CONTENTS------------------------------------------------------------------------
2003 Meeting & Events Schedule
Internet Sites & Goodies
It Couldn't Happen to Me (when computers die)
Why didn't our Ancestors Pay for Things in Dollars
May 10, 2003 Meeting Volk Ahern Affair
Jul 19, 2003 Meeting

Researching in Cemeteries You can find a lot about your ancestors by researching cemeteries. We will be discussing some of the things that you can find and the problems you can encounter. We will be discussing the Joseph Nachriener Funeral Book, things to take to the cemetery, how to take a tombstone home with you, researching cemeteries on the Internet and what the stuff on the tombstone means.

Jul 19, 2003 note special date - Sep 13, 2003 - Nov 8, 2003

GIG Whitewater, WI Sat July 12 2003 M. Wolfert
Pathways to the German Homeland If you miss this annual workshop, you will miss a great workshop. Every year the German Interest Group - Wisconsin has a daylong workshop. This year's workshop is called "Pathways to the German Homeland." It will be held on the UW-Whitewater Campus in Whitewater, WI on Saturday, July 12, 2003. If you are researching German ancestors you don't want to miss this one. (I can't miss this one because the speaker has done fantastic translation and research in Germany for me.) http://rootsweb.com/~wigig/index.html The speaker will be Marion Wolfert. She is an internationally known genealogist and author. She knows lots of stuff.

9:15 am Records that offer clues to an ancestor's place of origin.
10:45 am Types of records found in different regions of Germany.
1:00 pm Border changes affect research.
2:30 pm Every day life from the middle ages to modern times.

Registration before June 28, 2003 if you are a member of GIG is $21.00. The annual membership is $7.50/$10.00 a year and includes a fantastic newsletter. I strongly recommend that you join the group just to get the newsletter. As usual there will be vendor tables to spend money at.

E-Genealogy conference June 10, 2003 – July 10, 2003

Family History Radio is presenting the "first" e-genealogy conference on the Internet starting June10, 2003. The $69.95 registration includes lots of stuff.

The following site gives you more details, including the schedule for this conference. These sessions look tremendous with nationally known speakers. I especially like that ALL the sessions will be available for 30 days so that I attend them all. These sessions will be a lot like a radio program. I have already signed up.

http://www.familyhistoryradio.com/fhr_sp/shop.php?op=catmain&cat=1

GERMAN FEST 2003 , Milwaukee, WI July 25-27, 2003
This is an annual ethnic event covering German Culture. If you like brats, beer, ompa-bands, and looking at people dressed in the old German costumes (the kids are really cute) this is an event to put on your lists of things to do at least once in your lifetime.
http://www.germanfest.com

WI Council for Local History South Central Regional Conference Aug 9, 2003
The Sauk County Historical Society will host this regional conference at UW Baraboo (BOO U)and the Sauk County Historical Museum. The conference will run from 8:30am to 3:30pm.(I plan on getting there about 8:00am so I can register and raid the doughnuts.) There will be seminars on museum software, Internet presence and area research centers. There will be a trolley ride through Baraboo showcasing historical sites. You can become a member of the Sauk County Historical Society for $10 single or $15 couple. This is a cheap way to keep track of what is going on in the county.
YOU MUST REGISTER BEFORE July 31 2003 by contacting the museum at 608-356-1001.
http://www.saukcounty.com/schs/join.htm

Tippeesaukee Symposium 2003 Aug 15-16, 2003
UW-Richland Center is co-sponsoring a 2-day program that focuses on how Native American and European cultures interacted in the founding of this area. The Ho Chunk Nation receives a great deal of coverage. The cost is $55 for each day or $100 for both days. The registration deadline is Jun 15, 2001. Call 608-647-6641 for more information. Thanks to Randy and Rose Pulvermacher for this item.

WSGS Fall Seminar Oct 18 2003
The Wisconsin State Genealogical Society will be holding their Fall Seminar at the Rain Tree Resort and Conference Center at Wisconsin Dells, WI. The speaker will be Rhonda McClure. Her specialty is doing Internet / online research. More information will be posted on the following website. Hope to see you there. http://www.rootsweb.com/~wsgs/meetings.htm

ResearchBuzz. Google is the best Internet Search Engine. This website lets you use Google in ways you never thought were possible. My favorite use is GooCookin'. As a bachelor it is tough to figure out what to cook. This website lets you enter what you have in your refrigerator and then it searches the Internet for recipes that use these ingredients. http://www.buzztoolbox.com/google/

Harrisburg School. If you have traveled from Plain to Sauk City on County B, you have seen this 1892 school building. According to the Baraboo News Republic, Sat May 24, 2003, The Ervin Sprechers are donating the building so it can be operated as a historical museum. After the paperwork is done, the Sauk County Historical Society will be the owner of the building. It was an interesting article about skinny dipping, sledding on a piece of cardboard, and a young man stealing a kiss from an 11-year-old cutie who latter become his wife of almost 65 years.

With the current state budget problems, preservation of this type of history will need to be done by local historical societies. Please be generous in your support of these local groups and the stuff they are doing. 

Wisconsin Register of Deeds Association. Who said these guys don't have a sense of humor.

You might be a Wisconsinite if: http://www.co.ozaukee.wi.us/wrda/onthelighterside/wisconsinite.htm

• Your definition of a small town is one that only has one bar.
• You know what "cow-tipping" is.
• You learned to drive a tractor before the training wheels were off your bike.
• You know where the city of Waunakee is AND can pronounce it. (by the way, Waunakee is a village!)
• You can actually pronounce and spell Oconomowoc.
• You know what a bubbler is.
• A Friday night out is taking your girlfriend shining for deer.
• You drink "soda" and refer to your dad as "pop."
• You have more fishing poles than teeth.
• You have been involved in a "drive-by hay bailing."

www.ebay.com I am always amazed on how I can find ways to spend money. Auctions on EBAY are a neat place to look for family genealogy. This last weekend I was able to buy on a couple of items on EBAY: a 1908 postcard of Plain and "Gruber Family and Heritage 1850-1980" by Fr Joseph Brechtl. The sellers are located in Arizona and Missouri. I had the actual stuff in my hands by the next Wednesday. I also was the winning bidder on 1930's arial photo of Waldmuenchen, Germany. I have a bid on a 1930's Waldmuenchen postcard of the main town plaza, which was called the Adolf Hilter Plaza at the time. The Waldmuenchen items were offered in Germany.There are several tricks to that I've learned in my limited use of Ebay.

1. PAYPAL: It helps to have a PayPal account to pay the seller. When you set up your PayPal account on the Internet, you give them your credit card. When you pay for something they charge your credit card and send the funds to the seller. With just a couple of clicks
2. SEARCH TERMS: You can search Ebay in a number of ways.The trick is to use the right search terms. Here are some the ones I have tried: "sauk county" "sauk co" sauk "plain wi" "plain wisconsin" wisconsin genealogy "post cards" waldm* ast untergrafenried. The seller could have used any combination of words and spellings to describe what they are selling.
3. ADVANCE SEARCHES: Searches on Ebay generally just check for stuff in the USA. You can do an "advanced" search that searches for items anywhere in the world. You definitely want to include Germany. Use the "ALL" selection because you never can tell. Somebody in South America might have the stuff you are looking for. (A lot of Germans immigrated to South America.)
4. FAVORITES: Once you have your search terms setup, you can store the search in your favorites on Ebay. This makes it easy to check for stuff everyday
5. BUY IT NOW BIDS: Sometimes the seller sets an amount that lets a buyer BUY IT NOW. The buyer immediately wins the bid and doesn't have to compete with other bidders. Because of this you need to frequently check Ebay because the good stuff might only be available for a few hours.
6. MAXIMUM: You can let Ebay do the bidding for you. You set up a maximum price. If somebody overbids your current bid, the Ebay system will automatically increase your bid. Up to the maximum.
7. MYEBAY: You will need to setup an account on Ebay. Your online account page on Ebay lets you track your activity to the smallest detail.
8. BE CAREFUL: My bids have been on "small items." There are bad people / criminals out there that are trying to steal your money. They might have a shill bid against you to jack up the price. You might win the bid, send the seller the money, and the seller never sends you your stuff. Here are some suggestions: Only bid on small items until you feel comfortable. Read comments about the seller. See what other items the seller is selling. If they are only selling a few items be suspicious.

U.S. World War I Mothers' Pilgrimage, 1930 Ancestry.com has a number of databases that they charge to use. In the late 1920's the War Department of the United States complied a list of mothers and widows of soldiers killed in World War 1 and offered to send them to Europe to see the burial place. The database is searchable and provides information on almost 11,000 mothers and widows. The record contains: name of widow/wife, city/state of residence, relationship to deceased, descendant's name, rank and unit and cemetery.

Doing a quick search I found a record for Mrs James Cosper who requested a trip to see the grave of Pvt Homer M Cosper, Co.D, 2d MG Bn, Meuser-Argonne.

FRAUTSCHI Family Letters - Phyllis Liegel Dearborn covered some of this family's history in her book about White Mound and Billy Town. The following website has an on-line exhibit of family letters written between 1852 and 1904. There are a boat-load of letters and they have been translated into English. I've included this as another example of how genealogy is changing. You've got to keep your eyes open because you never know what you might find. Even if you aren't related to this family, these letters contain descriptions of how life was in the Plain area.

http://csumc.wisc.edu/FLVA/let/FLVAbrowse.html

Center for the study of Upper Midwestern Culture CSUMC - This is a tremendous site for learning about German Culture. You could spend days looking at these WebPages.

http://csumc.wisc.edu/
http://csumc.wisc.edu/survey/ Farm Survey of Rusk County
http://csumc.wisc.edu/exhibit/index.htm Virtual Exhibits
http://csumc.wisc.edu/mki/index.htm
http://csumc.wisc.edu/mki/News/1.NewsFrames.htm Archive of Newsletters

Sauk County Probate Records before 1916 - The Sauk County Historical Society in Baraboo has the actual probate documents for this time period. They have a very detailed alphabetical list of their holdings on their website. In addition to Probate, they have Guardian, Commitments, and Sale of Real Estate.
http://www.saukcounty.com/schs/probate.htm

World War II Prisoners of War File, ca. 1942 - ca. 1947 - In the last news letter I discussed the NARA's Archival Databases (AAD). Here is an example of local data that can be gotten from this from this database. Go to the name field and enter UMHOEFER. Click on SEARCH button. Click on the SELECT RECORD box in the RESULTS area (you will have to look for this one). Click on SHOW SELECTED RECORDS button. This page gives you detailed information including the name of the GERMAN prisoner of war camp the he was held at. The government has a tremendous amount of information about us and our ancestors. You just got to know where to look.
http://aad.archives.gov/aad/search.jsp?file_id=645&coll_id=null&data_layout_id=276&table_id=466

It's always the other guy's computer that crashes and burns losing years of priceless data. Well it has happened to me twice in the last couple of months.

My desktop died recently. Fortunately I didn't lose too much data. But I was faced with the nasty job of trying to reload all my software. Where were the disks with program? Did I even still have the disk? If I have the disk did I have the special code to start the program? Some of the programs were tricky to set up? Do I remember all the steps? What about the programs I downloaded from the Internet? I upgraded from Windows 98 to XP. Will the "old" programs run on the new system? I could go on forever. Here are some of the things I encountered.

• If you are upgrading to a new operating system like XP, make sure your stuff will work on it. I have
  several programs and a printer that won't work with XP. If I had known this, I would have had the computer guys load both Win 98 and XP on the same machine. Because I didn't, I bought an $80 program that let me use both operating systems on the same machine.
• Some of my software were "upgrades." Upgrades are cheaper than buying the full version. The
  catch is that you have "qualifying" software on your machine before the upgrade will load. Fortunately I was able to find an old Word Perfect disk that "qualified" so my Microsoft Office 97 suite would load.
• I now keep all of my software on disks together. I also wrote the special codes needed to start the
  programs right on the disk.
• I created a separate folder on my desktop for programs and software drivers that I downloaded
  and purchased from the Internet.
• Using MS Word, I created a log that I update every time I install a new piece of software. I include the special codes needed to start the programs. I also include screen captures of the tricky parts of the installation.
• Backup stuff and store your backups at several locations. No, keeping a copy in the living room and a copy in the bedroom doesn't count as several locations. Keep a backup of your stuff at your relatives.

As if my desktop computer dying wasn't enough, my handheld Palm Pilot computer died just the other day. Here are some things I learned in re-setting up my Palm Pilot.

• Hotsync / backup to your desktop frequently.
• Hotsyncing is not enough. The Palm program on my desktop computer also was acting funky. I almost had to delete and reload this program on my desktop. This would have meant losing everything including the data backed-up using Hotsysnc.
• The Palm program on my desktop computer gives the ability to EXPORT data from NOTES, MEMOS, ADDRESSES, and the CALENDAR. Part of my hotsyncing process involves EXPORTING this data to a separate directory where it will be "safe". This way I have an extra copy my Palm Pilot data.
• The "other" data and programs are "hiding" in a directory. On my PC the directory is "c:\program files\handspring\haasg\backup." This is a key directory to include in your backup process. It has all the databases and programs you have on your Palm Pilot.
• Learn how to do a "soft reset" and "hard reset" on your Palm Pilot. If you don't know the difference you probably should get help from a geek.
• If your desktop and Palm Pilot both crash, you are hosed. Unless you have your stuff backed up. If your Palm Pilot crashes but your desktop is okay AND you have backed up, you are okay. You can reload the files and programs onto your desktop. The next time you run the hot sync program, it will will recognize you have an "empty" Palm Pilot and reload everything from desktop.

If all this backup stuff is confusing to you, take a geek to lunch and have them explain it to you. I prefer a Culver's Bacon-Butter-Burger deluxe basket with a triple thick concrete shake. Super-sizing it makes me think better.

It is confusing when reading about our ancestors paying for things in florins and talers. I've got a number of old German documents where money exchanges are discussed. Here is a brief attempt at trying to lay a foundation for understanding currencies.

There were 3 monetary systems in Germany: Northern states, Southern states, Hamburg & Luebeck
These 3 systems were consolidated in 1871 when the Mark replaced the Thaler, Gulden and Schilling
THALER = 24 Groschen = 288 Pfennige = 576 Heller
REISCHTALER = 72 Kreuzers (1566) 25.98 grams
KONVENTIONSTALER = 120 Kreuzers (mid 1700's) 23.38 grams
GULDEN = 60 Kreuzer (1524) = 180 Kreuzer (1736) = 240 Pfennige = 480 Heller
http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~tmuehle/europa/euro/euroart02.htm
http://80.66.42.136/specials/geld.htm
http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/history/coin.html
http://www.globalfindata.com/gh/109.html
http://www.germanlife.com/Archives/1997/9712_01.html ARCHIVES | search for TALER
http://www.anythinganywhere.com/info/a2z/azgermany.htm

On Sunday July 6, 1890. Something happened on the streets of Plain. Was it a murder? Was it an old feud that went bad? Was it just a case of a couple of guys who couldn't get along. There is a lot of documentation available about this incident. The trick is to analyze this data and determine what really happened. A good way to do this is to answer the questions a reporter would pose: Who What Where When Why.

When is fairly straightforward. The shooting took place late in the afternoon on a summer day, Sunday July 6, 1890. As background, Friday was the 4^th of July. There were lots of people in Plain having a good-olde time.

Where did this take place? On page 62 of Hildegarde Thering's "A History of Plain, Wisconsin", there is a picture that locates the bar of Joe Volk. This bar was replaced by the "old" Plain State Bank on Main Street, opposite of the of current flag pole.

Ahern's group were located by some trees. But which trees. One news article has "Daniel Ahern and his intended, together with several young people of the town, were enjoying the green grass in the shadow of Morgan's store." Page 63 of Thering's book has a picture showing a grove of trees outside of Morgan's store. Morgan's store is located on Main Street. For you old-timers, this would have been the future store of Mike Ring.

A news article from the Weekly Wisconsin gives a better clue. "Sunday there was a picnic in the grove fronting Volk's saloon. Ahearn and the girl were present in the grove." This would be the land of Patrick Walsh across the street where the current flagpole is. The Walsh's had relationships with the Voelkel family. It sounds reasonable that his land would be an ideal site for a picnic.

Who was involved? The two main people in this event were Adam Volk and Daniel Ahern. The following are some descriptions that I found in several news articles.

Adam Volk: saloon keeper previously lived in Denzer about 40 years old
full black beard black eye (Milw Sentinel Jul 19 1890)
speaks English imperfectly (Milw Sentinel Jul 19 1890) six to eight children

Daniel Ahern : carpenter lives in Chicago Irish wore a white hat? (judge’s notes)

Another group of people to consider were the witnesses called at the trial:
Dr Bossard (performed autopsy) Paul Luther Mike Schwartz
John Voelkel John Balk John Bauer
John Leigle (sic) D.W. Morgans George Ruland
Julia Voelkel John Wachter Mrs. Nachreiner
Herman Wagner Lizzie Voelkel Andrew Hutter
Joseph Hemberger George Trumpf Andrew Dwyer
John Hutter Dennis Dwyer Adam Volk
John Kaley Mrs. Leigle (sic) William Kaley
Joseph Bandel Sebastian Pronold

 Why was there a duel. For sure there was a fight argument in Volk's saloon that preceded the shooting. There were stories of beer glasses being thrown and Ahern pulling his revolver. In my opinion, the version of the fighting before the shooting in the Reedsburg Free Press Jul 1890 seems more likely. (BZ000055.jpg BZ000056.jpg) The following is my interpretation of the bar.

What happened during the shooting is another mystery. In my opinion, this is what might have happened.

The shooting took place about 6:00 pm. For whatever reason, Volk and Ahern had words. This led to the both of them being in the streets with guns. Ahern fired first with his revolver. There is some question whether Ahern thought this "duel" was some kind of joke. Some people felt that his buddies put him up to the duel. One account had Ahern firing into the air. There is no doubt that Volk fired second with his Winchester rifle. Ahern was shot in the left side under the ribs. Ahern did not die immediately. In court Kaley testified that he took the revolver after the shooting and noted the 5 shooter had 4 loaded and 1 empty chamber.

There were stories of lynch mobs and hiding in a barn outside of town (the old Riek farm west of town??) and hiding in a corn field. It is hard to tell whether there was a lynch mob.

The Trial. The shooting took place in July. The Circuit court held sessions in Fall and Spring. On September 19, 1890, because of the illness of a witness, the trial was continued to the Spring session.

On September 12, 1890, Volk's wife gave birth to a son. On September 15, 1890 the son died. The death certificate, signed by the Father Stephen Duren, had cause of death as "imperfect development of respiratory organs." It is possible she was the ill witness.

The actual trial itself was kind of a circus. It seems as those this was the event of the year and everybody wanted to be at the trial. With and the witnesses and the crowd, the courtroom was packed during the Spring trial

Everybody but the jury wanted to be at the trial. The judge had to send the sheriff out several times before they could seat a jury. The trial started Monday March 23, 1891. This was the week before Easter and a number of the potential jurists were looking for excuses to get out of the trial. One rule of law is that a "jury of his peers" should judge the defendant. There weren't any Germans on the jury.

The judge's notes of the witnesses' testimonies were very brief. They really don't provide many direct facts of the shooting.

On Thursday March 26, 1891 at 5:40 pm, the jury began deliberations. By about 8:00 pm, they returned with a guilty verdict. This was rather quick. Maybe the prosecution made their case? Maybe the defense attorney did not do a good job? Maybe the jury wanted to be done with the case and wanted to go home?

On March 27, 1891 Adam Volk was sentenced to 14 years at Waupun. He would be eligible for release June 27, 1899. However, Adam Volk suffered from Brights Disease. He died in prison July 7, 1891 at 8:00 pm. According to Waupun prison records, he was buried the same day.

Newspapers. There were a number of newspaper articles about the affair. However the quality of the reporting left a lot to be desired.

A number of newspapers had trouble getting the names right. Volk was referred to as Reichert, Volker. Ahern was referred to as O'Hearn, Ahearn. Ahern's fiancée's name was mispelled several different ways.

One newspaper proclaimed the affair a "race war" between the Germans and the Irish.

August Derleth. This famous writer from Sauk City included a chapter in his book about this affair. In my opinion, his version makes a nice story but it is a little short on the facts. He too had trouble spelling the names of the people.

He also made a big deal out something supernatural happening on July 6^th. On July 6^th, 1889, Volk's supposedly had a dream of the affair. On July 6^th, 1890 the shooting took place. According to Derleth, Volk died on July 6^th, 1891. Oops, Volk actually died on July 7^th. Oh well, Derleth's version was more spooky and mysterious.

Derleth speculates that Ahern was a hired "to do a job" on Volk. What was the nature of the job? Was a beating good enough or did somebody want Volk dead? Who would want a poor-German bartender beaten up or killed. Derleth speculates that Volk had jilted Ahern's fiancée and she wanted revenge. Again, it this is a nice story.

Derleth finishes his story with the fiancée's brother, Tony Voelkel being killed when his horses bolt. As a nice touch he has crows pecking out his eyes and tearing out his tongue. I searched the records and came up with a Joseph Voelkel who died as a result of a wagon accident. He died more than a month after the accident at home. No crows were mentioned in his obituary.

The "Paul Harvey rest-of-the story" is that Adam Volk was his grandfather. Supposedly, the Volk family was not too pleased with Derleth's version. According to Elizabeth Volk's obituary, she ended up marrying Adam Volk's brother, Philip Volk, after Adam died in Waupun Prison.

Another interesting point is that Volk's tavern was eventually moved to 1060 Oak Street in Plain. The Jewels own it today. They operate a daycare center out of the house that my nieces attend. Oh what the heck, their great great grandfather spent a lot of time there, why shouldn't they. Maybe they can get in touch with his spirit.

Supporting Images on Haas Bauer Disks: disk 16 BZ…. disk 3 00000047.jpg disk 31 00003214.jpg

phg0305.PDF Meeting handout

Projects to discuss
Chimes
School records
Town of Franklin Records
Genealogies by Georg Ederer
Movies of Plain

Possible topics for future meetings (If you have suggestions let me know)
Sept 2003 - How to use Paint Shop Pro 7.x to fix photos
Nov 2003 - What are standard genealogical documents, what do they look like, how do you use them

 KEEP IN CONTACT ----------------------------------------------------------------

We want to get your comments and suggestions. garylhaas@yahoo.com

Be sure to check the website occasionally. solo18.abac.com/garylhaas/