Jindra Family Tree Roots and Branches

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I started a category on my other blog that I named Genealogy This, That and Other Things. The reason behind the category is a place to put genealogy tips and tricks. Even if you aren’t actively doing genealogy yourself, some of the information I intend on sharing may help future genealogist in their quest for your family history.

My first post is on Family Photographs and Future Old Family Albums. Your photographs, news articles and stories are tomorrows genealogy tidbits. The article gives some ideas on how to best to organize and label family photographs, articles and stories for future generations.

The full article is here.

I have been pretty busy as of late with redecorating my son’s room, work and adding things to my Wisconsin websites (I maintain genealogy sites for Milwaukee and Waukesha Counties in Wisconsin) as well as contribute to the Manitowoc County site.  I haven’t had much time for breathing much less adding to this site.

Last evening I did a bit more research on Arnold Tuma, son of Wencel and Anna (Jindra) Tuma.  He along with his brothers moved from Wisconsin out to Montana and became mustard seed farmers.  Arnold and his wife had two children.  One of them, Gene, was a geology teacher.  Gene Tuma was instrumental in the Montana Strip Mining Reclamation Act back in the 60s.  The federal law passed in 1977 requiries that lands strip mined for coal have to be reclaimed.  In Montana, big coal companies continue to delay reclaiming the land that has been impacted by strip mining.  You can see more about the Arnold Tuma family here.

Mike sent me an article written by Bill Zell in 2000.  It is a great tribute to Mary Lenhardt Jindra.  I added it to the site in the Church and School section.  I think it makes a great introduction to that section.

I added an article written about the Maribel School in the town of Cooperstown. George Francis Jindra III taught at this school before he moved out to North Dakota.

I found out there was a school in Fischerville and I added the history of the school to the Church and School section.  Members of my family (John Bouda, Ed. Chaloupka) were members of the school board for years.

Our family mourns the loss of one of our members. The following is the obituary as written in the Manitowoc Herald Times.

Grandpa Dickie, as everyone knew him by, was a great person, loved by all he came in contact with. Dick served in the U.S. Air Force and met his late wife Sylvia when he was stationed in England. He moved back to his hometown of Two Rivers, and started a long career working in the Oil Industry, which took him and his family to many places, ending up in Stanwood, Mich. Dick was involved with all his grandchildren’s activities and liked nothing better than to have his family around him. He was also very active in his church. Dick was preceded in death by his wife: Sylvia; and grandchildren: Nicole Fewless and Zachary Parman. He leaves behind four daughters and their families: Susan Fewless and her children, Kristopher and Nathan; Jane (John) Parman and her children, Andrea and Jacob; Patsy (Dan) Gettings and her children, Kyle, Tyler, and Chelsea; Julie (Mark) Leasher and their children, Bailey, Jordan and Dylan; and his sister: Carol Andrews. A niece Carne Andrews, and many cousins, family and friends also survive.

Cremation has taken place. Visitation is 6 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2008, with a Memorial Service at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2008. These both will take place at Redeemer Lutheran Church, 12775 Northland Drive, Big Rapids, Mich., 49307.

The family asks that in lieu of flowers donations be made to Redeemer Lutheran Church.

Herald Times Reporter Feb. 19, 2008

I added the history of St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church, Greenstreet, Cooperstown Township, Manitowoc County, Wisconsin.  This little settlement is near Kellnersville, WI and was the first Bohemian Catholic Church in the Manitowoc County.

I created pages for Oscar and Reuben Jindra, both sons of Jiri Peter Jindra, Jr.

I believe this completes the children of Georg and Maria (Lenhardt) Jindra.

Jindra/Meineke Family History Tour
Jindra Christmas, Dec. 29th 2007

written by Michael Jindra

Twenty-four relatives packed into four vehicles for a special prelude to the annual “Jindra Christmas” gathering, this year held at Carol Jindra’s residence in Mishicot. The relatives, descendants of Alvin and Leona Meineke Jindra, visited former farmsteads and homes in the Mishicot and Two Rivers areas where Alvin and Leona and their ancestors lived and worked. Alvin’s grandparents, George and Mary Jindra, Sr. immigrated from Bohemia in 1868 and farmed near Mishicot, while Leona Meineke’s German grandparents settled on farms north of Two Rivers near Hwy 42 in the 1840’s and 50’s. Communicating by two-ways radios, the tour included stops at farms and buildings near Kingsbridge, southwest of Mishicot, where the first generations of Jindras farmed and operated businesses, and also the former cheese factory on Hwy Q just south of Kingsbridge which Alvin and Leona operated after their marriage in 1914, and where children Ethel (Breitwisch) and Al were born. It progressed to the house in Two Rivers where they lived until 1936 and where three more children were born, including Roy, Dan and Grace (Schleis), and the nearby grocery store on 13^th St. (still operating) where Alvin worked during the depression. We then viewed the former Hamilton home site in Two Rivers where Leona worked for a while, and the home where Minnie Meineke moved from the farm and where her children lived after her through the 1990’s. We then proceeded to the former Meineke and Schmidt farms north of Two Rivers. Minnie Meineke was a Schmidt and grew up on the farm on Hillcrest Rd., where extended family picnics were often held. Alvin’s sister Alice (later to become Alice Zell, the wife of the longtime pastor at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Mishicot) taught at a one-room schoolhouse next to the Meineke farm where Leona grew up, and where Alice boarded at the time. Alvin would occasionally come to the Meineke farm to pick up his sister, which is how Alvin and Leona met. A little further north we viewed the farm where Charles Meineke’s father Johan settled in the 19^th century. We ended the tour on the farm across the street from Fox Hills, where Alvin and Leona lived and raised their five children from 1936 to 1958 (when they moved to their new home behind the Lutheran Church in Mishicot, where Leona died in 1959 and Alvin in 1970). Here, the group left the warmth of their vehicles to view the farm buildings and let Al and Grace describe farm life in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Had a heavy snow not fallen the day before, the group could have visited the Mishicot and Two Rivers cemeteries where several generations of ancestors are buried. Instead we retired to the home Roy and Carol Jindra built in 1961, next to the river and very near the northeast corner of what used to be the Jindra farm, and where now more relatives and much food awaited.

Those on the tour included the surviving children of Alvin and Leona, Al Jindra, age 86, of Madison, and his sister Grace Schleis of Mishicot, who both provided commentary on their lives on the farm near Mishicot and in Two Rivers. The youngest participants were Nolan Winter, 6, of Manitowoc, and Nathan Jindra, 8, of Michigan, who would be the great great great grandsons of the first Jindras and Meinekes that settled in the area.

Others participating were:

Bill and Jane Ann (Jindra) Breylinger of Florida

Paul Schleis family of Green Bay

Gordon and Nancy (Schleis) Haak of Elkhorn WI and Andrea Gall

Tom and Ann (Jindra) Winter family of Manitowoc

Scott and Jordon Jindra of Oshkosh

Pat Jindra of Kiel

Vern and Janet (Jindra) Griffin of Madison.

Michael Jindra of Michigan and his son Nathan.

On the tour were two children of Alvin and Leona, six grandchildren, and ten great grandchildren, plus six spouses.