It’s been ten years! I never thought I would keep it going this long. On a lark and in response to a challenge by Thomas MacEntee, I created a blog on February 10,2010 and joined the Genealogy Winter Games hosted by Thomas. Medals were awarded based on genealogy tasks accomplished. Here is a listing of the goals and how I did! 

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Winter Genealogy Games are over!

The Winter Genealogy Games have now ended and I have been reflecting on how much I have achieved.

To even enter the games, I needed to create this blog. Next, I created a flag to represent my heritage.

1 Go Back and cite your sources - I have been citing sources and earned a Bronze Medal.

2 Back-up Your Data -I have completed task C making a new DVD back-up of all my digital media. I also have MOZY back-up my data daily and store it on their servers. That qualifies for a gold.

3 Organize Your Research - I have individual files for each family line I am researching, and I also have digital folders for each family. A silver!

4 Expand your Knowledge - I learned how to create a blog and I played around with googlemaps. I also created a WORDL using the names of the families I am researching. Another gold!

5 Write, Write, Write! - I wrote a summary of my blog and listed the names I am researching. I also am participating in the 52 Weeks to Better Genealogy Challenge. One more gold!

6 Reach Out - I index regularly for both ancestry.com and familysearch.org. I check message boards to see it I can help with a request, and I have begun following several different genealogy blogs. Gold again.

Summary: 1 Bronze, 1 Silver, and 4 Gold not bad for a newbie!

This list of goals has served me well over the years and with a few changes and additions, I have kept pretty much the same style.

In the past ten years I have written 445 blog posts, including this one. I have written about the people and places in the background of my grandchildren’s lives. I have read church records in German, Norwegian, Hungarian, and Latin. Usually it was a mix of Latin and another language. Using my blog as cousin bait, I have connected with “cousins” in Germany, Norway, and Ireland who still live close to the ancestral homes.

I am still trying to write weekly as part Amy Johnson Crow’s “ 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks” campaign to encourage writing for family history. DNA often creeps into my writing as I look for more connections to far-flung family relatives and I haven’t even started on matches from Australia and New Zealand. I will be writing for a while yet!

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – Week 36 School Days

Labor Day weekend often marks the “Back to School” season with sales on pens, pencils, tablets, markers and other supplies. Like other genealogists, I often take advantage of those sales to load up on supplies. Yesterday I picked up a white board at the dollar store to practice and experiment with mind mapping. But “Back to School” means more than stocking up on supplies!

In this case I am the one going back to school! I have discovered the wonderful world of “Virtual Education”.  For many years I have tried to educate myself in the best practices in genealogy research by attending national conferences like the Southern California Genealogy Society’s annual Jamboree, Roots Tech, the Federation of Genealogical Society’s annual conference and on various genealogy cruises. They are all wonderful ways to learn and network with other genealogists. Cruising is really fun because you are also traveling and seeing other parts of the world.

As travel becomes more difficult and expensive, I have begun to find alternate means of education and communication. Last winter I discovered the website Future Learn. There I took a beginning genealogy class through Scotland's University of Strathclyde for free from the comfort of my home. It was an interactive class and lasted six weeks giving a thorough exposure to beginning genealogy. I had previously taken a class with Future Learn on Irish History around the time of the “troubles” (1914-1925). Then I wanted to understand what was happening in Ireland at that time as my grandparents were frequently returning to their homeland.

In the spring, I took a virtual class in “Intermediate Research” through the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy. It was a ten-week college level class with two 75 minute lectures every week and about ten hours of homework. It included intense emphasis on creating source citations, and exposure to research in many areas including law research.

Recently I took a class in Genetic Genealogy in Practice to prepare me for the Genetic Genealogy class I will take at Salt Lake City when I travel there for a week in January 2020.

I haven’t given up traveling altogether, but the virtual classes will help me stay current in the meantime.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – Week 26 “Legend”

It has long been a legend in the Connery family of Chicago that our patriarch Michael, commonly known as M J once lead the St Patrick’s Day Parade down State Street on a white horse.

M J Connery circa 1920?

In an effort to confirm this legend, I did some research on both the history of the parade and my grandfather M J.

What is now the parade in downtown Chicago began on in the Southtown area of Chicago as early as 1843 with seven hundred seventy five marchers who first marched to St Mary’s church for Mass and then marched on to the Saloon Building at Clark and Randolph. [i] According to the article the Saloon Building became the first City Hall in Chicago.

The parade was held in Southtown from it’s beginning in 1843 until 1901 with the exception of 1897 when it was cancelled due to the increase in both poverty and homelessness because of the severe weather.[ii] After 1901 there were no more parades until they were reinstated in 1956 by Mayor Richard J Daly.

In 1898 Grand Marshall Bob Monahan led the parade on a prancing horse.[iii]

Searching the Chicago newspapers for M J Connery in the years between 1890 and 1910, the time he lived in Southtown, shows that M J was active in the community and ran for election as alderman in the 13^th ward [iv]1893, 1894[v] and 1898[vi]. At this time, it is not known if M J was ever elected but being on the ballot three times, shows a strong commitment to his community.

About 1910 M J and his family moved to the West Town neighborhood of Chicago and his allegiance changed to the Garfield Park neighborhood.

My conclusion is that M J never did ride that white horse down State Street. I think the references to Bob Monahan on his horse were mixed into the stories of life in Southtown when my aunts and uncles were children. Unfortunately, it would seem that the legend is really a myth, however I am open to additional proof.

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[i] Lindberg, Richard, How Chicago Got It’s Green Back, Chicago Magazine a 22^nd Century Media Publication, 15 June 2016, online image, accessed 2 July 2019.

[ii] Ibid.

[iii] Ibid.

[iv] Chicago Eagle, 11 March 1893, page 1, image 1; Chronicling America, https://chroniclingamerica.gov, imagea online, accessed 2 July 2019.

[v] Chicago Eagle, 0  March 1894, page 4, image 4; Chronicling America, https://chroniclingamerica.gov, imagea online, accessed 2 July 2019.

[vi]   Chicago Eagle, 26 Feb 1898, page 4, image 4; Chronicling America, https://chroniclingamerica.gov, imagea online, accessed 2 July 2019.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – Week 25 “Earliest”

My earliest direct line ancestor to arrive in the United States was my great-great-grandfather, Georg Burbach.

St Anthony Church, Oberselters, Hessen Nassau, Germany
google images

Georg was the third child and first son born to Hubert Burbach and Catherine Schaaf on 3 August 1825 in the village of Oberselters, Hessen Nassau, Germany. He was baptized in St Anthony Catholic Church on 7 August 1825.[1]

Shortly after his father’s death in 1845[2], George left Oberselters, a village his ancestors had lived in since the 1700s. The village was a farming area and Georg had no land of his own. He traveled to the neighboring village of Villmar which was about 13 km north of Oberselters.[3] Villmar is larger than Oberselters and Georg hoped to find work there.

He did find work in the cereal fields of Villmar where he met and married Catherine Caspari on 29 April 1848 in Sts Peter and Paul Church.[4] The young couple settled in the village and began to raise a family. Their first child, Adam was born 5 Sep 1849,[5] followed by Hermann born 11 Mar 1852[6] and Johan born 15 Apr 1854.[7] As the family grew the economy declined due to several years of crop failures. Times looked bleak for the young family. And then Adam died 6 Dec 1854. After his burial at Sts Peter and Paul Church[8], Georg and Catherine decided to follow others from the area and travel to the United States. Catherine’s parents were dead as were Georg’s parents, but Catherine had an aunt and uncle who had traveled to the United States and settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to farm the land.

In 1856 Georg Burbach left Villmar[9] with Catherine and their two sons, Hermann and Johan. They were going to join friends and family in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

After arriving in Wisconsin in July of 1856, according to naturalization records, the family settled in the city of Milwaukee rather than looking for land to farm.

 The 1860 census shows Georg to be working as a laborer, in 1863 Georg is listed as a drover.[10] This was at the beginning of the Milwaukee meat processing era, during the time of Patrick Cudahy and Phillip Armor. Perhaps Georg knew and worked for one or the other.

Although there is reason to suspect that Georg and Catherine had other children, none survived to be recorded in the 1860 or 1870 census returns. There are Burbach babies buried in Calvary Cemetery but there is no indication of their parents and there was an unrelated Burbach family living in Milwaukee at the time.

As time marched on, Georg’s sons grew and learned the skills they would need to become successful butchers. The Burbach Bros Butcher shop was open on Walnut Street by the time of the 1880[11] census and was employed there as a butcher until his death 20 July 1897.[12] He is buried in Calvary Cemetery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.[13]

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[1]: Kirchenbuchduplikat 1818 - 1874, Dupilcate Church Book Baptisms 1820-1840: 7 Aug 1825 George son of Huburtus Burbach and Catheruine Schaaf, St Anthony Catholic Church.

[2] Kirchenbuchduplikat 1818 - 1874, Dupilcate Church Book 1818-1874: 9 Aug 1845, St Anthony Catholic Church.

[3] Google maps

[4]  Villmar Catholic Church, "Kirchenbuch 1632 -1884," page 45.

[5]St s Peter and Paul Church Villmar, Hessen-Nassau, Prussia, Kirchenbuch 1632 - 1884, 1272247, Birth and death of Adam Burbach.

[6] Sts Peter and Paul Church Villmar, Hessen-Nassau, Prussia, Kirchenbuch 1632 - 1884, 1632-1884, Baptism of Hermann Burbach.

[7] Sts Peter and Paul Church Villmar, Hessen-Nassau, Prussia, Kirchenbuch 1632 - 1884, Birth and Baptism of Johan Burbach.

[8]  Sts Peter and Paul Church Villmar, Hessen-Nassau, Prussia, Kirchenbuch 1632 - 1884, Birth and death of Adam Burbach.

[9] : "Die Auswanderung aus dem Herzogtum Nassau 1806-1866," immigration of Georg Burbach and family page 141.

[10] Milwaukee City Directory, 1863 p 38, occupation of George Burbach

[11] 1880 US census, Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, population, Milwaukee, ED ED 130, Page 69 B, , Hermann Burbach.

[12] Wisconsin Death Records 1867-1907, FamilySearch.org, database p 465 death and occupation of George Burbach.

[13] ibid

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – Week 19 “Nurture”

google images

Nurturing is “the process of caring for and encouraging the growth or development of someone or something.”[i]

Nurturers not only provide food, clothing and shelter, they also instill the values that are important to them. Things like respect for themselves and others, willingness to serve the community, patriotism, love of knowledge and the love of God.

Among my ancestors, the women were the primary nurturers. This is probably true of most families, and I say primary because the men were also nurturers to a degree.

My grandparents and grandparents instilled the love of God in us by being role models in the practice of religion.

My maternal grandparents nurtured their children with a love and respect for education by sacrificing to provide a good education to all of their children. All of their children finished high school and most of them attended some college. This was in the early 1900s when it was not common to attend school for so long. In fact, I was very surprised to find in the 1940 US Federal Census that both of my grandparents had finished high school before leaving Ireland for the United States.[ii]

Volunteering was another quality that was modeled in our lives, again by showing and doing not by preaching. We quietly observed as our mother, a busy mother of nine, found time to serve as a youth leader, and later she volunteered to hand bead sweaters for a charitable group to raffle in a fund-raising project. As a result, most of my siblings have volunteered in their community as room parents, youth leaders, teachers, hospice workers, and community leaders. I feel that this is an important aspect of life and one that is easily passed down in a family. Children imitate what their parents do.

As time passes, I watch with pride as each generation passes these values down to the next generation. This, I believe is how our civilization will survive.

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[i] google

[ii] Year: 1940; Census Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois; Roll: T627_982; Page: 9B; lines 57 and 58, Enumeration District: 103-1927; ancestry.com, images online, accessed 11 May 2019,  https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/2442/M-T0627-00982-00637/144292794?backurl=https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/112758812/person/3201042

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 9 at the Courthouse

In September 2003, my husband and I took a trip to Illinois. Part of our itinerary was a planned visit to the small town in Southern Illinois where his mother’s family had lived since the 1850s. Both of his maternal grandparents had grown up in the same area along with their siblings.  We planned to spend two days in the area.

Our first stop was the cemetery that had been used by both families. The Mound Cemetery is located in a very rural area of Jasper County, Illinois. The only thing other than corn fields in the area is a old wooden church building adjacent to the cemetery. As you drive into the cemetery there is a large gate proclaiming “The Mound Cemetery” in iron letters arching across the driveway.

Jassper County, Illinois
google images

As we walked the cemetery we saw the graves of my husband’s grandparents and great-grandparents. His mother’s only sister is also buried there. Many of the families represented on the tombstones have been associated with the families since the Civil War. We took pictures of the tombstones after cleaning them with some water and a soft cloth. Eventually the heat and mosquitoes prompted us to end our visit.

The second day of our stay in Jasper County we went to Newton, the county seat. The courthouse in Newton is in the middle of the town and sits on an entire city block. The town latterly surrounds the courthouse with businesses on all four sides of the massive old building.

Jasper County Courthouse
Newton, Jasper, Illinois

When I entered the building I was ushered into a back room filled with large old ledgers. These ledgers held the vital records of the people of Jasper County. They held wills and probate records in addition to the land records of the county. There I found some wonderful records. I found a will from 1860 naming my husband’s 2^nd great-grandfather as an executor. It was later amended several times removing him and re-adding him. I wonder what caused the changes.

 It was almost by accident that I found the death record for my husband’s 2^nd great-grandfather Frederick Albert Sempsrott. As I was looking at the index cards I spotted one for “Fredia” and I remember thinking how unusual the name was. Then I looked again. It was actually the death record of Frederick A Sempsrott but the record listed “Fredia Simperott” just one of the many spellings I have encountered for this surname. He is recorded as a white male , age 79, born in Germany, a farmer who had lived in Illinois for about 45 years. He was a widower who died on 28 Nov 1907 of senile pneumonia in Willow Hill Township, Jasper County, Illinois and was buried on 30 November 1907 in the Mound Cemetery. I was truly lucky to have found this record since the name was so far from what is should have been.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 8 Family Photo

This is one of the few photos of my entire family in existence. It was taken on Easter 1958 at the home of my Grandmother. It is a special treasure since less than two years later my father would die of a heart attack. After his death mom would return to school and become a teacher. These children all grew up successfully and over the years have provided 21 grandchildren to extend the family tree. We keep growing and adding new twigs to our branches. I am in the back row in the plaid dress.

(my sister with the black eye in the front row had a backyard collision with a swinging object)

52 Ancestors in 52 Week - Week 51 "NICE"

This is week 51 of the 52 Weeks challenge and the prompt is “nice”.

When I was growing up in the 1940s and 1950s, our family was the recipient of an annual basket of fresh fruit. It arrived every year in time for the holidays. The card was always signed “The Mungers”. In the 40s and 50s fresh fruit in the winter was rare since the transportation and distribution of fresh items had not yet been perfected. I always wondered who the Mungers were and why they sent such a nice gift.

When I began doing genealogy this was one of many apparent mysteries I wanted to answer.

In the 1930s my father and his sister were friends with a young couple named Otto (aka Bud) and Grace (Munger)Dvorak who also lived in Chicago. Otto and Grace had both been born and raised in Iowa before marrying and moving to Chicago where Otto was employed by John Morrell & Co. As graduates of the University of Iowa they were ardent supporters of the football team and often went back for games. My father and his sister Dorothy often went with them. The friendship flourished and grew even stronger when Dorothy married Bob Murray and the young couples began having children.

In 1938 Grace was home in Iowa and 8 ½ months pregnant with her third child.  On 28 Dec 1938, Grace went into labor. Complications of her pregnancy caused Grace to hemorrhage and she died giving birth to a son David.

Grace was survived by her husband Otto, daughter Barbara, sons Dudley and David as well as her parents Grant and Mable Munger and sister Dorothy.

The Mungers never forgot the friendship that was forged by the young people and remembered it every year with the special gift of the fruit basket.

It’s week 41 and the topic is sports.

Many families have a strong history of sports participation, in our family it’s more sports appreciation.

There is a photo of my dad playing basketball for his school and it has been said that he was playing in the state championship game. I did see that my mother had a ribbon with a gold basketball attached to it but haven’t been able to corroborate the state championship story.

                                                            Dad (center) as a Cardinal

Dad went to Central YMCA High School in downtown Chicago at 19 LaSalle St. A private prep school it was a member of the Midwest Prep Conference in 1927 when dad likely was a senior. The team name was the Cardinals and their colors were red and white. Whether he played on a state championship team or not, dad loved basketball!

Growing up in the 1950s there weren’t many chances to participate in sports if you weren’t good enough to make the school team. I do remember playing basketball on a CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) team in 7^th  or 8^th grade. These were intra-mural games played locally on Saturday mornings.

Our house was a block from a large community park which hosted a variety of winter sports along with tennis lessons in the summer. In the winter there was ice skating and sledding. The ice rink was lighted at night and it was where the teens hung out after dinner. I loved ice skating and would imagine that I was Sonja Henie, the Norwegian Olympic Skater. Probably due to my Norwegian heritage. In the summers I would take the free tennis lessons offered by the Park District.

In High School, I played girls basketball (1/2 court at that time) and vollyball as intra-mural sports again since I went to a small all girls school. I college my PE classes were lifesaving and golf. In lifesaving and to pass the class I had to rescue the PE teacher. Golf was taught in the gym using wiffle balls.

Our children had more exposure to sports and we had the obligatory basketball hoop on our garage but neither made the team. Since their school was heavily invested into basketball we were big team supporters and went to the state finals with both the girls and boys teams one year.

My daughter chose running as her sport and joined the cross country team.She stayed with it all four years and lettered in her Junior year.

The current generation has turned more to music than sports as all three have been members of the marching band. Their school band travels with the football team so they have developed an appreciation of football. Anybody who doesn’t think that members of a marching band are not athletes hasn’t watched a high school or college half time show lately.

The youngest granddaughter is a competative diver and a definate athlete. She competes both for the high school and her club. She is also hoping to dive in college.

Although our family hasn’t developed any all star or all state athletes, we are very appreciative of the value sports add to our lives. Besides you can’t grow up in the Chicago area without being a sports fan!

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 40 "10"

This week’s prompt is “10”. 10 whatever and coincidentally this month I stumbled across the 10^th child of my maternal grandparents.

It had always been said that my mother was one of ten children but finding all the documentation has proven difficult. It shouldn’t have been, they didn’t move around, I knew where they went to church, it was a time when good recordkeeping was happening, but it was difficult.

He was the ninth child born to Alice Fleming and Michael Connery in late November of 1910. He would have been the child closest in age to my mother.

One of the complicating factors was that there were two men named Michael Connery living in the same area of Chicago in the relevant time period. They both belonged to the same parish where their children were being baptized during  the same time frame.

As I was doing other research on the family, there it was, the record of the death of “Baby Boy” Connery who was both born and died on 28 November 1910.[i]

Page in list of burials 1910 Archdiocese of Chicago.

Cemetery records from the Archdiocese of Chicago tell us that the premature Infant Connery is buried in lot 10, block 2 of Mount Carmel Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois. The baby had died and was buried on 28 Nov 1910 and the associated address was 4140 Washington Blvd.. The service was officiated by Fr J P McDonnell.[ii]

A search of the baptism records for St Mel Parish on Washington Blvd in Chicago does not yield a record of the Infant Connery being baptized on 28 Nov 1910, so he was probably baptized at birth by the doctor or a nurse which is commonly done if a baby born to Catholic parents is in danger of death. 

This child would have been the fourth son born to Alice Fleming and Michael Connery and without finding the death record, he would have remained unknown to us since he never appeared in a birth record or census.

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[i] "Illinois, Cook County Birth Registers, 1871-1915," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N7DL-D2T : 11 March 2018), Connery, 28 Nov 1910; citing p. 58, Ln 2840, , Cook County Courthouse, Chicago; FHL microfilm 1,315,049.

[ii] "Illinois, Archdiocese of Chicago, Cemetery Records, 1864-1989," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2HF-184H : 11 March 2018), Connery, 28 Nov 1910; citing Hillside, Cook, Illinois, United States, Mount Carmel, Archidiocese of Chicago; FHL microfilm 1,763,394.