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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Thursday, September 29, 2011

A cousin mystery

Like many people these days, I've lost touch with most of my first cousins. (Yes, me, who's so family-history minded).
Among dad's eight siblings, only one didn't have kids.  Sure, we cousins saw a lot of each other when we went places with our parents.  We just never picked up  the habit once we were on our own.  
Dad's brothers and sisters seemed to depend on each other for entertainment and socializing--certainly there were plenty of dinners, and lotsa card games played in each of their houses over the years.  That closeness might have stemmed from when Mike, Henry and Ted were in WWII.  Maybe it dawned on the others how precarious life is.
So, what brought this guilt to my mind?  Well, on Facebook, there's a group called the Hesch Club.  As of this morning, there are 145 Heschs signed up there....mostly from Europe and the US.  An email notification I got this morning, tho, reminded me how far from my radar some of the cousins are:
I am desperately looking for my father his name is James Kenneth Hesch he was born in Montana but lived the majority of his life in British Columbia. He would be in his mid 60's. I have not seen him in over 20 yrs, not by choice but by circumstances. If anyone knows him or knows a way of contacting him plz let me know!
Could this be cousin Jimmy, son of Ted and Millie?  He wasn't born in Montana, but he did grow up there.  I thought he was in Minot, ND, not British Columbia, but that's hearsay.  What happened to these kids?
Shirley's in Wisconsin, Tommy's in Washington state, and Jimmy?
  
Hmm, our Jim was born in 1951, and his middle name is Joseph....so the youngest kid in the pic would be 60 now, as of April.  
Wonder what OTHER Hesch family lived in Montana in the 50s?


Hope she finds her dad!


THE REST OF THE STORY:
Ah, but WE found who her dad is, and he's related!  This was posted in Sept, 2011, and now it's December.  Larry and I've been tracing a man we found in the 1885 census and also, in the Church books in Pierz, Mn--A Martin Hesch, "born in Oberschlagles, Bohemia".  Turns out that Martin was Paul Heschs first cousin (their dads were brothers).  Martin married Mathilda Nelles, and they had a daughter named Mary Mathilda Hesch.  Evidently, Martin died about 1908, and Mathilda remarried Mathias Schuckweiler.  In the 1930 census 
from Aitkin, Minnesota, Larry found Math (65) and Mathilda (63) with a grandson, James K Hesch (9).  Evidently, Mary had a baby but didn't marry...or, in those years, did she fight for sufferage and being a feminist, kept her own name?  Anyway, that son, James Kenneth, must have names his own son James Kenneth Hesch, too.  According to other tidbits found on Facebook's Hesch Club, James K II lives in Canada, and is about my age ☺. So this Pam who wondered if anybody had info about her dad?  She's related to this bunch, too.  Pretty COOL, huh?

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