A little German history here--

"The Crown of The Holy Roman Empire, also known as The 'Reichskrone' and

'The Crown of Charlemagne ', this ancient Crown is believed to have been made

at the Monastery of Reichenau for the Coronation of Emperor Otto I, The Great,

in 962. Made of Eight joined plates, four depict enamelled figures of Our Lord

enthroned in Majesty, King Solomon, King David and King Hezekiah and The

Prophet Isaiah. The remaining four plates are set with large precious stones".

(From THIS WEBPAGE)

WHAT got us curious about an old German crown?  Well, Mr. Research and I were looking at German paper money that dad brought home from WWII...(the way this works is we're instant messaging--I show him a picture--theres a short time where I'm the only one commenting--and suddenly, a link appears in the IM window about some cool aspect of the picture.)

Here's the beautiful "Ein Hundert Mark" we were looking at.  The figure is Germania, and Larry noticed her crown.  Yup, it's the same one.  (Click the picture to see all the amazing detail).

I said the crown looked sorta crude--the stones look like agates found on a beach--and Larry reitterated that the thing was made in 962, over a thousand YEARS ago.

Look who else 'wore' it:

Charlemagne, who was German, after all.  Interesting that the crown was made a hundred years after he died.  But, that's the function of symbols, right?

A MISTAKE grows legs

In 1937, during the "Great" Depression, out-of-work writers were sent to do interviews with local old-timers, and so it was that John Schmolke visited my grandpa, Anton Hesch. 

At the time, grandpa's dad, Paul Hesch, had been dead for 37 years, and his mom, Mary Otremba,  for 20 years.  Anton was only 17 when his father died unexpectedly in 1900, so family stories were maybe a little vague in Anton's mind...

Anyway, in the first line of the interview, Anton gave his father's birthplace as a town that never existed, but if you search online for where Paul was born, you'll see it mentioned over and over.  To be fair, SHTETLSEEKER has only been comprehensive for a few years, so looking in Austria for the village would have been exhausting/impossible.  Still, it's a large Polish town he claimed was in Austria.
ARGH. 
I'm not mentioning it here because this blog is google-able, too.

Mary Otremba was from a village near the town, in present-day Poland, and Paul was born in Bohemia, very near the Austrian border.  Had he stayed in Bohemia, he would have been conscripted by Austria's army, so that's what he claimed on various censuses here in the U.S.A.
If you have a family tree, please go change it right now...lol  Paul Hesch was born on the 20th of January, 1846 in Oberschlagles (Nieder Muhl), southern Bohemia.  ok?
I feel SO much better now...

Anton Otremba's Pilgrimage Journal

If you happen to google "Anton Otremba", one of the hits includes this quote:

Anton was Sr Laura's mother's dad...born in 1828 in Groder, Falkenburg, Prussia (or, Groditz, Tillowitz, Schlesien, Deutschland).  The story goes that, as the young father of 2-3 kids, he decided on making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, on foot.  His wife was understandably against it, but he went anyway. 

He kept a journal of the trip, and brought it along when they emmigrated to America.  He died in 1883 in Buckman, Minnesota, when his goddaughter/grandaughter Theresa (Sr Laura) was a year old.  She inherited the book.

Larry wondered HOW this Fr Dalmet was connected enough to quote Anton's journal...did he know her?

It turns out that two Crosier priests, who happened to be from Buckman, wrote a book called Pray Today's Gospel: reflections on the day's good news (for personal, family and homiletic use).  They lived in Onamia, Mn, where the Crosier Seminary is located...just a few miles from Sr Laura's Little Flower Mission.  They were Bernard C. Mischke and Fritz (Fridolin) Mischke (and yes, they've been featured here before...lol)

Amazing, huh?  Fr Dalmet obviously had a copy of the Mischke book, and Larry made the connection!

...............

BTW, who knew there even was a word like 'Homiletic'?

The mysterious Hesch in New Mexico

Since we've been researching the family, we've often come across mention of a Phillip Hesch who built a staircase in a convent church in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Articles about it are HERE and HERE.  (BTW, Phillip came from the German Hesch family who emmigrated to Canada.  IF there's a connection, it was many, many generations ago, but we share his name, so it's close enough).

The staircase really is a beautiful work of art, but the legend around it far exceeds what probably really happened.  If you read the articles carefully, Phillip is credited with building the railing, not the spiral staircase itself.  (And for heavens sake, WHO would build a winding staircase without a railing?  Evidently, St Joseph himself, the joker.)  Still, it's neat to be associated with something so lovely and famous, even tangentially.  This morning, my sister invited me to join the HESCH CLUB on facebook....and there, one of Phillip's descendants explains that he added the railing "without pay"--in exchange for tuition to the Academy for his daughters.

THAT sounds more like it!

That copper thing--update

Remember this copper cart-thing I posted at the end of October?  (Click "Mystery" in the side bar under LABELS).  Well, I sent it to a website called What is it? , and heard from the author tonight.  He's posting it tomorrow.

Maybe we'll be able top move it to "Mystery solved".

...........................................

Well, here's the best guess, from an online discussion group:

"The small cart is probably for a doctor, nurse or barber. It
has a decidedly medical flavor to it. The lower cabinet could hold a
lamp or candle which would keep the water in the upper basin at a good
temperature, the little attachment boxes are hung off the top for easy
accessibility and easy to rearrange to suit the individual's needs.
If I had to pick one, because of the wheels and the lower height, I'd
guess it was wheeled about by a nurse or orderly and used to change
dressings in a hospital most likely at night. The lower glass
cabinet, with perforated doors allowing air for combustion, would also
shed light at a lower level so it wouldn't disturb the other patients
with light shining in their eyes".

All the other guesses ( dry sink,  pastry cart, portable cook stove, chicken brooder (!?), etc,  seemed wrong, or off the mark.  This use seemd plausible, tho.

Mark Twain and Franz Otremba

Now, HERE's a story for ya!

Larry was searching online for Otrembas in the United States, and found one mentioned in his home state, Hawaii....a Franz Nicholas Otremba.  He was somehow associated with Samuel Langhorn Clemens!

We found the family in the 1900 Honolulu census...Frank, a woodcarver born in 'Germany', his wife Augusta, and three children-Arthur, Hedwig and Frances.
Then Larry found this in an online book called The Letters of Mark Twain...

Somehow, Franz Nicklaus Otremba, most likely from Poland, had become "a native woodcarver".  He must have married Augusta and moved with her to Hawaii, since the census says they'd been married 17 years and that they'd emmigrated 17 years before, in 1883.

HERE'S an example of his woodcarving. 

I dunno--I think we should claim him.

The "Buckman" column in the Pierz Journal

I found two issues of the Pierz Journal among mom's stuff, and I wonder why she kept these two specifically...from September 1949 and August 1951?

August 16, 1951 has the obit of Robert Dion on the front page (Adeline Hesch's young husband), and this sweet tribute at the end of Math's column inside:

I'm glad she saved them, but I don't think she saved 'em for that.  When these two issues were published, mom & dad were living on the farm in Mayhew Lake, and $2.00 for a years' subscription would have been extravagant.  Most likely, Grandpa Janson brought them along when he visited, especially if something in 'em made a point, and then mom just never got around to throwing them away.

The issue with the 'Buckman News' I posted yesterday made me think "Grandpa Janson" because this article was below the fold on the front page of the September 15, 1949 paper:

One of grandpa's themes was polio shots for his grandkids.  There was a huge controversy at the time about the safety of the vaccine, that having the shot might give your child the disease...  My parents thought they should "wait and see", but grandpa believed in vaccination.  He wasn't beyond scare tactics if it made his point!

Newspapers

While driving between clients yesterday, I caught some of a speech on MPR--something about the future of newspapers.  It made me ponder how much we researchers depend on newspapers from the past, and on how much they've already changed...

 Sure, we know they've always been a vehicle for paid ads, and that the "news"  is sometimes incidental....but for family researchers, these newspaper tidbits gave us timelines (like when a store was sold) and lists of family members (in obituaries), and maybe why a family moved.

Just think what we would have missed if Great Uncle Math Hesch's "Buckman" columns for the Pierz Journal hadn't been published.  There are quick facts here that we'd never find any other way....

Yes, Math was paid by the inch.

Most newspapers today seem like relics....and sorta pointless, when 'news' can be found online, on the radio and on your phone...maybe it's because the news that I'd actually buy a newspaper for--LOCAL regular people news--isn't ever in a paper anymore.

Hesch vs. Hirsch

Here's one of the interesting problems of understanding the record books in southern Bohemia: there was an extremely prolific family named HIRSCH in the same areas our HESCHs were living.  Click on the pic and see if you can tell the difference!
The first line says:
Hesch Wenzl the son of Hesch Paul  (folia 68, born 1802)
and the second line says:
Hirsch Mathias son of Simon Hirsch (folia 7, born 1804)

In this particular index (1790-1842) in Cimer (Shamers) parish, the entire first page of H's is Hirsch births.  Made my eyes itch, I tell ya....

Woohoo!

The elusive JOHANN HESCH remains...elusive in the Rosec Parish church record books from Bohemia.  But, we found the birth record of MARIA SCHLINZ, who was Paul's mother, so she'd be my great great grandmother.  Wanna see?

I like that spelling better than "Maria".

Here's Marya's mom, translated:

Pretty COOL, huh?

.................................................................

BTW, in my head I was disparaging the priest in Hatzken for mis-placing Johann's birth, but now, looking again, that Johann Hesch  isn't mine anyway. The Johann in the Rosec books was born in 1790, and in 1819, at 29, he was in the Austrian military, and marrying a woman named Anna.....so, NOT my Johann.

.................

We've deduced that my Great great grandfather Johann Hesch was the son of Martin Hesch and Elizabeth Wolf, and that Martin was born in Weissenbach, parish of Cimer, Bohemia, the son of Paul and Weronica Hesch.  It would make sense that Johann would name his son Paul, after his grandfather.

..........

OK, you can breathe again!

Hatzken, Parish of Rosec, Bohemia

Friday night, Larry and I realized that the digital archives OF BOHEMIAN PARISH RECORDS finally published the village we were waiting for.  We'd seen references to villages in Rosec parish, the next parish west of Niedermuhl and Oberschlagles.

We found the birth of Johann Hesch, Pauls father and our great grandfather.

Ok, we found it in the index, but the record book (#1) is evidently not done yet...lol  He was born in 1818 in Hatzken (now Hatin). We've found maps, too, and the 1828 plat map of the village (27 houses).  HESCHs lived in #5.

BTW, I found 41 Heschs in the index from 1786 to 1846...a Josef Hesch died in 1846, and that's the last HESCH entry except for a Franz Hes in 1850.  Maybe they all left for Amerika then.....

Isn't this just COOL!?

You never forget something you learned as a kid....

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection

implored thy help, or sought thy intercession, was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto Thee,

O Virgin of Virgins, my mother. To thee I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the

Word lncarnate, despise not my petition, but in thy mercy, hear and answer me.

Amen.

Oakland Cemetery, Little Falls, Mn

I know I've mentioned FIND-A-GRAVE before here, but maybe didn't say how it works. 
If you're wondering where great aunt Alice is buried or when she died, it's a good place to try.  Not every grave in every cemetery is listed of course, but searching by last name/state gives you parameters.

A wonderful service on Find-a-Grave is providing volunteers who'll go to a nearby cemetery and find/photograph graves that others request.  That's how I ended up at Oakland Cemetery in Little Falls last Sunday. 

No, I didn't find any lost Heschs, but some of those gravestones had familiar names...for instance, three Valentine graves.  They had to be the family of Anna Valentine who married John and Ket's son Paul...and, there were names I recognized from the Bohemian church books....and one or two of the Lindburghs are buried there.  Still, the coolest part was wandering such a peaceful hillside on a cool fall afternoon, and taking pictures that someone needs.

The village in Bohemia that Heschs left

I've posted this site before, I think, but Larry found they've added new panoramas from September, this year.  Be sure to click on the map as well, to see where the mill was from the main road, and DO view it full screen.  It's fascinating!


Mill Race in Czech Republic

Here, you can scroll around the Mill in the little village of Dolni Zdar, Czech Republic.  When Paul, Mathias and Anton Hesch left Bohemia with their parents around 1860, this mill would have been very familiar to them.

Uncle Eddie Janish is 85!

On November 8th, 1924, in North Prairie, Minnesota, Henry Janish and his wife Anna Popp had a baby boy they named Edmund.  He was their 7th kid, of an eventual 9.  When Eddie grew up, he was lucky enough to marry a Hesch, my dad's sister Rose.

This pic was probably taken before they were married (thats Rosie and Eddie on the right, with Irene Janish and Tony Hesch on the left).  The picture below was probably their wedding day, June 19th, 1948.  That's Eddie in the middle, between his new brothers-in-law, Henry and Mike Hesch.

Pretty soon, Uncle Eddie and Aunt Rosie had 5 kids--Jerry, Judy, Timmy, Patty and Danny.  They were our "Cities" cousins and our cohorts in mischief at gramma and grandpa's farm in Royalton.

Another obvious highlight of Uncle Eddie's life was being asked to be my godfather, and Aunt Rosie, my godmother.  Mostly, that meant being there for occassions, like my first communion in 1956. 

We always looked foreward to visits with them.  When I worked in the floral in Sauk Rapids and they were retired 'by the river' in Royalton, they regularly stopped in to say hi, which I loved.  Usually, I'd see Uncle Eddies smile first, among the displays and customers, and then I'd look for Aunt Rosie, poking him to quit laughing.  Good times.  Precious times.

Aunt Rosie died in 2004, and Uncle Eddie still lives by the river in the house they built...and tomorrow, we'll celebrate his 85th birthday there. 

Happy Birthday, Uncle Eddie, and thanks for being my godfather, one of my favorite uncles, and my friend.

Ode to my parents

I work taking care of older people so they can stay in their own homes.  Most of them grew up around here, and of my current clients, one was a store-keeper, one a life-long gardener, two were homemakers, and two were German farmers. 
I realize that I get along with all of them because of how I was raised.  It was dad's example of how to use just the right amount of "schputt" without assuming too much...lol  From him, I have just enough understanding of farming to talk about it with them, and little enough to need questions answered.  (I've even printed family photos and taken them along to a clients house for an explaination, which pleases both of us).  Dad gave me his sense of humor.
Mom fine-tuned my "appropriateness", and added the softness I need now.  There's always a little apprehension when I go to meet a new client (I feel a bit like a kid wondering about how I'll fit with them), but then, the empathetic "mom" part of me kicks in...the nurturer, the carer, the hugger, and the "dad" part of me makes it fun.
The startling part with my clients, tho, is that at 60, they see me as a contemporary, not a kid.  Oh, my...!  But that works, too...lol 
I feel really blessed.

Rockwell knew it, too...

Census enumerators are just ordinary people writing down names and dates of ordinary people.  Conditions and memory would be different at every house!  We usually check the enumerator's signature at the top of the page--i.e., the 1880 census of a German-speaking population by J. D. Lachance promised lots of goofs.  There, Johann Hesch was recorded as Charles, and his 'kids' were 40, 30 and 10...lol

MORE Bohemia

Wow!  We've been furiously researching lately, and not only for Heschs.  A family related to my mom's side came from Bohemia too:  my Janson grandfather had two sisters who married BRANDL men (Frances married John, and Rose married Joe).   Larry found a passport application online from 1907...oh heck, if you're interested I'll explain it all HERE...lol