SNGF - My 16 great-great-grandparents

From Randy over at Genea-Musings: Here is your SNGF assignment for the evening (if you choose to accept it - this is not stump the genealogist or even Mission Impossible):

1) List your 16 great-grandparents in pedigree chart order. List their birth and death years and places.

2) Figure out the dominant ethnicity or nationality of each of them.

3) Calculate your ancestral ethnicity or nationality by adding them up for the 16 - 6.25% for each (obviously, this is approximate).

4) If you don't know all 16 of your great-grandparents, then do it for the last full generation you have.

5) Write your own blog post, or make a comment on Facebook or in this post.

1. Joseph Francis Eugene Acquard, Jr.: born 17 Jan 1855 in Cheektowaga, Erie, NY; married 15 Oct 1878 in Bennington Ctr., Wyoming, NY; died 10 Sept 1943 in Bennington Ctr., Wyoming, NY. FRENCH
2. Mary Ann Kollin: born 15 Oct 1878 in Bennington Ctr., Wyoming, NY; died 5 Feb 1938 in Bennington Ctr., Wyoming, NY. 1/2 GERMAN and 1/2 BELGIAN
3. Franciszek Karpinski: born 16 Sep 1880 in Poland; died 22 May 1943 in Erie or Wyoming, NY. POLISH
4. Jozefa Szydlik: born 26 Sep 1886 in Poland; died 4 Apr 1973 in Warsaw, Wyoming, NY. POLISH
5. John George Nuwer: born 21 Mar 1869 in Lancaster, Erie, NY; married 19 Apr 1893 in Lancaster, Erie, NY; died 1 Feb 1948 in Alden, Erie, NY. FRENCH
6. Anna M. Zaepfel: born 28 Sep 1874 in Elma, Erie, NY; died 7 Aug 1943 in Alden, Erie, NY. 1/2 GERMAN & 1/2 FRENCH
7. Edward Roll: born about 1888 in Alden, Erie, NY; married 22 Jun 1910 in Alden, Erie, NY; died 12 May 1941 in Alden, Erie, NY. FRENCH
8. Lidwina Agnes Pautler: born 16 Jan 1888 in Alden, Erie, NY; died 11 Oct 1975 in Batavia, Genesee, NY. FRENCH
9. Marcantonio Casillo: born 11 Jan 1868 in Italy; married 5 Sept 1901 in Buffalo, Erie, NY; died 26 Nov 1937 in Colden, Erie, NY. ITALIAN
10. Carolina Izzo: born 3 May 1876 in Italy; died 2 Oct 1934 in Buffalo, Erie, NY. ITALIAN
11. William Fred Eichhorn: born 22 Jun 1874 in Chippewa, Ontario, Canada; married 14 Jun 1899 in Buffalo, Erie, NY; died 9 Mar 1931 in Buffalo, Erie, NY. GERMAN
12. Augusta M. Tross: born 6 Sept 1877 in Germany; died 1 Jan 1939 in Buffalo, Erie, NY. GERMAN
13. Charles William Whitehead: born 12 Jun 1872 in Burlington, Ontario, Canada; married prior to 1896; died 27 Dec 1927 in Buffalo, Erie, NY. ENGLISH
14. Anna May Sanderson: born 17 Jun 1871 in Burlington, Ontario, Canada; died 29 Apr 1928 in Buffalo, Erie, NY. ENGLISH
15. Jacob J. Gress: born 26 Jan 1869 in Buffalo, Erie, NY; married prior to 1888; died 11 Aug 1932 in Buffalo, Erie, NY. GERMAN
16. Elizabeth Fink: born 6 Jul 1867 in Buffalo, Erie, NY; died 24 Apr 1957 in Buffalo, Erie, NY. GERMAN

That gives me 31.25% German; 28.125% French; 12.5% Polish; 12.5% Italian; 12.5% English ; and 3.125% Belgian. The French and German parts are hard to tell as most of my fathers family came from the Alsace-Lorraine region which kept changing hands. The fact that my 3rd great-grandmother was born in Belgium (like the waffle) has always been cool to me. Oddly, I most identify with the Italian part of my heritage, even though it is way down on the list.

Saturday Night Fun - Your Paternal Grandmother's Patrilineal Line

Since I was at the symphony for Randy Seaver's Genea-Musings Saturday Night Fun, we'll have a little Sunday morning fun instead:-)

* What was your father's mother's maiden name?  Nuwer (She is still living)

* What was your father's mother's father's name? Albert Emil Nuwer, born 24 Mar 1906 in Alden, Erie, NY and died 24 Dec 1989 in Alden, Erie, NY.  Buried at St. John's Cemetery, Alden, Erie, NY.

* What is your father's mother's father's patrilineal line? That is, his father's father's father's ... back to the most distant male ancestor in that line?  My grandmother's brother has done a lot of research on this part of the family.  Here is the information I have from him, with much thanks:

- John George Nuwer, 1869 - 1948

- Henry Nuwer, 1845 - 1911

- Jean Nuber, 1819 - 1897

- Antoine Nuber, 1796 - 1857

- Franciscus Antone Nuber, 1760 -1818

- George Fancis Nuber, Unknown - Unknown

- John George Nuber, 1698 - Before 1748

* Can you identify male sibling(s) of your father's mother, and any living male descendants from those male sibling(s)?  If so, you have a candidate to do a Y-DNA test on that patrilineal line. If not, you may have to find male siblings, and their descendants, of the next generation back, or even further. As mentioned earlier, my great-uncle is still alive.  I will have to email him to see if he is interested in DNA testing.

Saturday Night Fun - Who's Number 21?

A bit later than Saturday night, here's my #21 for Randy of Genea-Musings prompt.

My #21 on my Anhentafel is my great-great grandmother Anna M. Zaepfel.

Anna was born 28 Sept 1874 in Elma, Erie, New York.  She married John George Nuwer 19 Apr 1893 at St. Mary's Church in Lancaster, Erie, New York.

Anna had 17 children, including my great-grandfather Albert Emil (he was number 9).  She must have been an amazing woman, especially since at least 16 of them reached adulthood.

She died 7 Aug 1943 and was buried in St. John's Catholic Church Cemetery, Alden, Erie, New York.

This photograph shows her with her first 10 children.

"Were You There?," (Alden) Alden Advertiser, 23 Oct 1975, p. 15, col. 1. 

Source time

Following month two of the DearMYRTLE organization checklist, it is time to make sure all of the items I have are properly sourced in my genealogy program.  I have been doing pretty well, but I need to go back through and make sure I have all the father and mother relation filled in for Legacy, as well as citing the information I received from interviews.  I also have to better use the notes section, both for transcribing and my views of some of the information.

I am very well aware of the necessity of sources, due to a couple documents I have that were not sourced and have created some problems for me.

The first of these is a pedigree chart my grandfather created, which I will talk about further as soon as I buy a scanner and can attach images of all the documents he had.

The second is a document created by Estella Nuwer Minderler on December 8, 1974.  Estella is my second cousin, four times removed on my father's mother's side.  Titled "The History of the Nuwers.", I was given a copy of this in elementary school by my grandmother when I was doing a family history project.  

It begins, on page 3, with a "Narrative" as follows:

"Beginning in the 1840's and continuing for the next thirty years, millions of Europeans emigrated to the United States and Canada.  The Nuwers of Alsace-Lorraine were an early part of this movement."

It continues with information on the town of Lancaster, Erie County, New York where they settled, biographical information on several of the people listed and a list of descendants of Anthony and Margarete (Ludwig) Nuwer (my 5th great-grandparents).

This is a wonderful item to have, as the information on the later generations is taken first hand from interviews Estella did.  Unfortunately, none of it is documented and the later generations do not completely match up with research that has been done in more recent years.  The most depressing part of this is that Estella mentions an immigrant relative Christine Nuwer who kept a diary of her trip across the Atlantic.  It is depressing because there never was a Christine Nuwer and no one can locate the diary, to find out who had actually written it.  Further discussion on the diary can be found by Brian Smith.

I want to make sure that all information I write and that gets passed on to other researchers and further generations is correct and documented as such, so that they do not have to redo the work I have already done.  This will probably mean very little new research in February, which will be okay as I am waiting for quite a few New York vital records and my great-grandfather's WWI military records.

Source:

"The History of the Nuwers."  Estella Nuwer Minderler, 8 Dec 1974; privately held by Amanda Acquard, [STREET ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE].

Tombstone Tuesday

Following the jumpstart your genealogy blog week #3. Participate in weekly blog themes: Tombstone Tuesday, Wordless Wednesday, etc. Many genealogy bloggers post photos of grave stones on Tombstone Tuesday or a photo worth 1,000 silent words on Wordless Wednesday. Participate in these informal events or invent your own.

This is the tombstone of my great-grandparents, Albert Emil Nuwer and Edna Agnes Roll, located at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church Cemetery, Alden, Erie County, New York.

The only great-grandparent I remember was my grandpa Nuwer.  I recall cleaning out his farmhouse after his death and being unable to go to his funeral as I was so young (I had just turned 8).