Thursday, June 22, 2000
Index of Marriages
In the index of marriages, I’ve found the following people so far:
- Ralph Brandi (great-grandpa!), ca. 1890, book I, page 135
- Ruloff Brandi (who?), book J, page 79
- Anne Prillwitz (perhaps Helen’s sister?), book J, page 95
- Clara B. Brandi, book J, page 110
- Michael Brandi, book J, page 330
There were no Brandis listed in books K through N, which cover the years 1902 through 1923. I expected to find Ralph Sr. there for his second marriage, but no dice (unless "Ruloff" is him). Antonina Wisniewski was from Bay City, so I figure maybe they got married there. I ordered a film today of the marriage index for Bay County. If he’s listed twice there, then I know that Anna and Antonina are different people.
I need to order the film for books I and J, LDS number 967190. All things in time....
Index of Deaths
The big news here is that I think I found the missing Ralph. There’s an entry from maybe 1911 or maybe 1914 (the index is a bit jumbled at this point) or thereabouts, based on its placement in the index, for Ralph Brandi in book F, page 137. I ordered the film of the death records for 1910-1917 from the Family History Center today (film number 967176).
The index also lists Vincenzo Brandi in book G, page 18, right toward the beginning. Unfortunately, book F is the last one available through the Family History Center, but the fact that the record is for Vincenzo rather than Vincent makes me think that this is probably the father rather than the son, that is, my great-great-grandfather. The obit database lists his date of death as June, 1917.
Philip Brandi is also shown in the death index, in what is probably book D (the handwriting for the book volumes was atrocious) given the time period, page 142. This was the third and last film I ordered today, volumes C-D covering 1888-1902 (film number 967174). I searched for Brandis all the way up to 1953, but didn’t find any more of them, not even Mary Brandi, Vincent’s wife. I’m not sure what happened to her. Maybe she’ll show up in the 1920 Census, which I haven’t looked at yet. I also found a bunch of Wisniewskis through the years, but since I don’t know if any of the Saginaw Wisniewskis are related, I won’t spell them out here.
I did not find Antonina Wisniewski Brandi anywhere in this list, despite the fact that she was supposed to have died in about 1926, when Grandpa was 7 years old. That surprised me. Someone in the county clerk’s office had gone to the trouble to type that section of the index, from roughly 1922 to 1939, which made it particularly easy to search, but I went over the Bs from 1925 to 1928 with a fine-toothed comb, and I don’t see any listing for her. Very weird, given the story that she was up in Saginaw and li’l Grandpa was down in Detroit when she died. I don’t know, maybe she actually died in Bay City. I’ll have to ask Aunt Lonnie if she knows anything about this.
Phew! That’s a lot of work over the last two weeks!
Posted at 10:43:13 PM
