Before they were heroes, they were family.

As we arrive at Memorial Day weekend I take this moment to compile a list of people listed on my family tree that have served in defense of our freedom and our country. It is on the shoulders of these men and their families that we are able to enjoy the rights and freedoms that we all enjoy in this century. We shall never forget your service nor your sacrifices.

Fanning Tree

Killed in Action

Cpl. Robert Wundsam (1925-1944)US Army - Farmingdale National Cemetery

Served and have since passed away:

Raymond Fanning (1913-1981) US Army - Calverton National Cemetery
William J. Fanning (1909-1993) US Army
William J. Fanning, Jr. (1940-1998) US Air Force - USAF Academy Cemetery
Steven English (1958-2003) US Marine Corps
James P. English (1897-1972) British Army in WW2 - British War Veterans Cemetery, Ardsley, NY
James D. Hampton (1908-1981) US Army
George F.A. Kempen ( 1896-1963) US Army - Farmingdale National Cemetery
Henry Kempen (1897-1969) US Army - Farmingdale National Cemetery
Kenneth Riggs (?) US Army
Charles T. Schalk (1914-2006) US Army
William J. Weinbrecht (1905-1978) -  US Air Force

Served and still with us:

Dennis G. Fanning - US Army
Thomas English - US Navy
Joseph F. Weinbrecht - US Army
Raymond J. Weinbrecht - US Army

Currently serving:

Andrew Charman - US Navy
Edward Zimmerman - US Navy

Wright Tree

Killed In Action

Sgt. Conrad Vogel (1823-1862) Union Army - died at South Mountain & buried at Antietam
Maj. Robert T. Elliott (1830-1864) Union Army, died at Topotomy Creek
Cpl. Lambert Hoffman (1914-1944) US Army - Sicily-Rome American Cemetery

Served & have since passed away:

Danforth L. Allen (1840-1909) -Union Army
Darius Allen (1887-1978) US Army
David Cain (1891-1965) US Army
Joseph B. Carr (1828-1895) Union Army
Walter H. Elliott (1842-1928) Union Army
Charles Fest (1899-1973) US Army
Eugene Fest (1906-1978) US Army
August Hoffman (1848-1938) Union Army - Farmingdale National Cemetery
William Hoffman (1889-1959) US Army
Bartholomew J. Hurley (1879-1963) US Army
Borromeo W. Hurley (1921-2008) US Army
Nathaniel Packard (1729-1809) American Revolutionary War
Hubert Stolleis (1917-1992) US Air Force

Served and are still with us:

Richard Wright - US Marine Corps.

The family tree is a never ending work in progress and if I omitted someone please accept my sincere apologies. I always strive for the most accurate information, so please let me know what corrections need to be made.

So, what does my DNA say? Undeniably Caucasoid.

Since I began the task several years ago I have added 2,164 people to my family tree. Outside of the United States, I have determined that the majority of my known ancestors have come from Germany, Ireland, and England. A recent DNA test shows something a little different.

A while back I was offered to have my DNA tested at Ancestry.com as part of their Beta program. The first sample was not discernible and I was asked to resubmit it last month. Today, I received the results and they were not entirely surprising but they did confirm a recent discovery that I can hardly wait to share with you all, particularly those of you on the Wright branch of the tree. It did tell me one undeniable fact... I cannot be any more Caucasian than I am.

As you can see in the above diagram two-thirds of my ancestors originated many hundreds, if not thousands of years ago in Britain and Ireland. No real surprise there. The surprise for some of you will come from the fact that I (or we) am 25% Scandinavian! None of my relatives have ever mentioned any knowledge of being Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, or Swedish, yet, my DNA shows that is where our roots are buried. And I didn't really believe it when I found recently matching family trees to ours but our Scandinavian background spans back thousands of years to before Christ and we are descended of royalty.

What did surprise me was the lack of evidence of our central European, specifically German, roots. With the recent discovery of the origin of the Kempen family (Fanning side) in Lower Saxony, the northwestern section of Germany, it stands to reason that these ancestors were closely related to the Dutch. The district where the Kempens originated is Leer and sits right at the border of the Netherlands. Our other German relatives (Hoffman, Dertinger, Schalk etc)  that are documented from Baden & Wurtzberg may have descended from other Scandinavian people, as well.

I look forward to sharing these fascinating discoveries in the future.

Peter & Mary Jane Fanning's journey

In my last post regarding the Fanning family, we saw their Manhattanville residence in relation to the 1900 census. New York did not have a regular census but they did conduct one in 1905 and it shows Peter & Mary Jane had moved from the Manhattan Street address down to the East Side of the island at 209 East 44 Street near Third Avenue. Peter was 42 years old and was occupied as a "horseshoer". Mary Jane was five years younger and kept house with their three children. James is not listed on the 1905 census and I assume he died as a child. Family lore says there may have been another son, Peter Jr., who died as a baby or was still born.

I have not located any evidence as to when Peter or Mary Jane passed away. They are not found in any other census reports after 1905. Family notes indicate they are buried at Calvary Cemetery in Queeens, NY. Calvary Cemetery is a Catholic cemetery and is a sprawling graveyard that many of us have driven over at some point since the Long Island Expressway and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway have viaducts that transverse it. Calvary has four sections and the Fanning immigrants are supposed to be buried with their two sons, James and Peter, in the first section at 49-02 Laurel Hill Blvd. Another location I need to visit when I travel to NYC.

Calvary Cemetery in Laurel Hill, Queens.

As I wrote in the last post, their eldest son, Joseph Patrick "Paddy" Fanning, was born in Dublin in 1887. Paddy is listed in the 1905 census living with his parents and  was "driver" and I have to assume that he is a horse and wagon driver. Two years later he is married to my great-grandmother, Julia Anna Schalk, on May 22, 1907, in Manhattan. Their first child, Marie, was born in 1908 and son, William, followed the next year. The 1910 census has this family residing at 334 East 90 Street between First and Second Avenue and Paddy's occupation is listed as a driver for a laundry service. I am going to save the rest of this branch of Paddy & Julia's family for another Fanning post.

Julia & Paddy Fanning at the beach (not sure who the child is or who was cut out!)

Peter & Mary Jane's second child was daughter Mary Alice, born August 30, 1889, in Ireland. She came to the States as a child with her family. Mary Alice was married on September 27, 1918 to Erik Adolf Carl in Saranac, NY. I found a passenger manifest for her and Erik when they traveled to Europe in 1924 and when they returned they apparently moved out west to San Diego, CA.

I think this move to San Diego is significant for the Fanning family because it created the connection for a whole other branch of the family that set roots on the west coast. Erik died in 1927, though, and Mary Alice decided to stay. The 1930 census reports that Mary Alice, now 40 years old (although she fibbed on the census trimming four years off her age), was living on Altadena Avenue in San Diego with her niece, Marie Elizabeth. Marie is Paddy's daughter and sets the stage for the Weinbrecht family connection.

I haven't been able to locate her in the 1940 census yet, but by September 1947 she remarried to a fellow named Jack Thompson. As far as I know there were no children from either marriage but in 1960 Jack & Mary Alice were divorced. Mary Alice died on December 16, 1979 in San Diego.

Next post brings us to the Chicago branch of the Fannings.

The Wright Family

     

In my last post regarding the Wright Family I discussed the union of George & Madeleine and their family. Today we go up a notch or two. As previously posted in the post about Marie Antoinette Finck we learned that George's father was Frederick Harriman Wright (1863-1933). His middle name has been the link to family lore that we are related to former NY State Governor William Averell Harriman. I have not been able to make any connection through records of a relationship to the Harriman family. However, the 1866 city directory for NYC lists a business called "Wright & Harriman" at 25 Water Street and they were merchants. This was the business of Frederick's father, John Guttridge Wright (1825-1908). I have also discovered that there is a man named Joseph Wright Harriman, son of John Neilson Harriman. I believe this was the partner of John G Wright on Water St. Apparently, the two men were very close and gave their family name to their sons as middle names. Joseph Wright Harriman was the long time president of Harriman National Bank & Trust Co. and cousin of the Governor of NY. He was born a few years after Frederick was born. Unfortunately, Joseph was later convicted of bank fraud and spent time in federal prison.

As previously mentioned in the Finck post, Frederick was an artist and sculptor who went by the name F. Harriman Wright and had a studio on Madison Avenue on the Upper East Side. Here are a couple of his pieces that have been listed for auction in the last few years..

 Frederick's father, John Guttridge Wright, was born in England in 1825 according to the 1920 census. His NY Times obituary states that he was born in 1828. He married Sophia Kelley Hull (1838-1927) in 1857 and had their first child in 1860. John and Sophia owned some property in Manhattan that was destroyed by a large fire that occurred in 1860. According to the NY Times their property was at 36 St & 6 Ave. and a city directory states that they resided at 34 West 36 St. in 1866. He was a grain merchant.

Apparently separated by the 1880 census John & son Frederick were listed as borders at a house in Brooklyn at 426 Sixth Ave. and Sophia was living with her mother, son William and daughter Madeleine in an apartment at 401 Third St, Brooklyn. John died at the residence of his son, William, in 1908 at Chaptico, Maryland. Sophia moved back and forth between her daughter Madeleine's house and William's house until her death in 1927.

The next chapter will discuss the brother and sister of Frederick H. Wright... family none of my relatives ever knew.