The Spiraling Chains - The Spiraling Chains: Kowalski - Bellan Family Trees

Funeral Card Friday: Frances Drees Grilliot

8/11/2016

Frances M. Drees Grilliot passed away 17 Feb 1988 in Sidney, Ohio. She was the mother of my husband's paternal grandmother, Naomi Grilliot Schroeder. Her funeral card lists her husband and all ten of her children.

Funeral Card Friday: Frances M. Drees Grilliot - The Spiraling Chains

Funeral Card of Frances M. Grilliot

Frances's obituary was published in The Community Post of Minster, Ohio on 25 Feb 1988.

Funeral Card Friday: Frances Drees Grilliot - The Spiraling Chains

The Community Post (Minster, OH), 25 Feb 1988

Frances's birth is recorded in the Shelby County, Ohio probate birth records. She was born 28 Dec 1900 in Van Buren Township, Shelby County. She was the youngest child of J.M. "Mike" Drees and Mary Wilkens Drees. Mike was 49 years old and Mary was 43 years old at the time of her birth. (Click on image for larger view.)

Funeral Card Friday: Frances Drees Grilliot - The Spiraling Chains

Birth Record Source: "Ohio, County Births, 1841-2003," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/X6ZX-TZR : accessed 01 May 2013), Frances Drees, 1900.

For more information about the GRILLIOT Family click HERE.
For more information about the DREES Family click HERE.

©2016 Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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Minster Obituary File and Funeral Card File

7/11/2015

I haven't posted on this blog recently, but that doesn't mean I've haven't been busy in other genealogy-related ways. If you read my blog frequently, you know that my husband's family, past and present, hail from western Ohio. Last month, I took a trip to the village of Minster, Ohio, which is located in the southwestern part of Auglaize County. I visited the Minster Historical Society and Museum, and wanted to share a couple of the resources available to researchers who have ancestors from this portion of western Ohio.

Minster Obituary File: The historical society has collected, translated, and organized obituaries for area residents, and, in some cases, non-residents who have family ties to the area. The important information has been extracted from newspaper obituaries, places on index cards, and organized alphabetically in a card catalog. It was easy to find the names on my list, and then I simply used my phone to snap a photo of the cards. Each card referenced the original source of the obituary, which is usually (but not always) the town newspaper, The Minster Post. Anyone can access past issues of The Minster Post at this site for FREE, so you would easily able to track down the original, as-published, obit. Truth be told, I had already tracked down most the obituaries I needed just by using the newspaper database from home, but there were a couple of names for whom I had no idea when they passed away, so searching through issue after issue of the newspaper was not practical. Found them in this file, and - voila - obituary found! Here is an example of one of the obituary file cards:

Minster Obituary File Card

Obituary from Minster Obituary File

Minster Funeral Card Collection: The Minster Historical Society and Museum boasts a collection of over 20,000 funeral cards, and they are adding more all the time. This collection was again housed in simple card catalog draws and arranged alphabetically and with the deceased's birthday at the top. The important information from the cards was photocopied and then pasted right onto the index card itself. Again, I just used my phone and snapped pictures of the cards pertaining to my husband's family. (Of course, they aren't all in German - these are some of my favorites, though!)

Minster Funeral Card File

Minster Funeral Card File

I should mention that ANYONE can send in copies of funeral cards to add to their collection. I recently received my grandmother-in-law's collection of funeral cards and I'm in the process of scanning them right now. From what I saw on my trip, I know that they already have a lot of the cards I have, but they also DIDN'T have some, so I will make sure I send them copies of those.

If your family or clients have any ancestors that may have had ties to western Ohio (even as far north as Toledo or as far south as Cincinnati), I highly recommend you check out these sources. The obituaries can be searched through the Rutherford B. Hayes Obituary Index, but the funeral cards must be searched on-site. (I've been told by a reliable source that they are working on getting the funeral cards online at some point as well.)

©2015, Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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Sunday's Obituary: Mary Frances Wimmers Tumbush

10/11/2014

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:

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.

Ohio Death Certificate for Frances Wimmers Tumbush

©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder

Sunday's Obituary: Bernadina Hut Schroeder

6/28/2014

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.

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.

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

Sunday's Obituary: Louis Licciardi

5/24/2014

My great-grandfather, Louis Licciardi, passed away February 26, 1974. He was born January 30, 1891 in Palermo, Italy, and came to America in 1920. This obituary was published in The Cleveland Plain Dealer on February 27, 1974.

Obituary for Louis Licciardi, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, 27 Feb 1974, Page 6-E

A shorter obituary was published the same day in the 'Death Notices' section of the same newspaper on page 7-E.

Obituary of Louis Licciardi, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, 27 Feb 1974, page 7-E

Here is a photo of Louis dancing with his wife, Adele, at my parents' wedding, which was about five months before he passed away.

Louis dancing with his wife, Adele, 1 Sep 1973.

©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder

Sunday's Obituary: J. M. "Mike" Drees

5/17/2014

This is the obituary for Johann Michael (commonly known as "Mike") Drees from the 28 Mar 1941 edition of The Minster Post. Mike Drees was the maternal grandfather of my husband's paternal grandmother (got that?). In other words he is one of my husband's great-great-grandfathers.

As you can tell by reading the obituary, Mike was an influential man in the area and was very social. He reported for the local newspaper, which, I have to say, is great for my research of the family, because there is often a heavy bias in the newspaper on what his children and extended family members were doing from week to week. He was also a farmer, and he was not shy about mentioning his own farming accomplishments and activities in the weekly newspaper round-up.

Mike Drees was a son of German Catholic immigrants, Johann Michael (also called 'Mike') Drees and Maria Catherine Wellerding. (The obituary incorrectly says 'Caroline.') His father, a blacksmith, was one of the founders of the town of Minster, Ohio, and served as the town's first mayor.

The decedent had nine children; a daughter, Katharina Bernadine Drees, with his first wife, Maria Gertrude Berning (who is not mentioned here). She passed away less than two years after her daughter was born. Shortly after her death in 1880, Mike married Mary Catherine Wilkens, with whom he had eight children. His youngest child, Frances Marie Drees, was the mother of my husband's grandmother, Naomi Grilliot Schroeder.

©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder

Tombstone Tuesday: Joseph Anton Brunswick

5/5/2014

This is the gravestone of Joseph Anton Brunswick, who was the grandfather of my husband's maternal grandmother, Rita Brunswick Tumbush. According to county probate birth records, he was born December 3, 1867 in St. John, Ohio (Mercer County), which is very close to Maria Stein. He was the fifth child of Andrew Brunswick, a German immigrant, and Philomena Oldendiek, the daughter of German immigrants.

Gravestone of Joseph A. Brunswick

Joseph married twice. He married a young widow, Bernadina Rolfes Vehorn, on April 4, 1894 at Maria Stein. She passed away December 27, 1905, a couple of weeks after giving birth to their seventh child. He remained a widower until 1925, when he married the widow Elizabeth Boeckman Droesch. He died September 30, 1940, and is buried in St. Wendelin Cemetery in Mercer County, Ohio. His obituary from the October 4, 1940 edition of The Minster Post is below:

Joseph A. Brunswick Obituary (Source: The Minster Post, 4 Oct 1940)

Gravestone image source: FindAGrave.com; photographed by tut

Sunday's Obituary: Henry Tumbusch

4/5/2014

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).

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.

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

Matrilineal Monday: Mary Wilkens Drees

12/2/2013

Over the past couple of weeks, I have had the opportunity to do something I have not done in awhile: research a branch of my husband's family tree almost from scratch. I have been able to trace most of my husband's branches back to the point at which they came to America in the 19th century - some lines even further back, but until recently, I had not earnestly tried researching the family of my husband's great-great-grandmother, Mary Wilkens Drees (1857-1942). Why didn't I? Part of the reason lies in the fact that she married into the Drees family - a large, influential family in the area - so I had always been preoccupied with collecting information and documents pertaining to THAT branch of the family, and she sort of got placed on the back burner. Another reason is because, when I did try to dig further back in time, I now know that I was going off of false parentage information that was listed in her obituary and on her death certificate, so even when I did a quick search, nothing relevant seemed to come up.

Mike and Mary (Wilkens) Drees with their youngest daughter, Frances (my husband's great-grandmother)

For awhile now, I've had Mary's obituary and death certificate. She married J.M. "Mike" Drees sometime around 1880-1881, after Mike's first wife passed away. In her obituary, her parents are listed as 'Theodore Wilkens' and 'Mary Fortman,' and in her death certificate, they are 'Theodore Wilkens' and 'Catherine Fortman.' While searching through documents, I found that there was no Theodore Wilkens anywhere in the area old enough to be her father, BUT in the 1880 Census, I do find a Theodore Wilkens living with his parents, J.H. and Elizabeth Wilkens AND a sibling named Mary Wilkens. The family lives just over the county line, very close to where her future husband is living. Mary's age is a couple of years off from the 1857 birth date listed on her death certificate, but this is as good of a lead as I've had, so I just go with it.

Along with Theodore and Mary, there are six other children in the household, so I begin to research these siblings of Mary Wilkens. Almost right away, I find Theodore's death certificate on FamilySearch.org and his obituary in The Minster Post newspaper archives, both of which list his parents as Henry Wilkens and Elizabeth Fortman. I use these websites to look up the same documents for a couple other of Mary's siblings. The parents' names agree with those of Theodore, AND Mary is actually listed as a sibling in a couple of the obits. Now, I know I have the right family in the 1880 census.

Theodore's 1916 obituary states that his father, Henry, died in 1908. One of my favorite pieces of information to search for with regard to a deceased person is his/her will, and luckily, FamilySearch,org has an extensive collection of probate records from Shelby County, Ohio during this time period. I almost-too-easily find the will of John Henry (J.H.!) Wilkens, and in it, he listed all of his children, including the married names of his daughters. Golden. AND based on the date of the will, I went back to the old issues of The Minster Post and found John Henry's (Johann Heinrich's) obituary, too:

Not only does this obituary list John Henry's children, but it also lists his age at death, where he was born in Germany (Twistringen, Hanover), his year of marriage, the year of his wife's death, where he lived prior to Shelby County, Ohio, and that his parents also made the trip over from Germany. In the 1900 U.S. Census, John Henry is living with his son, Theodore. That census form states that he immigrated to America around 1830, so I know he has spent most of his life in America. I then am able to find him, his wife, Elizabeth, and their children in the 1860 and 1870 census forms, living with John Henry's parents, John Henry and Catherine Wilkens. Quite serendipitous, really, and it helped that the family stayed in the same county and township for so many decades. It appears that the elder John Henry passed away sometime between 1870 and 1880, because Catherine is listed as a widow living with her son and grandchildren in the 1880 census.

Just a couple of days ago, I was looking through another of my favorite collections on FamilySearch: Ohio, County Naturalization Records, 1800-1977. I was able to find the elder John Henry's Declaration of Intention to become a citizen from 1844. But what is interesting about this document, is that it is actually a replacement of the original document, and it recounts an important event in this family's life that I probably would have never known about otherwise (see my transcription below:)

"John Henry Wilkins of the county aforesaid makes solemn oath that he made his declaration of intention to become a citizen of the United States seven years ago, in the Court of Common Pleas of Miami County Ohio, that he received at that time a certificate of the clerk of said court of that fact: But that six years ago last spring his house was consumed by fire, and said certificate was consumed in it."

So, the fire would have occurred around 1838, and they probably would have been living in Miami County, Ohio, which is one county south of Shelby County. By the 1840 Census, he is living in Shelby County. Would he ever have picked up and moved to Shelby County if not for the fire? I'll probably never know for sure, but it has really made me think about how a family's future (and not just the immediate future, I'm talking generations down the line, as well) can be changed by events such as these.

©2013, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder

On Aging...and Stubbornness...and Acceptance

3/1/2013

Within the past year, year and a half, my parents-in-law came by for a visit, and told us about how they had to "scold" my husband's 87-year-old grandfather after learning that he had climbed up a ladder by himself to clean out the gutters of his house. This particular conversation popped into my head after finding this old newspaper article from the front page of The Minster Post, dated 20 Aug 1937:

Joseph Schroeder was Grandpa's grandfather (my husband's gg-grandfather). As the article mentions, at age 78, he died of injuries sustained when falling off of a ladder after repairing a roof. (Information on his death certificate confirms this cause of death.) A "retired" farmer, he helped people maintain their homes and gardens, a profession he lists on the 1930 Census as "odd jobs." I'm sure that after growing up on a farm and then maintaining his own farm for so many years, he was used to physical labor, and that he probably even enjoyed it. He was also likely driven by his responsibility to continue to provide for his family; his daughter, Helen, was widowed when she was only about 28, and she and her three young daughters lived with him.

Coincidentally, a week or so after I found that newspaper article, I found another one about an injury sustained to the grandfather of my husband's maternal grandmother. He was 71 at the time, a widower, lived with two of his sons, yet still was compelled to repair his barn. (The Minster Post, 11 Sep 1942).

(As a side note, I'm not sure how many "city-folk" realize how dangerous a profession farming was and continues to be even in the modern day. The rural newspapers I've been combing through are full of various farm-related accidents and deaths. Another subject for another blog post, perhaps.)

Regardless of the time period and/or location, EVERYONE knows or has known an elderly person who physically does more than he or she probably should. My grandfather, who lived as a widower for nearly 20 years, was notoriously stubborn about nearly everything. Fortunately, out of blind luck, he was never seriously injured from trying to shovel his (hilly) driveway or anything like that. My maternal grandmother, however, had a terrible fall down her basement stairs when she was living alone and broke her hip. I think that incident helped to convince her to come and live with us. It's human nature to want to continue to be able to do the things you've always been able to do, and it's difficult to admit to yourself that your body isn't what it used to be, especially when your mind feels just as young as it ever did.

I believe that I am in a unique situation in which, as a relatively young person, I am able to understand how elderly people must feel when their reflexes get slower, muscles get weaker, joints get more painful, and/or their balance falters. As many of you know, I was born with a chronic vascular disease in my leg that progressively gets worse with age. Every few years, there is something physical that I find I cannot do (without pain) that I used to be able to do. I always go through the same mental process: I panic, I worry, I get angry, but then I ultimately accept it, because what choice do I have otherwise.? I try to direct my interests more towards those things that I still can accomplish. Most healthy, elderly people have not had a lifetime to come to terms with a failing body; either they come to that realization by suffering an accident OR they have to listen to their children, grandchildren, and doctors tell them what they can't do anymore. Hey, that would make me cranky, too. So, cut the old people some slack, let them know you love them and THAT'S why you don't want them to get hurt, and try to empathize with the underlying feelings of frustration behind all the outward stubbornness.