Margraf: John Margraf

Margraf Tree, starting with my dad.  You can click on pictures on this page to view them larger.

As far as the Margraf name is concerned, I have only gotten as far back as John Margraf, who is my Great Great Great Grandfather.  The oldest record I have containing information on John Margraf is the 1880 census of Schleisingerville, Wisconsin, which is now Slinger, Wisconsin.  It lists John Margraf as a white male, age 44.  It states that he was a Stone Mason and that he was born in Prussia, as were his parents.  It lists his wife as Anna, a white female, age 32.  Her occupation states "Keeping House", and her and her parents were also born in Prussia.  Then, it lists their children.  There is Nickolas, age 7, born in Illinois and attending school; John, age 4, born in Wisconsin; and Philipp (my Great Great Grandfather), age 2, born in Wisconsin.

I do not have a census record for 1890, and on the 1900 census record Anna Margraf is married to George Ubel.  It says that Anna was born in July of 1848 and immigrated to America in 1868.  It also says she was the mother of 11 children, of which only 4 were still living (how sad).  Listed with Anna and George are three of her children, all with the last name Margraf (incorrectly spelled Margraft on the census).  They are Philip (spelled with only one p at the end this time), born Nov. 1878, Peter, born April 1883, and Martin, born Jan. 1890.  The Wisconsin Historical Society Vital Records Index has a marriage record for Anna Margraf and George Iberl (it's obviously spelled wrong in one of the records), in Washington County on March 30, 1900.  So, I'm going to assume that John died sometime between Martin's conception in 1889 and Anna's marriage to George in 1900.  My current goal is to find out John's exact birth date and date of death as well as Anna's maiden name.  

Let the Journey Begin

Hello, and welcome to my brand spankin' new genealogy blog.  I'm hoping this blog will serve as an organizational tool, as well as a means to share my genealogical data with my relatives.  Maybe it will even allow me to connect with distant relatives with whom I can share information.  We'll see!

My genealogical journey actually began back in 2007 when I was enrolled in a college history class.  We were assigned a project in which we were to research our family tree.  We only had to go as far back as our grandparents, but as is the case with most things I do, I just had to go above and beyond.  I signed up for the free trial on ancestry.com and couldn't believe all of the information I was able to find.  It was truly remarkable, and I just couldn't stop!  But, then we moved and my husband deployed to Iraq.  I was in school full time while taking care of our 1 year old son.  I just didn't have the time to work on my family tree anymore.  It was especially unfortunate because at that time I was actually living in Illinois, near my roots which lie in Wisconsin.  Now, I live in Virginia and can't do any of my research in person.

I am still quite busy.  My son is now four and I've added a 10 month old girl to the mix.  My husband recently returned from another deployment, but is working 12 hour days.  However, I am taking time off of school to stay home with my kids, so that offers me a little more time to research my roots.

I have been meaning to get back into my research for some time, but as is life, other things just kept coming up.  Then, a few months ago, I received an email from a woman who had seen one of my discussion board queries on ancestry.com.  You can read this fascinating story on my primary blog, here.  Long story short, together we were able to find the information we had both been searching for regarding my Great Grandmother (her Grandmother), who died much too young and not much was known about, until now.  The experience has re-lit my desire to organize my family tree and research further.

I will start here by sharing the closest branches of my tree. If you click on the pictures you can view them larger.  Here is the tree from me.

Here it is further extended from my father.

And here it is further extended from my mother.

I plan to add individual pages for each surname, at least the ones that I have the most information for.  I will label each post with the surnames that apply to it.  If you ever have any information to contribute or would like to request more information from me, please leave me a comment!  You do not have to be a registered user to comment on my blog.  I look forward to sharing my journey with you!