August 3, 2008
So I know I haven’t been publishing as often as I said I would. Stuff has gotten really busy at work and I’ve been a bit distracted, plus I am getting ready to move in a week, which will be follwoed by 3 weeks of intensive job training. All these things have been taking my time lately.
To my loyal readers, please remain patient with me, I will return to writing as soon as possible.
And to anyone who has written me, I have not forgotten or lost your emails, I will be getting back to you when time permits.
And anyone who has questions - feel free to continue sending them - I will respond to them all eventually.
Thank you all for your patience!
-Steve (jrike34)
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July 26, 2008
After digging through some of my grandmother’s research I have found quite a bit of information on my great-grandfather, Harold Ides Eisenhauer. Using that information I thought I would write a brief profile on his life.
Early Life
Harold was born January 25th, 1897 in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. He was the second child of Ides Ulysses Eisenhauer and Charlotte Southall. He grew up there, was educated there and even worked leading the mules from the famous Pennsylvania mines. He moved with his family to Kenosha, Wisconsin in the early 1900’s (see The Eisenhauers in Wisconsin post for more information). I know for sure he was in Wisconsin by October of 1917 since his enrollment record lists him as a resident of Kenosha at the time.
World War I
Harold would have been 17 years old when World War I broke out - initially, however; the U.S. did not enter the war. Then on April 6, 1917, when Harold was 20 years old, the U.S. Congress declared war on Germany. Less than 4 months later, on October 3, 1917, Harold enlisted at the Navy Recruiting Station in Milwaukee, WI. At the time, he had been living with his parents on 701 South Pleasant Street in Kenosha, WI.
After his enlistment he was transferred to the Naval Training Station in Great Lakes, IL where he was instructed during November and part of December.
Upon completion of his instructionary training in Illinois, Harold was again transferred this time to the USS Ohio for additional, on-boat, instruction. Shortly after arriving at the USS Ohio he was again transferred to Boston (the “Receiving Ship at Boston”) and from the receiving ship he went to his final assignment aboard the USS Salem. According to the records he was on the USS Salem by March 31, 1918 at the latest.
Aboard the USS Salem he served for the remaineder of his tour. He was honorably discharged on June 5, 1919.
The USS Salem was one of the first “Light Cruisers,” of Chester-Class cruiser designation and the first Navy ship named after the city of Salem, Massechusetts.
Here is a paragraph on the USS Salem and its use in World War I that I found on Wikipedia:
Recommissioned on 25 July 1917, while still undergoing overhaul, Salem stood out of Boston harbor on 12 March 1918 for New London, Connecticut, to join a force gathering to convoy submarine chasers across the Atlantic. Between 31 March and 15 June 1918, she served as flagship for two convoys of submarine chasers, leaving both at Ponta Delgada, Azores, and returning westward. On 18 June, she became a flagship of a flotilla of 12 submarine chasers assigned to Key West to operate against German submarines. Arriving at Key West on the 22d, Salem’s force carried out antisubmarine patrols off Florida and as far south as the Yucatán Peninsula through the remainder of World War I.
One page of his service records indicates “Victory Medal Issued.” I do not know who currently has Harold’s victory medal or if it even still exists, however my grandmother does have his sailor’s hat from the Salem.
Marriage and Life After the War
He married Mary B. Lynch on May 11, 1919. Mary was a native of Boston. Perhaps he was returned to the Navy Receiving ship in Boston after the war and perhaps that is where he met Mary. According to Mary Lynch’s death notice, they remained in Boston until 1924, when they returned to Kenosha.
After his return to Kenosha he worked in the American Brass factory in Kenosha until his death.
Children
Harold had seven children with Mary. His children are as follows: Melville (Mellie/Millie), Harold (Brod), Roy, Dave, Mary, Wesley, Eleanor
I believe Mellie and Brod were born in Boston and the rest were born in Kenosha.
Death
Harold Ides Eisenhauer died on August 26 of 1948 at the age of 51. Mary lived on until April of 1974.
Below I have attached additional pictures of Harold, his family and records used to write this post.
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July 22, 2008
Members of the extended Eisenhauer clan can be found in multiple states in the country and even in other countries (including at the very least Canada and Germany). This article is specifically about the Eisenhauers in Wisconsin, my home state.
The majority (if not all) of the Eisenhauers in Wisconsin descend from Hans Nicholas Eisenhauer, the immigrant of 1741.
This is the basic story (of at least my line of Wisconsin Eisenhauers)…
NOTE: Some information comes from “Eisenhower Lineage and Reference: 1681 - September 3, 1957″ by Fannie Belle Taylor-Richardson (more information will be available in the future “Sources” section of this website, but I will refer to this source by her initials FBTR for the remainder of this post where citation is necessary).
When Hans Nicholas arrived in America in 1741 he and his kin settled in Pennsylvania, specifically Schuykill county. Shortly after the Revolution, many of Hans Nicholas’ children and other descendents moved from Pennsylvania. However, the Wisconsin Eisenhauers remained put for 6 more generations. It wasn’t until the early 1900’s that Ides Ulysses Eisenhauer moved his family from Pennsylvania to Kenosha, Wisconsin [Page 130, Section 2, FBTR]. And Kenosha is where my grandparents hail from! Below I will document Ides’ Eisenhauer ancestry back to the immigrant of 1741:
Ides Ulysses Eisenhauer (b. Oct. 9, 1870 - d. 1937), son of
Abraham Eisenhauer (b. Oct. 3, 1843 - d. May 25, 1924), son of
John J. Eisenhauer (b. Jan. 18, 1807 - d. Jan. 3, 1864), son of
Johannes Eisenhauer (b. Feb. 10, 1781 - d. Nov. 16, 1861), son of
George Michael Eisenhauer (b. Aug. 4, 1751 - d. ?), son of
Peter Eisenhauer (b. 1716 - d. 1802), son of
Hans Nicholas Eisenhauer (b. abt. 1691 - d. ?), 1741 Immigrant
Family legend has it that Ides left Pennyslvania so his children would have opportunities beyond those offered by the mining industry. At this time, Kenosha was a manufacturing giant in Wisconsin with many factories where work could be found.
Ides Ulysses was my 2nd great grandfather. I have attached two pictures of Ides.
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Ides
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Ides in his Coffin
If anyone has any additional information regarding the Eisenhauers in Wisconsin or knows of other Eisenhauer lines in Wisconsin please leave a comment or
email me.
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July 16, 2008
After reading the profile of Henry Ege provided to me by John Hoptak, I have been inspired to write my own profile of Abraham Eisenhauer, my 3rd great grandfather. In fact I think I wish to write a much larger profile than those seen on John’s blog since mine would include more than just his Civil War service. To that end I believe the best way to begin would be by putting together a timeline of all the information I know (and can eventually find) regarding Abraham. Once that is complete it should be much easier to write a profile from that data. I think this is a good idea on how to proceed. Expect to see continual updates of the proposed timeline on this blog as I begin working on it.
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July 16, 2008
Ok, so I have been scouring the internet, searching for the best software out there to organize my research for at least two years now. I have downloaded and tried all the free programs and also tried trial versions of many of the purchaseable software packages. To be completely honest, it is very hard to find anything that has an intuitive interface yet is powerful at the same time. Nevertheless, below I will mention the two which I consider the best of the bunch - they of course have their flaws, but these can generally be overlooked and workarounds can be found. I will do my best to describe each, but the best way to see what program fits your needs best is to simply download and try them. Best of all - my two favorites are 100% FREE!
NOTE: I am NOT in any way associated with the producers of these software packages, nor is this an official endorsement - simply a review of 2 software packages.
Personal Ancestry File (PAF) 5.2
PAF was the first genealogy I actually liked. It is actually produced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who coincidentally collect tons of information on ancestry regardless of the individuals faith. Check out their genealogical archives at familysearch.org. You can read a larger review on about.com at http://genealogy.about.com/cs/softwarereviews/gr/paf.htm. Get the software here: http://www.familysearch.org/eng/paf/.
MyHeritage Family Tree Builder
After running into a couple of difficulties with PAF, I found MyHeritage Family Tree Builder. They bill themselves as the “best free genealogy software” and they very well may be. They have perhaps one of the easiest to use interfaces. It is great for beginners as it shows data entry screens in a more vertical fashion than typical pedigree chart, like most people are used to seeing. Lastly, the largest (and only) problem I have had so far is how to attach sources and media to a specific individual. Don’t get me wrong, it is possible to do both of these things I just mentioned, but it can be a bit tricky depending what screen you are coming from (not all data entry pages make this easy while others do). Regardless, this is the current genealogy data entry software that I use. Get the software here: http://www.myheritage.com/download-family-tree-builder or here: http://www.myheritage.com/family-tree-builder.
Of course both software packages feature powerful methods and tools for cataloging yoru research and each one allows you to export to the stander GEDCOM data format.
Many other genealogy softwares exist and if you know of one that you believe is better, please feel to leave a comment on this post - I am always looking for the next best thing!
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July 16, 2008
I have now updated the blog using the “Categories” feature of WordPress. This means that all old posts (well at least those which can be categorized) have been assigned categories. You can also view all posts filed under a specific category by selecting a “Topic” from the right hand side of the page. I hope these changes make the site even more useable.
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July 16, 2008
The Eisenhauer Family History Blog has been upgraded. We are still using WordPress, but now have upgraded from version 2.5 to version 2.6. There should be no noticeable difference to readers, but in case anyone comes accross any odd errors please let me know - jrike34@gmail.com.
By the way, I wanted to give a bit of a shout-out to WordPress and the creators. It is simply the best blogging software available. You can find out more or get your own blog at http://www.wordpress.org.
Watch for more genealogy and Eisenhauer related posts tonight!
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July 14, 2008
Nothing really new here other than to say that I am back and posts should be resuming soon. I have been extremely busy today and unable to organize anything worth posting. I’ll be back with you all soon, hopefully tomorrow!
In addition I wanted to say that, as always, I welcome additional bloggers and would love to get other genealogy researchers writing on this blog in order to offer multiple viewpoints and types of stories. Please contact me if you are interested.
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July 9, 2008
I just wanted to mention that I will be camping in Northern Wisconsin starting tomorrow through the entire weekend. Therefore I will like be unable to post between now and next Monday. I will try to post as soon as possible and reply to any inquiries, after I return. Enjoy your weekends…
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July 9, 2008
Here is another old post I dug up from Google. The post was actually written last Christmas! I hope the information contained is still useful.
I hope this article will be helpful to others researching their family history and looking for good resources. It will have some specific examples for illustration purposes, but it should be helpful to anybody doing genealogical research on any family.
When doing research I have found that the hardest part is finding information. When I first started I thought I could simply type “Eisenhauer family tree” into Google or any other search engine and be off to the races, but as you already know by now if you have ever tried researching your family, it is rarely that easy. Information on the internet is not always as reliable as you would like and often websites require you to pay before viewing the data. But don’t give up on the internet yet! I have found that the internet is a great way of finding rare resources that previously could only be found in libraries after tons of digging. For example, a key book to my research about the Eisenhauer’s has been “Präsident Dwight d. Eisenhowers Vorfahren und Verwandte (President Dwight D. Eisenhowers Ancestors and Relations)” by Heinz Friedrich Friederichs. This book is no longer published and can usually only be found in a University library or in a personal collection. Needless to say it was nowhere to be found in my families personal collection and while I do attend the University of Wisconsin it is still very difficult to do research from the school’s copy since it cannot be checked-out.
A good place to start when looking for these rare books or manuscripts is Google Book Search (http://books.google.com). Continuing the example previously presented, I found “Präsident Dwight d. Eisenhowers Vorfahren und Verwandte” on Google Book Search. Many books have the full text of these books available online, especially if the contents of the books are no longer protected by copyright law. But in other cases, only small snippet previews of the book are available. This is the case with the book I needed.
If the full contents of the book are not available online you can always look at some of the used and decomisioned library book sellers. Google book search often links directly to these sellers when a specific books contents isn’t available online. I have especially had luck with Alibris and Abebooks. In fact I have purchased two copies of the rare book mentioned above from these dealers and one of them even came from Germany. Actually I have even found an even more rare manuscript by Fannie Belle Taylor-Richardson on the Eisenhauers from one of them. Remember you can always try eBay too.
Once you get your hands on one of these you can start looking at the citations in that book to find other key resources. Keep checking the sellers also because even though a book isn’t listed today it may appear later when a library goes out of business or decides to update its stock.
Oh, and I just realized it is after midnight so it is technically the 25th…Merry Christmas!
I know some of this data is a bit outdated, but some of it should still be helpful to beginner researchers.
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I am a descendent of Hans Nicholas Eisenhauer. I am also a distant cousin of Dwight D. Eisenhower (34th President of these States United), an amatuer genealogist and a history-buff.
