RETURN TO OHIO PART II

Wednesday morning we met my cousin Jim at his hotel and spent a little time looking over pictures and catching up on the past 40 years or so before heading out to visit a few cemeteries to look for the burial sites of our ancestors.  We visited two cemeteries: St. John the Baptist in Landeck and St. John the Evangelist in Delphos. We found three couples who were our 2nd great grandparents:  Johann Wagner (1821-1895)  and his second wife Sophie; Nicholas (1832-1910) and Margaretha Mueller (1831-1892); and Hermann Frecker and his wife Bernadina Wrocklage:

 

 

We also found our great grandparents Charles and Susanna Mueller. 

 

In the afternoon, we spent time in the Delphos Public Library, looking for any information on our families that had once lived there.  Jim had been in the library the previous day, and was anxious to show me a binder full of information on the Wrocklage, Esch, Frecker and other families.  He recognized some of his father's letters and his handwriting on other documents, and realized that this binder contained much information that we thought had been lost in the flood at the Ottawa Library. Somehow this small piece of the 6 binders his father had donated to the Ottawa library had been either transferred or copied and sent to Delphos.  We were both thrilled and Jim convinced the librarian to copy the entire binder and send it to him for a fee.  (Jim also offered a generous donation to the library.)  After he receives the binder, he will make a second copy and send it to me.  So this first day of research was quite successful.

 

On the second day of research, we spent time at Gethsamani Cemetery in Lima.  Here we found the graves of all of our Schulien and Mueller relatives, including our grandparents, great grandparents, aunts and uncles, great aunts and great uncles.  Here are our Mueller grandparents' headstones:

 

  

We also found the resting places of our great grandparents, Joseph and Mary Schulien, and our aunt Marcie and Uncle Charlie, as well as Jim's mother and three brothers.

 

 

 Then I found the headstones of my Brennan grandparents and great grandparents, as well as my Brennan 2nd great grandparents, the immigrant couple, Ned and Mary Brennan, which I did not expect to find.

Their names (Ned and Mary) are not inscribed - only the Brennan surname and the dates of their deaths.  But these are the correct dates and so I am certain this is the correct headstone.

After a very successful, albeit sad walk through the cemetery, we went to the Allen County Historical Society Museum and I copied some records from a Brennan file they have there.  We also took pictures of exhibits in the museum and this one brought back memories:

When I was a little girl visiting my grandmother, I used to hear the horse-drawn milk cart coming down the street early in the morning.  I don't know when they switched to actual milk trucks, but this type of vehicle was still being used when I was a small girl. 

We met up with my cousin Tim in the museum and all piled in one car to drive around town and see the houses we remembered.  Many of them needed paint and were not in good condition, but it brought back many memories. 

Here's my Brennan grandparents' old house:

And my Grandma Bernie Mueller's house:

At Grandma Bernie's house, Jim and I rang the bell and Jim asked if we could come in and look around.  Though the owner of the house looked suspicious, she graciously granted our request.  It wasn't the same, of course, and the current owners had not done much to the inside or the outside to keep it in good condition, but nonetheless, it was quite an experience to be back in the house after nearly 50 years.  (My grandmother died in that house a little over 50 years ago, in 1963.)

Here's a picture of our mothers when they were little girls, sitting on the front porch with their uncle Rod:

And here are Jim and me, sitting on that same porch a few days ago:

Only the railing has changed.

We also drove past my Schulien great grandparents' house, as well as a brick mansion once owned by wealthy friends of the family. 

This house was in great shape, and Jim and I reminisced about the tunnel between the house and the four car garage.  The tunnel was put in so that the couple who helped maintain the house, and who lived in an apartment above the garage, would not have to walk in the snow to reach the main house. I suppose it was also handy for the two bachelor owners of the house when they parked their cars in the garage in the winter.   


We made a short visit to the house of my mother's cousin, Paul, who is 80 years old, and he told us some wonderful stories about the family, including the fact that my great grandmother, Mary Schulien, used to cook Sunday dinner for German prisoners of war who were living not far from Lima during WW II.  Apparently the prisoners worked in her son's foundry during the week, and she was asked to cook them a German meal on the weekend.  

Then it was time to say good-bye to both Jim and Tim, and spend a quiet evening trying to absorb all that we saw over the past two days.  The days of visiting with my mother's family, and gathering information about her ancestors had come to an end and the next days would be spent with my father's family, visiting and catching up with the Brennans on the years we've been apart. 

 

RETURN TO OHIO

It had been 37 years since I was last in lima, Ohio, the place of my parents' birth as well as mine.  All of my ancestors from the last several generations lived in Ohio, and many immigrated directly there from either Ireland or Germany or Belgium.  The last time I was in Lima, my aunts Marcie and Kay were still alive and well, and my Brennan grandparents were thriving.  Now, they are all gone, along with my uncles Al and Bill, and my cousins Mark, Steve, and Greg. So it was a different Lima to which I returned.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

My trip actually began on Saturday, May 18, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where I visited my 3rd cousin on my dad's side of the family, Kathy Brennan.  I've only known Kathy for a few years, having heard about her from my parents who met her several years before they died.  I had never actually met her, however, but as we share many interests, are both Brennans, and love Ireland, I was anxious to spend some time with her.  We only had one day together, but it was a great one - sharing stories and pictures, dreaming about returning to Ireland, and having a wonderful tour of Ann Arbor.  We ate at Zingerman's famous deli, and walked around the Arboretum, where a large peony garden (800 plants) was just getting ready to bloom.  How I wished we could have seen it just two weeks later. 

I was also thrilled to see all the lilacs in bloom, and when I looked down, I saw carpets of Lilies of the Valley.

Here's a picture of me and Kathy and my husband, Tony in front of the peony garden.

It was a wonderful visit, but a short one, because the next day we were headed to Toledo for a reunion with my Mueller cousins at the home of my Schulien cousin, Tim (all on my mom's side of the family). Tim had prepared a wonderful German meal for us and showed us around his beautiful home, full of antiques and family memorabilia.  We shared stories and pictures while we waited for Pat and Fran to arrive and when they did, we had more catching up to do. 

Tim is my second cousin, and he shares my interest in genealogy, as does my first cousin, Jim, who will appear in a later blog. (Tim is also a great cook and musician.) Pat, on the left, and Fran, standing behind me, are sisters, the two daughters of my uncle Al Mueller.  Fran is named after my mother.  It was great to see all of them. And just behind Tim is the wedding portrait of our great grandparents, Joseph and Mary Schulien, or as everyone called them, "Mawmaw" and "Pawpaw."

We stayed at a 125 year old Victorian inn in Toledo, thanks to my cousin Tim who works there. 

The next day, Tim, Tony and I headed for Bowling Green University to do some genealogy research.  BGU has the records from the Catholic Churches at Delphos, Landeck, and Lima, where most of my relatives lived at one time.  We hunched over the microfilm reader for hours, and found many interesting records, including all the baptismal records of the children of Ned and Mary Brennan, my immigrant great great grandparents. Dinner that evening was at a Lebanese restaurant - yum!

The next morning, after breakfast with Tim, we were off to our final destination: Lima.  We arrived around noon at my aunt Sheila's house, visited for a time, and then left to check in at our hotel.  Later that evening Sheila, her husband Joe, Tony and I went to dinner at Milano's, a favorite of my parents whenever they visited Lima.

The next two days would be spent with my cousin Jim, doing genealogy research, then the final three days with my Brennan relatives.  I'll write about that, and offer some final thoughts about the trip, in the coming days. 

SUCCESS!

Well, the Croatian family reunion was yesterday and it was a phenomenal success.  We had close to 120 people there, enough to fill two rooms of the San Antonio Winery in Los Angeles.  A few of us who planned the event got there early:

First, everyone had to check in and get their name tag:

Then it was on to the buffet line to choose a meal from one of 2 dozen selections.   While everyone was eating, we were entertained by Tamburitza musicians, many of whom are members of the family:

Over their heads, you can see a screen where we had an ongoing slide show of pictures of family members, living and deceased.  It was one of the big hits of the day. 

Then the family introductions began.  At 90 years of age, here's the oldest family member present - Kuzma Domancich:

 

Here's one of several lively octogenarians: Annie, one of my favorite people.  In a number of ways, she reminds me of my mother. 

There was a family comedian who gave us an amusing lesson in Croatian, then told many stories from his "Croatian" childhood.  It was hard to hear him, though, as everyone wanted to talk with everyone else.  So while he continued, people watched, some listened, but many just wanted to visit.

Here's my husband, Tony, with his sister, Stephany, his mother, Phyllis (88 years old) and his nephew Jay.

Here's my nephew Ben and my son Jeff (with the beard):

 

Here are the Silmans:

And the Sherers:

Here's my granddaughters standing in front of some of the family posters:

 

 

And my son-in-law and grandson, who is preparing to take pictures:

After the introductions and presentations, the band returned and the Kolo dancing began:

 

 

And it continued:

Two grandnieces of ours, Savannah and Stephany, tried to entice their cousin Mason to join in the dancing, but he was having none of it:

Finally, after door prizes and a final good-bye, a group stayed for a winery tour and we packed up to leave. 

It was a wonderful, exhausting day, one I'm sure everyone will remember for a long time. 

KEEPING IT ALL STRAIGHT

It's a bit of organized chaos around my house these days - organized because that's how I try to be - and chaos because there's too much to keep organized. 

Two big reunions are coming up, as I've mentioned before, but now they're just one week and three weeks away and the biggest source of chaos is trying to organize all the family pictures and keep them straight. 

The first reunion is with my husband's Croatian family, and there will be six main families represented, all related to each other by birth or marriage.  The names of the six families are: Gavran, Domancich, Bezmalinovich, Ozurovic, Eterovich and Yeseta.  Keeping the spelling of the names right is difficult enough.  Try figuring out how to pronounce them!  I've been putting together a slide show of as many family members as I can, and creating the program.  We'll be having Tamburitza music, Kolo dancing lessons, a Croatian language lesson, a great meal at a winery, and plenty of time to socialize and become acquainted or re-aquainted with other family  members.  We'll have 135 people there - ranging in age from a few months to 90 years old. Here's a few pictures from those I've gathered.  The first is my husband's great grandmother, Antonia, who remained in Croatia.  The second is of the wedding of a distant cousin. 

In addition to getting all of those pictures together, however, I've been gathering pictures to share with my relatives in Ohio, where we'll be visiting in just 3 weeks.  These are folks I haven't seen in over 30 years.  We have a lot of catching up to do, and I have been organizing pictures of 4 different families:  Brennan, Shaw, Mueller and Schulien.  Here's a few:

 

 

The first picture is of my Brennan grandparents's generation - with my dad as a child in front to the right.  His twin brothers Tom and Bill are next to him.  The second picture is also my dad's family.  His father is on the left and he is sitting above to his father's right.  My grandmother is next to him and my mother is behind her.  I am third from the left in the front, the kid with the bangs.  My uncles Tom and Bill are to the right.  Sadly, my uncle Bill (on the top right) died last week, but I hope to visit my uncle Tom. 

Here are a few pictures of my Mueller Schulien family:

The first picture shows my Grandparents, Alfred and Mary Bernadine (Schulien) Mueller with their oldest three children (before my mother was born).  The second shows my Great Grandmother (on the right, holding a baby) and my Grandmother Mary Bernadine Schulien to her left. 

I love these pictures.  Some bring back memories and some just pique my imagination.  Maybe on my trip to Lima, I can gather even more pictures, to put in a future family history book. 

Stay tuned!

 

REUNION

My husband and I are getting ready for our May trip to Ohio. 

This will be my first trip back to the state of my birth in about 35 years.  I'm really looking forward to it, but I'm not sure how I'm going to fit in everything I want to do and everyone I want to see. 

Since all of my ancestors settled in Ohio at one time or another, Ohio is the hub of all my genealogical work.  But more importantly, Ohio is where many of my relatives live.  Most important are my aunt Sheila and Uncle Tom, and my cousins from Ohio and Michigan.  I am really looking forward to seeing them and as many members of their families as I can. I have so many fond memories of being with them when I was a child, and I can't wait to see them again. We have so many things to catch up on.

But as long as I'm going to be there, I want to do a little genealogy work. There's a library in Lima that may have some records, as well as a library in Delphos. There's Bowling Green University which contains some church records I'm interested in. There are cemeteries to visit, and a drive around Lima to see old landmarks, like the homes of my two grandparents, the home I lived in as a small child, and the Kewpie, a hamburger restaurant that pre-dates McDonald's.

There are also photographs to gather, stories to record, and hopefully a few meetings with extended family members I've never met. 

I can't wait!

Looking for Miracles Online

I've been extraordinarily lucky in my genealogy research in that my ancestors and my husband's ancestors have been fairly easy to locate via online resources.

Both sides of my family settled in Ohio, the majority of them in Lima, Ohio, and for some reason the records of Ohio, in general, and Lima, in particular, are quite accessible.  I have been able to access death certificates on line for most of my ancestors who died in Ohio, which is something not available for most other states. Also, all of the editions of the Lima News, from the turn of the last century to about 1965, are available online.  I have found weddings, funerals, obituaries, engagements, divorces, births, and other interesting tidbits about my family.  Many other ancestors lived in Delphos, Ohio, a short distance from Lima, and all of their burial records from two cemeteries are available online.  Ohio really has its act together as far as genealogists are concerned. 

Regarding my husband's family, his father's ancestors all emigrated from Croatia in the early 1900s, after the opening of Ellis Island, so all of their immigration and naturalization records are online.  Shortly after arriving, they  all came to California, where birth records are available online from 1905 until 1995.  When I decided to try to find the ancestors in Croatia, I was forturnate to find that all church records from the 1700s on are held in one location in  Zagreb, and so I hired a researcher to locate them. With all these resources, I have been able to put together a nearly complete family tree from the 1700s until today.

My husband's mother's ancestors were also easy to locate.  One maternal grandfather's ancestors are all identified in a book written in the 1980s by two very diligent researchers.  And one maternal grandmother's ancestors have been traced to the Mayflower.  (Many Mayflower descendants are meticulous genealogists.) 

So, all in all, I have found thousands of my own and my husband's ancestors quite easily.  Although it has been time consuming, and is ongoing, the search at least has been productive.  There are only a few lines that remain at a dead end.

One is the Brennan line, which ends in Ireland with the name of only one ancestor:  Edward Brennan.  He would be my 3rd great grandfather, the father of Ned Brennan, who emigrated to America with his wife, Mary Fahey in 1861.   I have no definitive name for Edward's wife, nor his date and place of birth.  Here is where my genealogical luck has run out, for not only are there no records online for Edward Brennan, there are probably no records, period.  Most census records before 1901 were destroyed by the government on purpose, or by accident in a fire in 1923. 

Likewise, some of my mother's German ancestors remain unknown, particularly the ancestors of her great grandfather, Hermann Henry Frecker, born around 1830.  Germany's records are not centralized  like those in Croatia, so you must know the exact town in which your ancestor was born.  I have a general idea of his place of birth, but I am unsure of the exact town.  Without that, I would have to hire someone, or visit Germany myself, and look through records in dozens of towns.  This could be a very long endeavor, one I'm not sure I want to take up.

So every few months I google Herman Henry Frecker and Edward Brennan, with appropriate dates, hoping for a miracle, wishing for something new to pop up.  After all, Google's mission is to catalog and put online all the information in the world, so someday maybe some information will surface about the ancestors of these men. 

Or maybe once my husband retires next year, we can take up temporary residence in Germany, and then move on to Ireland for a few months. Even if I find nothing, I can think of far worse ways to spend my time and money. 

The Peter Mueller Mystery Solved (I hope)

My mother's maiden name was Mueller.  Her father was Alfred or A.J. Mueller, who died when she was only 3 years old.  After that, her family kept in touch with the Mueller extended family, but since they lived in another city, and since her father was deceased, the families eventually grew apart. Obviously, I never knew my grandfather and as far as I can recall, never met any Muellers other than my mother's siblings and my Mueller cousins, the children of her brother Al.  Still, I have been trying to become acquainted with my Mueller ancestors and in doing so have been grappling with a mystery of two Peter Muellers, born, it seems, within a year of each other, both in the month of October. 

At first, I thought there was only one Peter Mueller, born in either 1873 or 1874.  Dates are often confusing if you go by census records so it was understandable that two Peter Muellers with birthdates in this time frame might merge into one - which is exactly what has happened on ancestry.com.  It seems I'm not the only one who's been confused. 

The Peter Mueller I was researching was an uncle of A.J. Mueller, my grandfather.  In other words, he was the brother of Charles Mueller, my great grandfather.  The records I found indicated he married a woman named Mary K. Wenning and was the father of 8 or 9 children.   This made sense since in the census records this family lives just down the road from my great grandfather, and Peter's supposed brother Charles.  So I was happily researching the family, finding a number of interesting details regarding intermarriages between many German families in the region, when I took a break and began looking through some papers I recently discovered - typed pages regarding the Muellers, with some notes in my mother's handwriting.  According to these records, Peter Mueller, the brother of Charles Mueller (my great grandfather) married a woman named Ida Hodde and they had only one child.  If this was true, then there obviously were two Peter Muellers, seemingly born a year apart.  On the other hand, my mother could have been wrong.

So I began searching for another Peter Mueller, married to Ida Hodde, and I found him.  It took me two days of searching grave records, census records, death records, and newspaper articles before I was able to confirm that there were two men with the same name.  One thing that gave it away was that on one census record the first Peter (married to Mary) listed his mother as "Catherine," and I knew that Peter who was the brother of Charles did not have a mother named Catherine.  His mother's name was Margaret.  Then I found a death record that listed the father of a Peter Paul Mueller as "John."  So it seemed this first Peter (who I orginally and mistakenly thought was the uncle of my grandfather) was the son of  Catherine and John.  Who was this John Mueller?

It turns out that John was the half brother of Nicholas, the father of Charles and the Peter Mueller who married Ida.  John married a woman named Catherine Wagner and they had four children, including Peter Paul, before John died in 1875.  This Peter P. is the one who married Mary K. Wenning and had a large family.  So the two Peter Muellers are actually cousins, or perhaps, 1/2 cousins.

Another interesting tidbit - my grandfather Charles married Susanna Wagner, who is apparently the sister of Catherine Wagner, who married John Mueller, the uncle of Charles.