Benjamin Church House - Milwaukee

 Photograph by Barbara Bradley Petura

An exceptional way to be in touch with your family history is to visit locations important to your ancestors’ lives.  July 2007 gave me an opportunity to do just that. 

The place was the Benjamin Church House, located since 1938 in Estabrook Park, Shorewood. The house was built about 1844 in an area then known as Kilbourntown. That name came from Bryon Kilbourn, land owner and founder about 1835 of the pioneer town just west of the Milwaukee River.

Kilbourntown was one of three towns that merged in 1846 to create the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  The others were Juneautown east of the river and Walker’s Point to the south.

In those days, the Church house was on Fourth Street at the intersection with Court Street, between Cherry and Galena streets. The site in the pioneer era is described as up a hill overlooking a tamarack swamp near the river.

Benjamin Church, my ggg-grandfather, was one of the earliest settlers in Milwaukee. He arrived in November 1835 via Chicago from his birthplace in Ulster County, New York.

A pioneer carpenter and master builder, he brought the Greek Revival style from the East Coast to the young city of Milwaukee — and applied it to construction of his own family home. With its four graceful columns on the front and other distinctive features, the house gives the feeling of a small Greek temple.

That Greek Revival style, combined with the use of hand-hewn lumber and Cream City bricks stamped with the date 1844 and initials of the brick maker, made the house worth saving, restoring and moving to a new location. The house today is an intimate museum of life in Milwaukee in the 1850s, with the furnishings giving a sense of what life was like in those days.

Standing in the cozy house, I imagined Benjamin Church returning home, up the hill to the house, climbing the steps to the porch and enjoying the modest elegance of the Doric columns, then entering the house right into the small living room.  A fire crackling in the fireplace and the sounds of his children would have greeted him at the end of a day’s work.

His wife Permilia would likely have been in the kitchen cooking dinner, helped by oldest daughters Ann Maria and Ann Augusta. I imagine the younger children doing their chores, or their studies, or perhaps playing.

Known to her family as Hannah, Ann Maria married Sherman A. Bradley on January 6, 1859. They too lived in the Church House and their son Jesse Charles Bradley was born there June 22, 1866.

A special treasure awaited me in the back room of the house, where a display board told the history of house and of Benjamin Church himself. There on display was his photograph! See it on the page with his biography.

The Benjamin Church House, also called the Kilbourntown House, is open to the public free during the summer. A docent or guide is on hand to talk about the house, its history and its significance in conveying a vivid snapshot of early Milwaukee history.

Check with the Milwaukee County Historical Society for the hours the house is open. It is worth a visit!

Essay and photograph by Barbara Ann Bradley Petura, July/August 2007.

Antiques: Pastime to Business, Part II

In Part II of this interview with Elizabeth Bradley, we will learn more about the different types of antiques she collects for her Elizabeth Bradley Antiques.

Q:  Victorian Staffordshire figures are varied and popular. What types of figures do you specialize in?

A:  I especially love the Staffordshire dogs… all breeds… and the animals… sheep, cows, rabbits.  Royal figures as children, from the Victorian era, are popular, too. These are my favorites and seem to appeal to my customers, too.

Q:  What is Imari, and how do Chines and Japanese Imari differ?

A:  At the end of the 17th century, Japanese ceramics became fashionable and were heavily influenced by Korea. They were shipped from a port in Japan called Imari and became known as Imariware. Early Japanese Imari was underglaze blue ceramic with overglaze enamels of cobalt blue, iron red and gilt. Most early Japanese Imari is in museums or private collections.

Rarely did the Chinese copy from the Japanese, but they did copy early Japanese Imari, in the 18th century, turning out a finer porcelain with a much more delicate color palette.  Then, in the mid-19th century, the Japanese began to produce Imari for a larger market, with vibrant blues and reds. This is the Japanese Imari we see and collect today. Later Japanese Imari is far more reasonably priced than Chinese Imari as it is later, more primitive and there is more of it available.

Q:  What is Canton pottery?

A:  Canton pottery was made in China in the 19th century and was often used as ballast for the ships that brought tea to America. It is generally crudely made and can be found in many different forms.  Often it was purchased by early Americans to be used as every-day china as it was very cheap.  There is a “kitchen set” at Mount Vernon.  Over the years, it became more prized and more rare.  Today Canton is a collector’s item.

Q:  What do you look for when selecting pieces, whether Staffordshire or Imari or Canton pottery?

A: First of all, the piece has to be aesthetically pleasing.  Then I look for the best condition and color and general appeal, and of course, reasonableness of price.

Q:  What advice do you give someone who is interested in collecting antique Staffordshire, Imari, or Canton and Oriental pottery?

A:  Buy what you love, first of all. Although antiques generally appreciate in value over the years, if you worry about resale value, then buy stocks and bonds. Most importantly, buy antiques that become part of your life and home. Condition is important but, sometimes, with a really rare piece, condition becomes less important. For example, I have a wonderful Japanese wooden temple guardian figure, missing most of its paint and gilt. It doesn’t matter to me because I will never find another one.

Q:  What is your greatest pleasure in working with these antiques?

A:  I love to look at them… some days, I have one favorite, some days, another. I often say, “I am so pleased that we bought that lovely Chinese Imari urn or a charming Staffordshire dog.”

People often ask how I can bear to sell the things we buy. I have developed a philosophy: some things I buy to keep, some things I specifically buy to sell, and some things pass through our collection. When we are ready, we sell them. It is a fluid collection for us and we never tire of it.

> Visit the Elizabeth Bradley Antiques to learn about about the Bradleys and their beautiful antiques.

 

> Read Part I of this interview, for a look at how Elizabeth Bradley was introduced to the world and the business of antiques.

Antiques: Pastime to Business

 

One of the special pleasures of doing genealogy and family history research is learning more about the pastimes, professions and businesses of one’s relatives.  One particularly appealing story is the launch and development of Elizabeth Bradley Antiques. Enjoy our interview with Elizabeth Bradley.

 

Q:  When did you begin to collect antiques and what were your special interest at that time?

 

A:  My husband and I began collecting antiques more than 50 years ago when we were first married.  Because we had no money to spend on “frivolities,” we began in a very small way, buying little pieces we liked whenever we could. We had a favorite aunt who had a house decorated in blue and white… very different at that time… which we loved… that probably started our interest in blue and white Canton.  We collected every form and shape of Canton for years… it became a kind of “treasure hunt.”  The fun of collecting antiques is that you never know where and when you will find a gem.

 

Q:  What drew you to these types of antiques?

 

A:  We bought whenever we found a piece we loved… not for resale value. Gradually we became interested in Oriental antiques of all kinds… some furniture, scrolls, jade, woodblock prints, and whatever else appealed to us. Antique dealers became friends which we always found a plus… they were always ready to share their knowledge with us.

 

In that way, a lovely antique object appealed to our eyes as well as to our love of learning.  Whenever and wherever we traveled, we had a mission:  see what new and wonderful antiques were right at our fingertips.

 

Q:  When did you become active in the antique business itself and how did you get started?

 

A:  About 25 years ago, I took a job at the Milwaukee Auction Gallery as an appraiser.  I had an opportunity to be exposed to nearly everything in the antique world… Stickley furniture, English and American furniture, Oriental porcelain and pottery, snuff bottles, dolls, tin toys, World War I posters, everything. This experience honed my taste in antiques… I realized the difference between an object of beauty that I wanted to own and one I could appreciate but did not want to live with.

 

Along the way, an English antique dealer said to me, “You could go into the antique business,” so I decided to do so.  I began advertising in a national antiques trade newspaper and doing a few antique shows and the business grew from there. I have loved almost every minute of it!

 

Q:  Today, Elizabeth Bradley Antiques specializes in four categories — Is there a reason for this cluster?

 

A:  I suppose I have to say that I learned early that I am not a born salesperson…  I find it difficult to enthusiastically sell items that I don’t love myself. Victorian Staffordshire figures, Chinese Imari and Japanese Imari, Canton and Oriental pottery, and English accessories are all antiques we truly love.

 

After years of collecting just Oriental antiques, we learned to love the whimsy of Victorian Staffordshire figures and began to collect and sell them. Besides, it gave us an excuse to travel to England twice a year to buy!

 

> Visit the Elizabeth Bradley Antiques to learn about about the Bradleys and their beautiful antiques.

 

> Read Part II of this interview, where we will learn more about these different types of antiques.

 

 

Finding Family for Free, Part XV

Efforts to research and record your family history will in most cases be more successful if part of the story is already published in books. These books may include individual biographies, brief biographical sketches in history books on various communities, memoirs and family genealogy books.

During the 1800s and early 1900s, many volumes of community history were published, and most contained biographical sketches of individual citizens.  Whether you find biosketchs about direct ancestors or about close relatives, you can find invaluable insights about your family members and their lives.  Remember, though, that published works can have errors, just a census records and other sources do.

One example of the biographical narrative published as part of a community history is the story of Isaac Sharp and his wife Mary (Woolverton) Sharp of McNarlins Run, Waynesburgh, Greene County, Pennsylvania. The biosketch offers a look at Isaac and Mary’s lives as well as their many children.

Unfortunately, it gives incorrect information about some of the daughters’ spouses. In particular, daughter Rebecca married David Conger, not Ephriam Corwin. See the clarification, based on Conger genealogy records and family letters.

Still, to learn that Isaac’s parents were Scotch-Irish, and that Isaac’s own career was as a teacher and surveyor, adds immensely to the family story.

Another book that helped me, although with a different branch of the family, was I Was Born in America: The Memoirs of William George Bruce. William was the oldest brother of one of my great-grandfathers. Thus the sections of the book about his parents and about his and his siblings’ childhoods in early day Milwaukee provide wonderful insights about my own ancestors.

To help me and others interested in this period of Milwaukee history, I created an index to this book of memoirs that mentions many well known people of Milwaukee in this era as well as family members.  A fine genealogy Web site for Milwaukee — Links to the Past/Milwaukee — has posted that memoirs index online.

Fortunately, twelve chapters of his memoirs were published in the 1930s in the Wisconsin Magazine of History, from the Wisconsin Historical Society. And today, WHS has digitized its magazine back issues and put them online. Thus, I can reread his descriptions  in Chapters I and II of growing up in the intensely German neighborhood just to the east of the Milwaukee River.  Or view again the photograph of his parents, Augustus F. Bruce and Apollonia Becker Bruce, and read a bit of their story. All twelve chapters are listed on the William George Bruce Web page that I created.

You can use the WorldCat or world library catalogue to search for books about your family lines, and then you can use the free or low cost Interlibrary Loan Service to bring the volume to you for reading.  Don’t miss this great method for finding family for free.

This is one in a series of genealogy and family history research ideas to help you find your family and ancestors for modest or no cost.

Finding Family for Free, Part XIV

If your ancestors attended a college or university, you may find information about their lives in a source seldom mentioned in genealogy books:  class notes.

Almost every colleage and university publishes brief notes about the lives and careers of their graduates, submitted by the graduates themselves. Topics typically include engagements, weddings, births of children, new jobs and promotions, moves to new locations, awards and, finally, obituaries.

These notes are printed in college and university magazines or newsletters.  Some have indexed their older classnotes. Some remarkably have put these older records online.  One of the finest resources is the University of Wisconsin Library’s digital collection online, including its historic yearbooks and alumni newsletters.

The usefulness of this resource can be seen in several examples.

– In May 1911, the Wisconsin Alumni magazine ran an engagement announcement for Marie Grace Miller and Frank Joseph Petura, both 1904 graduates. Her father’s name, the careers pursued by Marie and Frank, and the month of the wedding are included. What a genealogical gem!

– In 1904, both Frank of Racine and Marie of Madison were included among the seniors with their individuals photographs, field of study, clubs and a quotation. What a remarkable way to see ancestors when they were young!

Many more class notes were published about them and Marie over the years, allowing family to understand more about their lives.

Another ancestor I am researching is William Henry Luehr, who graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1889.  He is in the Badger yearbook several times including when he was censor and historian of the Bildungsverein club and when he was elected in May 1888 to be a general editor of the Aegis, the student newspaper. He had many mentions in the Wisconsin Alumni magazine, such as when he was the principal at Manitowoc high school.

While not all universities and colleges have such a fine resource as that provided by the University of Wisconsin, they may have an index and may be willing to send copies of relevant class notes, if you send a stamped, addressed envelope. It is worth a try!

This is one in a series of genealogy and family history research ideas to help you find your family and ancestors for modest or no cost.

Finding Family for Free, Part XIII

Part of the fascination of genealogy is solving the puzzles of who our ancestors were; what occupations they followed; where they were born, lived, and died; and who their offspring were.  If you send a steady stream of emails, letters, queries and requests for information, you’ll find new clues and answers arriving every so often, just enough to keep you motivated!

Consider this checklist of correspondence to do, even if you only write one letter or query a week:

COUSINS:  Write to every cousin and other relative you know, even if you’ve not been in touch for years. You never know who has a box of old family letters and pictures tucked away that they’ll copy and share. Or who will turn out to share the genealogy bug and so have worked out key parts of the family tree.

PEOPLE WHO POST:  People who post family tree and genealogy information at places such as RootsWeb.com or GenForums typically include an email address. If you find a posting with some of your family, write to the person who posted the information to see what else they know. They may have new research not yet online. 

One wonderful contact for me has been Ginni Morey, who has a very fine Web site for her own family and for her husband’s Morey family.  The site shows the family of George Bradley Morey that includes sibilings Eda Dell Morey, my great-grandmother, and Frederick Eugene Morey, Ginni’s husband’s ancestor.  Thanks to email, we’ve shared some research to the benefit of both.

Recently, I emailed two people who had posted information about the Luehr family.  Back came a digital copy of a wonderful photograph of my great-grandfather’s oldest brother and his wife from one person while the other sent a five-generation pedigree of our lineage of the Luehr family, starting with my ggg-grandparents in Dithmarschen, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Both picture and family history came by email, are family history treasures — and were free!

LOOK-UPs:  Find Web sites for the surnames you are researching or for the locations where your ancestors lived.  Check to see if any of them list people who do volunteer look-ups in books with histories and biographies, as well as census or local records.  Or try the well known genealogy look-up site, Random Acts of Kindness. Submit a look-up request.  These volunteers get many requests so the reply may take a long time. Try anyway.

QUERIES:  Posting your own queries is another step that should be part of your week-in, week-out correspondence strategy.  Genealogy forums and discussion lists for the surnames and locations of interest are good places to post. You may also want to join history and genealogy societies in relevant locations, and submit queries to appear in their newsletters.

SOCIETY ARCHIVES:  Speaking of history and genealogy societies, many have files and archives on families in their area. Visit their Web sites for procedures for asking about what they might have on your ancestors. Some allow a simple email request while others have forms to complete and mail with a modest fee.

This steady, methodical approach to genealogy research can protect you from being overwhelmed by thoughts about all the steps you need to take, while ensuring a steady flow of clues and information to help you solve your family puzzles.  Try it!

This is one in a series of genealogy and family history research ideas to help you find your family and ancestors for modest or no cost.

Finding Family for Free, Part XII

Gathering multiple sources and documents for a single person or family is crucial if you intend to create a highly accurate family tree or family history. 

To acquire them, you likely will need to move from free resources available via the Internet to materials held by genealogical societies, state historical societies and libraries. And you will have to pay a fee for each copy and possibly for research time if you live too far away to visit in person. The fees typically are reasonable, and you will be rewarded with invaluable details that will confirm or clarify what you have found in free sources.

As noted at the end of the last post, obituaries would seem to be the very best source of details on an ancestor’s life. After all, it is the person’s life story summed up and published in one place. However, many obituaries were written by a surviving relative who knew many facts about the deceased but may not have recalled correctly specific dates and places, especially from early in the person’s life.

In Part II of Finding Family for Free, I discussed the many sources on the Web for educator William Henry Luehr, my great-grandfather.  I discovered enough online sources to be able to create a detailed Web page about him and about his family.  I have also written a 15+ page biography about him for the family.

To make sure I had as much accurate information as possible, I searched the Wisconsin Historical Society Name Index online and found that a biographical sketch and obituaries were available. I wrote for copies of them.

His university education was important to his career, so I wanted to be sure I had the correct details. Interestingly, his obituaries give his graduation from the University of Wisconsin Madison as 1887 while other sources gave 1889.  Fortunately, the biographical sketch published in 1912 in a Wisconsin educational history volume contained a precise outline of his education.  

It states:  “His early education was received in the county schools of New Holstein and the high school at Chilton. Later he spent two years at the Oshkosh State Normal and two and one-half years at the University of Wisconsin where he graduated in 1889 with the degree of Ph. B. In 1896 he took a graduate course in American history under Prof. F. J. Turner, and in economics and finance under Prof. R. T. Ely.”

The biographical sketch clarified his graduation date — and added insights on his love of learning and other aspects of his career.

Multiple sources are the key to creating accurate family trees and histories. They are also crucial for getting past brick walls in your research, a topic for a future post here at Relative Musings: Finding Family for Free.

This is one in a series of genealogy and family history research ideas to help you find your family and ancestors for modest or no cost.

Finding Family for Free, Part XI

Obituaries can help you discover more about the life of an ancestor and can also fill in key family details such as a mother’s maiden name or a birthplace in Europe that you’ve been seeking. Once you have your basic research done and key family members charted, it’s time to hunt for obituaries.

If some of your ancestors lived in a small-to-medium-sized community served by a long-running newspaper, your search will likely be easier than in other situations. My greatest success so far has been in obtaining obituaries for ancestors who lived in New Holstein, Wisconsin.  The town was founded in 1848 by people from Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, and the community has a strong sense of pride in its history and people.

In fact, it was an obituary for Nicholas Boie, posted on a New Holstein genealogy Web site, that revealed my ggg-grandparents Nicholas and Cecilia Tonner Boie. Their oldest daughter Elise married the younger Ferdinand Hachez. I had known the Hachez name since childhood, but not the Boie name.

The New Holstein Public Library has a genealogy section on its Web page, and lists an “obituary index” among its holdings. Thanks to the helpful people at the library, I was able to obtain a list of obituaries of known family members — and also several in the “cluster” of in-laws worth reviewing.

Using Interlibrary Loan at my local library, I obtained the microfilms covering the relevant issues of the newspaper, the New Holstein Reporter.  When you find the obituary, print it out and, as soon as you can, transcribe it so it is easy to share.

Transcriptions that I have done have recently been added to the New Holstein genealogy Web site’s obituary section, where I’d found Nicholas Boie. 

Direct ancestors include:

Anna Margretha Groth Luehr, gg-grandmother

Clara Hachez Luehr, great-grandmother

William Henry Luehr, great-grandfather

Ferdinand E. Hachez, gg-grandfather

“Cluster” relatives include:

John August Hansen, who married Lena Boie, one of the younger sisters of Elise Boie Hachez.  This obituary provided details on Ferdinand Hachez’s business in New Holstein.

Mathilde Agnes “Tillie” Boie Sebelein, the youngest sister of Elise Boie Hachez.  While Elise (Mrs. Ferd. Hachez) is mentioned just once, the brief text provides a picture of the Boie siblings growing up on a farm south of town.

Just as with all documents, you must use care with the information in obituaries and seek corroboration from other records. See the note I provided at the end of the obituary for Ferdinand E. Hachez as a good example. If I had not viewed many census records and other documents, I would not have known that it was his ancestors who were born in Alsace Lorraine, not Ferdinand himself.

We’ll discuss obituaries again in the future. Good searching!

This is one in a series of genealogy and family history research ideas to help you find your family and ancestors for modest or no cost.

Finding Ancestors: Resources & Index

Blogs are marvelous devices, but due to their behavior as a diary or log, the most recent posting is always on top or first on the home page. To read a series of postings on a related topic, you either have to read last to first or scroll down to begin.

To make it easier to use the Finding Family for Free series of postings here at Relative Musings, I’ve created an annotated index that runs more naturally, first to most recent. You can click on the above link to view it or you can always find it on this blog’s right navigation bar under the title Index to Free Genealogy Tools. It will open in a new window for ease of use.

I’ve created two other genealogy guides on separate Web pages. One lists and describes a good number of the finest genealogy resources on the Web today. The page makes useful starting point for learning about these research tools. This too is on the right navigation bar under Blogroll.

Finally, to help people with “brick wall” or dead end genealogy situations — including myself — I’ve created a brick wall genealogy page with links to a wealth of articles and examples of strategies for getting past the dead end. This too is on the right navigation bar, called Brick Wall Genealogy Solutions.

I hope these resources are useful for those seeking their ancestors!

This is one in a series of genealogy and family history research ideas to help you find your family and ancestors for modest or no cost.

Thanksgiving Musings

Expressing thanks to those who have helped me on my journey of family research seems an appropriate thing to do on this Thanksgiving Day 2006.  Mentioning everyone will be impossible.  So this is a sampling, one that provides anyone reading this an idea of the remarkable range of assistance available.

My heartfelt thanks to:

The New Holstein Historical Society,  for publishing informative books about the people from Schleswig-Holstein who established the new community in eastern Wisconsin in 1848 and built it into an area with prosperous industries and farms.

Barbara Weber, directory of the New Holstein Public Library, who helped me with their obituary index to the New Holstein Reporter and made sure I read about the town and some of my ancestors in the centennial book.

Debie Blindauer, webmaster of the Calumet County genealogy and history site where I found so much about ancestors who were among the early settlers in New Holstein, located in that county.

The Milwaukee Genealogical Society, that indexed and put online a large collection of Additional Milwaukee Marriages from 1822 to 1876, most not found elsewhere.  Here I found the marriage dates of some of my early family in Milwaukee including:

• In 1857: Joachim Speich and Marianna Stocker, both from Switzerland
• In 1859: Sherman A. Bradley, from Connecticut, and Hannah M. Church, born in Wisconsin

The Wisconsin Historical Society, that has put a wealth of genealogy resources online including a new Virtual Records Index to many early births, marriages and deaths.  Searching the Wisconsin Name Index showed that a biographical sketch had been prepared on Benjamin Church in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers Project, at the time his Greek Revival house was being rescued and made into a museum.  What a treasure to have about one’s ggg-grandfather, born in New York and my earliest ancestor to arrive in Wisconsin — in 1835.

Ellen, who with volunteers has built Links to the Past - Milwaukee Web site with truly extraordinary resources. The transcribed City Directories for 1848-1849 and for 1857-1858 are one examples of special resources. In the latter volume, several ancestors were found, including:

• Sherman A. Bradley, carpenter, boards with Mrs. Luscomb
• B. Church [Benjamin], builder, Fourth, between Cherry and Galena, W
• John Speich [surely Joachim based on the 1860 Census] , grocer, North Water, between Milwaukee and Odgen, W

Ira May “Tootie” Sharp Dennis, who for more than 30 years has devoted herself to tracing all the descendants of Isaac Sharp and his wife Mary Woolverton Sharp — including daughter Rebecca Sharp who married David S. Conger, among my maternal lineage. In the summer of 2006, she confirmed that I had correctly figured out that an old biography of old Isaac was wrong about Rebecca’s husband, an error picked up in genealogy databases.  Tootie has developed a Sharp Family Web site where I learned even more about my Sharp and Conger ancestors.

And, mostly recently, Robert Roesler of the Greenfield Historical Society who has sent a plat map showing where the Jacob and Samuel Stocker farms were located in Greenfield, Milwaukee County, when the properties were bought and sold, and much more. The two men were Marianna’s father and brother.

And last but not least, family members! Mother, sister, uncle, cousins — and relatives I did not know I had — all had pieces of the puzzle that is slowing fitting together into our family saga, our part of America’s history.  Thank you all!