I have a lot of family history pictures that originally belonged to my great aunt Grace (Waege) Larson. Just the other day I realized that out of all these pictures, the pictures I have of my Great Grandmother Ida (Brockhaus) Waege are the only pictures I own that do a really nice job of spanning […]
The Ida Brockhaus Time Machine Read More »
[singlepic id=7 w=320 h=240 float=left]These are two of my favorites from my collection of family pictures. The first picture was taken on the porch of the Brockhaus family farm nearl Campbellsport, Wisconsin in about 1913. Seated from left to right in the back row are my Great Great Grandparents William and Pauline Brockhaus, their son-in-law
Brockhaus Family Pictures Read More »
If I am the trunk of my genealogical tree, Olive Hassell is the closest branch with the most mystery surrounding it. Olive is my paternal great grandmother, married to William J. Rathkamp. I know almost nothing specific about her other than her date of death. I know she was born in Sweden (my only non-German
The Swede in the Weeds…Such a Hassell Read More »
It’s amazing what you find when [singlepic id=1 w=320 h=240 float=right] really look closely at a census sheet. The genealogy software I use is Family Tree Maker which is owned and developed by Ancestry.com. One of the nice things about this software is the “shaking leaf” it shows on a family member when it
Last week I received an email from Annemarie Schrimpf. It turns out Annemarie and I are third cousins 1x removed. Her GG Grandfather, Johann Dachs, is my GGG Grandfather. Annemarie still lives in the area of Bavaria that was the ancestral home of my 2nd Great Grandfather, Alois Dachs. Alois came to Milwaukee in about
Pirates, Badgers, and The Dachs Family Singers Read More »
My maternal grandmother, Emma (Walz) Niesl was born in Freeman, SD in 1913 to Fred Walz and Sophie Bischke. The Walzes and Bischkes were German, but we had always been told as kids that they had lived in Russia or Ukraine. This seemed to make our family history just a little exotic, almost as if
A few weeks ago I visited the Milwaukee Public Library and found they had a variety of “fire insurance” maps going back to the 1880’s. These maps were produced by the Sanborn Company in order to provide insurance underwriters detailed information relative to the construction and fire risks of buildings in designated areas.[singlepic id=2 w=320
Fritz & Dora Have Courtside Seats Read More »
Time to shift gears a little. I’ve spent most of the last 6 months researching and compiling Rathkamp family information, just because there’s been a flood of it, thanks to Friedhelm Wessels. The truth of the matter is that researching other parts of my family has been a little easier. I think most families have
From Rathkamps to Waeges Read More »
My friend Herr Wessels from Bassum, Germany has been a great source of information over the last couple months. He’s also taken the time to teach me a lot about the region, naming practices, and has given me a glimpse into the society my ancestors lived.[singlepic id=4 w=320 h=240 float=left] Originally, his thought was that
When the Levee Breaks Read More »
Over the last couple weeks, I’ve been spending some time at the Golda Meir Library on the campus of The University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. For whatever reason, the library was chosen to archive all or most of Milwaukee’s vital records. Some of these records can be found on Ancestry.com, but are very incomplete. From what
Tapping into a New Source Read More »
For Christmas two years ago, my wife bought me a test kit from the Genographic Project, sponsored by National Geographic. The purpose of the project is to track the migratory history of humans through the study of genetic data. After I received the kit, I quickly (and nervously) followed the instructions, scraping the insides of
Having a Hard Time Getting into These Genes Read More »
I just received an email from my friend Ernst-Dieter from Bassum. He just checked the Sudwalde church records and was unable to find Friedrich Rathkamp, b 1834. He searched a year before and a year after this date and still came up dry. Herr Wessels recently sent me some lists of Rathkamps from Diepholz which
Neubruchhausen…not Read More »