ANDY         &   Us, a few years ago.

. MARY'S

. GENEALOGY A Little About Us After many long years  of toil in the world of   industry and business    we have both retired to    pursue things more    pleasant & meaningful   -- such as genealogy.  Our other main interests at the moment are travel, volunteer work, and restoring a 116 year old one-room school house. Between us, we have seven children, the last one a high school senior. We live in rural east-central Wisconsin.

                                                                                                              Go to Web Site Contents
Grampa's Lament

We've been dead so long here
    on the hill that nobody remembers us.
Can you believe that?
One hundred years or so, and nobody knows that we lived.
But we lived. Yes, indeed!  Just like you are living now; eating and
    sleeping and breathing and working and loving.
We were Germans, most of us, and we came to this place
    when it was rough and wild.  We hacked the stumps off the land and
    we dug the soil with our hands to plant things.
We were farmers, and we came across wild seas and dark wilderness
    to grow things here.
We came when we were young and strong and looking
    for a place to think our own thoughts.
We worked and we helped pull the claws out of this wild country.
We were proud of that.
And there are more of us; but our markers are gone so nobody will
    ever again know who we were.

   (a poem by Paul Stokes, excerpted from the 1972 Milwaukee Journal)
 

We Are Trying, Grampa

We hope this site helps revive the memories of forgotten ancestors,
    and instills within family members a better understanding
    of our common heritage and intertwined history.
In our world of disjoint families and far flung careers, we are
    in particular need of a sense of family -- from which
    can flow individual purpose and direction.
 

Go to Web Site Contents   /  Music Anyone?  /  Ye Olde Family Stories Note Pad
 

Hospitality Room

Hi, come on in!  You can throw your coat and stuff on the couch over there.

If you have the time, sit a bit and prop your feet.  There's hot cider and
cups on the counter.  Fixin's for tea and coffee too -- and I think there's
some beer in the 'fridge, out in the garage.

Introduce yourself if you don't know everyone.  ....  Mike?  He was here before.
He might be wandering around one of the other rooms.

I gotta go now.  I think somebody else just came in.  Oh, by the way, there're
oatmeal cookies in the second drawer down -- and throw another chunk on
the fire or open the damper if you need more heat.  Turn on some music if you like.

                                                      ----------

OK everyone, listen up, if you would.  You can stay here and reminisce as long as
you like, but if you remember any good family stories, be sure to jot 'em down on
the pad over there.  The young'ens haven't heard them yet.

When you're ready to walk around, you'll find a brief overview of our family in the
next room.  In the other rooms on this floor are displays on the family's eight main
branches -- with maps of where they came from (and went), a few pictures, and a
little history -- dates, names, places, a few skeletons -- that sort of stuff.  Mary's
families are in the rooms to the right.  Andy's are down the hall. Up the stairs and to the
left you'll find a little info on three hundred and eight of our direct and "step" ancestors.

If you really want the scoop, though, the details are in the files in the basement.
There are about eight thousand people down there -- well, maybe just the spirits of
most of them.  Andy's kin tend to mill around by the far end, while Mary's mostly
congregate near the steps -- just push your way through.  Over two hundred pictures
will let you glimpse what they -- and we -- looked like.  A thousand pages or so of notes
might help us learn of them -- and perhaps, from them, as well.  Over eight hundred
references guard against our losing track of them again.

Browse as long as you like.  There's a copy machine next to the water heater.  Turn off
the lights when you come back up.  If you find any mistakes, please let us know.

On the way out, there are some brochures of other places you might want to visit.  We'd like
to add directions to your favorite place, if you care to leave it.

OK then! Right this way, if you please.  >>>>  [Door]    I'll get you started, but then you're
on your own. .... Sure. You can take your cup with you.