February 12th-Today in my Family History

Family Tree History and Research
Monday, Feb 12th, 2018

Today is a special day for me as it was the day that the Lord decided to let me enter this realm we call the Earth and to start my journey of learning and enlightenment. 
Below are some of the events that happened on this day in my family's history:

1973: The Death of my maternal Grandfather, Raymond Harold Dietz

Raymond Harold Dietz

Raymond Harold Dietz aka Deitz

Born 23 Jul 1912 in Waupaca, Waupaca, Wisconsin, United States

ANCESTORS
Son of Henry Dietz and Grace Elizabeth (Pope) Dietz
Husband of Modesta (Kosmeder) Dietz

DESCENDANTS
Father of Marlene Grace (Dietz) Repinski and Clyde Dietz
Died 12 Feb 1973 in Wisconsin Rapids,WI

 Raymond H Deitz was born on July 23, 1912, in Waupaca, Wisconsin, his father, Henry, was 27 and his mother, Grace, was 21. He had one son and one daughter with Modesta Kosmeder between 1936 and 1938. He died on February 12, 1973, in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, at the age of 60, and was buried in Stevens Point, Wisconsin.

My pedigree: 

Raymond H Deitz (1912 - 1973) 

maternal grandfather 

Marlene Deitz (1936 - 1999) daughter of Raymond H Deitz John Repinski 

John is the son of Marlene Deitz

My Grandfather did not know that he was a descendent of royal and noble families from Europe and that numerous lines of his crossed over on the Mayflower and other ships in the 1600s to help settle America. He also did not know that his family line of Dietz was an ancient name in Germany and that he was connected to Grand Princes of Russia and Kiev.

I remember so many things about my grandpa and even though he died in 1973 on the day of my 7th birthday, I can see his face in my memory as clear as if I had seen it just yesterday.
I remember the day he died as well very clearly:
Grandpa and his wife, my step grandma were running late to my birthday party...
It was about 445pm in the afternoon and the phone rang as my mom was getting ready to have my 7th birthday party for me with a few of my close boyhood friends and grandpa and Elsie getting ready to come over for dinner and playtime and to open my gifts with me.
The look on her face as she was on the phone was one that frightened me as I had never seen this good natured and happy woman look so sad and stricken down. The voice on the other side of the phone was my step grandma, Elsie, informing my mom that she had come home from work at the Mead Inn hotel to find my grandpa in the basement of their home at the bottom of the stairs...

He had shot himself in the head with a shotgun and was found laying in a pool of blood next to the furnace.
My dad got home shortly after and my party was cancelled so they could go over to the house and try to figure out what had happened. Though no suicide note or anything was found, it was surmised that my grandpa had been in a lot of physical pain due to his recent diagnosis of leukemia and his sadness of loosing his 1st wife (my grandma) Maud a few years earlier.

So on this day I will remember you grandpa for all the "Bunn Candy Bars" and Root Beers that you gave me while I sat on your lap as a child at the local watering hole called Bubbles Bar and for all the times that I sat between you and grandma in the middle of the front seat while helping to steer the wheel of the car on the way home after your afternoon drinking binges and for all the nails and screws you supplied me with to keep me occupied building stupid little things at the lumber yard you managed and for so many other early childhood memories of a man who meant the world to me, thank you for being a part of my life.

1966: The Birth of John Joseph Repinski

My Baptismal Photo

Maurice & Marlene 

with their 1st son John at one month of Age

On this day in 1966 I came in to the word.
I am the oldest son of Maurice Joseph Repinski and Marlene Grace Dietz Repinski.
I was born in Wisconsin Rapids Wisconsin on a cold snowy night (according to my mother).
My dad was on a sales route when my mother went into labor and according to my mom, I was so eager to come into the world that her water broke as my uncle was rushing her to the hospital.

52 years later, as I write this, I have discovered that through my mother , I have inherited a very strange lineage and ancestry that includes Mayflower Passengers, European Founders of numerous early Colonial American settlements and a family pedigree that takes me back to many noble and royal families of Europe.
And through my father, I have also inherited somewhat of a same lineage with noble Polish ancestry that goes back to Prussia and Pomerania and Germany as well.

I will write in full about my life someday hopefully and no one will want to read it, but for me, it will be my little part of my life on this earth.

1554: The Death of my 4th Cousin (14 times removed) Lady Jane Grey

Lady Jane Grey

4th Cousin

Through my mother's family ancestry, today was also the day that a distant cousin lost her head in England. 

Jane, Queen of England and Ireland (1536/1537 - 12 February 1554), more commonly known as Lady Jane Grey, was a claimant to the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Ireland, who was de facto monarch of England for just over a week in 1553.

Executed on 12 February 1554, Lady Jane Grey's claimed rule of less than two weeks in July 1553 is the shortest rule of England in the history of the country. Popular history sometimes refers to Lady Jane as "The Nine Days' Queen" or, less commonly, as "The nine Day Queen" owing to disagreements about the beginning of her claimed rule. Historians have taken either the day of her official proclamation as Queen (10 July) or that of her predecessor's death (6 July) as the beginning.

Lady Jane had a reputation as one of the most learned women of her day and the historical writer Alison Weir describes her as one of "the finest female minds of the century". She is sometimes reckoned the first Queen regnant of England.

My Family Pedigree to Lady Jane Grey:



You

→

Marlene Grace Repinski
your mother

→

Raymond Harold Dietz
her father

→

Grace Elizabeth Dietz
his mother

→

Henry Allen Pope
her father

→

Thomas Paschal Pope
his father

→

Thomas Faunce Pope
his father

→

Mitchell Pope
his father

→

Elnathan Pope, Jr.
his father

→

Elnathan Pope
his father

→

Isaac Pope, Sr.,
his father

→

Sarah Jane Pope
his mother

→

Capt. John Jenney
her father

→

Mary Jenney
his mother

→

Thomas "Customer" Smythe, MP
her father

→

John Smythe, Esq., of Corsham
his father

→

Isabel Smythe
his mother

→

Sir John de Neville, Earl of Northumberland
her father

→

Catherine Bonville, 2nd Baroness Hastings
his sister

→

Cecily Bonville, 7th Baroness Harington
her daughter

→

Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset
her son

→

Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk
his son

→
Lady Jane Grey, Queen of England (disputed)
his daughter