November 16th-110th Wedding Anniversary Henry Dietz & Grace Pope

Family History & Research
Weddings & Anniversaries
Repinski-Dietz Family Tree
Dietz-Pope Family Line

November 16th

110th Wedding Anniversary 

Henry Chester Dietz & Grace Elizabeth Pope 

Maternal Great Grandparents

Henry and Grace were married on this day 110 years ago on November 16th, 1908 in Dayton Township, Waupaca County, Wisconsin.

My maternal great grandparents are descended from families that until a few years ago I knew hardly anything about.

As I was growing up I only knew that my Dietz family line had German origins through Henry and that the Pope family line was of English origins through Grace. This information was given to me by my mother, Marlene Dietz Repinski, who was the granddaughter of these two people....

Read on for the story of Henry and Grace who were both descended from Anglo European stock and who would give me and my siblings and their children an amazing pedigree that stretches back in history to the colonial America of the Mayflower Pilgrims and the first settlers of the country that we now call the United States of America and to the noble and royal families of Europe and Russia.

Nov 15, 2018-140th Birthday of GGM-Elizabeth Strojk Repinski

Family History & Research
Birthdays
Repinski Family Tree
Stroijk Family Line

Today would be the 140th Birthday of my Paternal Great Grandmother, Elizabeth Stroijk Repinski.

"Lizzie" was born on November 15th, 1878 in the tiny village of Sharon, Portage County, Wisconsin.

John Whipple & John Whipple

Family History Research

Today I bring my family and friends the story of John Whipple, one of my 10th Great Grandfathers, who made me and my siblings and their children possible.
When I began my research into my family history many years ago, I never imagined I would find so many ancestors with so much history written about them.

How many 10th Great Grandparents does one have?
Quite a few.....to be exact, a person has 4096 10th Great Grandparents and a total of 8190 Ancestors. 4096 10th Great Grandparents + 4094 ancestors before those ancestors = 8190 total people that have contributed to your essence and your being made possible.

Of course, the above numbers assume that none of the parties were related.
The number will be reduced when cousins marry since they will have common ancestors and my family does:

• For instance, my 9th Great Grandfather, Thomas Pope is my 9th Great twice over and he is also my 10th Great one time as I am descended from him via three of his children. 
• In my research I have found this to happen a few times over already:
• Another example being my Smith family line from Rhode Island where my 8th Great Grandparents, Joseph Smith & Patience Mowry had two sons named Jacob & Joseph.
•  Brother's Jacob and Joseph's lines would join together in two of their great grandchildren marrying each other.
• Jacob's line:
• Jacob Smith/Dinah Harris
• Jeremiah Smith/Lavina Olney 
• Israel Smith/ Amy Phillips
• Martin H Smith/ Mary E Smith
• Jospeh's line:
• Joseph Smith/Lydia Dexter**
• Simon Smith/ Elizabeth Sayles
• Ziba Smith/ Lydia Waterman
• Mary E Smith/ Martin H Smith
• Martin Hubbard Smith being the great grandson of Jacob 
•  Mary Elizabeth Smith being the great granddaughter of Joseph.  
• Martin Hubbard Smith would marry his 3rd Cousin Mary Elizabeth Smith.
• They would have a child named Mary Elizabeth
• Mary Elizabeth Smith would marry Chester Brown.
• The above two people would be my 3rd Great Grandparents.

**It is this 7th Great Grandmother, Lydia Dexter Smith, who is my ancestor that will take me back to my 10th Great Grandfather, John Whipple, who this story is about.

While trying to find out more about my John Whipple, I came across two men of the same name and who both came over from Bocking England and who both settled in New England around the same time in the early 1600s.

One of them was my 10th Great Grandfather and one wasn't.
To make matters worse, it seems that some historians and genealogists and more than a few family trees have the two either mixed up or even combined.
Both of these John Whipple's made names for themselves in Colonial New England and both had large families and thus many descendants....

Trying to unravel the two John's took the better part of an entire week but I did it!

Not only did I discover which John was my 10th Great Grandfather, but while researching the Whipple lines I discovered an amazing reconstruction of his life from the moment he immigrated to America to the day he died.
An even more surprising find was that some of my other ancestral great grandparents from Rhode Island that are in my Tree such as my 10th great grandparents, Richard Scott & Katherine (Marbury) Scott and my 10th great grandparents, Roger and Mary (Barnard) Williams were intimately connected to my John Whipple and that these families all intermarried with one another and through all of those marriages eventually came my mother and thus myself and my siblings and their children.

So below are the two John Whipple's of Colonial New England and their stories. I would be proud to be a descendant of either of these fine men. Guess which one is mine??!!

So come with me and learn a bit about another of my 10 Great Grandfathers and his time spent on this earth. This post is dedicated to all of my Whipple ancestors and the progeny that came afterwards because of him. Rest in peace Grandpa.

The two earliest American immigrants named John Whipple are misidentified in a large number of online databases. In fact, many databases have merged them into a composite John Whipple, with a variety of spouses and a large number of children. We mention them here, in hopes of clearing up the confusion.

"Elder" John (1596-1669)

Died in Ipswich, Massachusetts
Born in Bocking, England in 1596.
Son of Matthew "The Elder" Whipple, a clothier in Bocking, Essex, England and Joan Whipple
Immigrated to Ipswich, Mass., with brother Matthew in 1638. Ship unknown
Married Susanna Clark.
All Ipswich, Mass., Whipple's descend from this John and his brother Matthew.

"Captain" John (abt. 1617-1685)

Died in Providence, Rhode Island
Born in Milford, Pembrokeshire, Wales in 1617.
Son of Mathew Whipple of Bradford-St. Bowling, Essex, England and Joannah Whipple
Immigrated aboard the Lyon to Dorchester, Mass., in 1632 As a teen-age indentured servant.
Married Sarah Hutchinson
Then in 1658 moved with her and children to Providence, R.I., where additional children were born.
All Rhode Island Whipple's descend from this John.
The earliest known Providence, R.I., Whipple.
Earliest Whipple settler in the New World.

Edward Y Smith-3rd Great Grandfather-Early Wisconsin Settler

Family Tree History and Research
Monday, March 12, 2018

Another discovery, this one closer to the "old Home Stomping Grounds" of my home state of Wisconsin. 
Belmont Wisconsin is the setting for this story....

I discovered my 3rd Great Grandfather, Edward Y Smith, through my research a few years ago, as his name was linked to his daughter,  my 2nd Great Grandmother, Izzie (Isadora) Smith Pope and through digging through books and online sites I found his birth and death date and that his Smith family line went back to New England through other trees. 

I also traced this line back to other lines of Early New England Settlers that intertwined with some of my other lines back then but I really couldn't break through any of the information to find much about this Smith line as Smith was a common name and things get very confusing. Until this last week....

A few days ago, I came upon a "commemorative Biography of Early Wisconsin Settlers" online and it has a plethora of "Life Sketches" on quite a few people (1000 plus pages) and in this book was an interesting sketch on a man named Edward Y Smith. 

The book I Found online:
J.H. Beers & Co. Commemorative biographical record of the upper Wisconsin counties of Waupaca, Portage, Wood, Marathon, Lincoln, Oneida, Vilas, Langlade and Shawano (Kindle Locations 13760-13765). Chicago, J. H. Beers & co.. 


I was astounded when I started to read about this man and his origins and who he was. I cried and felt like I was meeting him for the 1st time. To discover so much about my family from one story was very emotional.

I realize now that My grandparents must surly have known about their historic connections to New England and to the Pilgrims and the settling of the coast. 
Why they didn't preserve this history for their descendants such as me to know and cherish I can not fully comprehend.

I guess it is up to me to bring these souls back to life so that they are not forgotten. To me, to know one's ancestors is to one's self. Our family history sheds light on who we are.

Today I would like my family and my friends to meet my 3rd Great Grandfather and a few more of my ancestors that lived in the 1700s and 1800s and who are part of who we are today.

Just a few of the VERY COOL things I discovered because of this find is that:

• I discovered that my siblings and their children and I through our mother, have Scottish blood running through  our veins from Edward's wife Elizabeth Moyes, our 3rd Great Grandmother, who was born in Errol, Perthshire Scotland in 1834 and that our Moyes heritage goes back to the noble and royal families of Scotland (much research to do on this) and that a distant cousin named William Young Moyes was one of the passengers that sunk with the Titanic in 1912.
• I discovered a famous cousin named Katharine Elizabeth Dopp who was one of the foremost American Educators at the turn of the 20th century. She wrote textbooks that were used nationally in schools and also wrote Children's books which were widely read at the time. She would go on to become one of the 1st deans of the Chicago Normal School which would later become the University of Illinois at Chicago and while there she would be instrumental in designing parts of the public school system still used nationally. And her early education would start with the tutelage of one of my 3rd Great Grandmothers, the wife of the man this post
• I discovered that my siblings and myself and their children are related to Joseph Smith in this line,Joseph being the founder of the Mormon faith. 
•  I dsicovered A good portion of  this area of Wisconsin including Belmont and Waupaca were settled by my family lines that traveled from New England to the Midwest to settle on the rich plains in the Indian Territory.
• I discovered that I have many Smith cousins still alive in the Waupaca and Wild Rose area of Wisconsin and one (who as of 2005 at least) lives in the same neighborhood as my dad in Oxford Wisconsin! This line I discovered on another website lays out the generations of my Smith family line all the way back to New England and forward to the separating of lines at Edward and Elizabeth's children. This cousin's family then descends through son Lyman Smith and populates that area of Wisconsin and my line descends through daughter Isadora. (see below)

Generation No. 9

• 9. EDWARD Y9 SMITH (HARRISON8, SAMUEL7, SAMUEL6, SAMUEL5, JOHN4, JOHN BLAND3, JOHN SMITH (SMYTH)2 (SMETH), JAMES1 SMITH) was born March 29, 1833 in Martha Vineyard, Mass., and died October 05, 1885. He married ELIZABETH MOYES. She was born June 02, 1834 in Perthshire Scottland, and died February 11, 1928.
• More About EDWARD Y SMITH:
• Burial: Dopp Cemetary, Wild Rose Wisc.
• More About ELIZABETH MOYES:
• Burial: Dopp Cemetary, Wild Rose Wisc.
• Children of EDWARD SMITH and ELIZABETH MOYES are:
• 10. i. LYMAN10 SMITH, b. April 24, 1875; d. February 22, 1949. (Her line)
• 11. ii. JULIA E. SMITH, b. October 27, 1854; d. March 14, 1909.
• iii. ISADORIS SMITH, b. October 02, 1859; d. March 03, 1906. (My line)
• iv. OWEN SMITH, b. December 02, 1859; d. July 14, 1909.
• v. MAGGIE SMITH, b. August 11, 1863; d. December 21, 1920.
• vi. WALLACE SMITH, b. October 18, 1865; d. March 04, 1918.
• vii. CLIFFORD SMITH, b. June 15, 1869; d. December 07, 1912.
• viii. BERTHA SMITH, b. November 08, 1871.
• ix. OTHA SMITH, b. March 20, 1880; d. April 09, 1946.
• I discovered that a Dairy Farm that I stopped at a year or so ago while looking for the Pope family homestead in the area between Waupaca and Waushara counties on why 22 was owned by cousins I didn't know existed at the time (The Dopp Dairy Farm).

What...Do You Think Your A Saint or Something??

Family Tree History And Research
Feb 19h, 2018

WHO DO WE THINK WE ARE?

"What...Do You Think Your A Saint Or Something??

As I was growing up, I remember our mom used to ask me this question when I denied doing something wrong....even though she (and everyone else) knew I did do something I wasn't supposed to....

What is a Saint?

According to this definition in Wikipedia:
A saint (also historically known as a hallow) is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness or likeness or closeness to God.Depending on the context and denomination, the term also retains its original Christian meaning, as any believer who is "in Christ" and in whom Christ dwells, whether in Heaven or on Earth. In Anglican, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran, and Oriental Orthodox doctrine, all of their faithful deceased in Heaven are considered to be saints, but some are considered worthy of greater honor or emulation;official ecclesiastical recognition, and consequently veneration, is given to some saints through the process of canonization in the Catholic Church or glorification in the Eastern Orthodox Church.

While I am not a "Saint" or even close to it, I have made a few family discoveries in the past few months that have my mother and myself and my siblings and their children the descendants of a few of these folks.

I cried when I discovered one of my ancestral Great Grandmother's was "grouped" in this realm of human beings.
So much so that even as I write this post, my brain is having a very difficult time grasping this find. To think that a person who is venerated by scores of people to this very day and that I share her blood, is probably one of the most profound things that I have discovered while researching my family's ancestral roots and history.

A few days ago, on another lark I decided to query some of the other saints through history and though I am still doing some pretty in depth research, I can now proudly say that I and my siblings and their children, through our mother, Marlene Grace Dietz Repinski, descend from some very neat people from history who were canonized as Saints in one of the many world faiths.

Today I would like to introduce everyone to the first of these "Saints".

Margaret Etheling Canmore

An Amazing Discovery! The Father of Texas is my Cousin!

Family Tree History and Research
Monday, Feb 5th, 2018

As I was researching my family tree just now I stumbled upon and discovered a 14th Great Grandfather through my mother's family line from her father (my grandfather) Ray Dietz, named Stephen Austin, who was born in 1484 in Kent England.

On a lark I decided to research the ancestry of the namesake of Austin Texas to see if my ancestral great grandfather was somehow connected to the "Founder of Texas"......

Stephen Austin 

(1484-1557)

My 14th Great Grandfather

*Stephen F. Austin's 6th Great Grandfather*

Stephen F. Austin 

(1793-1836)

My 7th Cousin

Father of Texas

John Jenney-My 10th Great Grandfather

Family Tree History and Research
Monday, Feb 5, 2018

A Moving Video of my 10th Great Grandpa's ancestral home

My first discovery of a New England Ancestor from my mother's family line that I discovered about a year and a half ago while researching my great grandmother's family history.

Little did I know that making this discovery the August before last that I would be starting an amazing foray into the history of our world and that this marvelous journey through history would enable me to discover numerous ancestral great grandparents and aunts and uncles that came to America on ships such as the Mayflower and the Fortune and the Anne and the Little James and ships that sailed in the "Great Migration" of the Winthrop Fleet and more.

I would find Ancestors that would settle Colonial America and become the founders The United States of America.

I would then find Ancestors that would lead me back across the ocean to England and mainland Europe and beyond.

I would find Ancestors that have given me noble and royal ancestors that in my wildest dreams I never imagined would be possible, but the pedigrees are all there written down.

I would also find through these Ancestors that humanity is ONE BIG FAMILY and that we are all related to one another in one way or another.

John Jenney-My 10th Great Grandfather

Today I would like to introduce everyone to my 10th Great Grandparents and my 9th Great grandmother who I descend from through my mother and through her grandmother on her father's side of her family.

When I first discovered my line to him, all I knew was the following (I penned this paragraph in my journal back in Sep of 2016):

That I accidentally discovered a direct line of descent from one of my great grandmothers to a family that helped settle Plymouth Mass., though they did not arrive on the Mayflower is unbelievable!

So it is that My 10th great grandparents, John and Sarah Jenney sailed a few years (1623) after on a ship called “The Little James”. 

They were part of the group that went to Leiden Holland in the early 1600s with William Brewster and the other pilgrims but for some reason they decided not to embark on the Mayflower and instead waited until 1623 to make the journey to New England. Once they arrived in Plymouth, they quickly became an important part of the new colony by erecting the 1st successful “Grist Mill” for grinding corn into mill and flour. 

John also created the 1st salt works for the colony and was part of the early governing council. Family records indicate that they were close friends of William Bradford and Miles Standish among others.

My 10th Great Grandparents-America's First GristMill

Beyond the Pilgrim Story

Alice of Saluzzo, Countess of Arundel

Family Tree History and Research
Sunday, Feb 4, 2018

Alice of Saluzzo, Countess of Arundel
23rd Great Grandmother
1269-1292

Another new discovery today.
And another noble ancestral Great Grandmother!
Through my mother's (Marlene Grace Dietz Repinski) family line comes a young lady who only lived for 23 years but it must have been a pretty awesome 23 years.
She comes from a very old Italian family line and married into a noble English line which would give her many descendants that would help shape the history of our world.

This line descends to my mother and my siblings and their children through her grandmother (our great grandmother), Grace Pope Dietz. From Grace's line, this branch would go back through her fathers Pope family line to my 5th great grandmother, Ruth Hammond Pope and through her mother, Sarah Holmes Hammond's line to her Clark family line and then the Strong family line (which I have not had a chance to research yet).
Eventually this line would lead back to the noble English Leigh and Strafford families to the Goushill and then finally the FitzAlan noble lines.
In this line would be knights and ladies, a Lord Mayor of London and other historic figures of English history.

Alice (or Alecia) Saluzzo FitzAlan is the 1st ancestor of Italian heritage I have discovered.


Shall we get to know this woman, who though she only lived a short 23 years, left descendants including me and my siblings and the Dukes of Norfolk, the English Queen Consorts of Henry the VIII, Winston Churchill, Princes Dianna and the current Royal Family.

Alice of Saluzzo, FitzAlan-Countess of Arundel