While I was searching for more information on a passenger ship from one of my ancestors a few months back, I ran across a site called “Everything I Know About Hyman Victor.” The site is basically one man’s story about his great-grandfather. It shows off all of the vital records, memories, and information about Mr. Victor.

I was very impressed by both the idea and the layout of the website. Since I noticed the site was built using Wordpress, just like this site, I emailed the owner of the website and asked him about how he put it together. He was a very nice guy and said that he would send me some of the files I would need. Recently, I received these files and started putting together a site for my great-great-grandfather, Frank Zalewski.

I wanted to do this for a few reasons. First, I wanted to create a nice site dedicated to Frank and his life. Secondly, going back over a lot of this information may bring me new discoveries. Sadly, I didn’t find anything new, but now all my information is better organized.

I can’t take too much credit for the site, since most of the work was done by Elliot Malkin at Everything I Know About Hyman Victor. Thank you Elliot for the help. Though, I did tweak a few things for my own use.

Without further delay, I bring you Everything I Know About Frank Zalewski.

1630 – Born – Jean CUSSON-CALLIOU – Jean is my 10th-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born at St. Marguerite-sur-Durclair, Rouen, Normandie, France. He married Marie FOUBERT in 1656.  He passed away on 8 Apr 1718 at St. Sulpice, Quebec, Canada.

1719 – Born – Josephte CHEVREFILS-BELISLE – Josephte is my 7th-great-grandmother on my mother’s side. She was born at Montreal, Ile de Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She married Antoine LAFOND in 1750. She passed away on 13 Jun 1774 at Baie-du-Febvre, Yamaska, Quebec, Canada.

My younger brother, Joel, also calls November 11th his birthday. Happy 25th birthday!

November 12

1934 – Died – Ida SCHAVANDIE – Ida is my 3rd-great-grandmother on my mother’s side. She was born on 6 Sep 1852 in Prussia. She married Peter MUHM in 1870 and had 3 daughters, including my ancestor Minnie MUHM. She passed away at Antigo, Langlade Co., Wisconsin and is buried there at Elmwood Cemetery.

November 14

1848 – Married – William CORRIGAN & Mary McCANN – William and Mary are my 3rd-great-grandparents on my father’s side. Both were born in Ireland in the 1820s (though stories also say William was born in New York) and immigrated with their families, settling in Ontario, Canada. They had 12 children, including my great-great-grandfather, Thomas CORRIGAN. William passed away first in 1876 and Mary in 1884. I assume they’re both buried in the Uptergrove, Ontario, Canada area.

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This is a photo from my grandparent’s wedding on August 28, 1948 at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Port Washington, Wisconsin. The church is known for it’s large decorations and ceiling. It’s also frequently painted along with downtown Port Washington as it sits on a high hill overlooking the downtown area. You can see it in the third photo down on this page.

November 2

1901 – Born – Leon Joseph DEBROUX – Leon is my great-grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born in Phlox, Langlade Co., Wisconsin to Joseph & Mary Philomene (LAURENT) DEBROUX. He married Mildred VAN PRICE in 1921. He passed away on 15 Sep 1982 in Port Washington, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin and is buried there at St. Mary’s Cemetery.

1976 – Died – Frank Edward Zalewski, Jr. – Frank, Jr is my great-great-uncle on my father’s side. He was born October 1899 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Not much is known about Frank, Jr. He seemed to have never married and is buried with his parents at Holy Cross Cemetery in Milwaukee. I have heard that he may have had a drinking problem, which may have made his life difficult.

November 5

1806 – Born – Marie DesAnges MANSEAU – Marie is my 4th-great-grandmother on my mother’s side. She was born at Baie-du-Febvre, Yamaska, Quebec, Canada to Antoine & Catharine (CLOUTIER) MANSEAU. She married Ephraim Gadious dit ST. LOUIS in 1831. She passed away on 16 Oct 1895 at Florence, Florence Co., Wisconsin.

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This is a photo of my grandfather, Richard Zalewski, from when he was in the navy. He never saw combat, but was stationed in a few places, including Hilo, Hawaii as seen above.

1. What is your all-time favorite song? Yep, number 1. It’s hard to choose sometimes. If you made your favorite all-time Top 40 music selections, what would be #1?

2. Tell us about it. Why is it a favorite? Do you have special memories attached to this song?

My favorite song of all-time is a pretty simple choice. It’s something I have thought about in the past. It seems I’m constantly trying to figure out my favorite musicians and songs. Overall, it’s a tough thing to choose, but my Top 1 or 2 are usually pretty well cemented. My taste in music is probably a lot heavier than most of the genealogy community, but even though my favorite band is pretty heavy, the song is not.

My all-time favorite song is “Nothing Else Matters” by Metallica. Metallica has been my favorite band since I started to enjoy music. I remember listening to them on my older brother’s cassette tapes in the 1980s. When I came into my own musically at about 11 or 12, it was some of the first music I bought.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. Metallica? So this must be some heavy metal song about worshiping the devil or something, right? Not even close. Due to the fact that Metallica has very few songs mentioning the devil and none of those actually say anything about worshiping him, that’s unlikely. “Nothing Else Matters” is actually a very slow and melodic song. According to Wikipedia, “some say it meant that “no matter how far” away he [singer, James Hetfield] was, he was still “so close” with the heart.”

I originally enjoyed the song because I liked how it sounded and I liked the lyrics. It felt like it had a lot of emotion behind it. When I heard it on the radio in April of 1999, the song gained new meaning. I was sitting in my father’s truck on a chilly, rainy April morning outside of St. Francis-Borgia church in Cedarburg. I was waiting for my grandfather’s funeral procession and the song came on the radio. I felt I was holding my emotions pretty steady for most of the day, but that song seemed to force me to let it all out.

I bet some of you would even enjoy the song. I even have a link that will allow you to listen to it, so you can make your own assessment. Who knows? Maybe you’ll even like it. Listen to it here.

I haven’t actually been doing too much genealogy research lately, so I don’t have a lot of news. Though, I have been helping a friend of mine by doing some basic research for him. I thought I’d help get him started since I have a lot of paid access to Ancestry, etc that helps a lot.

He, fortunately, had found a book on his mother’s family that goes pretty far back into at least the early 1800s into Virginia with a lot of sourced information. I decided to do some of his other lines. I actually found a good bit of information by just using the census records (and a few others.) It’s amazing how much info you can really get from those.

It’s new territory for me since a lot of his family is from Montana and then from the southern states of Missouri and Georgia, etc. All of my family research has been is mainly Wisconsin and then into Canada and Europe. It’s neat to do research in other states.

1750 – Married – Antoine LAFOND & Josephte CHEVREFILS-BELISLE – Antoine and Josephte are my 7th-great-grandparents. They were married in St. Antoine de la Baie-du-Febrve, Yamaska, Quebec, Canada.

September 22nd

1962 – Died – Pieter Franciscus VAN PARIJS – Pieter is my great-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born 21 Jan 1874 in IJzendijke, Zeeland, Netherlands. Right after he was born, his family emigrated to the United States, settling in northern Wisconsin. The family also Americanized their names, making him Peter Van Price. He married Minnie M MUHM in 1895 and passed away at Port Washington, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin. He is buried there at Union Cemetery.

September 23rd

1781 – Died – Paulus VAN CREYBECK – Paulus is my 7th-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born 12 Jul 1720 in Genk, Limburg, Belgium. He married Maria TRUIJEN in 1748. He passed away at Genk, Limburg, Belgium.

September 24th

1697 – Died – Marguerite LANGLOIS – Marguerite is my 10th-great-grandmother on my mother’s side. She was born 3 Sep 1639 in Quebec, Canada. She married Paul VACHON in 1653. They had 12 children including my ancestor, Louise VACHON. She passed away at Beauport, Montmorency, Canada.

September 26th

1851 – Born – Charles Carl F H LAST – Carl is my great-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born at Doeringshagen, Pommerania which is now in modern-day Poland. He married August Johanna LUEDTKE in 1883 and together had an amazing 16 children including my ancestor, Madora Martha Louise LAST. He passed away on 5 Jun 1926 at Port Washington, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin and is buried there at Union Cemetery.

1931 – Died – Mathias Balthazar FIRMENICH – Mathis is my 3rd-great-grandfather on my father’s side. He was born in 11 February 1840 in Cologne, Germany. He immigrated to Wisconsin with his family in 1847. He married Paulina Henrietta THOMPSON on 11 Feb 1867 and had 13 children including my ancestor, Emma Jane FIRMENICH. He passed away at Ashland, Ashland Co., Wisconsin and is buried there at St. Agnes Cemetery.