The Spiraling Chains: Kowalski - Bellan Family Trees
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Sunday's Obituary: Mary Frances Wimmers Tumbush

10/11/2014

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Mary Frances Wimmers Tumbush, who went by Frances her entire life, was my husband's great-grandmother through his maternal line. She was born 9 Mar 1872 in Granville Township, Mercer County, Ohio, the only daughter of German Catholic immigrants John Wimmers and Mary A. Hummler. In January 1893*, she married Henry Tumbusch (surname spelling later changed to Tumbush). Between 1895 and 1919, they had eleven children, nine of whom survived into adulthood. Her youngest son, Frank (1914-1997), was my husband's maternal grandfather. She was widowed in 1942. She passed away 14 November 1955 in Rockford, Ohio and is buried 17 November 1955 in St. Henry Cemetery in Mercer County.

*Date of marriage based on obituary of husband, Henry Tumbush, published 4 September 1942 in The Minster Post

I have located two separate obituaries for Frances. This first one was published in The Lima News on 16 November 1955:
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The second obituary was published 18 November 1955 in The Coldwater Chronicle:

"Funeral services for Mrs. Frances Tumbush, 83, were held yesterday (Thursday) at St. Henry Catholic Church. Rev. Valentine Fleckenstein officiated and burial followed in the church cemetery. Death occurred Monday at the Colonial Rest Home in Rockford, following an illness of one year. She had been confined to her bed for the last eight weeks. Born in St. Henry March 9, 1872, a daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Henry* Wimmers, she was married to Henry Tumbush, who preceded her in death 12 years ago. Two sons are also deceased. She was a member of the St. Henry Catholic Church and the Christian Mothers sodality. Surviving are the following sons and daughters: valentine of Valley City; Edward of St. Marys; Leo of Celina; Albert , Anthony and Frank, all of St. Henry; Julius of Coldwater; Mrs. Isadore Steinke of Montezuma and Sister M. Iedephonse of Dayton. There are also 26 grandchildren and 15 great grandchildren, and a brother, Bernard Wimmers, of St. Henry."


I placed an asterisk after her father's first name, because it is incorrect - it should be John. John Wimmers passed away due to an accident in 1882, when Frances was only ten years old, so it is understandable that younger family members who wrote this obituary may not have known his first name.

Just this past week, I was able to obtain the Frances's death certificate from the Ohio History Connection (formerly the Ohio Historical Society). They recently acquired 1954-1963 death certificates from the Ohio Department of Health, and charge the public a small fraction of what the Office of Vital Statistics was previously charging for them.
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Ohio Death Certificate for Frances Wimmers Tumbush
©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder
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Sunday's Obituary: Bernadina Hut Schroeder

6/28/2014

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Johanna Bernadina Hut Schroeder was my husband's 3x great-grandmother through his paternal grandfather's line.  As mentioned (although misspelled) in her obituary below, she was born in Löningen, Cloppenburg, Niedersachsen, Germany, a fact that actually agrees with the place of origin on her family's passenger list.  Her year of birth varies depending upon which source is consulted, but she was born sometime between 1833 and 1834.

Johanna Bernadina, who usually went Bernadine or Bernadina, came to America as a young child with parents and her older brother, Theodore, in 1837.  The family's surname is spelled 'Huth' on the passenger list, but once in America, they used the name 'Hut' regularly. The family settled in Minster, Auglaize County, Ohio, which was, at that time, a new community of mostly German immigrants.
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Obituary of Bernadina Hut Schroeder, The Minster Post
Bernadina's father, Ludwig, passed away in 1839, and her mother, Adelheide, remarried a man named Lucas Clement or Clemens.  Bernadina married Franz ('Frank' or 'Fred') Schroeder in 1852. The couple had nine children.  Her husband's year of death is incorrect as stated in her obituary; according to Shelby County probate death records, he passed away in 1888.

Bernadina's death certificate can be seen below. She passed away 15 January 1921 and the (supposed) age of 86 years.  The informant, her son, Joseph Schroeder, incorrectly listed her father's first name as 'John,' but considering that he passed away when Bernadina was still a child, that's an understandable error.  Her mother is listed as 'Adline Frozenbusch.' I'm not entirely sure where that surname came from; a family history written by Bernadina's brother, Theodore, states that their mother's maiden name was 'Brant,' and St. Augustine Cemetery records indicate a maiden name of 'Brand' for Adelheide.
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Bernadina Hut Schroeder Ohio Death Certificate
Bernadina is buried in St. Augustine Cemetery in Minster, Ohio.

Obituary Source: The Minster Post, 21 Jan 1921
Death Certificate Source: FamilySearch.org, Ohio, Deaths, 1908-1953, FHL microfilm 1991394, digital folder number 4017669, image 327

©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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Sunday's Obituary: Henry Tumbusch

4/5/2014

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Henry Tumbusch was my husband's great-grandfather on his mother's side of the family.  He passed away September 1, 1942.  Here is his obituary, as published in the September 4, 1942 issue of The Minster Post (page 1).
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Henry was the son of Theodor Tumbusch and Anna Rasing, German immigrants who came to America in 1861.  Unfortunately, Theodor passed away when Henry was only about seven years old. His mother never remarried, but ran the small family farm and raised Henry and his three younger siblings by herself.  She lived until 1918.

As stated in the obituary, Henry married Mary Frances Wimmers in 1893.  (Here in this obituary, she is listed as 'Mary,' which is also her named stated in the Mercer County birth probate record; however, in every census and in her obituaries, she went by 'Frances.')  Henry and Frances had eleven children, nine of whom are listed in the obituary.  One son, Ferdinand, passed away in 1907 at the age of ten months, and another son, Joseph, was born stillborn in 1917.

Henry spent his entire life in Mercer County, Ohio, near the village of St. Henry.  He attended St. Henry Catholic Church and is buried in that cemetery.  According to his death certificate (below), he had suffered from bronchiectasis for a couple of years preceding his death.
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Ohio Death Certificate of Henry Tumbusch, 1942
Death Certificate Source: "Ohio, Deaths, 1908-1953," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/X83R-8YJ : accessed 05 Apr 2014), Henry Timbush, 01 Sep 1942; citing Granville Twp., Mercer, Ohio, reference fn 63127; FHL microfilm 2024037.

©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder
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Matrilineal Monday: Helena 'Lena' Janning Bernhold

2/11/2013

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(Matrilineal Monday is a weekly prompt from Geneabloggers that encourages bloggers to write about an individual female ancestor or a female ancestor's lineage.)

So far in my blog, I've talked mostly about ancestors about whom I have a decent amount of information.  Today, however, I'm writing about a woman and her family about whom I have little information.  Helena Janning Bernhold is one of my husband's paternal ggg-grandmothers.   According to her birth certificate (see below), she was born September 8, 1841 in Ohio and she passed away January 13, 1910 in or near Minster, Ohio (Jackson Twp, Auglaize County).
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Helena 'Lena' Janning Bernhold Death Certificate
According to the 1900 U.S. Census, she married Frederich ('Fred' or 'Fritz') Bernhold in 1855 or 1856.  (I have not yet been able to find a marriage record.)  They had 12 children, only 7 of whom were still living at the turn of the century.  Her death certificate and the 1900 census form say that she was born in Ohio, yet in the 1860 and 1880 census schedules she is listed as being born in Germany.  Grrrr.... 
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1900 U.S. Census, Frederich and Helena Bernhold and family.
Her death certificate also mentions that her father's name was Bernard.  There is a record of a 'Bernard Johning," age 53, in Auglaize County in the 1850 U.S. Census.  He is listed with his wife Catherine and one daughter named 'Lena,' who is listed as being ten years old.  It says he and his wife were born in Germany, but that their daughter was born in Ohio.  I am pretty confident that this IS the Janning family I am interested in.  I have also found an index of people buried in the "Old Section" of St. Augustine's Cemetery in Minster, Ohio.  In this index, there is a record of a Bernard Janning who was born in 1796 and who died January 5, 1851.  This date of death would explain why I am unable to find him in any future census schedules, although I have not located an actual record of his death (yet).  This 1860 census schedule lists a 60-year old "Catherine Bernholt" living with Frederich and Lena and their young daughters, Catherine and Mary.  Even though the surname is incorrect, I'm pretty sure this is the widowed Mrs. Janning: the age matches, Frederich's mom was not named Catherine (and I found her elsewhere in this census, anyway), and older widows usually went to live with family members in this period.

Needless to say, I still have many questions about this particular branch of my husband's tree.  When did Bernard and Catherine immigrate to America?  Where in Germany were they from?  Were they married in Germany or Ohio?  What was Catherine's maiden name?  Did they have any other children besides Helena - if those children were grown, did they immigrate to America as well or did they stay in Germany?  When did Catherine die and where is she buried?

The best chance I have of answering (some of) these questions definitely requires a trip to Minster, Ohio to look through St. Augustine Church's records.  Then, I could really find whether Helena was born in Ohio or Germany and I could look for a marriage record for Catherine and Bernard.  It's not a short drive from where I live in Indiana, and it would take some planning, but maybe someday.  

(How do the Bernholds and Jannings fit into hubby's family tree?  Frederich and Helena (Janning) Bernhold are the parents of Anna Bernhold, who married Joseph Schroeder in 1887.)

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My Great-Grandmother and her Feminine Surname

10/22/2012

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When I was first starting my family tree research, I ran into a bit of a roadblock when searching for information related to one of my paternal great-grandmothers.  At first, all I knew was that she was a Polish immigrant who lived in Cleveland, and who died when my grandfather was a young child.  All my dad and his siblings knew about her was that she went by 'Lottie.'  I was able to piece together some clues through other family documents I found: I knew she had died by 1920 because my great-grandfather was listed as "widowed" in the 1920 census.  My great-uncle's obituary listed her name as "Lottie Gacka," so all right, I thought, now I have her maiden name.  I searched the engines on various genealogy sites for Lottie Kowalski (her married name) and Lottie Gacka, but I couldn't find any records that I could definitively link to my great-grandfather.   In fact, as I was scrolling through the many records returned by the search engines, I soon realized that 'Lottie' was a common nickname adopted by Polish immigrant women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

So, at this point, I feel like my only choice is to scroll through and check ALL of the records returned by the search engines, even those with names that would not initially seem to be a match, in the hopes of discovering some clue that would lead me in the right direction.  I was doing this on FamilySearch.org and came across a 1919 death record for a woman by the name of 'Władysława Kowalska.'  The record also listed her father as 'Stanisław Gacki.'  Hmmm, 'Kowalska' and 'Gacki' are close to 'Kowalski' and 'Gacka,' but, again, I had NO idea if this really was her first name, so I couldn't be sure it was her.  I printed it out, though, and hoped that it may be an important clue. 

Now, when I initially found this record, FamilySearch had not yet uploaded the actual image of the death certificate, so I couldn't learn anything else from it.  Fast forward 6-8 months.  I went back on FamilySearch to examine the record again and found that they HAD uploaded the actual death certificate:
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"Ohio, Deaths, 1908-1953," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/X8L9-NC9 : accessed 04 Nov 2012), Wladyslarva Kowalska, 1919; citing reference fn 52304, Ohio Historical Society, Columbus, Ohio.
And there he was at the bottom - Informant: Dominik Kowalski - my great-grandfather.  Now, I KNEW without a doubt that it was her.  And then I was a tad angry with myself for not realizing that Poles traditionally spell surnames differently depending on if you are a man or a woman.  I have read enough Dostoevsky and Tolstoy in my life to know that this is true in Russia, but I suppose I had never been exposed to it as part of Polish culture.  This explains the 'Kowalska' instead of 'Kowalski' and even the 'Gacka' instead of 'Gacki.'  Even though she had been in America six years, she maintained her female surname, even if she did adopt a more "American" first name.

And then of course AFTER I went through all of this with the death certificate, I found my great-grandfather's immigrant ship manifest on which he listed Władysława as "nearest relative in country from whence (he) came."  If only I had found THIS document first - then I wouldn't have had to go through the whole mystery with the death record and trying to figure out her real name.  Ah, but we all know that researching family history isn't always that simple.  :-)
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Source Citation: Year: 1912; Arrival; Microfilm Serial: T715; Microfilm Roll: 1850; Line: 8; Page Number: 76. Source Information: Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
Because she died quite young, these are the only two documents I have found that reference Władysława.  I am still on the hunt for her immigrant ship manifest; she came over about a year after my great-grandfather with her three sons ages four, two, and eight months. (I can't even imagine doing that on my own - she was obviously a very brave, a very strong woman.)  By the way, the name 'Władysława' is the female equivalent of Władysław, which comes from the Russian name of Vladislav.  It means "to rule with glory."

***STOP THE BLOG PRESSES!  UPDATE!***
Ok, so literally right after I typed that sentence above about being on the hunt for her immigrant ship manifest, I went to Ancestry.com.  Because I knew she was traveling with her sons, I tried searching for the manifest using the name 'Jan Kowalski,' who was her eldest son.  I had previously discovered his immigration application papers, so I knew the exact date they entered the country and the ship name.  I had to scroll through quite a few pages - 'Jan Kowalski' is literally the Polish equivalent of 'John Smith,' so there were a lot of records - but I found the manifest!  Here is Władysława with her three sons, Jan, Stanisław, and Josef, all listed with her surname of 'Kowalska.'  And her father, Stanisław Gacki, is listed as next of kin, so that matches the information on her death certificate. 
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Source Citation: Year: 1913; Arrival; Microfilm Serial: T715; Microfilm Roll: 2194; Line: 25; Page Number: 43.
Source Information:  Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

©2012, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder
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The Babies

9/30/2012

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If you've ever done genealogy research, you probably already know that one of the most emotionally heart-breaking records to come across is a baby's death certificate.  Even though it is not your child, even though you never knew the child or his parents or his grandparents, it still leaves you sad.

Earlier this year, a childhood friend of mine lost her 11 month old  baby girl to cancer.  Of course, her death left dozens, if not hundreds of people in the community heartbroken and in disbelief.  She had been treated at one of the best hospitals in the nation, if not the world. The doctors used the latest technology and drugs to monitor and fight the cancer, yet they were ultimately unsuccessful.  The death of a baby in today's era of modern medicine is rare and I think that is one of the reasons why it affects us so deeply.  But we forget that not long ago, when childbirth was rough, when there were no vaccinations or antibiotics, when nutrition was poor, and when living conditions were not as sanitary as they are today, the death of an infant was much more common.  In 1901, the infant mortality rate in the U.S. was about 136 deaths out of 1,000 live births. (And THAT number was  an improvement over the  200 - 300 rates per 1,000 estimated in the 19th century and earlier.)  By contrast, in 2010 the infant mortality rate in the U.S. was approximately 6.8 deaths per 1,000 live births.  

I came across a couple of newborn death certificates fairly early in my research into my own relatives.  I was searching historical documents online for the names of my great-grandparents, Michael and Sofia Bodziony.  (At this point, I didn't know my great-grandmother's maiden name - these death certificates gave me the answer.  It was kind of a "Eureka!/sigh of sadness" moment, if that makes sense.)   
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Source: Familysearch.org, "Ohio Deaths, 1908-1953"
Michael and Sofia had been married less than a year and this was their first child.  The cause of death is listed as 'anemia of brain' with difficult labor, breech presentation and cord compression.  These are the days before prenatal care and obstetricians.  Most women only had a local midwife to assist in births, and, in the days before c-sections, if things went wrong there was not much the local doctor could do for the mother or the infant.  After two successful pregnancies and births, Sofia had another difficult labor which resulted in a stillborn baby boy. (She went on to have three more daughters who lived into adulthood.) 

As I started researching Tony's side of the family, I found similar patterns all too often.  In the 19th century (and earlier), death certificates weren't routinely issued, so a gravestone may be the only proof of where and when a death occurred (and may be the only evidence that a person existed at all!)  Even if I can't find an actual record of an infant death, such as a death record or gravestone, it can be inferred by spacing of other children in the family.  The natural spacing of children for a couple with average fertility is about 18 months - 2 years.  So, if I see in a census schedule that the children are ages 2, 4, 8, 10, 11, then it's probably a good bet that the couple either suffered a late miscarriage or that a young child, who would have been about 6 yrs at the time of census, died.  However, I may never figure out the name or birthdate of that child.

Coming across records like these make me grateful to live in 2012, grateful to be blessed with the resources and knowledge to keep my children safe and healthy.  And just because the death of an infant was much more common in our ancestors' times, it doesn't mean that their families suffered from it any less than we do today.  Just like today, I'm sure a mother back then would have carried her grief of a lost child in her heart and mind until the day she died.


©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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    Emily Kowalski Schroeder

    Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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