a Mother's Day reminiscence ...

My mother, Betty Quast Rebholz (1920-2011), was NOT a church-lady, and was not interested in our 100% German family genealogy. Of course, I ignored that and regaled her with stories going back 12 generations, and even forgotten branches of her protestant paternal tree in Milwaukee. I included strange experiences I had in the genealogy community and in libraries. Her typical response was "You couldn't make this stuff up!"
     It was a real surprise when she triumphantly told a story about me, shared by her hairdresser, who had attended a genealogy class at the Milwaukee Public Library!
     This was an Aha! moment because of an incident of verbal abuse I experienced at the local Family History Library: a patron named Tom, angry with my creation of this project, LOUDLY and rudely regaled patrons about my indexing project as it related to my personal life and my resumé; where else would he have learned such details?
     Betty and I chuckled over Tom's classic church-lady  behavior; she had her own anecdotes about that stereotype at our parish church. From then on she appreciated my stories about Milwaukee Public Library's staff and retiree bullies with their ever-present threat of data-rape and patron-trafficking.

    Betty would also enjoy a good chuckle knowing that in May 2011 a stranger approached me at HER funeral service with a question about my father's family tree!

You really can't make this stuff up.

Passover in Milwaukee - matzos, matzos, matzos!

Jewish baker Julius Kohn (1724 Walnut St.) tells his valued customers that his matzos are available again this year and can be purchased at Klingbeil's on State St., Gottschalk's on Chestnut St., P. Welch's on Van Buren St., and at Ph. Weis' butcher shop on Jackson St. Weis was another advertiser of Kosher products in the Milwaukee Herold (the mainstream paper published by W. W. Coleman

Milwaukee's English or German language clippings? it's your choice.

Mrs. Catherine Dorothy Zach's death notice found in the Milwaukee Journal has been digitized into TOTAL illegibility, but legible on library microfilm. The notice provides information about the arrangements, but only makes limited mention of the family: her daughters are identified by their husbands' names.

The German language death notice is not only more comprehensive, but progressive too. It sets the scene for us: during her long illness she was provided with the Last Rights. It includes Mrs. Zach's maiden name (Golner); provides her daughters' given names separately from their husbands' names; names her daughter-in-law; and even references Mrs. Zach's siblings. It's a research and German-American cultural gem!

This is the family's paid death notice for Mrs. Zach; there was no separate obituary article written by the newspaper.

This difference between competing papers isn't always the case but it needs be understood by the family researcher looking through Milwaukee's German, English, or Polish language newspapers.

Mysterious bones found in 2024 explained by the "Milwaukee Herold" in April 1887 ...

"Where the Prospect and Maryland Avenues meet in Ward 1, a new school building under the direction of Contractor Danischefski is being built. It is not a flat surface, but a large, grassy place in which an infinite number of depressions can be seen; namely graves, which were once raised above the surface, but now have sunk down.
The site was used for more than twenty years as a burial ground, and funerals were held there in 1863. Twenty-five years ago, it was covered with gravestones and monuments.
Although a sanctified place, it was always neglected, as most of the bodies entrusted to the earth were those of "paupers"* and dying homeless, upon whom the tears of a loving mother had earlier fallen." [*The cemetery served the 2 orphanages across the street.]

Literally uncovering Milwaukee's lost German-American history ...

... a family's marker from 1877, buried under cemetery grass for ... who knows? how many years. This summer I saw a small bit of text showing in a dip of the lawn, then dug it up with it's base.

My active interest in lost markers began with the re-uncovering of Christoph Gomber's 1866 stone, first found in 2011 but overgrown by grass again since then. I've set that stone upright. While looking for Christoph, I found his wife's buried cast-iron cross from 1860.

I have not found any indication of their son-in-law, Hermann Joseph Gassen (my relative), in this family plot. I believe the plot was purchased at the time of his death in 1857; his wife named as owner.

It's the lost graves of 2 Civil War veterans in my family tree that fuels my determination to uncover more stones. Parish burial register entries are the only remaining record.

Coincidentally, Peter Joseph Esser (1826-1873), my 2nd-great-grand-uncle (by marriage), was the first employee of this cemetery. His sons, grandsons, great-grandsons, & in-laws (even his widow's 2nd husband) followed him as cemetery employees.

Happy Labor Day 2024

Where else would you see a graphic like this, championing a 'laborer', but in an ethnic newspaper of the early 20th century?  Not in the old Milwaukee Journal or Milwaukee Sentinel!

   

Honoring forgotten Civil War veteran Adam Goelz ...

Adam Goelz, a first cousin, 3-times removed, was a Hessian emigrant in 1852 at age 6, and a Civil War enlistee at 17 (with his father's permission) in Aug. 1862. On 1 July 1863 he was horribly wounded at Gettysburg, the first day of that famous battle: shot in the face and shoulder, and hospitalized in Philadelphia. He was returned home to Milwaukee, and died on 22 Aug. 1865. Holy Trinity Catholic Church shows his burial in the parish register, but their cemetery records were destroyed by fire in 1909! Adam's grave is lost to history, and to being recorded by veteran's groups. There might be a stone -  but I doubt it - and a painstaking cemetery walk is necessary, poking away at worn, half-buried markers. Another veteran of the 26th Volunteers, Hubert Mondlock Sr., was buried at Holy Trinity Cem. in 1870 and he is also not a recognized veteran since his grave doesn't exist! He's related to Adam by the marriage of his son Hubert Jr. to Adam's cousin Caroline Goelz.