Wednesday, September 30, 2009
A Revelation
While visiting my Dad in Spokane last week we had a conversation about the Staly name change when my father was about 5 years old. We concluded he must have been born Thomas Staeheli. Dad thought this had not been the case. He found his birth certificate in his files and it confirmed that he was, indeed, born Thomas Charles Staeheli.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Visiting Staeheli's near Seattle
My Dad, Tom Staly Sr., and I will drive to Kenmore on October 20 to visit Bob and Daphne Dempsey. While there we will see Therese and some others who may be available to share knowledge of our family. I will have my digital movie camera and will take oral histories from any willing relatives. The information developed from that trip will be added to the website.
Adding to the Family Tree
To add information to the family tree it will be necessary to download Family Tree Builder which is used to create a family and to revise family information. After the changes have been made on Family Tree Builder then it is published to My Heritage website to be shared with others. Both Family Tree Builder and My Heritage are free to use, however, there are enhanced versions for sale or subscription. For now I am using the free versions.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Revising the Staeheli name
I received an email from Pat Staeheli who made the point that the family changed the Swiss spelling of Staheli (with an umlaut "a") to the Americanized spelling Staeheli after they arrived in the United States. The Staeheli form is still used by most descendants of Caspar and Maria today. Consequently, I have revised my blog, website and genealogical sites. When referencing the ancestors who lived in Switzerland I will use the Swiss spelling when my word processor supports that.
I have started using the genealogy software Family Tree Builder along with the website MyHeritage.com and am inviting all Staeheli's to add information about their ancestors to the site. In time we will build a more complete story of the Staeheli's in the U.S.
I have started using the genealogy software Family Tree Builder along with the website MyHeritage.com and am inviting all Staeheli's to add information about their ancestors to the site. In time we will build a more complete story of the Staeheli's in the U.S.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
New map presentation
Yesterday I consulted with my technology expert, Arlis Hoglen, who recommended I download Picasa from Google to crop my photos and JPG files. I had scanned the maps to JPG so it was a simple task to crop the maps and then place them in the website. Now the maps are easier to see and there is minimal scrolling necessary to see the entire maps. I will use Picasa as my default photo viewing software as well as for photo management.
A new task will be to scan the birth and property records of the Staheli family and place them on the website.
A new task will be to scan the birth and property records of the Staheli family and place them on the website.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
More maps
I have added a map from 1899 showing locations in Straubenzell before Kubel Elektrik built Gubsensee and the powerplant. Gubsenmosli (Gubsenmoos) is visible as well as Kubel and the villages listed as birthplaces of the Staheli children. Altenwegen, Holzli and Gubsen can be seen. I can not yet resolve that there appear to be two locations with the name Holzli.
Because I do not yet have technical skills to size the maps for the computer screen it will be necessary to scroll around the page to see all the map features. In time I will correct the size for viewer convenience.
Because I do not yet have technical skills to size the maps for the computer screen it will be necessary to scroll around the page to see all the map features. In time I will correct the size for viewer convenience.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Additions to the website
I have added several maps to the website. Viewers may need to have Google Earth on their computers to see the maps. It is a relatively easy task to download Google Earth and it is free.
The names of the 14 children of Caspar albert and Maria now have dedicated locations on the website. Specific information about each of the children and their families will be added as it becomes available.
I have provided information about Carl Anton since that information is available to me.
The names of the 14 children of Caspar albert and Maria now have dedicated locations on the website. Specific information about each of the children and their families will be added as it becomes available.
I have provided information about Carl Anton since that information is available to me.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
My Mentor
My good friend, Arlis Hoglen, has developed his own website and Blog site for presenting his motorcycle rides and motorcycle related information. I have long admired his proficiency at displaying his stories. Arlis has agreed to mentor me as I begin to create this website and I want to credit him and express my high regard for him and appreciation for his help. I would not be able to initiate or develop this on my own. Arlis has taken phone calls from me in the evening to assist me with one problem or another I have encountered.
Map of Albert Staheli's property at Gubsenmoos
On the Staheli Family of Gubsenmoos website there is a map from around 1900 showing the location of Albert Staheli's property relative to Gubsensee. Most of the land is now flooded under Gubsensee but a small corner of the property is on the shoreline and is crossed by the path surrounding Gubsensee.
The map was found among the records of Kraftwerk Kubel, Now SAK, by Patric Schnitzer and Marcel Muller at St. Gallen Staatsarchiv.
The map is very large relative to the web page. I will work to reduce the size of the image for convenience of viewing.
The map was found among the records of Kraftwerk Kubel, Now SAK, by Patric Schnitzer and Marcel Muller at St. Gallen Staatsarchiv.
The map is very large relative to the web page. I will work to reduce the size of the image for convenience of viewing.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Corrections of Public Records
During my research at St. Gallen Staatsarchiv we learned the true name of the town of record for birth records of the 13 Staheli children is Gubsenmoos. When the name was transcribed from the Ellis Island ship manifest it was incorrectly named Dyplanmous. This is understandable as the original script is very difficult to read. Swiss Roots corrected the Ellis Island manifest to read Diepoldsau. This is also incorrect. I have asked for a review of records at both Ellis Island and Swiss Roots to correctly note the town as Gubsenmoos. These reviews will be done and a determination made either to correct or not in the near future.
Contacts and more family information
I have been in email and telephone contact with several Staeheli's. In addition to Therese I have communicated with John and Pat. Wednesday I spoke with Pat who provided family history and told me about himself.
Information to be added to family lore is that Albert Jr. died in a logging accident in his early twenties in Western Washington, possibly Sedro Wooley area. The youngest Staheli child, Louie, lived in Coeur D' Alene, Idaho and may be buried there. Caspar, known as Cap, lived in the Colville area.
Caspar Albert and Maria had a farm in Addy, Washington and their house burned around 1910. Albert left the U.S. for Switzerland and returned to the U.S. to start a dairy farm in Addy with a creamery in Colville. Albert died in the Colville/Addy area during the 1920's.
Two Staheli children died in Switzerland before the family emigrated. One was kicked by a horse and died as a result while the other died of a childhood disease.
George W. Staeheli, father of Therese, Pat and John, died in a military plane crash in 1958. Their grandfather, Joseph, was born in 1884 and died in 1954. Joseph was a brother of my grandfather, Carl.
This is a draft of what I understood from our conversation and will be checked for correctness.
Information to be added to family lore is that Albert Jr. died in a logging accident in his early twenties in Western Washington, possibly Sedro Wooley area. The youngest Staheli child, Louie, lived in Coeur D' Alene, Idaho and may be buried there. Caspar, known as Cap, lived in the Colville area.
Caspar Albert and Maria had a farm in Addy, Washington and their house burned around 1910. Albert left the U.S. for Switzerland and returned to the U.S. to start a dairy farm in Addy with a creamery in Colville. Albert died in the Colville/Addy area during the 1920's.
Two Staheli children died in Switzerland before the family emigrated. One was kicked by a horse and died as a result while the other died of a childhood disease.
George W. Staeheli, father of Therese, Pat and John, died in a military plane crash in 1958. Their grandfather, Joseph, was born in 1884 and died in 1954. Joseph was a brother of my grandfather, Carl.
This is a draft of what I understood from our conversation and will be checked for correctness.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
The Story of the Staheli's of Gubsenmoos
The Stäheli Family of Gübsenmoos
Straubenzell
St. Gallen, Switzerland
As a child and even a young man I had only a cursory interest in family history and although I knew my grandfather Staly had come from Switzerland it was sufficient to know just that. A few years ago, when I turned 60, I developed a greater interest in knowing more about my family origins and recently had an opportunity to explore my Swiss roots. This is what I have learned.
Caspar Albert Stäheli, citizen of the village of Egnach in Thurgau canton Switzerland (born about 1850) and Maria Kiml of Tyrol, Austria (born about 1856) met and were married at some time around 1875. They settled near St. Gallen in a neighborhood of lower middle class, even poor, folks a short distance west of town. Early in their marriage the locations of the births of their children varied as the family moved from one house to another and Albert worked as a day laborer. Albert’s jobs were typically short term with no single employer. For a while he worked as a Drainer which was steady work. This would have been digging drain holes and perhaps laying drain pipe to dry out fields and other properties. It is thought that Albert was not well educated but possessed a good work ethic which enabled him to seek out and accept what jobs became available each day near their home.
In 1874 Albert bought a house in Gübsenmoos, property #625 according to fire insurance records. That property was sold to Robert Stäheli in 1879 and in 1886 Albert and Maria bought a house and barn also in Gübsenmoos, listed as properties #638 and #639 in fire insurance records. Moos in German means swamp or marsh. While Gübsenmoos was a wetland not suitable for traditional farming it is likely the family had several cows and a garden. The family lived there from 1886 to 1899.
Birth records list the following children born to Caspar Albert and Maria Stäheli:
Caspar Albert Stäheli April 24, 1879 Gübsen
Maria Stäheli April 24, 1880 Altenwegen
Robert Hermann Stäheli July 22, 1881 Hölzle
Johanna Waldburga Stäheli January 28, 1883 Altenwegen
Joseph Hermann Stäheli March 2, 1884 Altenwegen
Caspar Hermann Stäheli December 4, 1886 Gübsenmoos
Theresia Stäheli January 31, 1888 Gübsenmoos
Waldburga Stäheli October 17, 1889 Gübsenmoos
Anna Juliana Stäheli April 7, 1891 Gübsenmoos
Carl Anton Stäheli July 22, 1892 Gübsenmoos
Paul Mathias Stäheli September 30, 1893 Gübsen
Franziska Stäheli April 24, 1895 Gübsenmoos
Rosa Stäheli September 17, 1896 Gübsenmoos
On March 4, 1898 their eldest son, Albert, emigrated to the United States arriving on the ship La Normandie where he passed through Ellis Island. In the late 1890’s the Kübel Elektric Werk, an electric power company, was looking for a site to build Switzerland’s first hydroelectric power plant. Gübsenmoos was selected for the site of a reservoir which could be constructed by closing the west end of the swamp with an earthen dam and the east end of the swamp with a brick dam which would channel water into the generator turbines. In 1899 Caspar Albert and Maria sold their house and barn to Kübel Elektric Werk, bought passage on the ship Kaiser Friedrich and arrived on Ellis Island on March 23, 1899. The ship manifest shows that Caspar, Maria and twelve children landed with $200. (about $5100. today) and plans to stay with a brother in Ridgeville, Wisconsin. Caspar listed his occupation as farmer. My grandfather, Carl, who was six years old had a fever thought to be from immunizations. Eventually the Stäheli family settled in Addy, Washington on a plot suitable for farming. A fourteenth child was born in the United States. It is rumored three other children died very young.
My grandfather, Carl Anton Stäheli, worked as a firefighter for the city of Spokane, Washington. He married Madeline Capaul of Coeur D’Alene, Idaho and they had a son, my father, Thomas Charles Staly. The Capaul’s had emigrated from Brigels, Switzerland. My father remembers when my grandfather took him to the local courthouse to legally change the family name to Staly.
Carl Anton Staly, also known as Charles or Jack, built several homes in Spokane and the family lived in them. Eventually, Carl and Madeline divorced, Carl married Lola Potter and had a daughter, Carol Ann.
Madeline married Robert Gage Robert and had daughters Roberta (Bobbie) and Jeanne.
Carol Ann had a daughter, Karen, and a son, Charles (Chuck).
Roberta had a daughter, Susan, and a son, David. Jeanne had a daughter, Linda and sons Ricky and Randy.
My father married Helen Turk and I was born December 24, 1944. My sisters are Jeanne Marie and Elizabeth Ann. Tom Staly Sr. worked as a food broker for Johnson-Lieber Company until his retirement in 1983. Helen maintained their home as a housewife.
Straubenzell
St. Gallen, Switzerland
As a child and even a young man I had only a cursory interest in family history and although I knew my grandfather Staly had come from Switzerland it was sufficient to know just that. A few years ago, when I turned 60, I developed a greater interest in knowing more about my family origins and recently had an opportunity to explore my Swiss roots. This is what I have learned.
Caspar Albert Stäheli, citizen of the village of Egnach in Thurgau canton Switzerland (born about 1850) and Maria Kiml of Tyrol, Austria (born about 1856) met and were married at some time around 1875. They settled near St. Gallen in a neighborhood of lower middle class, even poor, folks a short distance west of town. Early in their marriage the locations of the births of their children varied as the family moved from one house to another and Albert worked as a day laborer. Albert’s jobs were typically short term with no single employer. For a while he worked as a Drainer which was steady work. This would have been digging drain holes and perhaps laying drain pipe to dry out fields and other properties. It is thought that Albert was not well educated but possessed a good work ethic which enabled him to seek out and accept what jobs became available each day near their home.
In 1874 Albert bought a house in Gübsenmoos, property #625 according to fire insurance records. That property was sold to Robert Stäheli in 1879 and in 1886 Albert and Maria bought a house and barn also in Gübsenmoos, listed as properties #638 and #639 in fire insurance records. Moos in German means swamp or marsh. While Gübsenmoos was a wetland not suitable for traditional farming it is likely the family had several cows and a garden. The family lived there from 1886 to 1899.
Birth records list the following children born to Caspar Albert and Maria Stäheli:
Caspar Albert Stäheli April 24, 1879 Gübsen
Maria Stäheli April 24, 1880 Altenwegen
Robert Hermann Stäheli July 22, 1881 Hölzle
Johanna Waldburga Stäheli January 28, 1883 Altenwegen
Joseph Hermann Stäheli March 2, 1884 Altenwegen
Caspar Hermann Stäheli December 4, 1886 Gübsenmoos
Theresia Stäheli January 31, 1888 Gübsenmoos
Waldburga Stäheli October 17, 1889 Gübsenmoos
Anna Juliana Stäheli April 7, 1891 Gübsenmoos
Carl Anton Stäheli July 22, 1892 Gübsenmoos
Paul Mathias Stäheli September 30, 1893 Gübsen
Franziska Stäheli April 24, 1895 Gübsenmoos
Rosa Stäheli September 17, 1896 Gübsenmoos
On March 4, 1898 their eldest son, Albert, emigrated to the United States arriving on the ship La Normandie where he passed through Ellis Island. In the late 1890’s the Kübel Elektric Werk, an electric power company, was looking for a site to build Switzerland’s first hydroelectric power plant. Gübsenmoos was selected for the site of a reservoir which could be constructed by closing the west end of the swamp with an earthen dam and the east end of the swamp with a brick dam which would channel water into the generator turbines. In 1899 Caspar Albert and Maria sold their house and barn to Kübel Elektric Werk, bought passage on the ship Kaiser Friedrich and arrived on Ellis Island on March 23, 1899. The ship manifest shows that Caspar, Maria and twelve children landed with $200. (about $5100. today) and plans to stay with a brother in Ridgeville, Wisconsin. Caspar listed his occupation as farmer. My grandfather, Carl, who was six years old had a fever thought to be from immunizations. Eventually the Stäheli family settled in Addy, Washington on a plot suitable for farming. A fourteenth child was born in the United States. It is rumored three other children died very young.
My grandfather, Carl Anton Stäheli, worked as a firefighter for the city of Spokane, Washington. He married Madeline Capaul of Coeur D’Alene, Idaho and they had a son, my father, Thomas Charles Staly. The Capaul’s had emigrated from Brigels, Switzerland. My father remembers when my grandfather took him to the local courthouse to legally change the family name to Staly.
Carl Anton Staly, also known as Charles or Jack, built several homes in Spokane and the family lived in them. Eventually, Carl and Madeline divorced, Carl married Lola Potter and had a daughter, Carol Ann.
Madeline married Robert Gage Robert and had daughters Roberta (Bobbie) and Jeanne.
Carol Ann had a daughter, Karen, and a son, Charles (Chuck).
Roberta had a daughter, Susan, and a son, David. Jeanne had a daughter, Linda and sons Ricky and Randy.
My father married Helen Turk and I was born December 24, 1944. My sisters are Jeanne Marie and Elizabeth Ann. Tom Staly Sr. worked as a food broker for Johnson-Lieber Company until his retirement in 1983. Helen maintained their home as a housewife.
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