Sunday's Obituary - Jule Dart

Jule Dart was my husband's great grand uncle and the sixth child of Eugene and Josephine Dart nee Hermans.  He was born on February 5, 1882 in Wisconsin.

The obituary did a pretty good job at naming his siblings and children, but since it only mentioned their married surnames, I'll correct that here (such a pet peeve of mine, but it was a sign of the times).

The children of Eugene and Josephine were: Louisa, Charles, Jean Baptiste, Odele (as spelled Odile) Vandenhouten (spelled differently in our tree than below), Adolphe, Jule, Desirea Vandenhouten, Mary Laurent (my husband's great grandmother), August, William, Eli, and Wilbert.

Discovery - I didn't have a husband for Louisa in my tree, but apparently I need to look into Louis Mathy!

Jule and Odile had five known children: Louis, Anna Le Mense, Melvin, Julius, and Lillian Claflin/Killen

Discovery - Lillian's husband's name is listed in the obituary of her brother, Melvin, as Joseph Claflin.  I imagine that she married a second time, and that her first husband was Ed Killen, but I need to verify this.

"Jule Dart Dies in Hospital at Age 67

Jule Dart, 67, 1256 Day street, died Sunday afternoon in a local hospital. He had been ill for a year, and had been a patient at the hospital for one day.

Born in Tonet, he was married to the former Odile Motquin 45 years ago. He was formerly employed in Brussels, and worked as a farmer until five years ago when he and Mrs. Dart moved to Green Bay.

Survivors are his wife; three sons, Melvin, Sturgeon Bay; Julius, Little Sturgeon, and Louis, Green Bay; two daughters, Mrs. Ed Killen, Sturgeon Bay, and Mrs. William Lemense, Green Bay; 12 grandchildren; five brothers, John, August and William of Tonet, Eli of Luxemburg, and Wilbert, Walhain; and four sisters, Mrs. Louis Mathy, La Crosse, Mrs. Eugene Van Den Houten and Mrs. Victor Laurent of Green Bay, and Mrs. Louis Van Den Houten of Tonet.

The body is at the Dupont-Malcore Funeral home where the rosary will be said at 8 o'clock each evening, with the Rev. Peter Skell in charge Wednesday evening.

Funeral services will be held at 9 o'clock Thursday morning in SS. Peter and Paul church. Father Skell will officiate and burial will be in St. Martin cemetery in Tonet."

[Hand dated December 25, 1949.  There is no publication information but the clipping was most likely from the Green Bay Press Gazette and the date most likely refers to the date of death rather than publication]

Wedding Wednesday - Mr and Mrs Eli Dart's Golden Anniversary

Seeing a Golden Anniversary has always fascinated me.  You don't see them all the time. Making that landmark anniversary is a true testament to the love between to people.

Eli Dart was the son of Eugene and Josephine Dart nee Hermans.  He was the 11th of 12 known children and was born on September 21, 1894 in Wisconsin.  He enlisted in the Army during World War I on March 28, 1918 and was discharged on September 5, 1919.  Shortly thereafter he married Edith (last name unknown) on November 11, 1919, and died on February 21, 1982.  Edith was born on July 10, 1899 in Wisconsin and died in October 13, 1981.  They are buried in the Shrine of the Good Shepherd in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

"Wed 50 Years - Mr. and Mrs. Eli Dart, Rt. 3, Luxemburg, recently observed their 50th wedding anniversary.  They were married Nov. 11, 1919 at Tonet and have one daughter, two grandchildren and five great-grandchildren."

The clipping was passed on to me by my mother-in-law and was hand-dated 1969.  There is no publication information for the clipping, but it was most likely from the local Green Bay newspaper the Press-Gazette.

Tombstone Tuesday - Do You Understand What it Says?

A tombstone can tell you a lot...if you know what it says!

Here we have a tombstone for Ernestine E. Hermann.  It tells you that her maiden name (name at birth/born as) was Muller (also spelled with an umlaut over the "u", and as Mueller).  It also tells you that her husband was Valentin Hermann.  She was born on September 28, 1860 and died on May 18, 1904.

Now most genealogists would be able to figure most of that out without knowing German, but if you weren't careful you could get it wrong.

Anyway, Valentin and Ernestine Hermann nee Muller are my husband's 2nd great grandparents.  Ernestine was born in Germany and they were married in Wisconsin around 1881. They had 5 known children:  Carl, Elizabeth, Dorathea (my husband's great grandmother), George and Valentine (Jr).  Ernestine and Valentin are buried in Union Cemetery, Theresa, Dodge County, WI

A bit odd.  I never realized that Ernestine was only 43 when she died.  She was fairly young. Sometimes I forget that just because these people lived what seems to be a long time ago, it doesn't mean that they were actually old.  How sad that she still had children that were living at home when she died.  I will have to go in search of her death certificate (which I may have in a stack of papers), because I would like to know why she died so young.

Military Monday - Sgt Leander Aurie Killed In Action (WWII)

I don't know if Leander Aurie is any relation to my husband's side of the family or if his paternal grandmother, when she was clipping articles for the scrapbook I have, also included articles on people that she knew.  He was a member of the same parish so it's possible.

Relative or not, SGT Aurie's family should be proud of his career.  Always a tragedy when our servicemembers don't come home.

After a little research on Ancestry, I discovered that SGT Aurie enlisted in the Army Air Corps from Milwaukee, Wisconsin on 15OCT1942 as a Private.  He was born in 1923, was 70 inches tall and weighed 178 pounds.  His service number was 16132239.

The clipping, like many in my scrapbook, lack publication information, so there's no date for his death.  Looking at some online family trees (and taking them with a large dash of salt), he is listed as having been born on 23JAN1923.  His date of death would have been January 1944. Just short of his 21st birthday.  Now the clipping I have states that he was reported missing on January 11th (1944), and the family trees I found with him in them both had his date of death as January 1st, 1944.  So a heavy dash of salt with that date of death!

When conducting a quick Google search I came across an extremely well-written page about SGT Howard Chantelaine.  SGT Chantelaine was the ball turret gunner on the same B17 that SGT Aurie was on.  The webpage (here) gave details about the plane crash as described by the only survivor, 2LT Lloyd Crabtree.  The mission being flown was to an aircraft factory in Halberstadt and was described on the site as "one of the fiercest air battles of Europe" and that just before the plane was shot down, SGT Aurie reported he had just shot down a plane (an ME210).  The webpage is well worth the read.

Thank you for your service, SGT Aurie (and the entire crew of that B17)!

"Sgt. Leander Aurie Killed In Action

Sgt. Leander Aurie, 20, reported missing over Germany Jan. 11, was killed in action, according to a report received from German sources by the International Red Cross.  The news was telegraphed to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Aurie, 1275 Day street, by the War department,  A requiem mass will be said in SS. Peter and Paul church at 9:30 Monday morning.

Sgt. Aurie was waist gunner on a Flying Fortress, and also served as armorer.  He had been in England since last November, and was home on furlough last August.  A graduate of East High school in the class of 1941, he was employed in the Four Wheel Drive plant, Clintonville, at the time of his enlistment in the fall of 1942.  He attended armorer's school at Lowry Field, Colo., and won his gunner's wings at Las Vegas, Nev., after which he joined the Flying Fortress unit at Geiger Field, Wash.,

He parents and two younger sisters, Ina Mae and Shirley Ann, survive."

Sunday's Obituary - Harvey Dart

Clipping from about 1954

Harvey Dart is my husband's 1st cousin twice removed.  According to our family tree (and census records) he was born around 1917 to John Baptiste and Louisa Dart (no maiden name known for Louisa yet).  I had no marriage information or death information on him until now.  There is no information on the newspaper clipping, but it should be from the local Green Bay newspaper (the Green Bay Press Gazette), and that would put the year of his death somewhere around 1954.

I'm so thankful that my mother-in-law passed on two scrapbooks filled with newspaper clippings that she received from her mother-in-law.  So often I find that when I transcribe an article for my blog from these scrapbooks, I find out new information for my tree.  So many clippings.  Eventually they'll all get scanned, transcribed and posted.  Right now, I'm just delighted to have found out some new information, albeit sad information.  Harvey was younger than I am.  It's very sad to see anyone go at so young an age.

I'll have to track down his tombstone when I go back to Wisconsin for Christmas.

"Pneumonia Is Fatal To Harvey Dart, 37

Harvey Dart, 37, 935 Day street, died this morning in a local hospital after a two-day illness with pneumonia.  He was born in Tonet and 17 years ago married the former Lorraine Laurent of Green Bay.  the Darts moved to Green Bay six years ago.

At the time of his death the deceased was employed by the Badger Bay company.  During the war he was employed in the shipyards at Sturgeon Bay.

Survivors include his wife; three children, Mary Jane, Beatrice and John, all at home; his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John B. Dart, Tonet; and three brothers, Frank, Green Bay, George, Tonet, and Richard, Algoma.

The body is at the Dupont-Malcore Funeral home, where the rosary will be said at 8 o'clock each evening. The Rev. Peter Skell will say the rosary at 8 o'clock Friday evening.

Funeral services will be held at 9 o'clock Saturday morning in SS. Peter and Paul church.  Father Skell will offer the requiem mass and burial will be in Allouez cemetery."

Remembering Veterans & Veterans Within My Family

(A follow up post from last year with the addition of a new-found cousin who serves our country.  Thank you for your service, JoAnn!)

I want to take a moment to say thank you to everyone who has served honorably in our Armed Forces. Without our service members past and present our country would not be where it is today. We would not have gained our independence, we would not have unified a divided country, we would not have stopped the atrocities of 2 World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. There are many conflicts not mentioned which do not make light of the sacrifices that servicemen and women made in them. Sometimes the sacrifice was in time away from family and long hours. At times it was witnessing the horrors of those wars or even succumbing valiantly to them.

Not everyone serves their country as a Veteran does and not everyone can or should. You are unique, respected and given a burden that many would not be able to bear. Whether you served many months or many years in our Armed Forces makes no difference. You served. Thank you!

I'd like to now pay tribute to my family members who have served (I hope I didn't miss any!).

The Royal Charter and my Family

Picture shared in family history by Josh Buch

As I wrote in my first blog post (and first post on this series), my 3rd great grandfather, Manus Maurice Boyle, died in the Royal Charter shipwreck.  Now a good question is, how did I ever find it out to begin with?

When I was a genealogical newbie and was posting on message boards, I was lucky enough to link up with a distant cousin, William Turnbach, Jr.  While I’ve been truly fortunate to correspond with many distant cousins since, Bill was the first to introduce me to “The Letter.”

What is “The Letter”?  Well, it clarifies what exactly happened to Manus.  It explains why I’m not searching Pennsylvania mining records and obituaries trying to find out why he disappeared.  It explains why I’m not cursing his name while making the assumption that he abandoned his wife and children.

In 1917 Alice Boyle McGinnis nee Monaghan wrote a letter about a house that Manus built for them to live in.  That letter gives so much wonderful genealogical information, to include that Manus was a passenger on the Royal Charter and drowned.

I encountered family history gold within my first year of genealogy research.  Bill shared so much with me, and I shared my little branch of our family tree with him (he was much more advanced in his research than I was at that point).  

Photocopy of picture shared by Josh Buch - The house that Manus built

Since that time I have come in contact with numerous cousins that shared the same letter with me.  I’ve often wished that I had a copy of the original.  I’ve wished that I knew why Alice wrote the statement to begin with.  Always wishing, but the original seemed elusive.

So during my series of Royal Charter blog posts I’ve gone back to look over some information that I had collected over the years and see what I’ve over-looked (I do that...more often than I’d like to admit).  I have a wonderful 1+ inch thick genealogy that was sent to me by Josh Buch back in 2006-2007.  Josh is the husband of a distant cousin and the genealogist of their family.  We met online, exchanged emails, and even spoke on the phone and then he graciously mailed me a hardcopy of the entire genealogy he did for his wife.  Complete with photocopied pictures of the house that Manus built.  I revisited those and as I began paging through the genealogy I saw the letter.  The transcription that everyone always passes around...and the handwritten letter that it was transcribed from.  Yes, this was one of those moments that I felt like a complete dork.  I had been looking for something that had been in my possession for 5 years.  It’s so time to get better organized!

So I’m delighted to be able to add on to the Royal Charter family story by including a digital copy with the transcription.  I was also excited to see in the family history that Josh wrote, that Manus did find some gold during his years in Australia and had sent some money home (great job, grandpa!).  I’m sure he had gotten this information during his many interviews with family members that had known/remembered Alice.  

Photo of the house that Manus built from Josh Buch

I can’t really explain why, but knowing that Manus had found gold made me feel better.  It’s not a greed thing and it doesn’t change the fact that he died, but it did mean that he didn’t fail in his mission.  He and his family sacrificed so he could go and try for a better life for them.  So many people that went to Australia failed.  He didn’t.  He had succeeded in his goal and then fate dealt him a bad hand.

Grandma Alice went on to marry again (John McGinnis), but had no additional children to my knowledge.  John died early as well (a coal mining accident) and Alice never again married.  Perhaps after having had two husbands cruelly taken from her she decided enough was enough.  

I’m delighted to be able to share this genealogical gold nugget (and it truly is...just look at all the information in there!) and hope that it will be useful to any other descendents of Manus that may be out there that haven’t found the rest of us yet.  Thank goodness for those distant cousins and their incredible generosity and helpfulness!

Page 1

"Statement of Mrs. Alice McGinnis regarding dwelling house built by Manus Boyle in the autumn season of 1854, at which time the above mentioned Manus Boyle was the husband of the above mentioned Mrs Alice McGinnis.

My maiden name was Alice Monaghan.  I came from Ireland to America with my mother Mrs. Ann Monaghan, my brothers John and Eugene, and sister Elizabeth.  We arrived in Jeanesville, January 1, 1853.  I was married to Manus Boyle, a coal miner, in November 1853, and lived with my husband Manus Boyle in Leviston, Carbon County, Pennsylvania.  My husband worked for Rockliffe and Johnson who owned the coal mines at Leviston, Carbon County, Pennsylvania, at that time.  The superintendent was Jenkin Reynolds.  My husband [obtained permission from Rockliffe and Johnson to build a]

Page 2

...dwelling house and was told he could build a dwelling house on their land at any location he wished.  At the time it was customary to get permission from the land owners and build dwelling houses as the houses were very few.  My husband bought the lumber and in the autumn season of 1854 built a dwelling house in Leviston, Carbon County, Pennsylvania.  It consisted [sic] of three rooms on the first floor and one large room on the [sic] second floor which was called 'up stairs'.  The place was covered with trees and bushes and my husband cleared off trees and bushes to build the foundation and also the garden adjoining the dwelling house.  When the dwelling house was built we then moved into it.

On March 4, 1855 my daughter Mary Boyle, who is now Mrs Mary Fay, was born in this dwelling house, and [on December 24, 1856, my daughter...]

Page 3

...Annie Boyle, who is now Mrs Martin Blanchfield, was born in this dwelling house.

My husband Manus Boyle went to Australia in September 1856 and in the autumn season of 1859 when my husband was returning from Australia in the sailing vessel Royal Charter, the vessel was wrecked near the coast of Wales and my husband, Manus Boyle was drowned.

When my husband Manus Boyle went to Australia in 1856 my brother-in-law Richard Dougherty with his wife Rose and daughter Cathryne moved into this dwelling house and lived with me for company after my husband Manus Boyle was drowned, I lived here until the spring of the following year 1860 and then I went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and lived there, working for various families.  When I went away my brother John Monaghan took care of my youngest daughter Annie [and my brother-in-law took...]

Page 4

....care of my daughter Mary.

In the year of 1866 I married John McGinnis in Hazleton, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.  We lived in Jeanesville, PA, New York City, NY, and then in Leviston, PA.  In 1889 my husband John McGinnis and I returned to this dwelling house in Leviston, Carbon County, Pennsylvania which was built by my first husband Manus Boyle in the year 1854.  During the time I was away from this dwelling house 1860 to 1889 my brother-in-law Richard Dougherty and family occupied it and in the meantime built an addition to it.  Richard Dougherty died about the year 1882 and his family continued to live in this dwelling house until 1889 when they vacated the rooms of the house which my first husband Manus Boyle built and moved into the addition which they had previously built [adjoining the rooms of my house.]

Page 5

.......The statement given on the four pages attached is correct to the best of my knowledge and also to the best of my brothers knowledge, John Monaghan, and we have this date signed our names as shown below.

John Monaghan

Mrs Alice Mcginnis

Leviston P.O., 

Carbon County, Pennsylvania

Thursday, July 12, 1917

Page 6

I have this date heard the statement of Mrs Alice McGinnis regarding the dwelling house in Leviston, Caron County, Pennsylvania, built by Manus Boyle in 1854 and have witnessed the signatures of John Monaghan and Mrs Alice McGinnis as to correctness of the statement.

Mrs Mary Fay

Loretta Fay

George Fay

Leviston, Caron County, Pennsylvania Thursday, July 12, 1917"

NOTE:  Unfortunately the bottom of each page didn't copy, so I put the transcription from a copy of "The Letter" that was also in the family history (and had been passed around for years!) of the pieces that were missing in parentheses.