Please send in photos and family stories.... and I'll post them.
Thanks,
Jodie
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Family of Helwig Zoeller and Anna Wessely
Helwig Zoeller and Anna Wessely familyAlbert, Joe, Helwig, Alma, Fred, Anna Wessely, Edna, Rudolph, Otto and family farm dog
Children of Phillip Zoeller & Margaretha Schneider
Phillip Zoeller and Margaretha Schneider familyFront: Ernst, Helen Adams, Helwig
Back: William, Fritz, Henry, Gretchen Wessely
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Family Memories: Mom's side mostly
Memories are funny things. We remember mostly the highlights of our childhood... the especially good/great things and the really awful/bad things, usually. Some people remember a lot and some people like me have a bad memory... I can't remember very much about the present but the past is clear as a bell sometimes. I don't have Alzheimer's, I have a 40-something brain that's fuzzing out on me as I approach the big M.
I remember some big events from my childhood: my mother having a baby that was stillborn when I was 4; my 4th birthday party where she got hit in the stomach with a pinata stick (connect the dots); my parents doing the TWIST at my 4th birthday party; my Uncle Henry being a bit tipsy at the same party; everyone had a beer or cigarette or both if they were an adult at the party.
More memories: driving across New Mexico & Arizona with my mother, maternal grandmother Anne and her husband Paul to visit my great-aunt Leonie in Flagstaff AZ. Leonie was married to Charlie Orbison, a cousin of the famous Roy Orbison. He was tall and soft spoken. She carried a chihuahua everywhere! It bit people on the ankles... I was about 3 or so. I remember my "fabulous purse" that got left behind at a restaurant. I cried so hard that they returned about 20 miles to get it for me. Spoiled little girl? Yes. I remember experiencing static electricity for the 1st time in AZ. I remember being TERRIFIED of the drop offs in the mountains of Arizona and praying that we would survive those highways. It was very scary to a 3 year old. I remember my Pop Pop saying he would throw me in the Devil's Canyon or River if I was bad... because the Devil lived down there. VERY SCARY! But it's mostly a great memory.
Fast forward to age 7 or 8. My granny Anne bought me a poodle puppy. Dad said NO to a "neurotic house dog", so she kept him - Romie after Romeo. He was a woose and turned out to be a dog that chewed his own fur. Despite being sold a toy poodle, he was a full-sized poodle with apricot / white coloring. A new years later, he and their other older dog Lady, chewed up my 1st Barbie doll (the original style). I traded in her mangled body for a discount on a NEW twist & turn modern Barbie. My grandmother had her cousin (and dress maker) make me some custom doll clothes for my Barbie and Stacy from left over fabric that matched my grandmother's dresses and pant suits... it was the 70s after all. Double knit was IN.
I remember SMELLS like Coty Powder (Granny), Roses in a garden (Pop Pop), Aquavelva after shave (Dad), Evening in Paris cologne or anything AVON (Mom). Smell memories are nice... Thanksgiving and Christmas food smells bring back memories. Tomatoes and okra bring back memories of Granny cooking three kinds of okra: fried for all of us, boiled & buttered for me, okra & tomato "gumbo" for the adults. She cooked all weekend and worked all week. Pop pop had emphasemia and was disabled from most of his normal work (home construction and repair... he was a carpenter with great skills). They were my favorite people when I was growing up. I loved to stay at their house and be the center of their universe!
I remember some big events from my childhood: my mother having a baby that was stillborn when I was 4; my 4th birthday party where she got hit in the stomach with a pinata stick (connect the dots); my parents doing the TWIST at my 4th birthday party; my Uncle Henry being a bit tipsy at the same party; everyone had a beer or cigarette or both if they were an adult at the party.
More memories: driving across New Mexico & Arizona with my mother, maternal grandmother Anne and her husband Paul to visit my great-aunt Leonie in Flagstaff AZ. Leonie was married to Charlie Orbison, a cousin of the famous Roy Orbison. He was tall and soft spoken. She carried a chihuahua everywhere! It bit people on the ankles... I was about 3 or so. I remember my "fabulous purse" that got left behind at a restaurant. I cried so hard that they returned about 20 miles to get it for me. Spoiled little girl? Yes. I remember experiencing static electricity for the 1st time in AZ. I remember being TERRIFIED of the drop offs in the mountains of Arizona and praying that we would survive those highways. It was very scary to a 3 year old. I remember my Pop Pop saying he would throw me in the Devil's Canyon or River if I was bad... because the Devil lived down there. VERY SCARY! But it's mostly a great memory.
Fast forward to age 7 or 8. My granny Anne bought me a poodle puppy. Dad said NO to a "neurotic house dog", so she kept him - Romie after Romeo. He was a woose and turned out to be a dog that chewed his own fur. Despite being sold a toy poodle, he was a full-sized poodle with apricot / white coloring. A new years later, he and their other older dog Lady, chewed up my 1st Barbie doll (the original style). I traded in her mangled body for a discount on a NEW twist & turn modern Barbie. My grandmother had her cousin (and dress maker) make me some custom doll clothes for my Barbie and Stacy from left over fabric that matched my grandmother's dresses and pant suits... it was the 70s after all. Double knit was IN.
I remember SMELLS like Coty Powder (Granny), Roses in a garden (Pop Pop), Aquavelva after shave (Dad), Evening in Paris cologne or anything AVON (Mom). Smell memories are nice... Thanksgiving and Christmas food smells bring back memories. Tomatoes and okra bring back memories of Granny cooking three kinds of okra: fried for all of us, boiled & buttered for me, okra & tomato "gumbo" for the adults. She cooked all weekend and worked all week. Pop pop had emphasemia and was disabled from most of his normal work (home construction and repair... he was a carpenter with great skills). They were my favorite people when I was growing up. I loved to stay at their house and be the center of their universe!
Mary & Albert Zoeller, another perspective
From my cousin Valentine Kneip (Val):
Mary and Albert were wed in Mexico City and settled down there to start their family near her parents. They took at least one trip to Boerne Texas so she could meet his mother. While in Mexico, Albert fathered 5 children: Harley Francis, Joseph Alberto, and Alberto Jorge (later called George Albert; he was the 2nd child to bear his father's name, but his Dad called him 'Georgie' as a baby) and Frederick Louis (called Fred), Maria Theresa (called Molly). When the depression struck the US, it also devastated Mexico's economy, thus Albert lost all his savings and their home and country club membership. The family of seven crossed the border and became residents of Laredo for a time, then later moved to San Antonio. The 6th child, Edward Daniel (called Ned), and 7th Margaret Pauline, (called Maggie) were born in Laredo. The 8th and 9th children were born in San Antonio, Henry Bernard (later called Hank) and my mother, Alice Mae (born 1933).
In 1953, Alice Mae (then 19 yrs old) married her high school sweetheart, Jerre Graham Kneip, of German/Scottish descent, (son to Roy Eugene Kneip and Lillie Belle McGall). By the time Alice was 29 she was the mother of 6 children: Mary Valentine, Alexander McGall, Eugene Henry, Hugh Graham, James Zoeller, & Kathryn Lillie. Then the most resent generation started in 1979 when, Alice & Jerre’s eldest daughter, Mary Valentine (named after her grandmother, Mary) gave birth to Craig Alexander. She & her husband, Donald Craig Gosch (of German descent) had one other son 4 yrs later, Erich James. However, no girls were born of Alice’s children until in 2000, when Alice’s youngest daughter, Kathryn had a daughter and named her Erin Kate (in memory of her Irish ancestry). Ironically, her last name is Bradley (same as her great-great-grandmother).
Mary and Albert were wed in Mexico City and settled down there to start their family near her parents. They took at least one trip to Boerne Texas so she could meet his mother. While in Mexico, Albert fathered 5 children: Harley Francis, Joseph Alberto, and Alberto Jorge (later called George Albert; he was the 2nd child to bear his father's name, but his Dad called him 'Georgie' as a baby) and Frederick Louis (called Fred), Maria Theresa (called Molly). When the depression struck the US, it also devastated Mexico's economy, thus Albert lost all his savings and their home and country club membership. The family of seven crossed the border and became residents of Laredo for a time, then later moved to San Antonio. The 6th child, Edward Daniel (called Ned), and 7th Margaret Pauline, (called Maggie) were born in Laredo. The 8th and 9th children were born in San Antonio, Henry Bernard (later called Hank) and my mother, Alice Mae (born 1933).
In 1953, Alice Mae (then 19 yrs old) married her high school sweetheart, Jerre Graham Kneip, of German/Scottish descent, (son to Roy Eugene Kneip and Lillie Belle McGall). By the time Alice was 29 she was the mother of 6 children: Mary Valentine, Alexander McGall, Eugene Henry, Hugh Graham, James Zoeller, & Kathryn Lillie. Then the most resent generation started in 1979 when, Alice & Jerre’s eldest daughter, Mary Valentine (named after her grandmother, Mary) gave birth to Craig Alexander. She & her husband, Donald Craig Gosch (of German descent) had one other son 4 yrs later, Erich James. However, no girls were born of Alice’s children until in 2000, when Alice’s youngest daughter, Kathryn had a daughter and named her Erin Kate (in memory of her Irish ancestry). Ironically, her last name is Bradley (same as her great-great-grandmother).
Monday, August 25, 2008
Albert and Mary Zoeller, part one
Some of my grandparents and greatgrandparents lived in Juarez for a time and then in Mexico City... I'm of multinational heritage: German-Texan, Irish-Mexican, etc.
My great-grandmother Margaret Bradley moved from County Cork, Ireland to teach in El Paso at a convent school. At some point she became the governess for a wealthy Mexican family (Manual Bauche) and moved to Mexico City. She was fluent in English, French and Spanish. She married the brother of the man she was working for there in Mexico and thus became a Mexican citizen. His name was Francisco "Pancho" Bauche de la Barrera. His mother was either Spanish or Mexican. His father was from Bohemia which became Czechoslovakia and is now either part of Germany or the Czech Republic. It's hard to tell. Bauche is usually a French surname according to my research into the name. So maybe his father was French. Mexico was colonized by both the Spanish and the French. In fact, they fought a war with France and emperor Maximillian was defeated by the Mexican army... I call it when they threw the French out of Mexico.
Francisco and Margaret Bauche de Bradley had three daughters: Margarita, Paulina and Maria. Maria Bauche was the oldest daughter and was beautiful and the vision of a Spanish girl with dark hair and pale skin. We called her Mary and she was the grandmother that I never met. She and her sisters were Mexicans, whether they match the appearance of what you view as Mexicans or not. Paulina was shortened to Polly and Margarita to Maggie during their youth which was multi-lingual. Their Irish mother, Margaret, was soon the principal of the Collegio de Francias, a private high school for young people of the upper classes with French as their primary language along with English and Spanish. Polly and Maggie both trained as teachers and became teachers in Mexico. Mary married an American, but that was after she trained as an accountant or bookkeeper.
Young Mary and her family met a young German Texan named Albert who was in sales. An American seeking his fortune in the early 1900s in Mexico, first in Juarez with one of his uncles from Boerne Texas, then in Mexico City. He also had positions with a bank and the Mexican railroad. His future father-in-law, Francisco, was an official with the railroad. That is probably how they became friends and he was introduced to the Bauche girls and Margaret. I have a photo of the girls with their parents addressed to Albert when Mary was a teenager.
Albert was 15 years her senior, but when she was 20, he proposed. There was a war going on in Mexico and he had to leave via a ship to Cuba then a ship to New Orleans. They wrote touching love letters during those months that they were separated. She said, "I can only give you my fingers, for my father who is away due to the war must give you my hand." Very victorian, as it was 1915! Yes, my grandfather was born in 1881 and my grandmother in 1885. Hard to imagine. Mary and Albert were wed in Mexico City and settled down start their family near her parents. They took at least one trip to Boerne Texas to meet his parents.
In Mexico, Albert fathered 6 children: Harley Francis, Joseph Alberto, Alberto Jorge (called George Albert later), Fredrick Louis (called Fred), Maria Teresa (called Molly) and Edwardo Daniel (called Ned). When the depression struck the US it also devistated Mexico's economy, thus Albert lost all his savings and their home, bank account balance and country club membership. The family of seven crossed the border and became residents of Laredo for a time, then later moved to San Antonio. The 7th child Margaret (called Maggie) was born in Laredo. The 8th and 9th children were born in San Antonio, Henry Bernard and Alice Mae. I don't know if there were others that were miscarried or still born, no records exist. I have some letters where Mary's mother advised her to submit to being a wife, regardless if her husband was not the best of them all. They were of course Catholic! Albert had been raise Lutheran or Free Thinker as far as I know in Boerne Texas. He was descended from a free thinker German... Phillip Zoeller, a socialistic farmer student from Darmstadt, Hesse (Germany).
My father, Alberto Jorge (George Albert), was born in February 1922 in Mexico City. By virtue of being a child of a U.S. citizen, his birth made him a dual citizen of the United States and Mexico. He learned English and Spanish as a child until the family moved to the U.S. in 1929. After they were in the U.S. where there was a prejudice against Mexicans, he and his siblings were told to forget Mexico and their Spanish words. So as an adult, he only knew Spanglish, learned on the job to work with his Mexican-American helpers in the Air Conditioning & Heating trade that provided our family home, food and more. His name was George Albert in the U.S., I have no idea why the names were exchanged after the move to Texas. He was the 2nd child to bear his father's name and could have gone by Albert or Al, but his Dad called him Georgie as a baby. George Albert Zoeller was a fine man and father. I miss him often, usually in February near his birthday and near Easter as his stroke came just before Easter (April) in 1994. He was paralyzed and needed a feeding tube, but thrived and lived for another 5 years in a nursing home in San Antonio. I live 300 miles to the north and drove that road (I-35) many times to visit him there. I wish that he could have been my father for many more years, even though he smoked and drank (too much)... I miss my Daddy a lot. He will never be forgotten. And that dear interweb is why I tell people of my Hispanic heritage. My father was part Mexican, born in Mexico and I am part Mexican born in San Antonio. SAT is a town with a rich heritage and history from the time that it was an important mission town San Antonio de Valero when Mexico owned Texas and parts of the Southwest. Those Spaniards, they wanted land in the New World and staked out a good bit of North, Central and South American, where Spanish is still spoken as the mother tongue by many, many people. Many who are extremely poor in Mexico. More on this topic later. Adios mis amigos!
My great-grandmother Margaret Bradley moved from County Cork, Ireland to teach in El Paso at a convent school. At some point she became the governess for a wealthy Mexican family (Manual Bauche) and moved to Mexico City. She was fluent in English, French and Spanish. She married the brother of the man she was working for there in Mexico and thus became a Mexican citizen. His name was Francisco "Pancho" Bauche de la Barrera. His mother was either Spanish or Mexican. His father was from Bohemia which became Czechoslovakia and is now either part of Germany or the Czech Republic. It's hard to tell. Bauche is usually a French surname according to my research into the name. So maybe his father was French. Mexico was colonized by both the Spanish and the French. In fact, they fought a war with France and emperor Maximillian was defeated by the Mexican army... I call it when they threw the French out of Mexico.
Francisco and Margaret Bauche de Bradley had three daughters: Margarita, Paulina and Maria. Maria Bauche was the oldest daughter and was beautiful and the vision of a Spanish girl with dark hair and pale skin. We called her Mary and she was the grandmother that I never met. She and her sisters were Mexicans, whether they match the appearance of what you view as Mexicans or not. Paulina was shortened to Polly and Margarita to Maggie during their youth which was multi-lingual. Their Irish mother, Margaret, was soon the principal of the Collegio de Francias, a private high school for young people of the upper classes with French as their primary language along with English and Spanish. Polly and Maggie both trained as teachers and became teachers in Mexico. Mary married an American, but that was after she trained as an accountant or bookkeeper.
Young Mary and her family met a young German Texan named Albert who was in sales. An American seeking his fortune in the early 1900s in Mexico, first in Juarez with one of his uncles from Boerne Texas, then in Mexico City. He also had positions with a bank and the Mexican railroad. His future father-in-law, Francisco, was an official with the railroad. That is probably how they became friends and he was introduced to the Bauche girls and Margaret. I have a photo of the girls with their parents addressed to Albert when Mary was a teenager.
Albert was 15 years her senior, but when she was 20, he proposed. There was a war going on in Mexico and he had to leave via a ship to Cuba then a ship to New Orleans. They wrote touching love letters during those months that they were separated. She said, "I can only give you my fingers, for my father who is away due to the war must give you my hand." Very victorian, as it was 1915! Yes, my grandfather was born in 1881 and my grandmother in 1885. Hard to imagine. Mary and Albert were wed in Mexico City and settled down start their family near her parents. They took at least one trip to Boerne Texas to meet his parents.
In Mexico, Albert fathered 6 children: Harley Francis, Joseph Alberto, Alberto Jorge (called George Albert later), Fredrick Louis (called Fred), Maria Teresa (called Molly) and Edwardo Daniel (called Ned). When the depression struck the US it also devistated Mexico's economy, thus Albert lost all his savings and their home, bank account balance and country club membership. The family of seven crossed the border and became residents of Laredo for a time, then later moved to San Antonio. The 7th child Margaret (called Maggie) was born in Laredo. The 8th and 9th children were born in San Antonio, Henry Bernard and Alice Mae. I don't know if there were others that were miscarried or still born, no records exist. I have some letters where Mary's mother advised her to submit to being a wife, regardless if her husband was not the best of them all. They were of course Catholic! Albert had been raise Lutheran or Free Thinker as far as I know in Boerne Texas. He was descended from a free thinker German... Phillip Zoeller, a socialistic farmer student from Darmstadt, Hesse (Germany).
My father, Alberto Jorge (George Albert), was born in February 1922 in Mexico City. By virtue of being a child of a U.S. citizen, his birth made him a dual citizen of the United States and Mexico. He learned English and Spanish as a child until the family moved to the U.S. in 1929. After they were in the U.S. where there was a prejudice against Mexicans, he and his siblings were told to forget Mexico and their Spanish words. So as an adult, he only knew Spanglish, learned on the job to work with his Mexican-American helpers in the Air Conditioning & Heating trade that provided our family home, food and more. His name was George Albert in the U.S., I have no idea why the names were exchanged after the move to Texas. He was the 2nd child to bear his father's name and could have gone by Albert or Al, but his Dad called him Georgie as a baby. George Albert Zoeller was a fine man and father. I miss him often, usually in February near his birthday and near Easter as his stroke came just before Easter (April) in 1994. He was paralyzed and needed a feeding tube, but thrived and lived for another 5 years in a nursing home in San Antonio. I live 300 miles to the north and drove that road (I-35) many times to visit him there. I wish that he could have been my father for many more years, even though he smoked and drank (too much)... I miss my Daddy a lot. He will never be forgotten. And that dear interweb is why I tell people of my Hispanic heritage. My father was part Mexican, born in Mexico and I am part Mexican born in San Antonio. SAT is a town with a rich heritage and history from the time that it was an important mission town San Antonio de Valero when Mexico owned Texas and parts of the Southwest. Those Spaniards, they wanted land in the New World and staked out a good bit of North, Central and South American, where Spanish is still spoken as the mother tongue by many, many people. Many who are extremely poor in Mexico. More on this topic later. Adios mis amigos!
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