Wisconsin Biographies Project Introduction

Wisconsin
Biographies
Project

"The only true history is biography"..............Emerson

The biographies on this website, transcribed from old biographical and county
histories and other resources, are presented with occasional brief submitter
comments and clarifications. Any notes added for clarity by the submitter
are [bracketed] to distinguish them from the original text. Occasionally
some material, such as a long list of an author's works, has been omitted in
a transcription, and any omissions are clearly noted.

To save a researcher time and add to the body of information immediately
available, multiple biographies are posted together, for example, biographies
for the same person from different sources or different time periods in the
same county, or biographies of siblings with the same surname in a particular
county, or combined biographies for fathers and sons in the same county.
Sources are clearly indicated for each individual biography. These
biographies also contain references to other biographies for the same person,
or relatives or ancestors, posted in different counties or states.
Differences in combined biographies, such as in dates of events or spelling
of names, are usually noted in a bracketed comment. Any words added to the
original text for clarification, for example, "[the Territory of] Wisconsin,"
also appear in brackets.

If biographers of the past would have had computer technology available to
them, many of the errors present in these old biographies would have never
appeared in their publications. Even though the submitter has this
advantage, the volume of old biographies presented prevents verification, in
available primary and other secondary records, of every event mentioned in
these biographies. Bracketed comments in the form of questions sometimes
appear, where conflicting information or doubt exists.

Great care was taken in the clarification of place names, found in almost all
of these biographies, through the bracketed addition of county names for
towns and cities, when not provided in the original text, fylkes for
Norwegian place names, provinces for Canada, etc., and some bracketed
spelling or typographical corrections also appear, following, or contained
within, the text as it originally appears.

Biographies of companies, churches, railroads, etc., are included as an
adjunct, as they are often valuable sources of information when searching for
material related to a person's employment or church records. Railroad
employment files and church records can be especially rich sources of
information.

No copyrighted material appears in this collection, unless permission of the
author was first obtained, and inclusion of any copyrighted material is
clearly noted in the source citation. Hopefully the unique presentation of
these biographies will save researchers some time and frustration, as well as
provide valuable "bread crumb trails" to related biographies and other
material for further research.

Wisconsin State Coordinator's Note:
I wish to express my sincere gratitude and thanks to Cathy Kubly for her major contribution to this web site. She has spent countless hours in her never-ending quest to "seek out" and transcribe biographies for the genealogical community. She asks nothing in return .......but rather delights in seeing the fruit of her efforts published to the web and available to all researchers for free. She feels as I do ....that biographies are an integral part of our family history. Yes, they can seem "over-glorified" at times with our ancestors appearing as perfect examples of humanity existing in an otherwise imperfect society. However, from my own experience, I have discovered important clues to my family history within the lines of a biography. I have also read some wonderful accounts of the struggles of our ancestors as they ventured out into the unknown wilderness (such as Wisconsin) to carve out their heritage that has now been bequethed to their descendants. Cathy Kubly has made and is continuing to make her niche in the genealogical world as an appreciator of biographical information through her contribution to this and other State sites. Again, thank you Cathy, and I look forward to working with you for a very long time. For those of you new to this site, Cathy has biographies or access to biographies (many biographies) from every county in Wisconsin.

If Cathy has helped you in any way by her contribution of material to this web site or if you have a question about a particular biography, please feel free to contact her to thank her or to address your question.
You may e-mail Cathy Kubly.......
here

Background & Graphics Courtesy of
J.O.D.'s Old Fashioned Black & White Clip Art Collection
Visit them Here