Chain & caravan migration stories are a part of Milwaukee's Germanic history ... just as they are today.

Mr. Peter Schmidt, together with his sister, Mrs. Dorothea Meuser, picked up his 86-year-old father from Germany, and went fishing here last night in his father's company. Twelve more members of the family from Germany will be arriving here in the next few days.

European immigration in 1874 ... they just waltzed right in?

Immigration. During the month of May, 2,661 immigrants arrived in Milwaukee, of whom 730 were Germans, 5 English, 5 Austrians, 6 French, 24 Danes, 6 Dutch, 100 Bohemians, 259 Norwegians, 2 Swedes and 27 Poles, settling in Wisconsin. 626 Germans, 30 English, 5 Austrians, 5 French, 98 Danes, 63 Bohemians, 536 Norwegians, 58 Swedes, 56 Poles, and 12 Hungarians, went to other states.

Milwaukee's German papers would have reported on ICE murders in July 2026 ...

 Milwaukee's German newspapers would have reported on the murders of immigrants Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero (Maine) and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo (Texas) by US christian nationalist troops. That would include 3rd victim Juan Jairo Coronilla Duran, frightened enough to run to his death, who had plans to return to his home.

The first 2 victims were misidentified as immigration targets by the murder squads. The stories follow the pattern of the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and no doubt, countless other deaths attributed to ICE.

No US government employees have been inconvenienced or detained.

Researching German family in Milwaukee? You'll have to create the resources yourself ...

Updated: I made a rare find in the German papers: an authentic, but unlikely obituary for a poor, old, insignificant German immigrant named Agnes Schumacher (née Hamacher). She died in the County Asylum in 1884, and is officially recorded as buried there ... but she's not!

Agnes' step-son, Peter Schumacher, my ancestor, claimed her remains, and had an obituary published for her in the Seebote. She was buried from St. Anthony Catholic Church, at Holy Trinity Cemetery, recorded in the parish register, but where? Burial records were destroyed in a fire in 1910.

In winter 2024, I flipped over a toppled marker at Holy Trinity Cemetery & experienced a thrill: here was my step-3rd-great-grandmother Agnes! She wasn't buried with her daughter's Esser family in Block 3 as I presumed, but in Section 1, which is single adult graves.

This month, Aug 2026, I stumbled across Agnes' grand-daughter's family plot in Block 3, marked in the 4 corners with the name N. Huwer, carved on the property markers, but no grave stones.

Sad to say, this is how we have to research Milwaukee's "working class" families: need a resource? You might have to create it yourself. I wouldn't have known anything about Agnes without randomly browsing the German papers. I created a huge index to help others.

I've done that twice for German Milwaukee: first with the German-American papers, now with lost burials at Dreifaltigkeits Friedhof.

Collecting secondary resources for 20 years, I've used that data as a substitute for records lost by this cemetery. Many were used to create Memorials at Find-a-Grave but I've been blocked from creating new memorials or editing my work because of including "historical information" in the bios of my entries. You can't make this up.

Joseph Schlitz' final farewell to Milwaukee! A poignant moment in the brewer's story.

Farewell. A heartfelt farewell to my friends and acquaintances whom I did not have the opportunity to see before my trip to Germany. Jos. Schlitz 

In spring 1875, Joseph Schlitz notified the Milwaukee community that he was traveling to Germany; he didn't know it would be his last trip. These paid announcements were an occasional practice by Milwaukeeans, and I've indexed them in my project.

His Lebewohl (literally, Live well!) is one of the more poignant items I've found, even more so than the tributes that followed from his, and other Milwaukeeans' loss during their return voyage, 7 May 1875.

[In May 2026 Pabst Brewery announced they will no longer be producing a 'Schlitz Beer'.]

The murders of Renee Good, Alex Pretti & Nurul Amin Shah Alam would have been reported in Milwaukee's German Newspapers ...

“That's fine dude, I'm not mad at you.”  Were the final words of Renee Nicole Good, mother of 3, before she was murdered, shot in the face, by a government employee of the USA.

Her murderer spoke a benediction over her body: "F...ing b^tch".

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  

“Are you okay?” were Alex's final words to a woman he was protecting who had been pushed down by government agents. He was then tear-gassed, shoved down, and then 10 bullets were pumped into him by the US government agent.

The 'rump Administration's ICE freaks were not harmed, injured, or inconvenienced, after murdering Renee Good & Alex Pretti.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

The intentionally negligent treatment of Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a Rohingya refugee, leading to his death would have been reported in Milwaukee's German newspapers. It's a story illustrating the takeover of the USA by repulsive christian nationalists, a repeat of the "Know Nothing" movement of the 19th c.

These papers were sensitive to the problems of ALL immigrants. I've debunked the WASP church-lady mythology that these papers focused on church communities and "obituaries".

Milwaukee's German newspapers were about local, national, and world NEWS. The HORRORS of the emigrant / immigrant experience are also told, missing from the old Milwaukee Journal & Sentinel.

A family's Memorial for Anna Heinl

 

Two Milwaukee death notices for Anna Heinl: one from a German language paper and the other from one an English language daily. It's reminiscent of Catholic funeral card Memorials.

There was no separate obituary in either paper.

The information is similar, but not identical. One is clearly a family memorial to a loved one, published by the family. The other is a helpful, but perfunctory piece of information about funeral arrangements, and adequate for the data collectors.