The males in the back are probably Frank and Henry, but I can’t tell which one is older. I assume the two older women in the back are Emma Jane (my gg-grandmother) and Mary. The girl in the middle looks to be the oldest of the younger girls, so I assume it’s Rose. Then from left to right it looks to be Ida, Edna, and Clara. Edna would be the one that looks really bored in the middle. The nice lady who gave me this photo descends from Edna.

The only one missing would be the oldest, Albert. Four of Mathias and Pauline’s children, Hattie, Edmond, Sarah, and Anna, died in 1885 due to an outbreak of what looks to be Diptheria.

So, the moral here (I look to be on a moral kick recently) is to connect and contact everybody that you can that may be researching a common ancestor. You never now what you’ll find. *Cue Forrest Gump and his chocolates*

CategoriesTombstone Tuesday

Tombstone Tuesday: Maria BRAATZ

Posted on 7 July 2009by Brian Zalewski

I have a new headstone for today. Thanks to Steph F at Find-a-Grave, I now have a photo of the headstone of my 3rd-great-grandmother, Maria BRAATZ. I had run across the info from a transcription of a few cemeteries in Waupaca County, Wisconsin. She is buried at Little Wolf Cemetery in Manawa, Waupaca Co., Wisconsin. In the trascription, she was listed as “Maria frau von Wm” which roughly translates to “Maria, wife of William.” Maria’s husband is Wilhelm BRAATZ. There is no record of his burial, but it is assumed he’s buried nearby even if there is no stone. We’ll be checking into that to make sure.

Maria Braatz

[ Find-a-Grave Link ]

CategoriesCemeteriesTombstone Tuesday

Tombstone Tuesday: What’s Next

Posted on 23 June 2009by Brian Zalewski

So, I’m coming to the end of my family tree tombstone photos. So, instead of trying to find a new one of those to post, I thought I’d post some general cemetery photos. While visiting the cemeteries to find the stones of my ancestors I’d sometimes just take random photos. Some of them turned out pretty good. Cemeteries photos can come out beautiful or sometimes even creepy, depending on the season as seen below.

This photo was taken at St. Francis Borgia Cemetery in Cedarburg, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin. This is the cemetery my grandfather is buried at. I had stopped there in early spring before winter had loosened it’s grip on the area.

Click for larger
Click for larger

There are a few Flickr groups dedicated to cemetery photos that are interesting to browse if you’re into that sort of thing. I have submitted a few of mine to some of them. A few of them are: Graves, Tombs, and Cemeteries, Graveyards, and Autumn in the Graveyard.