William Kuehl andMarie (Bloedow) Kuehl

Phyllis (Kuehl) Zumach and Allen Zumach2016

Family Album

The story of a nine year oldwith her family

and an adventurousyoung man of 22

known as Mary

who emigrated from Germany to live inSpringfield and Wanda in southwestern Minnesota

© 2016Phyllis (Kuehl) Zumachand Allen Zumach,the authors of this book

Phyllis and Allen may be contacted at: 2265 St Clair Avenue St Paul, MN 55105 651-699-4122

allen@zumach.net

Pause and reflect onthe hardships, toil, strength,courage and perseveranceour forebears experiencedin this new country.

Home was so much morethan a roughly made structureon a small piece of land.It was a new worldfull of hope and promise.

A prayer

Longing for Home

Loving God,our world begins to turn goldenthrowing glimpses of brilliant red into the crisp air.

A refuge of beauty surrounds usas the sun filters into a majesty of delight.No wonder our ancestors came here.This season of splendor reminded them of their home far away.

The trees of new life here embraced themand whispered into their soul,“Look no further pilgrim, you are home.In this new world full of hope and promise, you are home.”

Holy God,we pray for all people everywherewho have come to this land to find a new home.Let it continue to be a place of beauty,of inspiration, of refuge,of meaningful work, of restful life,for we hear you call to us in the words of your comforting love.

Rev. Bonnie NashSeptember 2014

Used with permission

Phyllis

Table of ContentsPreface

Chapter 1 Ferdinand and Auguste Bloedow Leave Klein Silber in 1880 and Come to America▪ Parents of our Grandma Mary Bloedow Kuehl

Chapter 2 Ferdinand and Auguste - the Springfield Years 1880-1885▪ Relatives, jobs, and babies

Chapter 3 Ferdinand and Auguste - the Wanda Years 1885-1923▪ Attaining citizenship, buying land, and end of life

Chapter 4 Joseph Veigel - Grandma Mary’s First Husband▪ Land, sick children, and early death

Chapter 5 William Kuehl (Wilhelm Kühl)▪ His early years and hometown

Chapter 6 William and Mary Kuehl, Years 1889-1926▪ William in America; the family; growing the farm

Chapter 7 Timeline of Mary and William Kuehl▪ Their German ancestors; their life together in America

Chapter 8 Memories of Grandma Mary Kuehl▪ Photo album of our days with Grandma

Chapter 9 Grandma Mary Kuehl’s Funeral▪ Celebrating her life

Chapter 10 Children and Grandchildren of Grandma Mary Kuehl▪ Photo album, plus life milestones

Chapter 11 Cemeteries - Our Ancestors Resting Place▪ Who is buried where

Chapter 12 Grandma Mary Kuehl - Bloedow Paternal Lineage▪ Ancestors on her father’s side

Chapter 13 Grandma Mary Kuehl - Lueck Maternal Lineage▪ Ancestors on her mother’s side, plus step-siblings

Chapter 14 Story of Kuehl Family Original German Birth/Baptism and Death Documents▪ Dating back to forebear born in 1797

Chapter 15 Grandpa William Kuehl - Kuehl Paternal Lineage▪ Original German birth/baptism, and death certificates

Chapter 16 Grandpa William Kuehl - Haseleu Maternal Lineage▪ Original German birth/baptism, and death certificates

Chapter 17 Family Tree▪ Grandma and Grandpa Kuehl’s children, grandchildren, great, great-great, and

great-great-great grandchildren▪ Dates for birth, death, and marriage; plus data on location, careers and interests

Chapter 18 Epilogue

Grandma Mary Kuehl with her children on her 80th birthday - September 1, 1950

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PrefaceGrandmother Marie “Mary” Kuehl and Grandfather William Kuehl were quiet, and didn't leave much of a trail … orso we thought. When creating their family album we expected to find relatively few historical documents andphotos. Actually, we found quite a few things which we hope will tell the story for you of our Grandparents Kuehl.

Mary and her parents were from the “old country” - the German Empire. Disruptive wars in the 1800s led Mary'sfamily to move to the United States in 1880 when Mary was age nine. They settled in southwest Minnesota - thetown of Springfield, then moved to a farm within sight of Wanda - living first in Brown County, then in RedwoodCounty.

Grandpa William (Wilhelm) Kuehl was also from the old country. William lost his father - a soldier - in war. In 1889,at age 22, William, leaving family behind and traveling with a friend, boarded a ship to America, embarking on anadventure of a lifetime.

In this book, rather than using her given name of Marie, we will refer to our grandmother, wife of William Kuehl, asMary. This was the name used by her family, the name by which she was known in the communities where she lived.And when she signed documents, marriage certificates, land deeds, etc., it was with the name “Mary.”

Through your reading, you will meet nine generations of Bloedows and Kuehls, beginning with great grandparents ofWilliam and of Mary, through the ninth generation, they being the first born great-great-great grandchildren ofMary and William. As of this writing, Mary and William have over 120 descendents.

For those of us left in our generation this book may bring back fond memories. And when following generationsyearn to learn about their ancestors, this book may be informative, giving them a sense of those who've come beforeus whose ethics and moral values are guiding us yet today.

The tattered old envelope fromGermany with documents

of Grandpa Kuehl’s forebears

In recent times in boxes from my folks’ attic, I ranacross a tattered old manilla envelope sent fromGermany with a letter and poor copies of olddocuments inside. It was all in the old style Germanscript – Greek to me.

No longer having Mother or Dad (they died yearsago) to shed some light on the contents, Iconsidered simply lightening the load and pitchingthem. But a second look gave me pause. They werebirth and death certificates of people from theKuehl side of our family. I held on to them. In yearsfollowing, off and on they’d cross my mind.

More years passed. The vinyl phonograph record ofGrandma telling stories of her childhood wasmissing. Search after search, I’d come up emptyhanded. Then, finally, I discovered a duplicatecassette tape we’d made of the vinyl recording.Eventually a carton of old photos of Grandma, ouraunts, uncles, and cousins was accumulated.Stories, German documents, photos, newspaperclippings - I decided this would be enough tomake a little book to pass on to our children, andto my brothers and cousins.

Little did I imagine then these pieces wouldprovide only a beginning framework for the largeamount of information I had yet to accumulate.

Death Certificate of Grandfather William’s

Father - Karl Friedrich Kühl

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Working on a Puzzle

One day in 1960 when I was a freshman at St. OlafCollege, this fella sought me out and introducing

himself said, “Hi, I’m Otto Bloedow. Did you knowwe’re cousins?” Well, honestly, I had no idea. Duringthe next four years Otto and I may have crossed paths,but it was pretty much left at that. It turns out that theparents of Grandma Kuehl are Great Grandparents tomy brothers, our cousins Kuehl, myself and Otto. Ottoand we are second cousins.

Then, these fifty some years later, when I startedleaning toward writing about our Grandmother Kuehl,I phoned Otto. I thought he might know a little aboutGrandma’s family history, that maybe I could learn alittle something from him. So, in 2009, we met forcoffee at Café Latte in St Paul.

Otto started telling me how Great Grandfather hadbeen confronted with a choice to make, to either beconscripted into another war or come to America; thatKlein Silber, Germany was potato country; that GreatGrandfather was a farmer who’d found favor with abaron; how after World War II the Russians ranroughshod over East Germany, and on and on and on.

He knew about the Brandenburg countryside and theFranco Prussian War. And he had close ties to theBloedow family, each of Grandmother’s brothers,sisters and their families. This encounter was beyondmy wildest hopes. Otto was a storehouse ofinformation ... and I was soon to learn this was justthe beginning.

For several years we wereon email. I had a lot ofquestions that would piquehis interest, promptinghim to dig further intohistorical records. Hewould appease mycuriosity with stories andinformation. He soon sentme several pages ofBloedow family historythat he had written, and afew pages from Verona(daughter of Mary’sbrother Ferdinand,another second cousin ofours). He sent meobituaries of GrandmaKuehl’s father Ferdinandand mother Auguste. and

those of Grandmother’s siblings, and of GrandmaMary and Grandpa William Kuehl.

And then came the spread sheet on which Otto hadlisted for the deceased Bloedows and Kuehls -middle, maiden and married names, birth and deathdates, and place of death and burial. All together,that’s an incredible amount of information.

Soon Otto sent the date of the Bloedow family’sarrival in America, with their names and ages aslisted on the ship manifest. It bothered me thatGrandma Mary’s age as written on the manifestdidn’t make sense in light of her age as given in herobituary. So I studied the obituary of each of theBloedow children on the Suevia and found the sameconflict for each of them. Allen put the two sets ofages – as recorded on the ship manifest and theirlife span of years - in a table. Puzzling as thisdiscrepancy was, we finally were making some senseof it.

We wanted to know when the family moved toWillow Lake township by Wanda. The last ofAuguste’s babies that died was in February of 1885,with burial in the Springfield cemetery likely afterthe ground had thawed. It seemed The MinnesotaHistorical Society at the Minnesota History Centerin St Paul was Otto’s second home. He kept digging.Otto studied census reports and found that thefamily was living in Willow Lake township in Juneof 1885. We had our answer. The Bloedows arrivedthe spring of that year.

Grandma with her children - Uncle Ted, Uncle Charley, Aunt Gustie, and Uncle Billon her 80th birthday, at her home - September 1, 1950

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With Gratitude and Thanks to Otto F. Bloedow

So much of what’s written in this book’s first four chapters is from Otto Frederich RobertBloedow, that if we put footnotes for everything from him, we’d have page after page offootnotes. Suffice it to say, if these stories didn’t come from our Grandmother Mary as recordedon tape, it’s here because of Otto. My job has been to edit, elucidate, add context, and develop afootpath for walking through this story of our Grandmother Mary Kuehl - her childhood andyouth as one of thirteen children in the Bloedow Family.

Otto F. is a committed genealogist. He’s had years and years ofbeing immersed in family lore. He has sat for hours and hoursat library tables going through hand-written records –numerous years of census records, death certificates, shipmanifests - that pertain to our Grandma and her family leavingGermany, and their pioneer life in Springfield and on theprairie of Willow Lake Township. Otto has been diligent indeciphering, digging, and building the family legacy. A trueBloedow expert.

And so we extend our gratitude to you Otto, for giving to usthat history that had been lost to many in our branch of thefamily Bloedow. Through you we’ve gotten to know our greatgrandparents, Ferdinand and Augusta. Through your storieswe have met our Bloedow Great-Aunts and Uncles, many forthe first time. Through your research we have learned andunderstand so much more now about the life of ourGrandmother Mary Bloedow Kuehl. For this, Cousin Otto, weare grateful.

Appreciatively and with warm regards,Phyllis and Allen Zumach

It happened this way so many times. We were puttingtogether a jigsaw puzzle, piece by piece. Informationwould be sketchy. With this being an old puzzle, weweren’t sure how many pieces would still be there.We’d hypothesize what the answers could be. There’dbe a flurry of emails with pauses in between. Newfacts would prove or disprove hunches we’d made.Otto, the history sleuth, kept digging deeper, wantingto find those missing pieces. I’d be delighted witheach new snippet of information. The story ofGrandma grew fuller and richer as time went on.

Throughout all this, Grandma Kuehl’s taped storieswould fill in blank spaces. On the tape she talkedabout someone with a name that sounded like“Gramma”. Immediately Otto knew. The Bloedowfamily was familiar with the “Grabows.” PuttingGrabow in the context of Grandmother Kuehl’s storywas key to opening more of the story of our GreatGrandmother Augusta’s father’s second marriage andAuguste’s step siblings.

I wanted to find the property out on the prairie inWillow Lake Township near Wanda where Ferdinand

and Auguste lived as a family, the farm thatGrandma Mary called home. Her father bought landforty acres at a time.

Otto told me about the land that our greatgrandfather Ferdinand and sons had bought in theWanda area. Each brother’s farm had a boundary incommon with a farm of another of the brothers, withone of the properties abutting with the Bloedowhomeplace.

This intrigued me. How did they manage to buy allthis land with contiguous boundaries? My thoughtwas that as other pioneers moved in, how was thisland available to Ferdinand and not bought insteadby other farmers? I wondered if money was putdown on these multiple farms in a short amount oftime. But in those five years in Springfield,Ferdinand wouldn’t have had that kind of money inhand. And at the time of their arrival in Willow Laketownship, their eldest son was eighteen, the onlychild to even be emerging at the age of making aman’s wages, with seven siblings of descending agebehind him. Another puzzle.

Otto F. Bloedow

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On old 1914 plat maps of Willow Lake and Waterbury townships, I wanted to lay out the homeplace of GrandmaMary as a married woman, with her first husband Joseph Veigel and then with our Grandfather William Kuehl. Iwanted to see the location of additional acreages bought by our grandfather William. And I was curious to knowwhat happened to each of these pieces of land, the eventual sale of these properties.

And so I had a series of conversations with the staff at the Redwood County Recorder’s Office. One by one theanswers came: land deeds; death certificates for Mary’s parents Ferdinand and Augusta, and an uncertified deathcertificate for Joseph Veigel; Grandpa Kuehl’s citizenship paper; marriage certificate for Mary Bloedow with her firsthusband Joseph Veigel, as well as Grandmother Mary and Grandfather William’s certificate of marriage. And finallyfrom the Probate Court we have the wills of Great Grandfather Ferdinand Bloedow and our Grandfather WilliamKuehl.

Conversations, information, and documents tumbled on top of each other. So much had accumulated. It finally cameto a point where one needed to make sense of it all. There were the hunches, the set backs, the surprise findings, themyriad of topics, each explored, then touched on numerous times throughout these months. The writing began,hidden facts found, thoughts tweaked, revisions made, additions corrected, sequence set, new pieces slid in between,more revisions.

And if the writer had work on her hands, her husband, Allen, the printer, did aswell: printing first drafts, and then making revisions from my messy hand-written edits. Changes becoming daily occurrences: faded photos and ageddocuments were scanned and restored, page layouts were adjusted as researchuncovering new facts came to light, editing over and over, drafts upon drafts.And thanks to his unrelenting support, his work ethic, his sense of symmetryand his professionalism, page by page, Allen put these chapters, this history ofour Grandparents Kuehl, together.

Allen doesn’t recall this having been part of our marriage vows, which only goesto show what a gem this guy is. How blessed I am to have spent the last fortyseven years of my life as the Phyllis part of this Allen–Phyllis duo!

And so finally, after more time than we had imagined, we have put together thisstory of our Grandmother Mary and Grandfather William Kuehl. Our hope foryou is that through stories, photos and documents a few more pieces of thepuzzle of our Grandparents Kuehl have fallen into place and you enjoy this, thestory of their lives and the family surrounding them.

As the years go by, may we each appreciate the goodly heritage that is ours.

Development of my Interest in family historyby Otto Frederich Robert Bloedow

My parents, Otto A. Bloedow and Margaret Zieske, shared stories and information about relatives, discussed theirrelationships and encouraged questions. I am indebted to them because through these discussions connectionswere made with the past and present.

When I was very young, I opened a Bible with a family tree in it. At that moment I was amazed and intrigued bythe accumulation of my ancestors. It was a seminal moment; family history became my quest. I imagined theinterconnections of humankind as I saw myself as one of the “begats” in Genesis. The continuum of history!

Genealogy isn’t only recording names, dates and places of people. It is the framework of family history, but moreimportantly, it is the stories passed down that form a family narrative—our history.

There is a point where all the stories are forgotten. Then I look to events in world, national and local history duringwhich ancestors lived. We may not have specifics but we can have an understanding of the world our ancestorsinhabited. It is instructive to study what was occurring in Prussia when our ancestors immigrated. None of us cancomprehend what it was like to leave their family members and the familiarity of community, but leave they did,and formed a large branch of Bloedows in the United States.

My own family tree has grafts on it. My wife, Tinka, and I have included children and extended family from aroundthe world. All of our histories intermingle to form a web of life. Otto F. Bloedow

Thanks, Kari,for the photos

One morning in 2015, KariSimon Schmidt brought to ourhome stacks of photos from thetrunk of her grandmother Gustie(Kuehl) Sandmann, daughter ofMary and William Kuehl. Phyllishelped Kari identify people onphotos, and Kari gave us a fewphotos we didn’t have in ourcollection. Several of the photosare used in this book. Thanks,Kari, for sharing and for thewonderful day we – along withyour husband Paul – spenttalking “family.”

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Vernon writes…I spent Saturday going through the WaterburyTownship records. They were stored for many years inan old Town Hall which could be opened with a kick.While most of the summary books existed, all but twoof the detailed registers wandered off. Fortunately thetwo remaining ones are of interest.

Excluding the one annual death register, no photo-copies are available. There are several reasons: thebooks are large; the books are old; and the books arehard bound and can only be opened 90 degrees.

It should be noted that after 1899 there are onlyrecords that pertain to what actually happened withinthe borders of the township. The last recorded birth inWaterbury Township was in 1951; the last death in1949. Not a person I’ve spoken to recalls a birth sincethen within the borders. Deaths have occurred, butdue to the laziness of coroners, and modernsensibility (that is, a general dislike for reality) mostcertificates show place of death as a hospital. Forexample, a good friend of mine died in an accident ina machine shed, but because no coroner was on thescene, and because he was an organ donor, his placeof death is not Willow Lake, but Rochester.

As there are no reliable indices in the records, it wasnecessary to go through the entirety. It was not quiteas depressing as I expected. All of the records weredone with pen and ink; legibility - and spelling - varieswith the recorder.

Many are the forms, like my father’s, which did notcontain the names of [their children]. When JohnPrice took over as Town Clerk, he made an effort to fillthem in. Most of your families names were filled inthrough his efforts.

Mysteries persist. Where was August’s birthrecorded? Out in New York? In New Ulm, so he’srecorded in city records? Born in New Ulm, but hisbirth is unrecorded? You might note that his baptismas recorded in the St Paul’s church records is out ofsequence. It does not show his baptism as occurringthere, only that he was baptized.

[Then, there’s the question regarding the death dateof Albert, one of Auguste’s babies, born as a twin ofEmma. Official Brown County Death Records aredifferent from those of St Paul Lutheran Church inSpringfield. Data provided by Otto F. Bloedow.]

Considering all of the errors in the following recordswhich we know exist [referring to records thatVernon sent with this letter], can anything be fullybelieved?

An old physician from the Waterbury area wasparticularly haphazard in his reporting. Reportsarrived at the home-office of the clerk on everythingfrom grocery papers to coal receipts to the ever-prevalent used envelopes.

We do not need more mysteries at present, butconsidering that every single piece of paper whichGrandpa Ferdinand should have signed, someoneelse did, I’m beginning to wonder, could he write?It’s nearly inconceivable that he couldn’t.

Vernon Bloedow comments on the twistsand turns of genealogical research

Introducing Vernon: August Bloedow was a brother of our Grandmother Mary.According to Otto F. Bloedow, more than anyone in the Bloedow family, he could give theanswers to questions of history relating to our great-grandparents – Auguste and FerdinandBloedow – and their children, those in our Grandmother’s generation. He carried the storiesof Klein Silber and knew that a child born to Auguste in Pomerania had died in infancy.Now, in our generation – three times removed from Auguste and Ferdinand - it’s August’sson Vernon who recalls the stories told by his father.

Otto F. Bloedow and Vernon Bloedow, my brothers, cousins, and myself, are secondcousins. In the prior generation, Charley, Gustie, Ted and Bill were related to the fathers ofOtto and Vernon as cousins.

Vernon’s dedication, who along with Otto F. are our Bloedow Family genealogists, is clear ina letter he wrote to Otto in 1997. In it he describes some of the challenges in locatingaccurate information on family members. An edited summary of that letter follows.

Albert Birth date Death date

BrownCounty Sept 21, 1884 Oct 15, 1884

(Age 24 days)

St PaulLutheran Not in records Aug 10, 1884

(Oops!)

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What’s in the chapters

Chapter one begins with the story of Mary's parents - Ferdinand and Augusta Bloedow. We tell what weknow about their lives in Germany.¹ Then we write about leaving Germany in 1880, crossing the Atlantic onthe ship Suevia, and settling in Springfield, Minnesota. Little is known about Mary’s mother, Auguste, so theearly chapters focus on Ferdinand.

Chapter two tells a bit about the Bloedow’s first years in America in Springfield, from 1880-1885. Otherfamily and friends who immigrated to America earlier were there to greet them. Ferdinand goes to work forthe railroad. Grandma Mary works for other families. We end by describing the various ways the Bloedowname is spelled.

In 1885 the family moved to Wanda and began farming. This is the focus of chapter three. It’s interesting tosee how the Bloedow family concentrated their farming activities so close to one another. The chapter includescitizenship documents, land deeds, a will, death certificates and obituaries.

A special feature of the first three chapters is childhood stories in Mary’s own words. In 1958 Mary satin front of a tape recorder and told some of her early memories to her son, William, and his family. Mary’sGerman brogue made transcribing the poor audio of the recording a challenge.

Grandma Mary was married twice. Chapter four describes her first marriage, to Joseph Veigel. They had twochildren. Joseph’s life was cut short, at age 31. Mary was left with two young children. Tragically these childrendied three years later. Information on Joseph’s land purchases, death certificate, and the children’s buriallocation are included in this chapter.

The story of our Grandfather William Kuehl begins in chapter five. We know a few facts about his early lifein Ziegenhagen, Germany, but didn’t know the town’s location. Eventually we found it … and it has asurprising connection to Mary.

Chapter 6 is about William and Mary’s life together. After Joseph’s death, Mary, a widow, married WilliamKuehl. We describe various aspects of their lives, and include deeds, naturalization paper, and deathcertificate, plus photos.

Chapter seven is a timeline, summarizing major dates and events in the lives of Mary and William, theirparents, grandparents, and children.

Chapter eight continues Grandma’s story, now as a widow, with many photos of Mary and her relatives.Chapter nine concludes Mary’s life, where we read her funeral sermon and see guest book signatures ofthose who mourned her passing.

Memories continue in chapter ten with photos of William and Grandma Mary’s children and grandchildren.There are funeral memorial folders of Charley, Gustie, Ted and Bill.

Chapter eleven identifies the resting place of our ancestors. Each cemetery, its location, and photos oftombstones are included.

Chapters 12-17 are each a family tree, naming ancestors of both Mary and William. Chapter twelve focuseson Grandma Mary’s paternal lineage through her father Ferdinand Bloedow. Then in chapter thirteen welook at Grandma’s maternal lineage through her mother Augusta Lueck, including Augusta’s step-siblings.Chapter fourteen is an explanation of the treasure trove of original German Kuehl family birth/baptism anddeath certificates found in chapter 15-16. Chapter fifteen looks at documents for Grandpa William Kuehl’spaternal lineage through his father Karl Fredrich Kühl. The documents in Chapter sixteen cover William’smaternal lineage through his mother Minna Haseleu.

Chapter seventeen is also a family tree of sorts. We start with the earliest known ancestors, and includethose living today. Nine generations in all. For recent generations there is also data on where they’ve lived,their education, careers and interests.

We conclude this book with an Epilogue, which has our closing thoughts.

1 Technically, “Germany” is not the correct term at this time in history. During our ancestor’s lives, there were manyindependent German states, not the single Germany nation we know today. A changing mix of German states were variouslythe Kingdom of Prussia, the North German Confederation, and the German Empire. Keep this in mind if we occasionallyloosely say “Germany.”

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Stories inGrandma’s own words

Scattered throughout the Bloedow chapters of herchildhood and youth are stories from GrandmotherMary Kuehl.

We knew that Grandma’s stories might be lost. So onthe afternoon of October 11, 1958, at the age of 88,Grandmother Kuehl sat with my Dad and Mom (Bill,Lee), Bill Jr., Ron,and myself(Phyllis) in ourfamily room inWalnut Grove, Dadasking thequestions andGrandma tellingthe stories. Mybrother Billcollected the voiceson a tape recorder.

He carried the tapeback to St Olaf and theschool’s WCAL radiostation turned it into avinyl record. It’s fromthis recording thatwe’ve printed stories inthis book in Grand-ma’s own words.

Truth be told, the recording could have been better,the microphone closer to Grandma. Sometimes sheturned away from the microphone and words werelost. It being the mid fifties, tapes weren’t as “clean”as they are today. And, because we all knew thestories, there are gaps of information that couldotherwise have been included and at the time wedidn’t notice were missing. None the less, we’ve beenable to capture the essence of many of her stories asshe told them. With her words in the color blue, wehope you’ll enjoy hearing Grandma’s voice as youturn the pages and memories return.

The meaning of“Circa” on photos

We have attempted to give a date tomany photos in this album. In somecases the actual date is known. But inmost instances we’ve determined anapproximate date. When a young child ispresent, the date is determined by hersupposed age. If we’re not sure ifGrandma has aged between photos we’dlook for clues like changes in eye glassesor clothes fashions.

In the case of Grandma Mary’s siblings,we’ve noted the date on which they diedand worked backwards. With somephotos you can see that time has gone by… and we use our best judgment. It is inall these instances that we’ve precededthe date with the word “Circa”, meaningthat the date is an approximation, give ortake a few years.

This book is in digital formatand on the Internet

Family stories and photos get forgotten, fade, and disappear.This book is an attempt to preserve some of that history.

Because we live in a digital age, we’ve also created a DVD of thebook. Each page and chapter are stored on the DVDaccompanying the book as standard PDF files. These can beviewed on a computer monitor and printed.

Another way of preserving history is by storing this book on theInternet. We have uploaded the book to our personal website.You can view the book, page by page, or download it to yourcomputer for viewing, storage and printing. Internet storage mayor may not be permanent. Sometimes things remain on websitesonly as long as an annual fee is paid. As of this writing the bookcan be accessed at: www.zumach.net. Look for links that takeyou to family photos. Since web designs change over time, thisgeneral advice of “find links to family photos” seems like safedirections to provide to you. We encourage you to make copiesnow of the book and digital files, as one never knows whenevents will dictate that the book be removed from our web page.

There are mistakes in this book. We’re sureof that … but we don’t know where they are.You might spot them. If you do, please let usknow. Thanks.

Oops!Phyllis and Allen Zumach2265 St Clair AvenueSt Paul, MN 55105

Auguste Christine Tugenreich Lueck BloedowFerdinand and Auguste were married in 1865