MAD VINTNER'S HOME PAGE
As my screen name implies, I make wine here
in Madison, Wisconsin. But in Spring of 1999 I
started a new hobby, genealogy, which I have enjoyed since then. I began with the branch of our collective
family for which I had the most information already - my father-in-law's
Louisiana ROME family. I found it difficult to confine myself to the
study of a single family or just his ancestors, however. In doing Louisiana
genealogy, one quickly discovers that all southern Louisiana families are connected. So my Louisiana
genealogies are extensive, and do not confine themselves strictly to Irvin
ROME’s ancestors. They are described
further at LOUISIANA ANCESTORS.
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It is difficult to ever say one is
“finished” with a genealogy. There’s
always more that can be explored, and I intend to continue adding data to my Louisiana genealogies as
I acquire it. But I finally moved on to
my mother's family. My grandmother, Lillian Mae KEFFER, was born in Star
Junction, Fayette County, PA. Many of her ancestors settled in Fayette County after they moved from the
East. My grandfather, Alvy WITT, was born in Youngstown, Ohio,
where my parents and I were all born. His ancestors in America first settled in Butler County, PA. Their family stories are told at WITT-KEFFER ANCESTORS.
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Ancestors of my wife’s mother spent time in
many different locations in the East and Midwest – Connecticut,
Massachusetts, New York,
Maine, New Brunswick,
Pennsylvania, Wisconsin,
Ohio, Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois. Dorothy’s father’s family settled in Cincinnati, OH, while her
mother was born in Osage, IA, but her parents met in Metaline, WA. Many of the EMBSHOFF and FRAZEE descendants
ended up on the west coast, in Washington, Oregon and California. Dorothy’s lineage contains both Patriots and
Loyalists – her FRAZEE ancestors would not fight against the British in the
revolution, but moved to New Brunswick
instead. Other FRAZEEs did remain in the
colonies to fight the British.
Eventually, George Timothy FRAZEE returned to the United States and fought on the side of the Union during the Civil War. Some EMBSHOFF and FRAZEE family pictures can
be found at EMBSHOFF-FRAZEE
ANCESTORS.
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My father’s family is the most recent of our
ancestors to come to America. My great-grandfather, his wife, and their
oldest son were born in Eastern Europe, in Kosice,
which is now part of Slovakia. They came to Wisconsin
(where I have lived most of my life since 1978) about 1898, and my grandfather
and several siblings were born in Manitowoc,
Wisconsin. Sometime in 1903 or 1904, the family moved to
Johnstown, Pennsylvania. My grandmother’s parents were also born in Austria-Hungary; Stephen NOVAK came across the
ocean to Johnstown, PA, in 1890 with his first wife. Anna died in 1901, and Stephen wasted no time
in marrying my great-grandmother in late 1901.
My grandmother Mary Jane NOVAK was born in Johnstown, and there she met and married my
grandfather, George Emil SANDOR. They
moved to Youngstown, Ohio, before my father, their oldest child,
was born in 1929. Some SANDOR/SANDERS
and NOVAK family pictures can be found at SANDOR/SANDERS and NOVAK ANCESTORS.
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Please
direct comments (broken links, content errors, and so on) to MadVintner@aol.com.
The space is generously
provided by Rootsweb. Please support continued free and low-cost
genealogy on the Web.
Research
for these genealogies was done largely at the State Historical Society of
Wisconsin Library in Madison,
Wisconsin. Visit them at http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/libraryarchives/.
I would like to thank them and recommend to all that you support your local
historical society with donations.
A
considerable amount of my later work, particularly the EMBSHOFF-FRAZEE and
SANDOR-NOVAK databases, has been done using the databases at http://www.ancestry.com, http://www.familysearch.org, and http://www.genealogy.com. Indices to all of the censuses from the
earliest to the 1930 United
States censuses may be accessed by using the
resources at these sites.
This
page was last updated on 4/20/2008.
