Paul Henry Ziemer was born in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, on November 21, 1920. His parents, Ella Bradee Ziemer and Heinrich Ferdinand Ziemer, were part of a vibrant community of families centered around the Waukesha - Milwaukee county line near Capitol Drive. Ziemers and Bradees attended the Friedens Evangelical Church at 124th and Capitol in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. Ella's family lived in nearby Brookfield.

Explore the life and times of Henry, Ella and their family in Wisconsin by visiting the pages below.

Carl and Wilhelmina Sommer (also called "Sommers") and Wilhelm Bradee, Jr. and his wife Mary Sommer Bradee, along with Cora Bradee, are buried at Trinity Church. You can view some records of burials at the churchyard cemetery.

Several members of the Bradee family and neighbors and friends are buried in the Oak Hill Cemetery on Capitol Drive in Wauwatosa. Records of Oak Hill will appear in this space soon.

The social lives of the Bradee and Ziemer families fill many of us with awe. Photographs and written records attest to the many connections -- some distant blood relationships, some friendships based on proximity or shared lives or religious faith -- that persisted from the time the families settled in Wisconsin until well into the 20th century. You can catch a glimpse of some of the activity by reading the diary of Ella's sister Cora. A woman generously contributing to her family and friends through her daily labors, Cora recorded many of the everyday events of her community in the years 1923 and 1924.

Click on the diary pages above to read entries for December 1923. Top entries are for 1923, bottom of each date is 1924.

Learn more about the arrival of the Brede family in New York in 1871. A later- day picture of

parents of Ella's father Wilhelm Bradee, Jr., appears with their immigration information.