From Ireland to Massachusetts to Wisconsin

I had a small mystery on my hands and it involved why two brothers moved from Massachusetts to Wisconsin.  This family had immigrated to America from Ireland and in particular the Boston suburbs in the early 1850's but by 1867 two of the brothers married sisters and moved to Wisconsin.  Why?  It was after the Civil War and I wondered if that had anything to do with it.  A google search for what might have been going on in 1867 in Wisconsin turned up a unique immigration plan targeted on European immigrants.  Not only did they go overseas and distribute pamphlets about Wisconsin but also they went to the East coast and targeted the Irish and other immigrants to come to Wisconsin.  In 1855 Wisconsins were getting a little uptight about the foreigners and an end to the commission was brought about but it seems in 1867 that the commission was brought back and again in 1895.

Wisconsin government officials tried to encourage settlers to come to the state several times in the 19th century. They employed a commissioner or a formal board of immigration during the years 1852-1855, 1867-1887, and 1895-1901. In 1867 Gov. Lucius Fairchild persuaded Milwaukee author Increase Lapham to write a 38-page pamphlet entitled, "Statistics, Exhibiting the History, Climate, and Productions of the State of Wisconsin" to be distributed to prospective immigrants in the eastern states and in Europe. Lapham finished this pamphlet in July, 1867, and over the next several years, translations and revised editions appeared in German, Norwegian, French, Dutch, Swedish, and Welsh. More than 90,000 copies were published in all, some of them printed and issued directly in Germany, Holland, and England to save shipping costs. http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/search.asp?id=1701

The interesting thing is that if my Great Great Grandmother had left Massachusetts with her brothers I wouldn't be here and if they stayed their descendants wouldn't be here either.  

Double Cousins

My sister and I were "talking" the other day about cousins on my father's Irish side of the family.  In digging further we discovered that they are also cousins on our French-Canadian side, both French-Canadian sides, my Great Grandparents.  While being related on both sides of the French-Canadian tree is not unusual, it is unusual to be related at the same time on our Irish side.  On the Irish side they are 1st cousins 1x removed and though it's hard to figure out the exact relationship on the French-Candian side it's much futher back as we share 7th Great Grandparents through our Great grandmother Delia and 8th Great Grandparents through our Great Grandfather Magloire.  The world is definitely small.

Christmas Eve with our Ancestors

Christmas Eve for French-Canadians is known as the réveillon (literally, “awakening”), a feast that followed midnight mass and ushered in Christmas Day. Traditional food is the tourtiere or meat pie.




In German it is Heiliger Abend. The festival is usually celebrated in the family circle. In Germany it is common to eat potato salad with sausages or a similarly simple meal, but also more complex dishes such as goose or carp are common. A traditional Christmas Eve meal consists of carp (a type of fish), potato salad, boiled potatoes, cucumber salad and lemon slices. Germany is credited with starting the Christmas tree tradition as we now know it in the 16th century when devout Christians brought decorated trees into their homes. Some built Christmas pyramids of wood and decorated them with evergreens and candles if wood was scarce. It is a widely held belief that Martin Luther, the 16th-century Protestant reformer, first added lighted candles to a tree. Walking toward his home one winter evening, composing a sermon, he was awed by the brilliance of stars twinkling amidst evergreens. To recapture the scene for his family, he erected a tree in the main room and wired its branches with lighted candles.

In Ireland it is Oíche Nollag.  Christmas Eve is traditionally a day of fasting in Ireland followed with a small evening meal of fish and potatoes. After evening meal on Christmas eve the kitchen table was again set and on it were placed a loaf of bread filled with caraway seeds and raisins, a pitcher of milk and a large lit candle. The door to the house was left unlatched so that Mary and Joseph, or any wandering traveller, could avail of the welcome.



Recipes:

  Tourtiere:  http://www.ediblecommunities.com/southshore/winter-2011-2012/edible-celebrations-wake-up-and-party-french-canadians-on-christmas-eve.htm

  Irish Christmas Cake http://www.irelandforvisitors.com/recipes/blccake.htm

and all that food needs to be followed up with Gluehwein (you can make it with red or white wine) http://www.vistawide.com/german/christmas/gluehwein_recipe.htm

The world is a small place

Recently I've been corresponding with a 2nd cousin once removed.  We are related on our Irish side.  I found out her mother's second husband, her father, was French Canadian descent so I backed up her tree and found a familiar town and a familiar name.  So, we are very distantly related on our French-Canadian side as well as our Irish side.  Small world and what you learn from dead ancestors.

I See Dead Relatives

Finding your relatives in old cemeteries is like finding a needle in a haystack.  Recently we went searching for relatives in Provincetown, MA but unfortunately did not come across them.  There were three town cemeteries and until we got home we weren't sure which one they were in.  It is believed they are somewhere in this cemetery pictured.  We did come across a distant cousin though.

More on Internments

By the spring of 1917, so much of Canada's workforce had entered the armed forces that industry and agriculture were severely short of labour. As a result, all able-bodied internees were paroled from the internment camps to work in factories, railway camps and mines. Parole conditions included travel restrictions and required parolees to carry identity cards and report regularly to local authorities. Those assigned to railway labour in northern Ontario experienced conditions as hard as in the camps. Some 1,300 prisoners were paroled from Kapuskasing that spring. Approximately 60 men remained in camp for health or security reasons. They were soon joined by 400 prisoners of war transferred from the Fort Henry internment station. To hold these more dangerous inmates, high barbed-wire fences were erected around the camp and a stricter regime was instituted. Soon the camp's population again rose to over 1,200 prisoners. The majority now were German prisoners of war, mostly sailors and merchant seamen taken from German ships in the Caribbean.

Why was Fredrich Gerull considered "dangerous"?   Most likely he was just a merchant seaman like Grandpa who got caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Update:  Fredrich was most likely in the German military and was captured and interred on behalf of England in Canada.

D-Day

Today is D-Day, the longest day for Allied Soldiers.  When visiting Normandy not too long ago, I was taken by the impossibility of success.  Looking at that hill that they had to climb in order to defeat the Germans looked insurmountable by itself.