a Mother's Day reminiscence ...

     My mother, Betty Quast Rebholz (1920-2011), was NOT a Church-Lady, and she was not interested in her 100% German family story. The German clippings I shared were not of interest to her. But I ignored that, and regaled her with stories going back 12 generations: a forgotten Quast branch of her protestant paternal tree; a great-grandfather's betrayal; forgotten surnames in her maternal line & their very early records at Old St. Mary's Catholic Church.

     She really enjoyed hearing about the strange experiences I had in the genealogy community. Her typical response was "You couldn't make this stuff up!"
     It was a real surprise when she triumphantly told her own 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 about my creation of this project, LOUDLY and rudely regaled patrons about my indexing project, referring to my personal life and my resumé; where else would he have learned such details but from the old biddies at the library?

Betty and I chuckled over Tom's classic Church-Lady behavior. She had her own anecdotes about that stereotype. 

     From then on she appreciated my stories about the Public Library's staff, retiree bullies, and threats from evangelical ladies that they would data-rape anything I published.

     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.

The Good, the Bad, and the really Ugly, found in the genealogy community ...

In 2025 some Find-a-Grave hacks went on a rampage to attack my posting of LOST burials at Holy Trinity Cemetery [Milwaukee, WI] - an historic fact. I used alternative sources, and the complaint was that my sources do not mention the cemetery, and that these memorials would be changed to "burial unknown". But these whiners, with more blind ambition than research skills, were wrong.

A mormon admin. demanded I reveal specific sources to them! Who does this kind of crap, except ignorant church-ladies?

A new tack then followed, concerning my valuable reference leads into Milwaukee's German newspapers: "Stop forcing volunteers to use your index at the library." was the freakish rant. Those references don't make money for the mormon retail empire. Or maybe standard look-up requests from my index were refused by MPL? It's easy to request a look-up for a citation with a name and death date. 😏

One Find-a-Grave "karen" demanded I post clippings & citations at Ancestry for her to copy. 😠

My effort to post the bulk of lost records for Holy Trinity Cemetery - from its founding through 1909 - is largely complete. A malicious Find-a-Grave administrator vindictively terminated my access to my account there. 😇 The "Graves R Us" volunteer freak there is making change requests & sending harassing messages, to remove my name in Memorial notes. You know what they say about shaking the tree and all the fruits and nuts fall out. 😂

Lincoln todt! 16 April 1865 ... newspaper 'draped' in black!

  President Abr. Lincoln ermordet! 

 

 

Upon the news of world or nationally renowned leaders with shocking deaths, Milwaukee's 19th c. German-American papers would be 'draped' - their columns lined - in black.

This might even have been done with the recent murders of US citizens by today's fascist political regime.

 

Germans have an opinion about America's political buffoons, and advice for American resistance!

Germany is not shy with its raw opinions about America's political buffoons, tempered by advice for American resistance. Coverage of Karneval, c. 2018, would've been available to American media.

 

 

Milwaukee's "Banner und Volksfreund" might've asked the question: "How do you solve a problem like a Maga?"

The good sisters would more likely have read the Catholic-leaning, Milwaukee Seebote, and NOT the more progressive Banner und Volksfreund (Thomas Paine's writings were featured there), but it remains the same universal question:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-O7dPkA45c 

The tragedy of washer-woman "Bridget" Daley was reported in the "Milwaukee Seebote", and the "Germania" ...

The name "Bridget" was used as a casual pejorative label for poor, or working, Irish women in the 19th c. Yet four (4) German-American papers carried this brief story to hi-lite the plight of Milwaukee's immigrant working poor.

I was relieved to find a matching church burial record for a Margaret Daley, but there is no civil death record, or coroner's report, or cemetery record, or similar story in the English language papers.

  Sudden Death. - Bridget Daly, a widow living at the corner of Jefferson and Chicago Streets, returned home Friday evening after spending the entire day doing laundry at the American House Hotel. She collapsed in the hallway and was found dead. A stroke caused her death. The deceased leaves behind five children, the youngest of whom is only three years old.  

Burial register of St. John Cathedral (Milwaukee, WI). 

June 1874. Margaret Daley. Died on the 5th of June 1874, Margaretta Daley, about 40 years old. 

Immigration statistics published in Milwaukee's German papers in 1874 ...

Immigration. During the month of May, 2,661 immigrants arrived in Milwaukee, of whom 730 were Germans ... settling in Wisconsin. 626 Germans ...  went to other states.