Theresia Kunze was my husband’s paternal 3rd Great Grandmother. She was born 24 April 1814 in Peterwitz Kreis Leobschütz, Silesia, Germany nowadays called Pietrowice in Poland. Kartenmeister is a great resource of finding information about former and current names of villages. An example for Peterwitz below.
Theresia’s parents were the farmer Joseph Kunz and his wife Magdalena Schenk. She married my husband’s 3rd Great Grandfather, Johann Kieslich, 2 September 1834. They had eight children, all born in Schönwiese, Silesia, Germany nowadays called Krasne Pole, Poland.
1. The oldest, Franziska Kieslich, my husband’s 2nd Great Grandmother, born 1838 and died 1914 in Schönwiese. She was married to Franz Scholz, my husband’s 2nd Great Grandfather. They had 11 children, one of them was Adolph Scholz, my husband’s Great Grandfather who immigrated to Tennessee. A picture showing Franziska Kieslich Scholz with some of her grown children, including Adolph, circa 1911.
2. Franz Kieslich born 1839, died 1909.
3. Josefa Kieslich born 1841, died 1919. She was married to Johann Hanke. They had 3 children.
4. Josef Kieslich born 1843, died 1918. He was married to Josepha Lichtblau. They had 3 children. Josef was also married to Karolina Kleiber and Anna Schokala.
5. Johann Kieslich born 1845, died 1918. He was married to Marie Kunze. They had 4 children.
6. Johanna Kieslich born 1846, died 1922. She was married to Josef Ludwig. They had 2 children.
7. Robert Kieslich born 1847 in Schönwiese, died 1910 in Burlington, Vermont, United States. He was married to Josepha Hofrichter. They had 9 children.
8. Anna Kieslich born 1852, died 1922. She was married to Joseph Kastner. They had 5 children.
Theresia died 11 September 1887 in Schönwiese.
Peterwitz (Pietrovice) to Schönwiese (Krasne Pole) is only 5.6 km or 3.4 miles.
I am participating in Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. This week’s title is “In The Beginning”. I will be writing on how I got started in genealogy. Today is also my first blog anniversary! I can’t believe that I have been writing these posts for a year now. Time flies when you are having fun.
When I grew up in Germany no one ever really talked about the past and a family tree was never mentioned. My Dad would talk a little bit about WW2, he had lived through it after all. He was also a soldier for a little while, however he kept getting sick and so he was released from his duties early on. His two older brothers Hans and Josef weren’t so lucky. They both perished in that horrible war.
My maternal Grandfather or Opa would talk a little bit about WW1. He talked about how he learnt a little English and French during the war. The first English and French words I actually learnt from him. Opa would make extra money in the war by entertaining the other soldiers. He would then send the money home to his Mother. He never talked about his Father. I know Opa served in France but when and where I don’t know. The records were destroyed during air raids on Wuppertal in WW2. Below a picture of Opa in his WW1 uniform.
At one point in the 1990’s I wanted to start a family tree. I had bought some genealogy software to install on our first computer. I entered some information about my parents and had made a mistake and wasn’t able to correct it. I pretty much just gave up. I was working full time and then my children were both born in the mid 1990’s and my life got very busy.
In the back of my mind I always wanted to create a family tree, however I didn’t have the time or the knowledge on how to do it until the year 2003. We were visiting my husband’s paternal Grandfather in the state of Washington. Grandpa was 96 at the time and was still farming. A picture below of him getting ready to plant some onions.
Grandpa would always tell lots of stories. He himself was a child of immigrant parents. They came from Austria. Over the years I had listened to these stories and they always had fascinated me. This time it was different. Grandpa had asked us we had the Scholz book. We had never heard of it. So he gave us a copy to keep.
I was mesmerized and hooked at the same time. It was the beginning of my genealogical journey. One hundred years of dates, pictures and stories. As I looked through the pages I couldn’t believe my eyes. To my surprise I was in the book. Life is funny sometimes. How can you be in a book you didn’t even know existed. The picture on the front cover was taken in 1938 for the 50th anniversary of Grandpa’s parents, Adolf Scholz and Rosina Muecke, together with all their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Adolf and Rosina were both born in Austria and married in Tennessee in 1888. They had nine children in that state and moved west in 1905. Grandpa was the youngest and only one born in Washington in 1906.
Adolf Scholz died in 1939, less than a year after their 50th anniversary. Rosina lived until 1960. She was asked to write down her life story. It was included in the back of the book in her original hand writing and also a typed transcript. I have read this story a million times and all of it starting making sense over time. I have been able to verify most names and locations.
When we first received the Scholz book, I had really no idea about my own family history. I didn’t even know the names of my own Great Grandparent until few years later when my research started.
The author of the Scholz Book was my husband’s first cousin once removed, Virginia Scholz Burger. Unfortunately we never met her. Sie died in 2004. I do have a couple of photos and articles I found about her during my research. First of all on her wedding day
She served in WW2 as a WAVE officer.
An her book was mentioned in the newspaper
I think she would be happy to know that her work is being continued in a slightly different form via my research. May be one day, I will publish a second book on the Scholz Family and continue the saga from 1988 on.
Starting my genealogy in 2006 I didn’t know much about our ancestors, except for the book we were given by my husband’s Grandpa. During almost 20 years of my research, I have accumulated massive amounts of documents, pictures, articles, books and so much more. I currently have 22,280 people in my tree. I work on extended lines as well. I have found second and third cousins via DNA testing and through research. My husband is the lucky one, he has all the famous cousins. Stuntman Yakima Canutt, President Herbert Hoover and actor James Dean. By the way, all three and my husband have the same ancestor. My husband is also an eighth cousin of the former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. We both have ancestors going back all the way to the 15th century.
My journey continues, let’s see where it will take me in the next 12 months. May be finding another second or third cousin. May be a trip to an ancestral place. May be a surprise of some sort.
Johann Ernst Muecke is my husband’s 2x Great Grandfather and he was born on 8 Feb 1837 in Markersdorf, Moravia, Austria. At present the town is called Markvartovice and it is located in the Czech Republic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markvartovice
Johann’s parents were Ernst Johann Mücke and Johanna Tögel. Johann married Rosina Schneider 24 April 1863 in Zauchtel, Moravia, Austria. Zauchtel is nowadays called Suchdol nad Odrou and is also in the Czech Republic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suchdol_nad_Odrou
A postcard from the 1920’s of Suchdol nad Odrou, that I own.
Johann Muecke and Rosina Schneider lived in Hof, Moravia, Austria where all of their children were born except for Lilly Muecke who was born in Tennessee.
A postcard of Hof in Mähren from my postcard collection.
Johann and Rosina settled together with their children in Oliver Springs between 1883 and 1884. A son, Adolph Mücke was born in 1881 and died in Hof in 1883. The daughter, Lilly Muecke, was born in 1884 in Oliver Springs. I have not been able to find any immigration records for this family.
Johann and Rosina had at least nine children together:
Rosina 1864-1960 (My husband’s Great Grandmother), Augusta 1867-1899, Julia 1870-1956, Earnest John 1871-1951, Charles 1875-1945, John Ernest 1877-1956, William 1880-1880, Adolph 1881-1883, Lilly Elizabeth 1884-1980, Joseph 1889-1889.
Genealogy Is An Adventure 