Quiet Legends

The majority of us are not world movers and shakers. We are simply people who move through our day to day lives, doing the best we can to make the world a better place. A few close friends will remember us for a year or two after we're gone, our closest family, for a generation or two. So the only legacy we have is our family.

Trying to find the person behind a few small records is nearly impossible, but bit by bit, I am piecing together that information. As I do, I begin to remember bits that my aunt told me, or things my grandmother said. This and that, which maybe, together, add to the overall image of who these people were.

There is so much more behind, for instance, my great grandfather, Matthais Baader, than I will ever know. Much of what I want to learn, I will have to learn in St. Louis. I know that he came to Wisconsin first from Germany. He listed himself as a 'farmer' on the ships log, and his hometown was transcribed as Drumpelking, but I know now that it was the tiny town of Dunstelkingen, which had been the site of a battle between German and French in 1790. Town records, at least those in the Catholic Church, had been burned along with the church. Records, at least on family search/LDS, end just about then. So I run into a brick wall at his grandparents.

He arrived in Wisconsin, though I've found no records to that -- only the note of another researcher, my father's cousin, Naomi. I hope to go see her one day. Meanwhile, I found he had a daughter, born in Illinois in 1865, when he arrived in St. Louis. Careful searching has revealled a couple of siblings who didnt live, and later siblings who did. I know he married Mar 9, 1858 - or at least I have a note to that effect. I know he married again, the Widow Maria Anna Leppert Hitzler, who had two children who took his name, in Jul 13, 1869. The Widow Hitzler married Matthais within five months of his son Matthais Jr.'s birth, so it is reasonable to assume his mother, the first Mrs. Bader, died somewhere in that five months. Also, the Widow and her husband, Georg, had resided at the boarding house run by Matthais, so it's most likely that he too died in that period. There was a lot of cholera, and many deaths listed in that block were attributed to it.

While in St. Louis, his cash on hand was listed as about $25,000. That is a lot of money, for the time, even for the owner of a boarding house/hotel. I know he was there through at least 1874, maybe 1875. By 1876, he married Christina Luchsinger, in St. Clair, Missouri. I have learned that he bought a farm there, and that he was a strong supporter of the church at nearby Luebbering, so the Bader farm must be near Luebbering. He died and was buried there, and that is the home grounds for much of the family.

There are so many questions yet to be answered, yet I have the image of a strong, German authoritarian father, a man who was perhaps quite passionate, but who put his church and family first. He married dutifully when his wife died, so as to provide for his children, yet by the number of children he had, these were not likely loveless marriages. The women he married, at least the Widow Anna, and Christina - as I have no information on the other - were strong German women, no doubt good mothers and homemakers.

It is an interesting sidenote that his son Mathias Jr married a Lena Lucksinger, whom I believe is sister to Christina. I have yet to find out if Christina were married before, though I know she is buried, not at the family farm, but at the church at Luebbering. Her son Joseph never married and is listed with her in each census. Christina, interestingly enough, is listed as 'born at sea' in several census documents, though legally, they will list her as from Wuerttemberg.

Each day brings new bits and pieces, some mundane, some exciting. Perhaps this is an old person's sort of entertainment, but then again, I've found my children are fascinated by it. It is something I began back in 1971, when I was 18 - but the computer age makes it much more productive.

Take a Deep Breath

So here I go. This is not so much about me, as it is about family, and about finding those connections I've always sought. Over the last year or two, I've been delving into the history of my family, predominantly through online links.

Most of my family is dead. As for the rest, we have drifted apart. My children, and grandchildren, don't really know the family I came from, so this is one way of providing them some insight into what made Mama such a grumpy ol' gus at times - or such a silly goose.

The families I'm searching are listed in Connections, and I have posted gedcoms on both ancestry.com and rootsweb.com. Right now, there is a lot of 'potential' data listed as fact - things that i don't include in my hard copy on my computer. They are there until I can find proof against them - innocent until proven guilty.

I suppose by now you want to know why I think the past is important. Everyone has their take on it. Genetically, we are - as scientists - realizing just how much our DNA affects who we are. Even more fascinating is the fact that our parentage can be traced, often for hundreds of years, back to one or two ancestors by way of that DNA print. We've all heard that those who fail to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. Perhaps then, it is the past that comes forward, in our genetic code, to doom or to elevate us.

I have found out much, and I intend to find out more. What you, the reader, do with this, if anything, is up to you - I know it has helped me understand things I never knew.