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Robert Mullally has
been involved in genealogy since high school and is generously sharing the results of
his research on the Stimmlers with the family. Preliminary postings include Stimmler birth
testimony by the Burgermeister of Wilwisheim and an in-depth history of the
life of pioneer priest Father Valentine Nicholas Stimmler. Robert also
contributed prayer cards for the following individuals: Father Valentine Stimmler,
Anton J. Stimmler (in German), George L. and Julia (Sakry) Stimmler,
George F. and Anna Crescentia (Stimmler) Benninghoff, Gilbert Stimmler,
and Frances C. (Stimmler) Schaaf. We are deeply indebted to Robert for
his hard work and generosity.
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Martin Holz has
prevailed upon his good friend Fritz Fister to translate into German the amusing newspaper
article regarding Father Pfeiffer of Duelm's assault and battery on
Jacob Kampa during church services. Appropriately enough, it is entitled
Pastor Pfeiffer in Duelm angeklagt wegen Bedrohung und Tätlichkeit gegen ein Mitglied seiner Pfarrei.
We give thanks to Martin and Fritz for their good work in this regard.
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Marlene Armentrout has
kindly contributed a copy of Edward and Catherine (Voerding) Balder's marriage certificate,
Edward's death certificate
and obituary from The Foley Independent, in addition to
Catherine's death certificate
and two of her obituaries.
Also, thanks to the assistance and research of Jim Balder,
it has been determined that Edward Balder died in St. George township and not Minden, MN,
as previously believed. Both Barbie Herbst and
Connie Balder Mickolajak contributed the first pictures we've seen of
Martin and Caroline (Balder) Herbst.
Thank you, Marlene, Jim, Barbie and Connie for sharing these items of interest with the family!
Barbie also has a great
genealogy web site that shows the Herbst family relationships with some photographs and
family histories. A link to her site has been added to the Resources
page.
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A recent addition to
Marian Sakry's family web site comes courtesy of his American cousin,
Mark Keith Sakry. It's his story
in English regarding their March 2002 visit to the Sakry and Kampa family homeland in Silesia.
This background information greatly enhances understanding of the
photographs
of their journey which Marian posted online earlier this year. Thank you Marian and Mark for
sharing this experience with the extended family!
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Two more chapters have been posted from
Don Kampa's book, Gram and Gramps:
Chapter 8 Eau Claire and Chapter 9 Omaha
along with some of Don's photographs from that time. We greatly appreciate that his son
Dick Kampa is sharing this book with us.
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Irene (Kampa) Elwell, beloved
aunt of Carol Kampa Buszak, passed away on
October 9, 2002 at the Foley Nursing Home. Carol has many happy memories of the summers
spent on her Uncle Floyd and Aunt Irene's farm in Oak Park, just outside of Foley, MN, and Irene
will be dearly missed by all fortunate enough to have known her. We also are greatly saddened to report that Mikaela, the daughter of
Kristine (Kampa) Pavich, and granddaughter of Jerry and Sherry Kampa, passed away
November 23, 2002 at the age of 21 months. Carol's family is in our prayers, and we
extend our most profound sympathy to them at this time of sorrow.
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LoisMarie Okonek
has shared more of her photographs of the family gravestones, including those of Thomas
and Johanna Kampa, Anna Kampa Marvin, young boy Blutcher LeRoy Rhoades,
his father and mother, Blutcher Wellington and Mary Catherine Rhoades,
brother Charles Alfred Rhoades, and eldest sister
Ruby "Anna" Stickney (née Rhoades). Thank
you so much for your hard work in taking all these photos, LoisMarie. Other items of interest
are death certificates for August Kampa,
Cora Kampa (née Latterell),
Frank James Kampa,
Thomas J. Kampa Sr., and brother Joseph F.
and his wife Theresa Kampa (née Balder).
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Jim Balder located a
very interesting interview with Bernard Voerding
from 1936 in which Barney relates his early life on the prairie and encounters with the local
Sioux and Chippewa Indians. Martin Holz has kindly had
this interview translated into German. Our
thanks go out to Jim and Martin for their work in revealing this fascinating chapter
of our ancestors' lives. By way of background, information about the Sioux
Massacre of 1862 from the point of view of Minnesotans in the 1890s has been added along with
letters, interviews,
and other personal observations made during that
time to give some history of this dramatic clash between the early immigrants and local Indian
tribes which opened the way for settlement of the state by our ancestors.
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Research into the parish books of
Waldolwisheim and Wilwisheim in the lower Rhein valley of France has yielded copies of
the ancient marriage records for some of our Stimmler ancestors. Now available online are the marriage
records of Jean and Margaretha Stimmler
(née Durrenbach) from 1718, his son Martini
and Catharina Stimmler (née Troesch) from 1756, and two marriage records for
Martini's son Antoine and Maria Stimmler (née Hess)
dating from 1788.
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Connie Balder Mickolajak
will be travelling to Europe with her teacher friend Wendy Abbott and an intrepreter who is fluent in English, Polish and German.
While there she will be visiting the homeland of the Balder and Kampa ancestors, and going to the University of Wrosclaw
where they have genealogy records. Some highlights of her trip will be Weimar, Wroclaw, Krakow, Prague and Regensburg.
Connie's leaving April 16 and returning May 7. If anyone has any questions, suggestions, etc. for her trip, please contact
her at cmickola@cpinternet.com. Have a great trip, Connie! We all wish you
good luck!
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Irene (Jurek) Carey passed away this March at the age of 84. Born
in 1917 to John Jurek and Frances T. Kampa, Irene married Eugene Carey. She died in her sleep at the
home of her daughter Patricia and son-in-law Sam Atkinson with whom she had been living since suffering a small
stroke in December 2000. She leaves a
brother Roy who still lives on the family farm. Since she passed away, Sam and Trish have pictures of people around her
home in Foley, Minnesota and will share them if able. They are looking for the children of her brother Richard Jurek
whom they believe may be searching for photographs of their mother and father. Richard's children lived with Irene and
her family after his death.
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Crusing the Internet can yield some interesting treasures. The
U.S.S. Bowfin was the first submarine on which LTJG Richard P. Stimler
was stationed. On July 31, 1952 the crew of the Bowfin held a "Birthday Ball" for the First Anniversary Recommissioning
Party at the Hotel Richilieu in San Francisco; my father's name is listed as a Commissioned Officer on the
invitation. There also is a post-WWII summary of the U.S.S. Bowfin,
which has been a National Historic Landmark since 1986 and currently is open for public tours at Pearl Harbor. Another
find was a listing of personnel on the Third War Patrol and the
Fourth War Patrol of the U.S.S. Pampanito (SS-383) with
my uncle Spencer Hunt Stimler. Along this same vein, there is a
newspaper clipping from 1986 regarding the dedication ceremony making the submarine
U.S.S. Pampanito a National Historic Landmark; it currently is berthed at Pier 45 near Fisherman's Wharf in
San Francisco.
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Sharon Farrah has connected
with a Kampa cousin of ours, Bill Pollard, grandson of
Julia Halfman (née Kampa), the youngest child of Martin and
Frances Kampa (née Jurek). Bill's older brother Len researched his family line many years
ago and as a result of their generosity we now have new insight into Martin's occupation, Frances' stamina and character, and
how her parents' fear of Indians shaped Julia's educational choices in the new homeland. Thank you both, Sharon and Bill, for
sharing this information with us!
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Gene Kampa has
donated many great old family photographs for inclusion on the site. One of the latest is this rare closeup of
J. L. Kampa and his partner John Martin, Claremont, Minnesota
blacksmiths circa 1900, seen at left. Included from the reverse of the postcard is a handwritten caption by
Frances Windhurst (née Kampa). Another special treat is a photograph of
Big Balsam, the small schoolhouse where Frances taught with her friend
in the early 1920s. Gene also has shared pictures of himself and his brother Don circa 1923, Don with
a coffee cup, their older brother George with his girlfriend in 1925 plus
one of June and Pete Kampa with Gene's sister Alvina from 1972.
There's a cute photograph of Gene as a bare-bottomed baby and later on when he was
in the Army stationed in Alaska during WWII. There are new photos of Gene's daughter
Peggy cooking in her gourmet kitchen,
daughter Carol's family, with her sons Reha Jr.,
Ryan and Tracy, plus their cousins
Carolyn Fortino and Katie Kampa,
Gene's granddaughters. We are very grateful to Gene for
sharing these treasures with all of us!
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There are three more chapters posted from
Don Kampa's entertaining book, Gram and Gramps:
Chapter 5 Learning about Business, Chapter 6 Love,
and Chapter 7 The War Years. Some of Don's photographs are included. Our thanks go out to his son
Dick Kampa for sharing this book with us.
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There is a new biography posted for Heartie Norden (née Hunt)
that includes some great old pictures. One shown in miniature at right includes Heartie,
brother Harry and sister Viola and their classmates taken in approximately 1910. There are also
several photographs of a day with the Hunt family circa 1924, featuring Heartie,
Viola with son Jr., their parents, George Spencer
and Osceola Hunt, and grandfather Nathaniel King Hunt.
We are grateful to Spence Stimler, Helen Lundblad
and Sally Berthiaume for sharing these pictures with us and for their
help in identifying the people in them. |
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Connie Balder Mickolajak
has contributed some excellent material, including a newspaper clipping from 1898 about the
Ernest Keller and Clara M. Balder nuptials plus a photograph of
Clara's gravestone. There also is a picture
of Connie at Clara's father Frank Balder's gravestone, an 1884 newspaper clipping
with several items of interest about the Balder and Kampa families, and an 1899 article about the
Balder brewery purchase. She located a great photograph of
Company M, Stearns County MN taken
in early October 1898 before they went off to fight in the Spanish-American War and the Philippine Insurrection. What's more,
she found the probate records for the estates of Frank Balder and his eldest brother,
Joseph. In addition,
Connie discovered a useful tool that is now linked on our Resources page, the
Obituary Birthday Calculator. And there now is a heart-warming
biography posted of her father, Edward Louis Balder. Thank
you so much, Connie, for all your superlative research!
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Martin Holz's latest
contributions include a German translation of Who are wanted in Minnesota from the 1851 St. Anthony
Express, entitled Wer wird, in Minnesota gebraucht? There is new material on
Father Francis Xavier Pierz, pioneer missionary priest responsible for encouraging
many of our Silesian relatives to immigrate to the United States. Martin's friend Ingrid Seliger has kindly provided a
German translation of this as Pfarrer Francis Xavier Pierz, dem Missionar.
Thank you very much, Martin and Ingrid!
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December was an extremely sad month as we lost two of the
brightest stars in our family firmament. Martha Hanson, dear mother of
Jack and Janet, beloved "Sis" to
Louise, Gene and
Dorothy, and much loved auntie, grandma and great-grandma, passed away due to
complications following surgery with her children at her bedside. Cousin Jan Peake
preceded her in death by only a few days, losing her valiant battle with cancer surrounded by her beloved husband Jerry and
all their children and her siblings. Jan was the motivating force behind the 1999 St. Cloud
family reunion and we owe her a debt of gratitude for bringing us all together through her strong love of family. Both these
incredible women will be greatly missed by everyone.
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