Wedding Wednesday - Donald Nellis

As I was looking to match up the funeral card of Terry Delveaux to someone in my family tree I came across the obituaries for his father, Richard Delveaux, and his step-mother, Joyce Colle-Delveaux nee Cravillion. Joyce and Richard were already in my tree so the obituaries helped to figure out who Terry was. One thing that caught my eye was that I had Joyce married three times in my tree, but when I looked at her obituary there were only two husbands mentioned, Peter Colle and Richard Delveaux, both of whom predeceased her. In my tree her first husband was Donald Nellis and they are listed as having divorced. It's telling that he wasn't mentioned in her obituary especially since they had a daughter together. In fact as far as I can tell it was the only child Joyce had, but her father was omitted from the obituary.

The information on this line in my family tree originally came from the family tree that was compiled and distributed by the Cayemberg-Villers Family Reunion. So I was fairly certain it was accurate as the information on family members in it isn't the result of research but of first-hand knowledge. I still get supporting documents for these members as I go through. Dates can be transcribed wrong and names can be misspelled. Pulling the obituaries mentioned above actually helped to add some sources by their names in my family tree. If someone were to be researching this line though without access to our family tree, Donald could be easily over-looked and placing her daughter with the correct father (or any father) could become challenging. My assumption is that Donald was persona non grata after their divorce. Not too surprising. We're human and it happens.

The fact he wasn't mentioned in the obituary was certainly enough to pique my interest, but that wasn't the only thing. I've seen that surname before. I couldn't remember where though. A quick search of my memorial cards and I couldn't find it. Looking at Richard's obituary I saw that his mother's name was Nellis and while that was incredibly interesting it wasn't where I had seen the name before. So I pulled out the scrapbooks and inside there were several clippings concerning the Nellis family. I'll be diving into them in the future.

So far nothing showing Donald and Joyce's wedding. What I could find on Donald was that he died in  1995. The Wisconsin Death Index and the SSDI give his birth and death information and FindAGrave has a memorial for him (without a tombstone photo). I'll be pulling his obituary from the Green Bay Press-Gazette when I get back to Wisconsin.

I went back and reread the information in Joyce's obituary and saw it. The bit of information that would help me confirm the marriage...Judith, Joyce and Donald's daughter, died before her mom. I searched Ancestry and found in the SSDI that Judith died in Green Bay on March 29, 2008 and was born on February 20, 1942. The birth date matches the one in my family tree which helps confirm I have the right person. There was also a memorial for her on FindAGrave. The memorial has a transcription of her obituary which lists her father as Donald Nellis. More it says, "to Donald and Joyce (Cravillion) Nellis," which is the obituary's way of showing the marriage. Judith's obituary is also still posted on Proko-Wall Funeral Home's website.

Even though I found Donald and confirmed he belongs in my tree I'll still pull his obituary. I want to see if Joyce is mentioned in his obituary with perhaps a date that they married. If I find that I can pull a wedding notice out of the paper (if there was one). In my family tree I only have that they married in 1942. Of course I don't know where they were married. Perhaps in Pulaski where Joyce was originally from. I could try to search records there for January and February of 1942 to see if anything was put in before Judith's birth. My guess would be that if the marriage did happen in 1942 that it most likely happened before Judith was born, but I could be wrong. Either way I've made the connection and that's enough for right now.

Amanuensis Monday - Four Generations

Clipping from unknown paper dated 22AUG1944

Since I was preparing posts about the Nellis clippings/information I have I thought I'd start with this one (more in-depth stuff to come on Wednesday). As I was looking for and scanning clippings of everything Nellis I came across this one. I wasn't sure which day and blogging prompt would best suit this clipping so I opted for Amanuensis Monday. If it weren't for  Amanuensis Monday I never would have learned how to spell "amanuensis"...and would have just shared the clip some place else.

"The little girl in the foreground is Judith Nellis, representing the fourth generation of a Dyckesville family. At the left is her father, Donald Nellis. In the center is her grandmother, Mrs. Willie Nellis, and at the right is her great grandmother, Mrs. Gregory Bodart of Champion."

I don't know if Donald Nellis ever moved far from home during his lifetime. I still have pulling his obituary on my research calendar. I suppose I may find out then. What I do know is that he is buried in St. Joseph's Cemetery in Champion, Wisconsin. Maybe he stayed close to home. I know that I have clippings for the surname Bodart in my collection too. Perhaps I need to start sharing and exploring them. After all could my husband's grandmother really have only kept Bodart clippings because a cousin married a Nellis and his grandmother was a Bodart? Who knows, but there could be more to it. I'll be sure to investigate that surname soon!

Sunday's Obituary - Mary Villers nee LaCrosse

Unknown newspaper clipping*

"Mrs. Frank Villers

ROSIERE - Mrs. Frank Villers, 70, Rosiere, died Sunday afternoon at her home. The former Mary LaCrosse was born April 1, 1882, and married Frank Villers on May 20, 1913. Her husband died on Sept. 1, 1954, and four brothers and one sister also preceded her in death. She was a member of the Alter Society.

Survivors include one son, Louis, at home; one grandson, Marvin Villers; two great-grandchildren; one brother, Felix LaCrosse, Algoma; two sisters, Mrs. Emily Bero and Mrs. John Monfils, both of Rosiere.

Friends may call at Wiesner-Massart Funeral Home, Casco, after 6 tonight. The Rosary will be recited at 8 tonight and Tuesday evening. Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday at St. Hubert Church, Rosiere, with the Rev. A. C. Kenny in charge. Burial will be in the parish cemetery.

(Handwritten - Mar 24, 1963)"

I blogged Frank Villers' obituary back in 2011. At the time I didn't know where Frank fit into my family tree. That mystery has been solved and he and his parents are placed neatly and securely in my tree. I just needed time to work on it. In the research I happened to find some other interesting morsels which I will share in a future post. Both Frank as well as Mary have memorials and tombstone photos in FindAGrave.

*This clipping was taken from a family scrapbook that was passed on to me. It isn't known which newspaper the clipping was taken from. The handwritten date appears to be the date of death and not the date that the obituary was published.

Funeral Card Friday - Terry Delveaux

Funeral Card - Terry Delveaux

Funeral Card - Terry Delveaux (reverse)

In my memorial card collection I have a funeral card for Terry Delveaux. In fact he's the only Delveaux in my collection, but not the only Delveaux in my family tree. There I have two...Richard Delveaux and Alice Dart nee Delveaux. Terry died relatively young. He was 44 years old. So it was likely that at least one of his parents survived him.

I did a search on Ancestry.com for Terry with his birth and death information included in the search and didn't come up with much. There were hits, but they were from the Wisconsin Death Index and the SSDI which confirmed the information on the memorial card. There was also a hit on the Wisconsin Marriage Index that shows Terry got married on September 15, 1973 to a woman with the surname of DeGrand. No first name is given (even when I performed a search on her). Of course it pays to not just read the transcription but to actually look at the record because when I look at the record Terry isn't married to a woman with the surname of "DeGrand." He's married to Rebecca Jean LaLuzerne. Even how old she was is off. Still none of it tells me who his parents were.

So I went to FindAGrave, but there was no memorial created for him. I then jumped on Google and did a search for "obituary Terry Delveaux" and hit gold. The first hit was an obituary for Joyce Colle-Delveaux. While she isn't one of the Delveauxs listed above she is in my family tree. Her maiden name was Cravillion and her mother was a Cayemberg. So it looks like Terry could go in my tree. The second hit was for Richard Delveaux who is one of the people in my tree...married to Joyce. As you can see by reading the obituaries (as long as the links remain active) that Terry is a child of Richard and his first wife, Lilian Massey, who died in 1989. So Terry was the step-son of Joyce. I'll still put him in my tree. I just need to link Richard to his first wife. I know plenty of people wouldn't because he's not blood related, but family isn't just about blood. Joyce is related and it was important enough that she include her step-son who predeceased her in her obituary. Her husband also predeceased her so he wasn't the one to put him in there. He was important to their family so he is important to me.

Of course we don't just put the important people in our trees (or obituaries). Sometimes important people are left out because of divorce, crimes, arguments, etc. I'll have an example of that one in the near future though.

Tombstone Tuesday - Anna Steichen nee Melzer

Close-up of Anna Steichen nee Melzer's tombstone*

Information can be wrong. It just can and if you obsess over it then it can really give you a headache. You can see in the tombstone for Anna Steichen nee Melzer that she was born on September 1, 1840 and died on April 8, 1900. The tombstone is in German, but even if you don't understand German you  should be able to figure it out. They just put the day of the month before the month and usually there is a period after the day is how they make it an ordinal number (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc). The tombstone doesn't show the period. Some do some don't.

So what's wrong with the tombstone? Possibly nothing, but the information on the tombstone is slightly different from her death certificate. I had pulled her death certificate during one of my trips to the Wisconsin Historical Society. I discovered it in my Melzer file when I started dedicating time to this line in an effort to see if my Katherine Boegel nee Melzer is a child of Wenzel Melzer and Ursula Christof. I haven't made that possible connection yet, but I had pulled this certificate because when I did a search for Melzers in their search engine I got a hit on Anna Steichen...or rather Anna Steigen.

Anna Steichen nee Melzer tombstone*

That's one of the differences between the tombstone and the certificate. The "g" changing to a "ch" isn't a linguistic reach. Seeing the change when comparing the certificate and tombstone can help to soothe a genealogist that may be having a difficult time making the jump and acknowledging that this is the same person. The next difference between these two sources can be a little harder to swallow for some researchers though.

The death certificate lists her date of birth as October 15, 1840 in Germany. The tombstone has September 1st. That's a month and a half of a difference. So some researchers might freak out and think that this is a different person. It's not though. You can see that her death on the certificate is April 8, 1900 and that matches the tombstone. So why is the date of birth off? You need to remember that both the death certificate and the tombstone are not primary sources of information. They are created based on the information submitted to the county in the case of the certificate and the information submitted to the person/company that made the tombstone. The information could have been written down incorrectly or the person submitting it could have just been not thinking clearly. They are grieving after all. This death certificate also doesn't tell you who is submitting the information. It most likely was a family member, but you don't know who. I don't have a birth certificate or baptismal record for Anna, but I'd lean toward the information on the tombstone being more accurate. I know if a family member's dates or name came back wrong on the tombstone I'd be more likely to tell them to go fix it. Still, either could be correct or both could be wrong. It still doesn't change the fact that this is the correct record.

All of those details while important weren't the focus of my retrieving this record. This record shows that Anna is a child of Wenzel Melzer and Ursula Christof (photo bottom left). Anna is also buried in St. Kilian's Cemetery (photo bottom right) with Joseph who is believed to be a child of Wenzel and Ursula and Katherine Boegel nee Melzer who may be a child of Wenzel and Ursula. Joseph's obituary doesn't name Anna or Katherine or his parents. That made it incredibly unhelpful in attempting to link my Melzer line with his. I don't know if Anna's obituary will show her siblings. She died in 1900 so she may not even have a very detailed obituary in the newspaper, but now that I know who her parents were and know when she died I can add that to my to-do list, AKA my research calendar, and see if it takes me anywhere.

(*Thank you to John Uhlman who gave permission for me to use the photos from his FindAGrave memorial for Anna Steichen nee Melzer!)

Here you can see that she died in Wayne, Washington
County, Wisconsin and is buried in St. Kilian's

You can see Anna's name, her parents' names,
her DOB and death, and husband's
name

Honoring a Friend

What a wonderful picture! SFC Sandoval went to Arlington National Cemetery to pay respects to a mutual friend, colleague, and mentor of our, CSM Christopher Alan Raines. Chris was my First Sergeant and Command Sergeant Major when I was a Drill Sergeant at the Defense Language Institute and he knew my hubby (a retired First Sergeant) back when they were both young military pups. Thank you for doing this, Rico.

Military Monday - Memorial Day is Not for Me

That title might be a bit confusing. I don't mean that I don't celebrate Memorial Day. I mean that I don't expect or want you to thank me for serving on Memorial Day. There's a holiday to thank me and other veterans and it's called Veterans Day. Memorial Day is the day that we remember those who gave their lives in the service of their country.

Memorial Day is for people like this man:

And this man:

And this one:

And this one:

Last, but certainly not least, two Soldiers that went through the Defense Language Institute when I was a Drill Sergeant. First is Andrew James Creighton...a sweetheart of a Soldier. I don't think there was a single one of us who wasn't proud of him and heart-broken when we got the news that AJ Creighton died in Afghanistan. You can see a very touching tribute to AJ here and read more about this man's life here.

Second, Jacques Earl "Gus" Brunson. He went to DLI for awhile before reclassing Infantry. He kept in touch with the drills after leaving and we knew he was in Iraq collecting items to give to the Iraqi children. He was in the National Guard and volunteered for this tour in Iraq because it would be better money for his two children. He was the first casualty for our cadre of Drill Sergeants to hear of.

These Soldiers may not have been members of my family tree, but they are members of my Army family.

That's not to say that there aren't women that need remembering, but I don't have any in my family tree to be memorialized on this day.

As far as family traditions Memorial Day seemed to have little to do with the military in my family. Memorial Day was the time when flowers were placed on the graves of all of my ancestors. My mother still treks to the old family cemeteries each year to visit their graves. I make the trek as a part of going home, but not as a part of Memorial Day. I probably would if I lived anywhere near "home," but I don't.

I actually like the thought of remembering ancestors on Memorial Day even if it isn't the intent of the holiday (you can read more about Memorial Day here), but I still don't want to be thanked for my service today. What I want is for you to remember those that died so you could live in the country and world you do...even with all its flaws. When you're grilling and sitting in the backyard having a beer have a drink in honor of those men and women that made the ultimate sacrifice.