Tupper, Jennings, Bartels, and Bruns
Kerry Tupper’s Genealogy Site
Contents
Introduction
Prologue
Gathered on these pages is my research on the ancestry of my grandparents, Clifford Tupper, Marie Jennings, Ted Bartels, and Emma Bruns. The above photo shows Emma’s parents, Henry Bruns and Tena Meints, on their wedding day in Gage County, Nebraska, 17 January 1909. Henry and Tena were born in Nebraska; both of Henry’s parents and Tena’s father had come to America from Ostfriesland, Germany. Tena’s mother was born in Nebraska, but her parents had come from Ostfriesland. Henry and Tena had three daughters, but when the youngest, Emma, was only two years old, Henry was killed by lightning while working in the field. A few years later Tena married Edd Stratman, a widower with five children of his own who had come from Ostfriesland when he was still a boy. Edd and Tena went on to have two more children; they raised their large family in Franklin County, Nebraska, where I was born in the early 1960s.
Nebraska and Kansas are where these pages begin. Would you like to join me on my journey into the past? One route takes us back to Germany at the time of the Thirty Years’ War; another takes us back to Tudor England and even farther in some lines, back to Domesday England. Along the way we’ll meet Midwestern homesteaders; German tradesmen, landowners, and pastors; Union soldiers of the U.S. Civil War; loyalists and patriots of the Revolutionary War; one of the unfortunate victims of the Salem witch trials; Mayflower passengers; Tudor yeomen, gentlemen, and clergy; and medieval knights, barons, and bishops.
I have been fascinated by genealogy since finding a book on the subject in the Franklin Public Library when I was about 10 years old. The study of one’s ancestors gives one a personal window to history. And history, as John XXIII, the 20th century bishop of Rome, observed, is the great teacher of life.
Navigating the Site
To begin the journey, please click on the home card. Complete notes, where available, can be viewed by clicking on the husband or wife on each family card. Photos, where available, can be viewed by clicking on the camera next to the husband’s or wife’s name. For an overview of my direct ancestors, please see my ahnentafel. I try to update my website on or near the English quarter-days, Lady Day (March 25), Midsummer Day (June 24), Michaelmas (September 29), and Christmas (December 25).
Acknowledgments
I am fortunate in having a family with an interest in its past. My original sources of information were, of course, my parents and grandparents. I would also like to thank Maxine Aspegren and Judy Tupper, for sharing information on the Tuppers with me; Vena Walters, Delores Kathka, and Pauline Eaton, for information on the Jennings family; Arlyn and Jean Bartels, for information on the Bartels family; and Dieter Pollmann, Grete Bauer, and Otto Harms, for information on the Bruns family.
Contact
Created 18 Mar 2013 using Reunion 10 for Macintosh, from Leister Productions, Inc.
Website founded 23 Aug 2006;
visitors since then.
Website founded 23 Aug 2006;