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Thomas and Agnes Cleary

Thomas William Cleary was born in Winnebago, Illinois on March 28th, 1853 to Patrick and Mollie Cleary. The ancestry on Thomas’ paternal side is unable to be traced because his mother’s maiden name is unknown. The field for this information was left blank on all of the family’s available vital records, including Thomas' death record. Only St. James Cemetery where the family is buried had her first name which was found in their records from the time. Patrick's parents Thomas Cleary and Sarah (Kennedy) Cleary lived in County Wicklow, Ireland at the time of his birth. There is nothing more known about the ancestry of the Cleary or Kennedy families.  Patrick and Mollie came to the United States in 1846, living outside of Rockford where Patrick worked as a day laborer on the Saunders’ farm, saving up money to buy his own farm. Prior to leaving Ireland, Patrick was a butcher. They had a total of five children, three of whom did not reach adulthood. A second son, Charles, eventually l...
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Peter and Julia Olson

The story of Peter and Julia Olson begins in Norway. Peters’s parents Ole Olson and Christine Olson (Johnson) lived in Bergen, Norway at the time of his birth. Very little is known about Ole and Christine or their ancestors, including whether or not they had any other children. Julia’s family has been traced back three generations to Erik Olson Hylland who was born in Aurland, Sogn, Norway. He married Ollegaard Larsdatter Vindal. Their son Ole Erickson Hylland was born in 1782 in Aurland and died in 1869 in Vossestrand, Voss, Norway. He married Britta Jonsdatter born in 1795 and died in 1887 Vossestrand. Their daughter Anna Olesdatter Jordalen and her husband Jon Jonsen Naasen were Julia’s parents. Anna’s sister Thora Seaver (Olesdatter) immigrated to The United States and raised a large family on a farm near Julia and Peter’s own farm. Julia had several brothers and sisters, one of whom also married into the same Seaver family as Thora. It is unknown when and where Peter and Julia wer...
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Did Lenice Nuckles know a Wisconsin Supreme Court Judge?

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In late 2013, when I began a project to digitize all of my family's photo's, I found among the photos that my mother had given me to scan, there was a black photo album with black paper pages containing photos that my father's mother Lenice Virginia (Woodward) Nuckles had collected from her life in Wisconsin. Lenice V. Woodward's Photo Album I believe that that photos date from the mid 1930's through the mid 1940's. Unfortunately, only a few of the photos have anything written on them, so I have a lot of great photos and no idea about the identity of most of the people in the photos. There is no one still living who was there at the time to ask about them. Lenice passed away in 1977 when I was 4 years old. Me and Grandma Lenice V (Woodward) Nuckles The photos in the album contained a number of photos of children. I asked my father about the photos. Although he didn't know for sure, he thought that it was possible that Lenice had been babysitt...
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Finding John N Roth

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Back in early 2014, I requested from the state of Wisconsin, the marriage record of my great grandparents Nelson and Mary (Lutz) Woodward, the marriage record of Mary's parents, John and Olive Etta (Roth) Lutz, and the marriage record of Etta's parents, John Peter and Mary Louise Roth. Prior to receiving these marriage records, I had no information about the parents of either John Peter or Mary Louise Roth. John Peter  and Louisa Roth The marriage record of John and Mary Roth listed Mary's parents as Caroline and Frederick Voght. This provided me with Mary's maiden name and the first names of her parents. As of May 2015, I have not found any additional information about the Voght family. Mary's mother Caroline's maiden name would be required in order to find Caroline's parents and move forward with what is now a dead end.  John's trade was listed as Blacksmith on the marriage record. Excerpt from the marriage record on John and Mary Roth Ins...
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