#52 Ancestors Charles Friedrich Sternitzky

For this next post, I thought I would keep it in the Sternitzky line and write about Charles Sternitzky, Friedrich's son and my 3rd great grandfather!  Thank you for taking the time to read this & please feel free to leave a comment!

            Charles Friedrich Sternitzky, my 3^rd great grandfather, was born 5 May 1832 in Klein Ujeschitz, Silesia, Germany.  He was the first born child of Friedrich and Helena (Vietz or Dietz) Sternitzky.  At the age of eight, his family (which now included three more siblings) came to America and settled in Buffalo, New York.  After spending a year there, the family moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  Charles received his education at the Milwaukee German School.

            The family spent fifteen years in Milwaukee before making the long voyage to Clark County, Wisconsin.  They were one of the first settlers in the area.  In his biography he noted that in order to get wheat seed they had to go 65 miles away!  Charles was twenty-four when they moved.  He purchased the 280 acres in the Lynn Township that the family settled on.  After a couple years, Charles struck out on his own and purchased 80 acres of his own land.  According to one biography, he would work in the pineries in the winters and in the summer he would work on his farm.  Eventually he expanded his farm to 120 acres. 

            On 25 February 1861 Charles married Kate Miller.  They had four children:  Albert, Wilhelm, Anna, and Phoebe. 

            Charles continued to farm until an opportunity to open a business presented itself in 1889.  That year Charles entered into the general merchandise business with the Ure brothers.  After a year Charles bought out the brothers and kept the business up on his own.  

            Charles also served the public in many ways.  According to his biography he served on the school board, was Town Clerk, served on Town Board – as president and as treasurer, was the Assessor, Notary Public, he served as Postmaster for nineteen years, and was the Justice of the Peace since the town was organized.  He was also an enumerator for the 1880 census.  He was also an organizer of the Lynn Mutual Fire Insurance Company in 1878.  Charles also served on the Clark County Agricultural Society. 

            On 12 January 1900, Charles was in Neillsville (the county seat of Clark County) attending a session of the county board.  That morning he complained of not feeling well.  After breakfast, he wasn’t getting any better so doctors were summoned along with his family.  Later that evening he passed away.  He had long suffered from heart issues.  He was 67 years old.  His obituary in the Clark County Republican Press stated: “The substantial independence and uprightness of his character stand as a perpetual lesson for younger generations and it will be many years before his influence in affairs of his neighborhood is lost.” Charles was buried in the Lynn Cemetery.

#52 Ancestors Friedrich Sternitzky

Hi everyone!  Now that I am over the flu and a cold I need to catch up on my #52 Ancestors writing!!  I hope this finds you all doing well.  This posting is about my fourth great grandfather Friedrich Sternitzky.  He was the first of this line to come to the United States!  As always, I hope you enjoy and please feel free to leave me any comments!

            My fourth great-grandfather Friedrich Sternitzky was born on 26 October 1806 in Klein Ujeschuetz, Silesia, Germany.  His father died when Friedrich was young.  According to one biography he did serve in the military.  In 1831 he married Helena Vietz (or Dietz) in Klein Ujeschuetz. 

            They stayed in Germany until 1840 before coming to America.  Joining Friedrich and Helena were their children:  Charles, Susanna, Gottlieb (James), and Wilhelm.  On 16 September 1840, they arrived in the Port of New York aboard the Bark Washington.  They made their way to Buffalo, New York, before settling in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  While in Milwaukee their family added another six children:  Johan, Ernest, Johanna, Julius, Edward and Albert. 

            In 1844, Friedrich declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States.  The family stayed in the Milwaukee area until 1856 when they, along with a couple other families, decided to go north to central Wisconsin and settle in Clark County.  According to the History of Clark County which was published in 1918, it took the family three weeks to make the journey and for the last three miles they had to cut through thick forest to make their way to their land.  Son Charles had purchased two hundred acres for the family from the government.  For his family, Friedrich built a two room, 18 foot by 28 foot log home.  Their nearest neighbor was two miles away.  Friedrich farmed the land until his son Henry (Julius’s nickname) took over. 

            Friedrich was a German Lutheran and when he got to Clark County church services were often held in his home.  Later on, he helped to establish a German Lutheran church in town. 

            The last eight years of Friedrich’s life were confined to bed.  Friedrich died on 25 October 1901 – one day shy of his 95^th birthday.  He outlived four of his children and his wife.  He was a well respected member of the community and beloved by his large family.  At the time, his funeral was the largest the community had ever seen.  Over sixty of his descendants were there and friends came from miles around.  Friedrich Sternitzky is buried next to his wife at the Zion American Lutheran Cemetery in Granton, Clark, Wisconsin.

#52 Ancestors #4: John Clifton Connors

Hello everyone!  I am behind on my #52Ancestors postings!  I have been sick the past few weeks, but wanted to try to catch up a little.  Here's a little biography on my husband's grandfather:

John Clifton Connors was born on 28 March 1917 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts to Patrick James Connors and Isabelle McDonald.   He was the second of nine children, but was one of only two children born in the United States.  Patrick and Isabelle came to the US for a time but then decided to go back to their hometown of St. John’s, Newfoundland. 

            John joined the British Army during World War II.  He went overseas to England and in Dunkirk he was injured by shrapnel in his back.  After his tour with the British Army he received his Order to Report for Induction to the United States Army.  He was to report to Fort Pepperrell in St. John’s.  This started his twenty-two year career as a member of the Army Air Corps. 

            In 1947, John received word from The Foreign Service of the United States that the application submitted in his case had been approved and that he was repatriated back to the U.S. 

            On 18 January 1948 while stationed at Fort Pepperrell Air Force Base in St. John’s Newfoundland, John married Rita Fitzgerald.  They had three daughters:  Mary Rosalind, Monica Isabelle, and Agnes Anne. 

            John loved being in the military and was stationed at many different places.  They were stationed in Newfoundland, Alaska, Maine, Montana, and New York.  He rose to the rank of Master Sergeant and at his time of retirement he had received many awards including the Good Conduct Medal with bronze clasp and five bronze loops.  He took a lot of pride in his work and had many letters of appreciation and commendation in his file.  He constantly strove to improve himself by taking classes in everything from American History to Intelligence Operations Training. 

            Heart problems forced him to retire in October 1967 while he was stationed on Dow Air Force Base in Bangor, Maine.  He retired on disability and was not able to work again.  The family lived in Maine until the harsh winters forced them to move a little farther south to New Jersey.  John loved to garden and according to his daughter Agnes, he planted his gardens so there were always flowers blooming.  He also loved to work in his woodshop in the garage. 

            John passed away on 5 September 1984 while he and Rita were living with daughter Agnes and her family.  He is buried in Annville, Pennsylvania. 

Looking at a document with fresh eyes -- #genchat homework

Hello everyone from snowy Colorado!

This weekend while my husband was at work I decided to tackle my homework assignment from Friday night's #genchat discussion.  The task was this:  go back to an old document that you thought you had all the information from and look at it again -- try to find new information that was maybe missed.  I decided to do that with the ship manifest records that I have found in regards to my husband's Foglio family (see my previous post about Antoinette Foglio).  

I pulled all the ship manifests I had that chronicled the back and forth travels of this family between the US and Italy between 1913 and 1932.  First thing I did was put them in date order.  The next thing I did was to make an Excel spreadsheet detailing all the information from these manifests -- I thought this would be the easiest way for me to see patterns and compare info from one manifest to the other.  

Then I delved into the records and looked at every line of information and that is when the magic happened!!!  The first thing was that one of the children was born in Italy and not the US as I had originally thought -- and it gave me the town he was born in.  I also found my husband's great grandmother's name which when I originally found the record, I skimmed over for whatever reason but I found it this time!  Another item I keyed in on was Immigration Visa numbers....a lead I want to follow up on and see what kind of application they had to fill out, if any, in order to obtain this.  Finally, making out the Excel spreadsheet -- while I know was probably very nerdy -- gave me a much tighter timeline of when this family unit was in the US and when they were in Italy. 

I was so excited about all these finds I did some serious happy dancing!  Of course as it seems to happen with me, I have more questions now!  I think I will be taking some serious time each time I pull out an ancestor's file to look over what I have already to see what I may have missed on the first pass.  I know not every record will yield these kind of results, but I have a feeling I will find more than not!  I hope you will take the time to look over what you have already collected!  Let me know in the comment section if you made any discoveries while looking at a document for the second time....or third......

Happy hunting!!

#52Ancestors #3: Lelah Beryl Stone

Hello again!  I am slowing catching up on my #52Ancestors postings!  I just have to do one more by Tuesday and I'm caught up!  This biography is a little different from the other two.  This one is about my great grandma.  I was fortunate to know six of my eight great grandparents.  So this bio has a few more stories in it -- it still has fact but my family and I have so many wonderful memories of my great grandma, I wanted to put those in too.  I hope you enjoy and as always, feel free to comment below!

            My great grandmother, Lelah Beryl Stone, was born 22 September 1908 in Marcellon Township, Columbia, Wisconsin to Frank Ethan Stone and Frances Leila Mason (Lawson) Stone.  She was the fourth of eight children. 

            Lelah graduated from Randolph High School in 1926.  She attended Columbia County (Wisconsin) Normal School and graduated in 1927.  At the time a person attended Normal School for one year and received a degree to teach in a rural school.  Lelah graduated with a class of 29 – including her future sister-in-law.  After graduation, she taught at Pinewood School, which was in a joint district of Randolph and Fox Lake townships.  She taught students from first through eighth grade.  In 1928, she taught 21 students.  One story I always remember that great grandma told us about her teaching days was this:  she arrived at the school to get it ready for the students to arrive.  While she was getting prepared she happened to look up and out the window and a Native American was outside her window in full regalia, on horseback, looking at her!  They looked at each other for a moment, and he continued on his way.  I remember asking her if she was afraid and she said “oh no”. 

            In 1930, Lelah married Erwin Julius Farnsworth at her parents’ home in Randolph, Columbia, Wisconsin.  Her sister Maysel and her brother Vernon were the attendants.  Lelah wore a white soft silk dress.  After the ceremony, there was a dinner held for the immediate family.  After their honeymoon, a reception was held in their honor for over two hundred people.  After the wedding, they moved to Erwin’s farm in Fremont, Clark, Wisconsin.  Lelah only taught for two years, but she remained involved with education through her involvement with school boards.

            Lelah and Erwin had two sons:  Darryl Erwin (my grandfather) was born in 1935 and Darwyn Lee was born in 1940.  The family lived on 168 acres in the township of Fremont. The farm is where the boys grew up and the grandchildren came to visit often.  My mom, aunt, and uncles would always tell stories of going to Grandma and Grandpa’s farm.  They would swing from ropes in the barn and land in the hay.  They would help Grandma by going to get the eggs, helping her wash and weigh each one so Grandma could sell them.  My mom would say it was a job that would take her grandma twenty minutes to do, but with the “help” of the grandkids it lasted at least an hour (and sometimes involved a few broken eggs!).  Grandma never minded how long it took or if a few eggs got broken along the way.

            My mom and her grandma would get the fair books every year and decide on which categories they would enter.  Then they would use the same recipe and the same ingredients and make their entries.  They would both enter the same things, but sometimes Mom would get first place and her grandma would get second or vice versa.  But they always enjoyed doing that together.  My grandma – Darryl’s wife – credits Lelah for teaching her much about being a wife and a mother.

            Lelah was an amazing cook and baker.  Whenever you went to her house, you could smell fresh baked breads or cookies.  She literally won thousands of ribbons over the course of all the county fairs she entered.  But it wasn’t just baking she excelled at – she also entered canned goods, sewing, and various forms of needlework.  One undated newspaper article noted that in one year she won 127 ribbons at one fair and 130 ribbons at another!  She was featured in various local newspaper articles talking about her skills.  Often times those articles contained her tried and true recipes. 

            In 1970, Lelah and Erwin decided to sell the farm and move into town.  The list price on the 168 acres was $30,000. 

            In 1980, Lelah and Erwin celebrated their golden wedding anniversary with a dinner and open house.  Over 100 friends and family attended (including a five year old me!) and enjoyed a program of singing, poetry, story-telling, and of course, food. 

            Lelah was a member of the Fremont Grange, the local homemakers club, and the United Methodist Church.  She loved to garden and had beautiful flowers.  She seemingly could grow anything including a rare yellow peonia.

            Lelah stayed in the house after Erwin passed away in 1983.  However, it became too much for her alone, so she moved into a nursing home.  She passed away 5 February 1998.  She is buried next to Erwin at the Windfall Cemetery in Granton, Clark, Wisconsin.  She is missed by everyone, but every time we get together we tell stories of our time with great grandma and grandpa and of course still enjoy the recipes she shared with us. 

#52 Ancestors #2: Antoinette Foglio

Hello again!  I am a few weeks behind on the #52 Ancestors challenge, but I have another bio ready and wanted to post it.  I hope you are all doing well.  Here is a little information about my husband's grandmother:  Antoinette Foglio.  Please let me know your thoughts!  Have a great rest of your week!  Melanie

            Antoinette Foglio was born in South Manchester, Hartford, Connecticut on 15 February 1918 to Giovanni (John) Foglio and his wife Theresa.  She was the youngest of four children and the only girl.  Her brothers’ names were:  Emilio, Salvatore, and Michael. 

            The story of Antoinette’s childhood is somewhat tragic.  When she was very little, her family’s house burned down.  Her father decided it was best that they go back to Italy.  Son Emilio hated Italy, so he came back to the States in 1927.  According to the ship manifest, he was accompanied by his parents who intended to return to Italy within six months.  They went to visit Giovanni’s brother Bartolomeo, who lived in South Manchester, Connecticut. 

            While living in Italy, Giovanni was murdered.  The family decided to stay in Italy.  However in 1933, the family decided to come back to America after learning that Salvatore, who was 18, would be drafted into the Italian Army.  Antoinette was only 15 years old.  Theresa came back first in order to secure a home and the three children arrived from Naples on 10 July 1933.  They moved to Newark, Essex, New Jersey, where their mom found a place to live.  At first Antoinette struggled as English was no longer her first language and her accent was very strong.   

            In the 1940 census, Antoinette was living in Newark, New Jersey with her mom and step-father.  She was working as an operator at a tailor shop.  Antoinette married William Anthony Tafaro, Sr., on 23 March 1941 at St. Rocco’s Church in Newark.  They had three sons:  Stephen, John and William Jr. (my father-in-law).  They stayed in New Jersey the rest of their lives – staying in the Newark area for a good portion of the time. According to his obituary, William Sr. was an artist for the U.S. Postal Service in Newark.  He was a gifted artist – his paintings hung on many of the walls in their West Orange home (and now one is proudly displayed in our home).  Antoinette worked for twenty-two years at a local tennis shop, retiring in 1998. 

            William passed away on 12 November 1978.  Antoinette passed away 24 June 2008 in Madison, New Jersey.  She and William are buried in Summit, New Jersey.  

#52Ancestors challenge week 1

What do you do with a problem like Salome?

            I have a genealogical conundrum….at least for me it is.  It all started with a picture sent to me by my great aunt Mary Ann.  The picture is labeled by my great aunt and I knew who all the people were except for one she had listed as Aunt Salome.  I had never heard this name.  I called my grandma (my great aunt’s sister) and she was unsure so I called my great aunt.  She didn’t know anything about her.  She just had made the copy of the picture for me and had labeled it just as it had been labeled in her collection.

            Well now the race was on, but I was stymied because I didn’t know anything about her at all!  So I did what I had been told to do – look at her siblings.  Her brother was Chris LaMere who is my 3^rd great grandfather on my father’s side.  All I really know about Chris’s early life is that he was born in Quebec province and he may have changed his name from Lemieux (might as well be Smith!).  I started looking at the info I had about Chris and I got a clue about Salome.  She was living with Chris and his sons in Wisconsin in 1905.  She is listed as Salome Landry, a widow.  In the 1910 US census she is also there, but she is not with her brother in the 1900 US census.  No good leads popped up in the other census in Wisconsin so I knew she must be somewhere else, but where?  I banged my head against the wall for a bit but then thought “maybe there is something in Chris’s brother’s obit”.  And sure enough, it says Mrs. Salome Landry of Worcester, MA survives him. 

            Using that information I was able to find quite a few census records for Salome, but one note stuck out to me.  She stated in the 1900 census that she was a widow, had four children but none survived.  I had come across a record from the Druin Collection that placed her birth in 1860.  So by the age of 40 she had come to the US, married, had four children and suffered the loss of her husband and her children.   With my great aunt’s not so gentle prodding, I set out to find her husband’s name, wedding date, and what happened after that.  I found a marriage register for Lawrence, Essex, Massachusetts, that matches the information I have pretty closely.  The age is a little off, but her occupation, residence, parents names all match.  That was on 31 December 1879. 

            I cannot find them on the 1880 census.  The next time Salome shows up is the 1891 Lawrence, MA directory.  She is a boarder, no husband listed.  From there on out she is living as a boarder or with a sibling until she ends up at the St. Francis Home for the Aged in Worcester, MA.  As far as I can tell she lived her days out there until her death in 1951. 

            IF my records are all the same person, the question still remains:  what happened to Salome’s husband Augustus Landry (Laundry, Landy? I have seen it spelled various ways) and to their children?  The search continues……