Tag Archives: ancestors

Up North: the series ::The beginning:: Two Rivers

Memories,

I’ve got Wisconsin in my blood. No, really, I do. My great grandmother’s family settled there after emigrating from Germany sometime before the US Civil War. I’m not sure where the man she married, Silas Koeser, was from, perhaps Michigan since my grandmother was born there, but he eventually moved to Two Rivers, the town where his wife was born. She bore nine children and died when some of the children were very young. Silas remained in Two Rivers the rest of his life, as did most of his children.

Henry Theide
An Early Wisconsinite

As many times as I’ve been to Wisconsin, I’ve only been in Two Rivers once. When I was about three years old.  And had a bad case of the measles. I don’t remember it at all, but I’ve seen photographs of me at a beach, and perhaps a video or two. It wasn’t until I was a teenager that I realized it was not an ocean beach in the photograph, but Lake Michigan.

A beach in Two Rivers -- see, looks like the ocean.*
A beach in Two Rivers — see, looks like the ocean. *

Starting this summer, I want to visit some of the places in Wisconsin that have meaning for me. I might not start with Two Rivers, but someday I’ll go back and see where I’m “from”.

*Neshotah Beach photo originally uploaded by Lester Public Library

88. Annabaglish

Music, , ,

The Internet is pretty cool when you want to research something. A number of years ago I found a website dedicated to a branch of my ancestry. The family name McCornack is not that common, so anyone with blood connections to that name is probably a blood relative of mine. That site, and Mr. McCornack himself, were helpful when I was planning our 2002 visit to Scotland. I’d always wanted to see our ancestral home and maybe meet some Scottish relatives – but never really thought I’d get the chance. Here was a man that had done it – he visited Annabaglish in Kirkcowan, near Newton Stewart (which is in Dumfries and Galloway), Scotland and was willing to assist anyone else who wanted to do the same.

My mom was along on the trip – it is through her that I am related to the McCornacks. Her father’s grandmother was, I think, a McCornack. I’d have to check the family tree to be sure.

Anyway, we visited the farm and met the current (non McCornack) owners. They said that every so often Americans stop by to visit the ancestral home. They invited us into the house and onto the grounds where we had a bit of a look around.

A couple of years after our visit I looked up Annabaglish, hoping to get to the McCornack site again, but misspelled it Anabaglish. I was taken to this site (no longer working but try this instead). It turned out that a distant relative of mine, Jane Freeburg, had also taken the trip to Annabaglish and used a photo of the house as the cover of a CD she and her band, Queen Mab, released. After a couple of false starts I ended up getting in contact with Jane Freeburg. We exchanged a few emails and she sent me a small handmade book she’d put together about her trip to our ancestral home.

I also bought a few copies of the CD – one for me and one for my mother and aunt. I love Celtic music so this was a perfect find.

Listen to some samples of some of the songs from that CD. (no longer working but you can find these songs here.)

An Phis Fluich

Back to the Hills

The Morning Dew/Toss the Feathers