My Journey Into My Past

Memorial at the site of St. Antoine sur la Riviere-auxRaisins, Monroe Co. MI My ancestors were not ones to move around a lot.  The earliest ancestors to come to North America were the French.  Urbain Tessier dit Lavigne was born in 1624 in Anjou France.  He was one of the 70 Frenchmen who established a post in New France in 1641.  He was a sawyer, soldier, carpenter, farmer and Indian fighter.  He married 12 year old Marie Archambault in 1648.  He received a land grant in Montreal in 1648.  The family stayed in the area until great grandson Pierre Tessier dit Lavigne (born 1747) traveled south west along the St Lawrence to cross the straits into Michigan.  He was well established in the St Antoine area when he married in 1790.  The family stayed in what came to be known as Frenchtown, and later as Monroe.  Other ancestors of the Chauvin and Leduc lines were in Detroit as early as 1701.  The Tessier and Leduc lines l...

Today I got my first certificate from the Michigan Genealogy Society for the Michigan Pioneer Project.  This is a great project, collecting genealogies from residents all across the state, in two categories: Pre-Statehood, prior to 27 January 1837 and First Families from 27 January 1837 to 31 December 1880.  Eager to participate I decided to do one genealogy for each nationality in my ancestry. I started with the easiest.  My great grandparents Piotr Jablonski and Katarczyna Gic  immigrated from Poland in 1873, and my grandfather Frank Joblinski was born in 1875 in Detroit.  Documentation was required; birth, marriage and death records for each ancestor, proving the line of decent down to me.  I was able to obtain the Polish records for my great grandparents birth and marriage through the Poznan Project. My grandmother Michaelina Lyskawa was born in Poznan as well, but I was unable to obtain her birth record, but did have her immigration record and he...

My Great Grandmother Rose, My Grandmother Lena, My Mother Clara, My sister Rosemary c, 1950 A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME We all know how important it is to get the names correct in genealogical research.   We go on the hunt armed with the name, date of birth, and date of death of each person we are researching.   But sometimes we are stopped by seemingly incorrect details.   Don’t let one detail stop you.   The facts might be wrong! My 3 rd great grandmother died when she was two years old. It was there in black and white. The right name, the right two parents, and the right time frame.   Of course, the French were known to give the same name to multiple siblings.   My 3 rd great grandmother had an older sister of the same name who was born in 1776 and died in 1777.   My Cecelia LABADIE was born in 1778 and lived a long and fruitful life.   My 2 nd great grandmother was a mystery.   We knew her name to be Eliza SANTURE.  ...

These are my grandparents:  Frank Joblinski and Lena Lyskawa and Gus Wickenheiser and Lena Rivard.  I have had these photos for years, but it was only a few years ago, when I viewed them side by side that an obvious fact jumped out.  Body Language. Frank Joblinski was a first generation Pole born in Detroit, but later moved to Romulus MI to a farm bought by his father Peter.  He met Michaelina (Lena) one week, proposed the next, and they were married the third week  of their acquaintance.  Family legend is that she was brought to America to meet and marry Frank.  August (Gus) Wickenheiser was also a first generation American, His father Nicklaus immigrated from Germany with his parents as  a twelve year old. He also was raised on a farm.  The family of Eliza Pauline (Lena) Rivard had been in Michigan since 1701 when the area was still Canada. They knew each other for several years before they married.  Body Language:...

Katarzyna Joblonska Piotr Jablonski When I think of a fresh start, I think about my Polish ancestors.  My great grandparents were the first to immigrate to America from Posen.  Great grandfather  Piotr/Peter Jablonski married at age 24 to a 15 year old girl name Katarzyna/Katherine Gic in 1865 at the Catholic church in Znin.  I am not sure why they left Poland, but historically Poland was in a difficult economic time, and many young Poles were being conscripted into the Prussian army.  I think Peter left the country first, leaving his pregnant young wife and two children, Marianna and Michael.  I have yet to locate his immigration records, but Katherine arrived at Castle Gardens, NY in 1873 with the two children.  My grandfather Frank was a first generation child, born later that year in Detroit, MI. Not only did the Jablonski family face the hardship of travel, of leaving their families, they also faced the language barrier.  Althou...