Bequeathed

Mr Research® has been especially industrious this week.  He found, online, the Last Will And Testaments of some of our key relatives.  They were written (copied) in long-hand into ledger books and kept in Morrison county, I assume.  (Part of the fun of doing genealogy with Larry is that I often don't know his sources till much later ☺) He emailed screen captures of Paul Hesch, our great grandfather, who died in 1900; his wife Mary Otremba Hesch, who died in 1917; and Paul's brother Anton Hesch, who died in 1911, in Agram township.   Yes, we have a rough copy of Paul's will here on HH, and some info about Anton's probate hearing, but these are the official records.  Funny, I always thought wills were kept in envelopes in lawyers' safes, and read dramatically to the potential heirs in an elegant library somewhere, like on Perry Mason...but no, I guess not.

Anyway, Larry said he found more family wills, so we'll see those soon.  In the meantime, here's the book copy of Paul's dictated original:

Paul Hesch's Will, dictated on his death bed
in August 1900.

 Great uncle Anton's Will (left) and probate, settled in January, 1912.

The Will and probate of Mary (Otremba) Hesch,
who died in 1917.

I don't understand the probate process, but wait, lets check the internet:

"Probate is the court-supervised process of gathering a deceased person's assets and distributing them to creditors and inheritors".
Ok, Anton's Will and Mary's Will were probated, but not Paul's?

The whole legal-death system was still being built in 1900, so that's probably it ☺

YAY, LARRY!

Thanks to Larry and Photoshop

 Once again, we benefit from technology and people who know how to use it.  The day Susan sent this photo, Larry and I lightened it, to see what Great Grandma Mary was holding, and to see her better. We often lighten old pics and usually stop there, but last night, Larry subtly colored the photo, not to replace the first, but to make Mary a bit more real.  Wow. Just wow.

Remembering the women

It's a fact of our culture that we trace ancestry thru our fathers. It works. Still, our mothers can get "lost" if we don't know who their fathers were, or if we can't find her family of origin.

We have a good record of Mary Otremba--we have pictures, and even her obit:

But of Mary's mother-in-law (Paul, Mathias and Anton's mom) Maria Schlinz, we have little information. She's traceable thru ships lists and census forms once they were in the United States, but only as the wife of John Hesch.

In the church books from Horni Pena Parish, in Bohemia, we have this from Paul's birth:

On the birth records of Mathias, Anton and Bartolomeus, her mother was recorded only as 'Elizabeth, born in Ratibotschitz', too. It's possible Elizabeth "didn't have" a father.

Hmm. I haven't gone looking in the church books for awhile! Maybe by now, we can find out more about her family.

Stay tuned...lol

(Edit: The books we think we need are in the parish of Rosec, but they're still working on the "N" parishes......L M N O P Q R...only 4 letters to go!)

Also from Sue, bless her!

Great Grandmother Mary Otremba Hesch. This had to be later in her life. Look at that elegant dress, the no-nonsense hair......and her beautiful, strong, capable hands. Mary Hesch died in 1917, at 61, and still looking like she's 4,000 miles from her birthplace.