Why finding records can be a problem

Larry found these records on Family Search...they're definitely our family, but just LOOK at the variations in spelling, especially Agnes Trachofsky's name (our spelling of her name is from the church books in Oberschlagles, Bohemia):

Groom's Name: Mathias Hesh
Groom's Birth Date:
Groom's Birthplace: Austria
Groom's Age:
Bride's Name: Agnes Drachofzki
Bride's Birth Date:
Bride's Birthplace:
Bride's Age:
Marriage Date: 19 Aug 1879
Marriage Place: Waumandee, Buffalo, Wisconsin
Groom's Father's Name: John Hesh
Groom's Mother's Name: Maria Hesh
Bride's Father's Name: Thomas Drachofzki
Bride's Mother's Name: Agnes Drachofzki
Groom's Race: White
Groom's Marital Status: Unknown
Groom's Previous Wife's Name:
Bride's Race: White
Bride's Marital Status: Unknown
Bride's Previous Husband's Name:
Indexing Project (Batch) Number: M00352-9
System Origin: Wisconsin-EASy
Source Film Number: 1275780
Reference Number: 00780
Collection: Wisconsin Marriages, 1836-1930


Groom's Name: Francis Wallek
Groom's Birth Date:
Groom's Birthplace: T. Burnside
Groom's Age:
Bride's Name: Catharine Hesh
Bride's Birth Date:
Bride's Birthplace: Waumandee
Bride's Age:
Marriage Date: 29 Apr 1903
Marriage Place: Independence, Trempealeau Co., Wisconsin
Groom's Father's Name: John Wallek
Groom's Mother's Name: Anna Bancz
Bride's Father's Name: Mathias Hesh
Bride's Mother's Name: Agnes Frahowski
Groom's Race: White
Groom's Marital Status:
Groom's Previous Wife's Name:
Bride's Race: White
Bride's Marital Status:
Bride's Previous Husband's Name:
Indexing Project (Batch) Number: M00338-5
System Origin: Wisconsin-EASy
Source Film Number: 1275782
Reference Number: item 1 cn 02265
Collection: Wisconsin Marriages, 1836-1930

Groom's Name: Valentine T. Sendelbach
Groom's Birth Date:
Groom's Birthplace: Waumandee, Wis.
Groom's Age:
Bride's Name: Elisabeth Hesch
Bride's Birth Date:
Bride's Birthplace: Waumandee, Wis.
Bride's Age:
Marriage Date: 09 Feb 1904
Marriage Place: Waumandee, Buffalo Co., Wisconsin
Groom's Father's Name: Michael Sendelbach
Groom's Mother's Name: Rosina Neth Sendelbach
Bride's Father's Name: Mathias Hesch
Bride's Mother's Name: Agnes Drashowsky Hesch
Groom's Race: White
Groom's Marital Status:
Groom's Previous Wife's Name:
Bride's Race: White
Bride's Marital Status:
Bride's Previous Husband's Name:
Indexing Project (Batch) Number: M00338-5
System Origin: Wisconsin-EASy
Source Film Number: 1275782
Reference Number: item 1 cn 02378
Collection: Wisconsin Marriages, 1836-1930

Still, these are pretty cool documents, huh?  The "source Film Number" and "Reference Number", etc,  will identify these documents at the LDS research library.

Stráž nad Nežárkou Parish

This week, SRA Trebon published the RC record books for Stráž nad Nežárkou parish (see? West of Cimer and Horni Pena?) and the village of Horni Lhota, which is the Czech name for the (then) German village of Oberschlagles.  It turns out that--ok, wait:
(Skip this part if you already know it...lol)
My dad was Mike*, and
his dad was Anton A, and
his dad was Paul, and
his dad was Johann.
Johann's dad was Martin
(and HIS dad was Paul).

(*BTW, if dad were still alive, he'd be 97 today, January 29th.  Still miss ya, Curly...)

We thought we'd found Johann's birth in the books at least twice, in nearby villages, but the parents were wrong, and the dates were off....but last night, we found him (and his siblings) for SURE!




You can see (below) some of the sources for confusion: TWO Johanns born in 1818, in Oberschlagles alone.  Only one was our great X3 grandpa--the one whose parents were Martin and Elizabeth. (The other set of parents here were Franz and Agnes.  Close, but no cigar--Franz was Martin's brother).

Evidently, Heschs lived in Oberschlagles as early as the 1790s and stayed till well after Johann left for America in 1859.  They occupied houses # 11 and # 23 and #24.  Oh, and would you like to know who Johanns' brothers and sisters were?

Johann Hesch--24 August 1818

Johanna Hesch--20 Decenber 1820

Ignatz Hesch--31 January 1824 (wow--he'd be 186 years old day after tomorrow!)

Anton Hesch--13 June 1826

Rosalia Hesch--24 August 1827

Bartholomaus Hesch--13 August 1830 

If you're interested, I have screen captures of each of those births. 

By the way, I would never have persued Stráž nad Nežárkou if Larry hadn't remembered clues we found over the last YEAR.  Like I say pretty often, he really DOES know more about us than you do...and his memory is way better than mine.  I'm still blown away that he cares about this odd little family of landless German farmers from Bohemia...and I'm SOOOO grateful!

Full Circle

ANOTHER stunning find from Larry--and a double amazement for folks from Buckman:

The front says it's a picture of the 200 acre John Schmolke farm near Buckman....and the back is a note to his cousin Andrew, from Frank Suess who was....Joe's brother.

Note: Early photographs were often printed as postcards cuz why else would you want a picture, except to SHARE with friends and relatives?

Incredibly, this postcard is STILL around 98 years after it was sent and forgotten about. You can buy it back, online, for $10.00 from this site: POSTALHISTORY.COM

WHAT are the chances....that one postcard, from the millions that have been sent in the last hundred years, would be one we'd care about?

And, how to thank Larry for his stunning research know-how?

Whew!!

...............
(Later: Sue clarified: Frank was the oldest child of Andrew and Elizabeth Suess. He was born in Dec 1892. When his mom died, Andrew Suess married Ket (John Hesch's widow).

We think the card from Frank was written to his 'cousin' Andrew Haala, in Hinkley, Minnesota. Andrew would have been the son of Kets' husbands' first wifes' sister, Helen. COOL!)

That's a LOTTA bull!

Dad had a first cousin, once removed, named Ed Otremba. Ed farmed east of Pierz, and would have been about 15 years older than dad.

Larry found an interesting story about Ed that went national in 1953. Here it is, from the Winona paper, but he found the same story in 29 different papers around the country--Alabama, Montana, Idaho, Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio...it's a story any farmer would relish because it happened to some OTHER farmer!
LOL...Larry's first thought was how frustrating this story had to be for Math, the reporter. SUCH a good story, but it already sounds like something Math made up.

Too bad there was no YouTube then, huh?

Don't be NEGATIVE any more!

WOW!! I found an ancient "Schwankl Drugstore" envelope full of photographic negatives today. I knew I had 'em, and thought "...some day..." I'd have them developed.
BUT, it occurred to me that I could try the scanner, and with the PAINT program's "invert color" option...it might just WORK.

So, I scanned all of 'em, 4-6 at a time, then copied and pasted each one separately.

This one is typical of how they look "inverted". But then, I opened another program called Paint.NET, where there's an option to "Auto Level".........and VOILA!

What a TREAT to see Lois doing 'SO BIG' to little me...lol It was about the last time she could!

(AND, I wonder why I was dressed for COLD when she wasn't. Maybe she could run faster, huh?)