Monday, April 17, 2000
According to Quicken and my bank, the state of Michigan cashed my checks on Thursday, so I expected something soon, and today's mail contained part of it: my grandfather Ralph Brandi Jr.'s birth certificate. It says he was born at 2020 N. Fayette St, in the 14th Ward in Saginaw. MapsOnUs doesn't have that address, but shows N. Fayette as a relatively short street a few blocks from the Titabawassee River. It also says that if the birth was in a hospital or other institution, the name should be listed instead of street address, so maybe Grandpa was born at home. His mother is listed as Antonia Wisniewski, aged 35, so she was born around 1884 or thereabouts. She's one of the Bay City Wisniewskis, which doesn't surprise me, as I found a bunch of Wisniewskis there in the Saginaw Obit database a couple of months ago. I should probably contact the Catholic Cemetery Commission in Saginaw to see if I can pin down the dates. Interestingly, she was born in Bay City, so I should possibly be able to get a birth certificate for her; Michigan's records go back to 1867 at the state level, which is pretty good. The certificate says that Grandpa was her fourth child, and that now three were living. Presumably the one not living was the elusive first baby Ralph. I don't know if the three includes Aunt Yola or not; the mystery remains, and even deepens, perhaps.
Posted at 10:56:31 PM
