This branch of the Austrian Hesch family is descended from Johann Hesch and his wife Marya (Schlinz) Hesch, who came to America from Oberschlagles, Bohemia with three sons: Paul, Mathias, and Anton. +++Johann & Marya settled in Buffalo County, Wisconsin but moved to Pierz, Mn in about 1885. .+++Mathias settled in Waumandee, Wisconsin and moved to Pierz in 1911. +++Anton never married but farmed with his dad in Agram Township, where he died in 1911.+++And Paul, my great grandfather, settled five miles away, in Buckman, Minnesota. He died there in 1900.

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Saturday, March 12, 2011

The Hesch 'Good-looks' Gene

Genes: A unit of heredity that is transferred from a parent to offspring and is held to determine some characteristic of the offspring.


Sometime in the last year or so, Larry found a video online featuring a Baptist missionary named Roger Hesch.  He's definitely related, just by the way he looks, but who is he? (#12, above)


Hmm, gotta back up here a bit--#14 above is Joseph Hesch, dad's uncle (Anton's brother, son of Paul the immigrant).  Joe died in 1926, leaving a wife and 8 kids, the oldest of whom was supposedly adopted.  THAT kid's name was Joseph, too.  This second Joe lived in Minnesota, in Little Falls as far as we know. He married Gertrude Kurtzahn and had 6 kids, one of whom was (#12) Roger.  Ok so far?


The question remains: How come #12 looks so much like #1 if his dad was NOT a Hesch?  We can only speculate, but more than one elderly relative of mine told me that "adopted" kids were not always from the orphan trains--that pretty often in fact, the adoptee was some other relatives' child.  


In fact, this 'adopted' Joe was b in 1907, and his parents married in 1912...when his dad was 27.  Was he Joseph's natural son, simply born out of wedlock?  It's entirely possible. 


Anyway, after Joseph (#14) died, his widow and 6 of the kids moved to the west coast--Oregon and Washington--and the second oldest (#13) moved to Brainerd/Crosby.  He owned a car dealership and played Paul Bunyan whenever he got the chance.  (I included him cuz he looks like fun, which is also an inherited trait!)


(BTW, #3, #5,#10 and #14 were brothers, sons of #1.
#8 was the son, and #7 and #9 are the grandsons, of #10.
#13 is #12's uncle.
#11 is dad's brother and #2 is dad's son, and #6 is a nephew.
#4 is MY son ☺)

1 comment:

  1. The genes do know how to sort themselves. I have a picture of my great grandparents and their children A few of us really look like the great aunts and uncles.

    It is sort of spooky.

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