Wednesday's Child - Thomas Beck

Last Thursday I blogged about Edwin Beck and the loss of the majority of his children.  I was going to post this funeral card on Friday and stick with the theme, but figured that I'd save it for Wednesday's Child instead since I've got the obituary to go with it.  I haven't figured out the relationship between Thomas and Edwin, but I must say that the Beck's hadn't had the best of luck.  It's so sad when any child is taken from us, but when a family has gone through so much loss!  My best guess so far, and I haven't done anything yet to confirm this, is the Thomas may be the nephew or grand-nephew to Edwin.  Edwin's father's name was John, so it's possible that John had a son, John, that would be Thomas' father or grandfather.  I'll have to check into that one.

"Thomas Beck

Funeral services for Thomas Joseph Beck, 11, of Route 2, Campbellsport, will be held at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at Miller's Funeral Home, 215 Forest Ave., Kewaskum, and at 10 a.m. at St. Kilian Catholic Church, St. Kilian.

He died Wednesday after being struck by a milk truck while riding his bicycle near St. Kilian.

The Rev. Adrian Trost will officiate and burial will follow in the church cemetery.  Friends may call after 4 p.m. Friday at the funeral home.

He was born May 20, 1964, at West Bend, the son of John and Patricia Wiesner Beck.  He was a sixth grade student at Wayne School.

In addition to his parents, he is survived by two brothers, Steven and Robert both at home; a sister, Sharon at home; maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Alvin Wiesner of Kewaskum; and paternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. John C. Beck of Milwaukee.

(hand-dated, Aug 6-75)"

Tuesday's Tip - Take a Picture Already!

John Jeffrey Ryan Jr 1971-2000

I love taking pictures. Capturing those special moments on film.  With a digital camera, I may have actually gotten worse and may need therapy.  I'm sure there are times when my family gets tired of me whipping the camera out, but as genealogists and family historians we all wish we had more pictures of our ancestors' "special moments".  That drives me to take pictures, so that my children and grandchildren (and so on) will see the times we went through, who was special in our lives, where we lived, etc.

There's another reason I take so many pictures.  Loss.  When you lose someone you've run out of opportunities.  Opportunities to talk with them, to tell them you love them and to take a picture of them.  I lost 2 dear family members this year as well as a dear friend.  I was good at taking pictures of my father-in-law with the kids although now he's gone I wish I had taken even more.  I had gotten a couple pictures of my cousin, Nancy, before she was killed by her husband...I'm still waiting for the "why" to that one.  I had taken plenty of pictures of my old friend, 1SG/CSM, Chris Raines.  I have these pictures of these cherished people because of another loss when I did not take a picture.

Patrick & John Jeffrey Ryan Jr.

My cousin, Jeff Ryan, died on New Year's Eve 2000.  I saw him on Thanksgiving before he died.  I had my camera with me and took no pictures.  I thought he'd think it was silly.  I was pregnant with my first child at the time and before leaving my Aunt and Uncle's house I hugged him and said that the next time I saw him, he'd be meeting the newest member of the family.  A month later he was gone.  I regret not having taken those pictures.  I always thought he'd be there.  He was only 29.  You never know how long you have with the people you love.

OK...now enough of that depressing crap...

I also realized as I was preparing to take part in the "Home" blog for 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History that I have no picture of the house I grew up in!  There are pictures of my sisters and me on the porch and playing in the backyard.  Pictures of the inside of the house, but none of the house in its entirety.  How did that happen?  Then I began to realize that I don't have a picture of the hospitals my children were born in (less important perhaps), or the church I was married in.  Don't forget that when you're taking pictures of all those great events to get the bigger details, not just the little ones!

The next time I return to Hazleton, Pennsylvania you can be sure I'll be taking a picture of the house I grew up in.  It's changed since I lived in it.  Before my father moved away from there he attempted to paint it.  I may have to get my photo editing software out and change it back because it looks terrible now!

So take plenty of pictures.  With digital cameras it's cheap and easy.  You never have to develop the bad pictures and you can take as many as you like....just remember to label them!...but that's another blog...

Nancy O'Donoghue nee Brown (center)

CSM (ret) Christopher Raines

Motivation Monday - Got some?

I had quite a bit of motivation last week.  Despite the fact that I had a sick kid home with me for much of it and despite that he gave me his cooties.  I'm feeling much better this morning.  Not coughing so much and the faucet that was my nose has turned off.  My team won the Super Bowl so there was much rejoicing last night, well, and this morning and for quite some time.  But motivation.  Got none.  Zip.

PTA executive board meeting last week.  We no longer have a secretary so I've got to type the minutes up and send them out.  I've got to fill out paperwork so we can have our next general board meeting at the school which is in a week and a half from now and I need to attempt to track down donations for lickies and chewies for the few people that might show up.

I have to order something called "segments" for Cub Scouts.  Little mini-patches for the boys to highlight their participation in events.  Unfortunately, I've spent the past several weeks trying to recreate the attendance for all of the events due to technical difficulties and difficulties in getting people to let me know which boys attended what.  It's gotten to the point where I can no longer wait and I need to get these ordered.  I feel bad for the boys that will undoubtedly look at their mostly empty segment sheet and wonder why they didn't get a segment for an event that they attended, but I need to let go and realize that I did all I can.  If their leaders didn't send updates or if their parents didn't check their attendance sheet that's not my problem.  That sounds so harsh.  I hate being like that when it's kids I'm dealing with.

I've also been having other stuff thrown at me in Scouting that is just not my lane.  I won't vent about it here, but I will say that it's incredibly frustrating and just not going to happen.  End of story.  Some people just can't get it through their heads that just because I work from home and just because I'm "starting" my business and working toward accreditation doesn't mean that I have time to deal with their extra crap.

The volunteer activities that I am a part of are because they benefit my children as well as other children.  If more parents would actually do just a little and participate in their child's life apart from feeding them and tucking them in at night these things would be so much easier!

So right now there's no motivation.  Or rather there's no motivation to tackle the stupid "extra" stuff I have to do.  I've got tons of motivation to dive into genealogy.  There's never a question about that, but the minutes need to be typed, the meeting needs to be coordinated and the Scouts need to be cared for.  So I guess I'll make a strong cup of tea, and get to work on the things that are annoying the heck out of me and hope that today will end the "extras" in my life at least for the time being and not mark the beginning of a week that is sure to have me lose my temper.

At least there's enough food left over from the Super Bowl party to feed my family for several days.  One less thing to worry about...

Sunday's Obituary - Francis J. Baier

"Francis J. Baier (hand-dated, 25 Jan-1974)

Francis J. Baier, 39, of Route 3, Campbellsport, an employe of Dohr's Market in Grafton, died at 9 p.m. Friday at St. Joseph's Hospital, Milwaukee.

Baier was formerly employed by the Gehl Co. of West Bend.  He served in the U.S. Army for two years and was a member of the Holy Name Society at Holy Trinity Church, Kewaskum.

Born Oct. 2, 1934, in the Town of Addison, he was the son of John and Louisa Denz Baier.  He married Valeria Martin on Nov. 8, 1958, at St. Anthony's Church, St. Anthony.

Survivors include his widow; five children, Diane, Linda, Norbert, Beth and Steven, all at home; a sister, Mrs. Aloysius Beder of Route 5, West Bend; and a brother, Lawrence, also of Route 5, West Bend.

Mr. Baier was preceded in death by his parents and a brother, Paul.

Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday at Miller's Funeral Home, Kewaskum, and at 10:30 a.m. at Holy Trinity Church, Kewaskum.  The Rev. John T. Budde will officiate and burial will be in the new Holy Trinity Cemetery, Kewaskum.

Family and friends may call at the funeral home from 3 to 9 p.m. Monday."

NOTE: This obituary was transcribed as it was printed.  Any typographical errors in the original have not been corrected.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History - Yes, I'm a Giant Dork

What was your favorite radio or television show from your childhood? What was the program about and who was in it? - Without a doubt Doctor Who is my absolute favorite show...EVER...then and now!  I can talk about how absolutely wonderful the show is for hours, but I will do my very best not to here!

Doctor Who has been around since 1963 and new episodes are still being made today.  That's some staying power!  What's it about?  Well, The Doctor is a Timelord.  He ran away from his people stealing a time/space machine called a TARDIS. He loves to travel through time and space and help people along the way.  He hates being alone and is almost never without a companion or two.  Earth, of course, is his favorite planet and home away from home.  He's a pacifist of sorts.  He hates war and the people who start them.  This pacifist, however, cannot stand watching someone get bullied and he runs to their rescue (inadvertently causing all sorts of problems in the attempt!).  An extremely intelligent show that stresses using your brains to stop a problem instead of blowing everything up.  Having said that, the show still has lots of things blowing up...there are still baddies so there's lots of action!

The show was originally meant for children but it was such a hit and had adults hooked as well.  One of the best bits was that the writers tried their hardest when doing episodes to be as historically accurate as possible.  Even some of the science was accurate. Doctor Who kept me interested in reading and in school during some very awkward teenage years.  A very positive role model for all kiddos which is why I've got no worries having my kids watch!  The violence (if you can call it that) is much less than what you'd see on most television shows and blood is rarely shown.  When it is, it's mild and only as necessary as the scene dictates.  How many shows today can you say that about!

The Brits are absolutely crazy about Doctor Who over there!  I'm just one of their crazy American fans that can't get enough!  Children in the UK would hide behind the sofa and peek over the top during the scary scenes.  I look back at the early episodes and the special effects were hardly special, but no doubt high-tech during their time.  It's hard to believe that kids were scared of the show, but they were...and still are today.  My kids hide behind the sofa during some of the scarier scenes when we're watching Who!  I said that I'm a giant dork and that's no exaggeration when it comes to Doctor Who.  The show came back after being on hiatus for several years and I was soooo  ready!  My oldest son had watched the old VHS tapes of Doctor Who with me, so he was ready too.  My youngest son was only a few months old when the show came back, but he was ready too!  When he was only 10 months old he'd look at the TV when it would come on, point and yell "Dokka Oooo!"  it was as close as he could get to saying it!

He's almost 5 years old now and there are plenty of Doctor Who toys lying around the house and BBC America is a popular channel for the Cayemberg family.  Even my husband who despised the older version of the show (before the 2005 revival) calling it "campy" really gets into the new series.

It won't be around forever.  The Doctor can regenerate (change his appearance and thus heal when his body has been gravely injured) 12 times which gives him 13 different appearances.  Right now the BBC is filming with Doctor #11 and it's as brilliant as ever!  You can catch the new season on Netflix (or pretty much daily on BBC America), many of which are available for instant viewing.  Some of the older shows are on Netflix as well, but nothing close to all of them.

If you check it out, take the old shows for what they are...cute and creative.  The newer Who are so extremely well done they can make you cry!  If you'd like a good cry I can suggest several, but "Father's Day" in the new Season 1 is a good one for a cry.  You don't need to be a follower of the old series to catch the new one either!

Yes, I sound like an advertisement for Doctor Who.  I can't help it....I'm a giant dork!  I've posted 3 clips of the show.  Just remember when viewing to take it for what it is...science fiction and a fun ride! The first is an old black and white starring the 2nd Doctor, Patrick Troughton.  It's actually a pretty good preview, but the volume's a bit low on this clip...



The 2nd is the new series with the newest Doctor.  Doctor #11, Matt Smith (just giving a little then and now action!)...



And the last clip BBC America has listed as "The Best of David Tennant".  He's my favorite Doctor and Doctor #10 so he's very recent.

Funeral Card Friday - A Double Rosbeck Whammy!

This beautiful picture is the back to Martin F. Rosbeck's funeral card

I previously posted the obituary for Martin F. Rosbeck and Theresa Rosbeck nee Kiefer. I thought I'd complete the set by posting both of their funeral cards today in one shot.

The center picture is the back to Theresa Rosbeck nee Kiefer's funeral card.

Thankful Thursday - It's a Wonderful Life

I've been transcribing a number of obituaries over the past couple of days.  Endeavoring to find places for all these people in my family history, and where, applicable, my family tree.  I came across an obituary that broke my heart.

As I was typing, I found it rather odd to see that Edwin was survived by one daughter.  I suppose I take it for granted that someone, particularly at the age of 61, dying in the mid-twentieth century would have several children survive them because they usually had quite a few children.  It was when I continued typing that I realized this poor man (and his wife)  had one daughter and three sons precede him in death.

It makes me extremely thankful to live in the times we do.  Children are still taken from us, but not as frequently as they once were.  No matter how some people may complain, I've just got to say that it really is a wonderful life!

"Edwin Beck Funeral Rite Is Announced

Campbellsport Area Resident Is Dead At Age Of 61

Funeral services for Edwin Beck, 61, Campbellsport, will be at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at the Twohig Funeral home, Campbellsport, and 10 a.m. at St. Matthew's church, Campbellsport.  The Rev. Peter E. Schwamb will officiate.

Mr. Beck was found dead Wednesday in the barn of his farm one mile north of Campbellsport on County Trunk W.  He was born Aug. 10, 1900, in Town of Byron, the son of John and Barbara Kiefer Beck.  He married Magdalina Richart Oct. 27, 1925, at St. Killian.

The Becks lived in the Town of Ashford until 1948 when they moved to the Town of Auburn.

Surviving are his widow; one daughter, Mrs. Leo Hall, Campbellsport; five grandchildren; two brothers, Jacob, Campbellsport, and Alois, Town of Ashford; and two sisters, Mrs. Alex Lenk, Menomonee Falls, and Mrs. Lucille Koenig, Fond du Lac.  One daughter and three sons preceded him in death.

Mr. Beck was a member of the Holy Name society of st. Matthew's church.

Friends may call at the funeral home after 2 p.m. Friday until the hour of services.  Burial will be in the church cemetery."