(McHalsky) McHalsky, Andrew & Lena (Great-Grandparents)

As promised, I will make every effort to keep living family members from appearing on this blog without their explicit consent.  I have also removed the other side of the family off this graphic, for the sake of trying to keep it simple. 

The McHalsky side of the family has provide me with some of my biggest challenges so far. They have not been in the U.S. for long (in comparison to other branches of the family) and, actually, Andrew is the first generation McHalsky born in the U.S. The trail runs cold in the early 1800s. Even with that short of a U.S. timeline, the mysteries begin right away with my great-grandparents.

Andrew & Lena (great-grandparents)

There is some confusion about Andrew's mother. I have documents where her name is Pauline and some where her name is listed as Josephine. I have the original document from when he changed the spelling from Michalski to McHalsky ~ actually, I have two copies of it.  On one, Andrew's mother is listed as Pauline and on the other, listd as Josephine. The census records I've found from when he was a child show Josie or Josephine as his mother. I also have a copy of his birth record where Josephine was crossed out and Pauline was written right above it. His death certificate shows Josephine as his mother. I can't, for the life of me, figure out what's going on here, or where to go for any kind of definitive decision on this. I don't know if Pauline died during childbirth or something, and Josephine was his father's new bride? I have yet to find any information to confirm this. I've tried finding information about Pauline, but have so far been unsuccessful.

Also, Andrew and Lena were married in Illinois (I have a document from the Justice of the Peace in Waukegan, IL in 1923. Lena had also joined a church in Chicago prior to this in 1919.  But her father's obit in 1921 says that she still lives at home in Wisconsin. I can only guess at this, because I haven't been able to find them on a 1920 census record in either location.

I've learned, however, that Lena was Lutheran and Andrew was Catholic and the Catholic church was quite strict in those days about marrying outside of your faith. So, I can understand the Justice of the Peace, but wasn't there one closer than going all the way to Illinois (From north of Milwaukee County)? In doing some searching for Lena's sisters, I did see that one was married and living in Chicago and one was there working as a domestic for another family, so it's realistic to expect that Lena would visit regularly, but wouldn't she want to marry in Wisconsin where her friends and most of her family were?  Maybe her family didn't approve of Andrew? Or Andrew's family didn't approve of her?  I have no answers.

One other mystery that surrounds this family in a more general way is a photograph of a church we found. This photo is about 8x10 in size and was in a shadow box type of frame...large and while not ornate, would certainly have drawn your attention to it. More on that when I get to the Coulter family, but I'm still not completely sure what the significance is to our family.

Documents/Keepsakes: photos, census records, obits, birth certificates, name change documents, death certificates, Last Will and Testaments, marriage document from IL, Lena's Bible, Lena's baptism and confirmation certficates.

Interesting records: A receipt Lena kept in her Bible from the local drug store for Diphtheria Anti-toxin from 1931, the letter from the church Lena joined in Chicago, an autograph book Lena had from 1909 where she had her sisters and friends write notes (as you would find in a school yearbook), and a composition book full of handwritten recipes.