Wisconsin Genealogy – Free Wisconsin Genealogy

Wisconsin vital records, as the name suggests, are connected with central life events: birth, marriage, and death which occurred in Wisconsin. Maintained by civil authorities, they are prime sources of genealogical information; but, unfortunately, official vital records are available only for relatively recent periods. These records, despite their recent creation in the United States, are critically important in genealogical research, often supplying details on family members well back into the nineteenth century. Ancestry.com  Wisconsin State Database $$$A large collection of databases of births, deaths, marriages, census, obituaries, directories, estate records, and service records. Wisconsin State Vital Records Office Wisconsin Division…

Natley Dutton and wife, of England, settled in Maryland some time after Lord Baltimore began to colonize that State. Their son, Natley, Jr., was born and raised in Maryland. He had a son, named John H., who was born in 1790. Mr. Dutton died when his son was eleven years of age, and two years afterward his mother had him bound out to learn the ship carpenter’s trade. He worked at that business fourteen years. In the meantime his mother had married a Mr. Elton, whose father was a Quaker and came to America with William Penn. They had a…

Among the prosperous farmers and representative citizens of Norway Township is Abraham Storle, who owns and operates a well improved and valuable farm of two hundred and seventeen acres on section 32. He was born in that Township August 10, 1857, and is a son of Ole and Anna Storle, both natives of Norway, though they were married after coming to the United States, in Racine County, Wisconsin. The father was born in 1805 and lived to a ripe old age, passing away in 1891. It was in 1844 that he became a resident of this County and for a…

John Pugh, of Racine, who is filling the office of state game warden of Wisconsin, was born September 1, 1847, in the city in which he still makes his home. Almost three score years and ten have since come and gone and he has witnessed remarkable changes as the state has become thickly settled and the work of progress and improvement has been carried forward. His parents were James and Jeanette (Hughes) Pugh, both of whom were natives of Wales, but they were married in this County. The father on coming to the United States settled first in Utica, New…

Judge Elbert Osborne Hand, long a distinguished member of the Racine bar and for thirteen years occupying the bench of the County court, passed away June 19, 1915, an occasion which carried with it a sense of deep regret and sorrow to many who have been his associates and contemporaries. He was then nearing the eighty-fifth milestone on life’s journey and there came to him “the blessed accompaniments of age-honor, riches, and troops of friends.” Judge Hand was a native of New Lebanon, Columbia County, New York, born November 29, 1830, and came of English ancestry in both the maternal…

Judge William Smieding, Jr., who for the past fifteen years has been the municipal and juvenile court judge of Racine County, is a native son of this city and his life record stands in contradistinction to the old adage that a prophet is not without honor save in his own country, for worth and ability have gained him professional recognition and he is regarded as one of the representative members of the Racine bar. He was born September 9, 1868, a son of William and Mary (Wustum) Smieding. The father’s birth occurred at Lübbecke, in western Prussia, November 11, 1831,…

W. A. Crane is now living retired, his home being at No. 1654 College Avenue in Racine. For many years, however, he was actively identified with farming and dairying interests in this County and his persistent and intelligently directed efforts constituted the foundation upon which he built his success. He was born in the town of Mount Pleasant, Racine County, September 11, 1844, a son of Augustus B. and Lavina (Baldwin) Crane. The father was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, and was early left an orphan, after which he was reared by an uncle. It was in the year…

It is too often true that successful business men seem to find no time for public affairs and lightly regard the duties and obligations of citizenship. A notable exception to this rule and one whose example is well worthy of emulation is that of William Horlick, Jr., who, while actively connected with the management and interests of the Horlick Malted Milk Company, has also found time and opportunity for co-operation in those plans and projects which have to do with the development and upbuilding of the community in which he lives. He was born in Chicago, in 1875, a son…

John Stott Blakey has for many years been prominent in the town of Union Grove, where he is identified with the milling business, with banking and with civic and moral progress. A native of Racine County, he was born within a mile and a half of Union Grove, on the 23rd of September, 1847, a son of Thomas and Mary (Stott) Blakey, both of whom were born in Rochedale, Lancashire, England. The father, whose natal year was 1826, was a son of John and Mary Blakey, the former a butcher by occupation. Thomas Blakey learned the shoemaker’s trade, which he…