Ramminger Research

I’m on the trail to tie up some “loose ends” of one of my maternal lines. I have quite a few documents and sources, but I’m missing some key elements.

1852 Passenger list

My direct line immigrant ancestor was Andreas Ramminger. He was from a village in Germany, Hesse-Darmstadt. In 1852, Andreas, his wife Gertrudis (Gertrude) and their six boys boarded a ship in Rotterdam, Netherlands to come to America. The sons were, Conradus (Conrad), Joannes (John), Henricus (Henry), Jacobus (Jacob), Philippus (Philip), and Adamus (Adam).

They made their home in Sheboygan County Wisconsin by farming. In 1854, Gertrude died. 

1854 marriage record

Andreas married Wihelmine Bergner. In December 1854, he bought 40 acres of land from John M. Watson, who received the Bounty Land as a solider in War of 1812.

I’d like to research the land deed.

Learn exactly when Gertrude died and where she’s buried.

Name all of Andreas and Wihelmine’s children. The list I have is: Frederick, Maria, Herman, William Mary, and George.

George is my great-grandfather. He was born in 1866 in Rhine, Sheboygan County, Wisconsin.

Married Susanna Steinhauser in 1894. Their homestead was in Clark County, Wisconsin.

I’m going to the Wisconsin Historical Society to research all of the above, and hopefully, more!

Copyright 2017, Gayle Ficarra Wolcott

6 June 2014, SCGS Jamboree, day 1

The first free session I went to was "10 Tips for Finding Newsletter Content" by Gena Philibert-Ortega. Gena comes to our local society, Ventura County Genealogical Society each July and does a mini seminar for us (http://venturacogensoc.org) so I know her talk would be worth my time. I'm not our newsletter editor but I picked up some terrific tips from her about writing articles for our newsletter.

The next session I went to was "Making the Case: Change and Technology in Your Society" by Randy Whited. I've heard Randy talk before too. He use to host the Blog Talk Radio podcast, My Society. He explained the changes that the Texas State Genealogical Society made in the way they conducted their society business.  

So many sessions to choose from, oh my! I finally settled on an old favorite of mine, Thomas MacEntee "Genealogy Cloud Computing." He did not let me down. He's always prepared, always has great handouts, he's knowledgeable and even funny. I always try and get at least one of his classes when he's on the roster.

2:30 p.m. session I chose "Evernote for Genealogists," with Jordan Jones. I was sitting about two rows back from one of the projection screens. I sometimes found it hard to hear Mr. Jones.

4:00 p.m. session was with another all-star speaker, Paula Stuart-Warren, "Manuscript Finding Aids: Locating Migrating Family Records." Ms Stuart-Warren doesn't disappoint, she really knows her stuff! I didn't have her handout printed out in advance but I downloaded it onto my tablet so was able to follow along.

I probably shouldn't have gone to my last session at 5:30 p.m. I was tired, kept watching the clock because the session was going to end at 6:30 and the banquet was starting at 7:30 p.m. Wouldn't give me much time to dash back up to my room, change my clothes and then get in line for dinner. But I went anyway because it was Rhonda McClure, "Following the Crumbs: Tracing Family through Land Records." In my mother's paternal line our ancestors were farmers. I want to start researching Wisconsin land records. I liked her talk and handout; I'll probably refer to it often.

Copyright, 2014, Gayle Ficarra Wolcott

Mom's Old House; Family Reunion

Our 2012 road trip has been going really great.  We’ve stopped in Cedar City, Iowa and visited the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum.  Beautiful grounds and awesome exhibits.  I never knew much about that president so the experience was wonderful.  Our destination was Wisconsin.

My husband and I arrived the day before the family reunion.  We met with some of my mother’s cousins and their families for dinner.  This was a first for my husband.  He’s heard me talk of these relatives throughout the years.

After dinner, we followed in our car, my mother’s cousins Mildred, her sister Myrtle, Mildred’s son Roger and his wife Arlene.  They showed us the house my grandparents once own; the very house where my mother, her sister and brother grew up.  Years and years ago my mother showed my sister, brother and I her old house and I’ve seen it several times after that.  I just never knew the address or how to get back to it.



Top right window, Mom's bedroom



After we got to the address, I got out of our car to take a photo of the house.  As I was going around the side, a man who lived there was by the garage.  I was a little embarrassed so walked back to the car.  One of the cousins got out of her car, took me back to the man and explained my mother use to live there and I wanted to take pictures of the house.  He was very nice and said it was OK.  He explained his great-grandfather once owned it.  He still had the original abstracts of the house; did we want to see it?  Wow, this was great!  He brought out the paperwork and there was the information on the house, how much my grandfather paid and what his mortgage was.  They bought the house in 1924; sold it in 1944 to the current owner’s great-grandfather.  It was so surreal.  I tried to take a photo of the paperwork but since the sun was going down, it wasn’t working out very well.  He then offered to scan the pages for me.  Wow, what a guy!  While he was inside, his lovely wife and two children came and talked to us.  Very nice family.  I now have copies of the original abstract of my grandparent’s first home.

The next day was bright and sunny.  We were anticipating hot and humid, but were really surprised by the temperature that day, only in the 80s.  We stopped at the first table and put on some name tags.  Since I was a collateral relative I used my maiden name; both my mother’s parent’s surnames and my married surname: Gayle Ficarra Bartunek Ramminger Wolcott.  Just trying to cover all the bases.  Got quite a few laughs.

Below the food counter a cousin hung a very long family wall chart.  On the tables were photo albums, descendant reports, and a photo collage.  I knew I had some gaps, missing children and information in my research, so before coming to the reunion I printed out my own wall chart.  This gave me the opportunity to sit down face-to-face and get the information straight from the source.  Everyone I approached was open, friendly and gave me their names, birth dates and that of their children.  Throughout the afternoon I used my portable mobile scanner and scanned as many pictures as I could from the photo albums.

Many of the cousins came up and asked me if I was getting the family information I needed.  Boy was I ever!  It was the best reunion I’d ever been to.  Mom would have loved it!

Brick Wall Falls With the Help of Strangers

Last week as I was scanning and inputting vital records into my genealogy program, I noticed I didn’t have the details of my Grandma Bonita’s interment in a cemetery.  I need to clarify who exactly Bonita was and wasn’t.  She was my Grandpa Henry’s (Hank) second wife, and Henry was Bonita’s second husband.  Since they were married long before I was born, I considered Bonita as “always my grandma.”

I keep a spreadsheet of my ancestors with the name and address of the cemetery; their birth, death, and interment dates; the Section, Lot, Block and/or Grave No. of where they’re buried.  Bonita’s death certificate had the name Saxon Cemetery, Saxon Wisconsin as to where she was buried.  Since my grandma’s section of the spreadsheet wasn’t filled out, I did a Google search of the cemetery name so I could call and ask for the interment date along with the Section, Lot, Block and Grave No.  Results: there wasn’t a cemetery by that name anywhere.

I then searched for any cemeteries near Saxon, Wisconsin.  Up popped about a dozen names.  I called the one that was closest to Saxon.  The cemetery doesn’t have an office but there was a Sexton that could take calls.  The Sexton wasn’t there but a very nice lady named Carol answered.  I told her my grandma’s name, Bonita Raminger, and death date.  She said she’d have to call me back after checking some books.  I continued to call some of the other cemeteries; no luck with any of them.

Carol called me back and said, “Yes, your grandmother was buried in the Lake View cemetery in Saxon.”  She read me the names and death dates that were in the same plot.  (Happy dance!)  I read her the name of the informant on the death certificate, which was Bonita’s daughter Loretta.  Carol knew Loretta’s daughters Sandra and Allison; in fact she contacted them for answers to questions so she could help me.  I couldn’t believe my luck!  This doesn’t happen to me, it happens to other people!

Carol gave Sandra my phone number and said I might be calling her.  When Carol called me back with the news, she gave me Sandra’s phone number.  I thanked her very much and turned around and dialed Sandra.  We talked a long time and reminisced about “our” grandma Bonita and grandpa Hank.  She used to spend some weeks during the summer with them and so did I, just not at the same time.

When I first began researching my family I would read about other people’s brick walls falling down with help of strangers.  I didn’t know I had a brick wall with Grandma Bonita but I’m sure glad it’s no longer blocking my path.

On The Road to Wisconsin

This morning my husband and I embarked on our 2012 Great American 1,800 mile Road Trip.  We left coastal southern California’s 73º weather and drove into 110 º “furnace” of Nevada.  Similar weather in the coming weeks only with humidity.

We’re heading to Dorchester, Clark County, Wisconsin to participate in the Williams/Bartunek Family Reunion that’s going to be held on Saturday, 28 July.  Our great-grandparents are the connection.  (My maternal grandmother was a Bartunek.)

I’ve been emailing and collaborating with several of the cousins’ for about 10 years.  It’s been great sharing family information and getting connected again with my mother’s side.  Some of the cousins live in the area; some are driving from Illinois, Michigan and parts unknown to me.

I also have cousins from my mother’s paternal side of the family in the area.  We’ll be visiting with one of her cousins the day following the reunion.  I talked to her a few weeks ago.  She wanted to know what I wanted to do/see when we meet.  I told her not to worry about taking me to “see the sights, I just wanted to visit.”  She asked if I wanted to go to any cemeteries while we’re there.  Oh wow!  I said, “Yes, of course!” 

A week after the reunion we’ll be driving across the state to visit with another cousin of mine.  We haven’t seen each other close to 50 years I think.  With all of this coming up, I’ve been busy updating my genealogy program to Roots Magic-5; scanning photos my mother had; scanning vital record documents; finally inputting the new facts with sources in the program.  While on the road I’ll still need to printout family group sheets and make a genealogy CD for each family.

I’m anxious and excited at the same time.

Road to Wisconsin

 In two weeks time, my husband and I are going to be “hitting the road” again. Yes, another road trip in the making. Last year we spent 47 days together out on the highways and interstates of USA. I had a genealogy conference in Springfield, IL (my home state) in September. I thought of flying in, getting a hotel room, meals out, the usual stuff. But he as very willing to do most of the driving across country (I can't help it, I just seem to fall asleep when in the car). So I said, “OK, let's drive.”

After the conference we went up to the Chicago area, stayed with a former school friend and visited my family and friends. Then to Allen County Public Library in Indiana; our daughter's in-laws in Ohio; more friends in Tennessee. My cousin put me in touch with my “brick wall” cousins in Louisiana. That was so cool! Spent some time in the “Big Easy” then headed to Austin, Texas to see our daughter and son-in-law.

This time we're heading to my mother's home state of Wisconsin. She was from the small town of Dorchester in Clark County. The reason we're going is to attend a family reunion. Not my mother's family unfortunately, but her cousins' family reunion. I'm more of a collateral branch of the family tree.

Back when I started genealogy I wrote to several of my mother's 1^st cousins and asked about their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. The ladies who wrote back helped as much as they could, then gave my name and email address to a nephew who was also climbing the family tree. We've been collaborating ever since. His grandmother Bessie was my grandmother Jennie's sister. The sister's came from a family of six siblings; three girls and three boys. Their surname was Bartunek. Bessie married Harry Williams and my grandmother married Henry Ramminger. The family reunion I'm going to is for the Williams' Family. It'll be held at Dorchester Memorial Park on Saturday, July 28^th.

The Williams family held their first reunion at the same park two years ago. At the time we were having our kitchen remodeled and I couldn't attend. But I'm going this year! I've also been corresponding with another Williams' cousin who lives in Michigan.

Periodically, my mother would take us up to Wisconsin for a family wedding or 50^th anniversary party. Being quite young at the time, I can't remember all the “cousins” so this will kind of be a face-to-face meeting for the first time. I'm really looking forward to it.

1940 Indexing

Today I was able to get in some indexing time.  I did 40 records for Alameda County California.  40 records for De Kalb County Illinois, and 40 records for (I forget which county) Wisconsin.

I'm living in California and helping my local genealogy society; also my father was born in Los Angeles.  My home town is Chicago, Illinois so I always try and do some records for Illinois whenever I sit down for indexing.  My mother is from a little "village" in Wisconsin so I try and do some records for them too.  Earlier in April I was able to include Louisiana while indexing.  My paternal grandfather and paternal grandparents were from there.  Now the whole state is done so onto the others.

Indexing has been quite addicting and fun.  "Only a few more records, then I'll stop."  But then I'll download another batch and won't quit until they're all submitted.  Today I had a really blurry image for the Wisconsin batch.  Whew, glad I pushed through.