Nathaniel Shannon's Headstone in Boston. Click for larger.

August 23rd

1714 – Married – Nathaniel SHANNON & Abigail VAUGHAN – Nathaniel and Abigail are my wife’s 8th-great-grandparents on her mother’s side. Nathaniel was born in Boston, Suffolk Co., Massachusetts in 1689. Abigail was born in Portsmouth, Rockingham Co., New Hampshire in 1683. They were married at Ipswitch, Essex Co., Massachusetts. Nathaniel passed away in 1723 in the West Indies. It is not known why he was there exactly, maybe on business. Abigail lived much longer and passed away in 1762.

August 26th

1869 – Born – Felix BANNACH – Felix is my wife’s great-great-grandfather on her mother’s side. He was born in German Poland, in what is now probably Poland. He married Mary WOJACK in 1894 in Portage Co., Wisconsin. Felix passed away on 31 Oct 1943 in Waukegan, Lake Co., Illinois.

August 27th

1723 – Died – Nathaniel SHANNON – Nathaniel is my wife’s 9th-great-grandfather on her mother’s side. He is the father of the Nathaniel mentioned above. He was born around 1655 in Londonderry, Ulster County, Ireland. In around 1688, he married a woman named Elizabeth, surname unknown. He is buried at the famous Old Granary Burial Ground on Tremont Street in Boston, Massachusetts; burial location of people such as Samuel Adams and John Hancock.

1778 – Born – Jonathan WARNER – Jonathan is my wife’s 5th-great-grandfather on her mother’s side. He was born in Pittsford, Rutland Co., Vermont. He married Anna RIPLEY sometime before 1802. Together they had 7 children. It is unknown when Jonathan passed away.

Frank J Zalewski, Sr - Unknown Year

August 8th

1941 – Died – Frank J ZALEWSKI, Sr – Frank is my great-great-grandfather on my father’s side. He was born somewhere in Germany or Poland on 4 Sep 1858. He married Anna LINDNER in January 1885. They had 3 children in Europe before emigrating to America via Baltimore and then settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in about 1892. They had 6 more children here. He passed away in Milwaukee and is buried with his family at Holy Cross Cemetery. Frank is the subject of my “Everything I Know About Frank Zalewski” website.

August 9th

1671 – Married – Nicolaes van CRAYBECK & Helena WAGEMANS – Nicolaes and Helena are my 9th-great-grandparents on my mother’s side. They were both born in Belgium in the mid-1600s. They were married at Kuringen, Belgium. Nicolaes passed away in 1671 and Helena in 1678, both in Kuringen.

1748 – Born – Sarah ROGERS – Sarah is my wife’s 6th-great-grandmother on her mother’s side. She was born in New London, New London Co., Connecticut. In 1776, she married William MOORE II and together they had 4 children. It is unknown when Sarah passed away.

August 10th

1782 – Married – Carey TONEY & Elizabeth DOREN – Carey & Elizabeth are my wife’s 5th-great-grandparents on her father’s side. They were married at Bedford Co., Virginia. Together, they had 10 children including her ancestor, William TONEY. They both lived to be over 100 years of age when they passed away in Preble Co., Ohio.

August 11th

1990 – Died – Norma (POWELL) MORAN – Norma is my wife’s great-grandmother on her father’s side. She was born 24 Dec 1892 in Crawford Co., Wisconsin. She married Frederick H MORAN in about 1915. Together, they had two children, Vivian and Keith. Norma passed away in Madison, Dane Co., Wisconsin and is buried at Boscobel Cemetery in Boscobel, Grant Co., Wisconsin.

August 14th

1872 – Died – Johann W G LAST – Johann is my 3rd-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born in Prussia in about 1820. He married Charlotte STRASSMAN in Prussia and they had three children before leaving for America. Their last child, Amelia, was born in Wisconsin. Johann fought in the Civil War for Co. K in the 50th Wisconsin Infantry. He survived the war, but passed away a bit later in 1872 in Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin. He is buried with a Civil War headstone at Union Cemetery in Port Washington, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin.

I have Wisconsin Land Records for two of my ancestors, Mathias FIRMENICH and Jean Baptiste LAURENT. I will use Mathias’ Land Record for this example. You can view his Land Record on my Mathias site’s “Land Purchase” entry.

Step one is to find the spot on the record that lists the exact location that your ancestor purchased from the US Government. On Mathias’ record, in the first paragraph, it reads

..the claim of Mathias B. Firmenich has has been established and duly consummated in conformity to law for the southeast quarter of Section 18 in Township 46 north of Range 4 west of the 4th Principal Meridian in Wisconsin containing 160 acres.

To most people, this just looks like gibberish. It did to me at first. I knew what it meant, but I had no idea where to even start to look for it.

By some luck, I happened to find Wisconsin’s Public Land Survey System website. The site provides “County and regional Public Land Survey System (PLSS) Township indexes for the state of Wisconsin.” Wisconsin’s PLSS is measured from the Fourth Principal Extended Meridian, which is part of the “4th Principal Meridian” mentioned in Mathias’ record.

Once I had found this site, I was able to view the Northwest section of the state, which is where I assumed Mathias purchased his land. I looked at that map and found Township 46 listed on the right side of the map and then Range 4 listed at the bottom of the map and traced it to its location in Ashland County. This information would be used on the next website that I found.

It’s a pleasant surprise that the Wisconsin DOT website has a section that includes very detailed maps of every single county in the state. These maps are multi-megabyte PDF files that contain a lot of information about each county. For example, here is the map for Ashland County (PDF). If you’re looking at the Ashland County map, you will see their marking for Township 46 North (T-46-N) on the sides and also Range 4 West (R-4-W) on the top and bottom. If you follow these, you will end up at the town of White River. It’s tough to see, but the town boundaries are drawn in a reddish, pinkish dashed line.

Now, the next step is to find the Section in the Township. Mathias’ section is Section 18. Not all of the sections are numbered in the town. Each town contains 36-one square mile sections in a 6×6 box. Only the four corners are labeled: 6, 1, 31, and 36 to help you navigate. They number them starting at 1 at the northeast corner, traveling to the west to number 6, then south to number 7, and then to the east and so on, back and forth, until Section 36. There is a small diagram on the right side of the map to help you out. Section 18 is 2 sections south of Section 6 on the map.

Once I found Section 18, the Land Record than says that he purchased land in the southeast quarter. Each section contains 640 acres and each quarter is 160 acres. Mathias then would have purchased the bottom-right corner of Section 18 in 1893.

To convert this into a physical location that can help you better visualize it takes some more work. What I did was keep the county map open while going to Google Maps in another window. What you need to do here is find any roads, highways, or other physical features on the county map and find them on Google Maps. Mathias’ land was bordered to the south by Maple Ridge Rd. Section 18 itself was bordered on the north by Deer Creek Rd, so I just needed to guess about 160 acres to the south of that (or halfway between the roads) for the north side of Mathias’ land. It seems Section 18 also crossed Highway 112 a little bit, which means Mathias’ land did also. It’s doubtful that the full highway was there in 1893.

I then used Google Maps’ My Maps section to draw a box around Mathias’ land to make it easier to see. The final product is this map of the land purchased by Mathias FIRMENICH in 1893.

View Corrigan/Firmenich in a larger map

This also matches up with the 1898 Ashland County Plat Map that lists Mathias’ land.

You may run into some issues if your ancestor purchased land that is now part of a larger city since these county maps do not go into detail inside of cities. I hope this is helpful to someone with Wisconsin ancestors. I know it was neat to see exactly what land my ancestor purchased and lived on in the past. Using Google Maps, you can now share this information and also view it closer using Satellite and even Street View, if applicable.

Helpful Links from the post:

• Wisconsin Public Land Survey System Township Indexes
• Detailed Wisconsin County Maps on the DOT website.
• Google Maps
• Finding Wisconsin Land Records
  • Ancestry.com’s Wisconsin Land Records search – does not include actual record, but does include land detail and location information. Subscription required.
  • Rootsweb’s Wisconsin Land Record search – basic search by name, no land detail or location information. Free.

August 5th

1845 – Married – Robert MORAN & Dorothea COOK – Robert and Dorothea are my wife’s 3rd-great-grandparents on her father’s side. It is not exactly known where they were married, but it is possible that they married in Quebec, Canada as they had their first born child there in 1846. They later moved to Wisconsin where Dorothea passed away in 1872. Robert re-married and passed away in 1897.

August 7th

1853 – Born – Nepomuncena (SYLDATK) SZULTA – Nepomuncena, also known as Annie, was born at what is now Gowidlino, Sierakowice, Kartuzy County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, Kashubia, Poland. She was baptized there on August 14th. She married Ignatz SZULTA in 1875 before she emigrated to Wisconsin in 1881 after Ignatz had found a place. They had 9 children, the first 3 in Poland. She passed away after Ignatz on 22 Dec 1925 and is buried with him at Holy Cross Cemetery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

I already had a lot of information on Mathias, which is one reason I decided on him. There is always missing information, which is one reason that these projects are helpful. It requires me to comb through all of the information I have and put it in order. I usually end up finding some detail that I had missed earlier. The sites also get to put the visitor into the life of someone who lived in the past and to see what they went through.

Mathias’ life was pretty full. From immigrating to America at a young age to traveling hundreds of miles to a new home to dealing with the loss of children during a disease outbreak, he had been through a lot.

Take a journey and learn more about Mathias on my new site, Everything I Know About Mathias Firmenich.

Thomas & Emma Corrigan Family

July 25th

1915 – Died – Thomas J CORRIGAN – Thomas is my great-great-grandfather on my father’s side. He was born on 3 Mar 1855 in Mara Township, Brechin, Ontario, Canada. He married Emma Jane FIRMENICH, his second marriage, in 1892 and together they had 9 children. Thomas passed away on the same day his youngest daughter, Sadie, was born. He is buried at St. Agnes Cemetery in Ashland, Ashland Co., Wisconsin.

July 26th

1751 – Married – Pierre François QUINET & Thérèse DARD – Pierre and Thérèse are my 7th-great-grandparents on my father’s side. They we married at Contréglise, Haute-Saône, France and together had 7 children including my ancestor, Antoine QUINET.

1919 – Married – Arthur THIELKE & Madora LAST – Arthur and Madora are my great-grandparents on my mother’s side. They were married at Port Washington, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin and together had 4 children. Arthur passed away in 1964. Madora later re-married and passed away in 1979. They are buried together at St. Paul’s Cemetery in Grafton, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin.

July 27th

1921 – Married – Leon DEBROUX & Mildred VAN PRICE – Leon and Mildred are my great-grandparents on my mother’s side. They were married at Mattoon, Shawano Co., Wisconsin and together had 6 children. They later moved to Port Washington, Wisconsin where they lived the rest of their lives. Leon passed away in 1982 and Mildren later in 1994. They are buried together at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Port Washington.

July 28th

1900 – Died – Georg Heinrich STIERNS – Georg is my 3rd-great-grandfather on my father’s side. He was born in 19 April 1935 in Württemberg, Germany. He married Katherine Margaretha SCHUMACHER in about 1862. After they had 4 children in Germany, they emigrated to Wisconsin in about 1881. The name was also listed as STEARNS.

July 29th

1684 – Died – Eleanor (ALDERSEY) CUTTS – Eleanor is my wife’s 10th-great-grandmother on her mother’s side. She was born about 1682 in Portsmouth, Rockingham Co., New Hampshire. In 1649, she married Richard CUTTS. She passed away in Portsmouth 9 years after her husband.

July 31st

1886 – Died – Jean-Baptiste LAURENT – Jean-Baptiste is my 3rd-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born on 18 Jan 1825 in Biez, Chaumont-Gistoux, Walloon Brabant, Belgium to Constant and Marie (BERO) LAURENT. He later emigrated to America and married Olivine ST. LOUIS in 1857 at Little Chute, Outagamie Co., Wisconsin. He is buried at St. Joseph’s Catholic Cemetery in Norwood, Langlade Co., Wisconsin.

The line than extends to her father, Jesse TONEY, who is known to have fought in the Civil War. Next is his father, William TONEY, born in Virginia and later died in Wisconsin. William’s father is Carey TONEY, who not only lived to 101 years of age (depending on which info is correct), his wife lived to be 100. Carey is my wife’s TONEY ancestor who served in the Revolutionary War. This was written some research that we had found:

He joined the American Army in the Revolution, passed through several campaigns; was present and took an active part in the siege of Yorktown and was an eye-witness to the surrender of Cornwallis in 1781, saw Gen Washington and Lafayette a great number of times during the siege; recollects and describes the personal appearance of Lord Cornwallis, his staff & etc.

The TONEY line than continues on to Carey’s father, William. Then it’s William’s father, Alexander William TONEY and his father William TONEY. According to the info we have, which may or may not be correct, William was born in 1660 at Buckingham County in Virginia. There is a lot of other research out there for the TONEY family, as they must have spread their seed far and wide from Virginia.

This is a photo of my great-grandfather, Joseph ZALEWSKI, and my grandfather, Richard ZALEWSKI. Date is unknown, but Richard looks to be about 2 or 3, so this is probably somewhere around 1923-25. I’m assuming it was taken in Milwaukee, Wisconsin as that was where Joseph and his family lived at the time.

Clara (Szulta) Troka and her daughters.

July 19th

1959 – Died – Clara (SZULTA) TROKA – Clara is my great-great-grandmother on my father’s side. She was born 6 Jan 1876 in Sulęczyno Parish, Kartuzy County, Pomorskie, Poland. She immigrated with her mother and siblings in 1881 and met up with her father in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He had come over earlier. She married Joseph TROKA in 1894 and had 4 children. She passed away in Milwaukee and is buried there with her husband at Holy Cross Cemetery.

July 20th

1817 – Born – Charlotte (STRASSMAN) LAST – Charlotte is my 3rd-great-grandmother on my mother’s side. She was born somewhere in Germany and married her husband, Johann LAST, there before coming to Wisconsin in about 1857. Together, they had 4 children. She passed away on 20 Apr 1900 at Grafton, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin and is (supposedly) buried at Union Cemetery in Port Washington, Wisconsin. I recently found her husband’s headstone, but have yet to find her’s as I talked about in a post.

1848 – Died – Charles PIETTE – Charles is my wife’s 5th-great-grandfather on her mother’s side. He was born 4 Mar 1773 in Malèves, Wallon Brabant, Belgium. In 1797, he married Marie RENIER and together they had 6 children. He passed away at Thorembais-les-Beguines, Brabant Wallon, Belgium.

July 22nd

1845 – Died – Leonardus CRAYBECK – Leonardus is my 5th-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born on 25 Oct 1782 in Genk, Limburg, Belgium. He married Florentina Francisca KNUDDE in about 1812. They had 6 children including my ancestor, Jacobus KREBBEKX (not sure why the name changes.) He passed away at Hoofdplaat, Zeeland, Netherlands.