The Spiraling Chains - The Spiraling Chains: Schroeder - Tumbush Family Trees

Wedding Wednesday: Beljan-Benički Wedding

2/11/2015

Recently, I found a marriage record for which I had been looking for a long time. My great-grandparents, George and Ursula Bellan were Croatian immigrants who immigrated to the U.S. in 1893 and 1898, respectively. My great-grandmother indicated on her 1898 passenger ship manifest that she was going to her 'husband,' but the 1900 U.S. Census indicated that they had only been married 1 1/2 years.

So which one was correct? Had they been married in Croatia before George left for America, or did they wait until Ursula arrived in America? Well, a couple of years ago, I visited the Cuyahoga County Archives in Cleveland, Ohio, and they were NOT able to find a county marriage record for George and Ursula. The researcher did warn me that there may have been just a church wedding, so it may not have been recorded at the county level.

Recently, I conducted a search for the record on FamilySearch.org, and wouldn't you believe it, there was the record, nice and indexed for me plain as day! It always pays to go back and look at databases you've already searched! Here is the record (click for larger image):

Marriage Record of Juraj Beljan and Ursula Benicki

The wedding took place on 29 May 1892 in Podstene, Primorje-Gorski Kotar, Croatia. Juraj, son of Franjo and Rozalija Beljan, was 19 years old and resided in Sela, Brod Moravice. Ursula, daughter of Mate and Ursula Benički, was 18 years old and from Doluš. The witnesses were Miko Brajdić and Anton Benički. Anton was probably Ursula's uncle. Brajdić was the maiden name of Juraj's mom, so Miko is likely a maternal uncle or cousin of Juraj.

About a year later, Juraj (soon to be George), left for America, not to see his wife for five years. According to his Petition for Naturalization, George arrived in America on 5 Jun 1893.

©2015, Emily Kowalski Schroeder

Marriage Record Source: FHL microfilm 2099984. Marriage, Podstene, Primorje-Gorski Kotar, Croatia. p 70, Vjencani 1858-1913, Hrvatskog Drzavnog Arhiva, Zagrebu.

Funny Friday: Bernardo Licciardi or The Lorax?

2/5/2015

Earlier this week, my four year old daughter and I were doing a craft that involved looking at photos of ancestors. We were cutting them out, preparing them to paste onto paper hearts, when we get to this one, a photo of my great-great-grandfather, Bernardo Licciardi:

Bernardo Licciardi

Bernardo Licciardi

So, as with all the other photos, I tell her who it is, but (in her silly voice) she says to me, "That's the Lorax." Many of you probably know that the Lorax is a Dr. Seuss character. We've read the book, we've watched the movie, and my daughter even painted a little paper Lorax at preschool. And now she's decided that her great-great-great-grandfather is a Lorax doppelganger. I gotta say, I can't argue with her.

Happy Birthday, Grandpa Schroeder

2/2/2015

On this date in 1925, my husband's paternal grandfather, Walter Schroeder was born. He is the only son of Anthony and Leona (Knob) Schroeder and he was born in the very small rural community of St. Patricks in Shelby County, Ohio. Here is his short birth announcement from the 13 Feb 1925 edition of The Minster Post:

Walter Schroeder's Birth Announcement (The Minster Post; 13 Feb 1925)

Walter, who acquired the nickname 'Chub' early on in his life, was the third of five children born to Anthony and Leona. He had four sisters, all of whom have passed away. On 26 Aug 1944 in the nearby town of McCartyville, he married Naomi Grilliot, daughter of Bernard O. Grilliot and Frances Drees. They have six children together, an Naomi also celebrated her 90th birthday this past December.

Here are a few of photos from his 90th birthday celebration. His love of cake hasn't diminished with age!

Walter's 90th Birthday Cake

Loves the cake! (Who doesn't?)

Walter and Naomi with their daughter, Nancy.

Walter's parents, Anthony and Leona, were both grandchildren of German immigrants who settled in western Ohio in the mid-19th century. To learn more about Walter's ancestors, click on the links below.

Walter's paternal line: SCHROEDER
Walter's maternal line: KNOB

Matrilineal Monday: Louisa Kahlig Braun

1/25/2015

Yesterday, I posted the obituary and death certificate of Louisa Kahlig Braun, one of my husband's great-great-grandmothers through his maternal line. Today, I thought I would share a record I recently found through FamilySearch.org: Louisa's baptism record. (Click for larger view.)

Louisa kahlig Braun baptism record

Baptism Record of Aloisia (Louisa) Kahlig

The Catholic church book record states that 'Aloisia' was born 25 Feb 1870 to Franz Kahlig and Judith Beier. The record is written in German and the Kahlig family members were native German speakers. They lived in the Moravian-Silesian Region of what is now the Czech Republic. When they immigrated to America in 1871, they listed their country of origin as Austria, because their homeland was part of Austria-Hungary at the time. When she was born, Louisa had two older siblings - a brother Josef, born in 1865, and a sister Ludmilla ('Amelia' in the U.S.), born in 1862. A younger sister, Caroline, was born in the U.S. in 1873. Here is her parents' marriage record from 1861. In this record, her mother, Judith's surname is spelled Beyer. (Click for larger image.)

Kahlig Beyer Marriage Record

Kahlig Beyer Marriage Record

The Kahlig family settled in rural Mercer County, Ohio and ran a farm. Around 1890, Louisa married John M. Braun, son of Peter and Elizabeth (Uhleman) Braun. Between 1892 and 1912, they had ten children. John passed away in 1936 and Louisa in 1948. You can view information regarding their children on my Braun Family page at this link.

More documents and information about the Kahlig Family can be found at this link.

©2015 copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder

Baptism Record Source: FamilySearch.org, Czech Republic Church Books, 1552-1963, Catholic, Novy Jicin, Jesenik nad Odrou, Baptisms 1858-1896 (vol 2049), Image 84/274.

Marriage Record Source: FamilySearch.org, Czech Republic Church Books, 1552-1963, Catholic, Novy Jicin, Jesenik nad Odrou, Marriages 1836-1871 (vol 2038), Image 61/93.

Sunday's Obituary: Louisa Kahlig Braun

1/24/2015

Louisa Kahlig Braun was one of my husband's great-great-grandmothers on his mom's side of the family. Here is her obituary from The Lima News dated 29 Apr 1948:

Louisa Kahlig Braun obituary

Louisa Kahlig Braun Obituary

The copy is a little difficult to read, but it says that she passed away in her home in St. Peter (Mercer County), Ohio. She was 78 years old and was the widow of John M. Braun. The obituary lists six surviving daughters: Mrs. Frank Hamlin of Eugene, Oregon, Mrs. Lawrence Brunswick and Mrs. Urban Abels of Sharpsburg, Ohio, Mrs. Theodore Homan of Philothea, Ohio, Sister M. Levine of St. Joseph's Orphanage in Cincinnati, and Miss Ida Braun, with whom she lived. Her surviving sons were Theodore of Sharpsburg, and Peter and Raymond, with both of whom she lived. (One daughter not mentioned here, Olivia Braun Evers, passed away in 1944.)

Louisa's death certificate (below) states that the cause of death was coronary occlusion and that she suffered from high blood pressure and general hardening of the arteries.

Louisa Kahlig Braun death certificate

Tomorrow, I will post some more information about Louisa's and her family's background, including her baptism record, which I recently discovered.

Death Certificate Source: FamilySearch.org, Ohio Deaths, 1908-1953, 1948, 25101-28300, Image 743/3555

©2015 Emily Kowalski Schroeder

Travel Tuesday: Mexico City to San Antonio, 1955

1/12/2015

A couple of weeks ago, I was going through my many (mostly unhelpful) shaky leaf hints on Ancestry.com, and I came across a couple new ones related to my great-grandparents, Adele and Luigi (Louis) Licciardi. It was an American Airlines passenger list showing arrival in San Antonio, TX from Mexico City in 1955. On the left is the first page with information about the plane and crew, and on the right you will see Adele and Luigi listed. (Click for larger view.)

Now, I try to keep up-to-date with the list of new databases that Ancestry.com is always adding. I'm sure that I saw the addition of this database, but, being that I have zero relations who lived in Texas, I did not think much of it. I'm glad Ancestry flagged this one for me, because I'm sure I wouldn't have found it otherwise.

I had known that my great-grandparents enjoyed traveling abroad in their early retirement years. They went (back) to Europe at least a couple of times and I have seen a photo of them in Mexico. Next time I am back at my parents' house, I will have to look through old photos again and see if any of them are dated January 1955.

©2015, Emily Kowalski Schroeder

Source: Passenger and Crew Manifests of Airplanes Arriving at San Antonio, Texas 1955-1957. NARA Microform publication A3974. 9 rolls. NAI: 2922359. Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004, Record Group 85, The National Archives at Washington, DC

Great-Grandma's 120th Birthday

1/6/2015

Young Adele Parazzini Licciardi

On this date in 1895, my great-grandmother, Adele Parazzini Licciardi, was born in Milano, Lombardia, Italy. A couple of years ago, I wrote this post about what I remember about her. Today, I thought I would share her Petition for Naturalization from 1945. (Click for larger image.)

On this form, as well as on her ship manifest from 1921, her surname is listed as 'Parrazzini,' but her birth surname may actually be spelled 'Parazzini, as the former does not seem to be at all that common in Italy. Adele came to America in 1921 and passed away in 1990 at the age of 95.

Petition for Naturalization for Adele Licciardi

Adele married Luigi Licciardi in 1913 at the age of 18. (The petition lists her marriage date as 1919, which is incorrect.) Luigi was a Sicilian, and they met in the north when Luigi was on military duty with the Italian Army. So, my grandmother and her sister had the unusual combination of a northern AND southern Italian parent.

I do not (yet) know the names of Adele's parents. They did not come to America and probably lived out their lives in Milano or in a nearby area.

More about the Adele and her descendants can be found here:
Licciardi Family Documents

©2015, Emily Kowalski Schroeder

Tuesday's Tip: When Bad Photos are Good

12/16/2014

We visited my parents over Thanksgiving weekend, and I went to work using my Flip-Pal mobile scanner to digitize many of their "recent" photos, which include photos from my younger siblings' childhoods. (By the way, have YOU digitized recent family photos from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s? Family historians are so focused on finding and preserving those old, old photos in the family, but the recent snapshots are just as susceptible to damage, deterioration, and loss, so they should be digitized as well.)

Anyway, a lot of these photos I or my brother took when we were kids with cheap 110mm cameras, so they weren't great as photography standards go - we were standing too far from the subject, the subject was way off-center, the subject's face was overexposed, subjects were caught off-guard and making strange faces - you get the idea. But, now, I look at these photos and I am so happy that my photography skills and equipment were inadequate. These photos captured our everyday lives and home so well!

Below are some tips for taking good "bad" photos. Of course, this doesn't mean that EVERY photo you take should enlist the help of these suggestions, BUT, since digital photography allows us to take so, so many photos, maybe take one traditionally "good" photo and one "bad" photo. (See below for suggestions.)

Tips for Taking Great "Bad" Photos

1.) Take wide shots, especially in homes or in front of homes. Do you remember the details from every room in which you ever lived or in which you spent time? Nope, neither do I. But when I look at some of these wide shots from within my family's old homes, it all begins to come back to me. I look at the wallpaper, the furniture, the little knick-knacks on the tables, and I realize just how much those details are a part of my story and my family's story. Below are two photos taken inside my grandmother's house, the house in which my mom grew up and where I actually lived for about a year, too. There are some really great details in the backgrounds of these photos that trigger a lot of memories for me.

2.) Put people off-center. Again, this is another technique that helps capture the details of the room in which the photo is being taken. The photo below has the subjects completely off-center, but it grabs a great shot of the artwork and wallpaper, both of which were memorable features of my childhood home.

3.) Change the locations of the photos you take. Do you always have your kids or grandkids sit on one particular chair or couch for photos? Mix it up a little; have them stand in a different location in the home each time you take a photo of them, even if you think those locations are not as aesthetically-pleasing to the eye. Do you always have family members sit on your front porch for summer photos? Next time, move to the side or back of your property. You'd be surprised at how many little details will emerge about your home just by switching where you take photos. Below is a photo of my brothers playing in our old garage. People don't usually take photos inside a garage, but that doesn't mean it isn't full of memories.

4.) Catch people "in the act." I'll admit that, as a kid, I enjoyed taking photos more than the average child or teenager. Because of that, we have a lot of truly candid photos - people in the act of eating, drinking, playing, cooking, watching TV, talking to each other, etc. I LOVE these photos because they say so much more about our family's life than the plain old sitting-on-the-couch-and-smiling staged photos. Here are my brothers taking a break from the superhero life; one eating Club crackers (a staple at our house) and one holding a spoon (pretend weapon most likely.)

5.) Photograph a mess. I'm a parent of two young children, so our house is messy, and it's been that way for seven years. However, I know that this period in my life is fleeting and that sooner than later, there won't be Legos and Star Wars figures under my feet or princess dresses strewn across the basement floor. So, I take photos of my kids around the house, and, instead of worrying about how neat the background looks, I actually welcome the messes on camera. (I have also been known to photograph my kids crying and fighting with each other, so maybe I'm just a little crazy.)

6.) Photograph people using technology. Don't think a photo of Cousin Mike looking at his smartphone is that exciting or worthy of family history? It will be in 30 years when smartphones are obsolete and have been replaced by the newest and fastest way of computing and communicating. Check out my brother on this old Apple IIe computer.

7.) Too busy making Christmas dinner to take photos of your loved ones? Give an inexpensive camera to a child and tell them to take photos of whoever and whatever they want. You may get a lot of photos of the dog or the floor, but you may also get some real gems. And, in my experience, I've found that some stubborn adults who ordinarily don't like smiling for the camera, just melt when a child is the photographer.

What I see too often in fellow parents of my generation is a desire to get perfect, professional photographs taken several times a year, usually at some scenic park or in a field of wildflowers. And while those photos will look great on your wall, will they capture the memories of your everyday lives? Take more candid, unscripted photos at home!

Remember that the photos you take now will someday be used by your descendants to tell your family's story, so give those descendants a little extra help and document the family places along with the family faces. :-)

©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder. All rights reserved.

Happy 90th Birthday, Grandma!

12/11/2014

Today, December 11, is the 90th birthday of my husband's paternal grandmother, Naomi Grilliot Schroeder. She was born December 11, 1924 near the small rural community of McCartyville, Ohio in Shelby County. Her birth was announced in The Minster Post on December 19, 1924.

Birth announcement of Naomi Grillio(t); The Minster Post, 19 Dec 1924

Naomi's parents were Bernard Otto Grilliot, son of Nicholas Grilliot and Amelia Magoto, and Frances Drees, daughter of J.M. "Mike" Drees and Mary Wilkens. She was the third of ten children born to Bernard and Frances. Bernard sold farming equipment and machinery in McCartyville.

Naomi married Walter Schroeder on August 26, 1944 in McCartyville. They celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary this past August. Walter and Naomi have six children - five daughters and a son - and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

The family came together last weekend to celebrate at Walter and Naomi's community home.

The birthday gal wearing a crown.

No, she didn't have to blow out 90 candles!

With their six children

Married 70+ years!

©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder.

Aubry - Drouot Marriage

11/6/2014

On 19 November 1827, Jean François Aubry and Anne Martine Drouot, two of my husband's 4th great-grandparents, were married in Herbeuville, France, a commune located in the nation's northeastern Lorraine region. With the poor contrast, this particular record is difficult to read, but I just love the detail of the French civil marriage records:

Not only does this record list the bride and groom's parents, it even provides the exact birth dates of the bride and groom AND the exact dates of death for both fathers and Anne Martine's mother. Jean François Aubry, a vine grower (vigneron), was the son of Nicolas Aubry and Anne Catherine Colnard. Anne Martine was the daughter of Jean Nicolas Drouot, a vine grower, and Fermine Benoit, and they were from the nearby town of Hannonville-sous-les-Côtes.

According the the civil birth records for Herbeuville, Jean François and Anne Martine had eight children between 1828 and 1839. Unfortunately, five of those children died before they were a month old. In 1840, Jean François and Anne Martine and their three remaining children immigrated to America aboard the ship Apollo. They entered America through New Orleans and settled in the northeastern part of Darke County, Ohio, where other French families were also starting to settle and farm the land.

I particularly enjoy looking at the marriage records of those couples whose lives began in the 'Old Country' and ended in America. Did they have any idea on their wedding day that someday they would move across the ocean and leave behind everyone and everything they knew? Did they realize on that day that they would be buried in a completely different land than the one in which they were born? Could they have fathomed that their descendants would come to speak English and not French?

Research note: I would not have been able to find so much information on my husband's French ancestry without the help of genealogist and historian Marianne R. Doyle (DoyleMR@aol.com), who sent me helpful copies of her newsletter French Ancestors. If you have or suspect you have French ancestors who settled in western Ohio, I highly recommend contacting her.

(And never underestimate the value of learning at least a little of a foreign language. I took four years of French in high school, and even the small amount I remember has enabled me to pick out the important information in these French records.)

Marriage Record Source: http://archives.meuse.fr/?id=recherche_guidee_etat_civil Herbeuville; 1823-1832, Birth, Marriage, Death Records, Images 138-139/353

©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder