Surname Saturday: DIENES

Frederick Dienes (1828-1896) was my great-great-grandfather. He is from Hesse, Germany, but so far I have not been able to trace his surname there (due more to concentrating on other lines at the moment). He arrived in New York City on the Splendid via Le Havre, France, on August 11, 1849. By 1854, he was in Springfield, Illinois. He was naturalized in 1856 and married Regina Matheis (1837-1916) in January, 1858.


Frederick and Regina had ten children:

• Katherine "Kate" (1858-1924), who never married;
• Philomina "Minnie" (1861-1935), who married John Rink;
• Frederick J. (1863-1927), who married Minnie Schul;
• Paulina "Lena" (1865-1935), who married John H. Gauer;
• Amelia (1867-1885); who died at age 18;
• Laurence G. (1869-1935), who married Elizabeth Wallenborn;
• Henry Valentine (1872-1891), who died at age 19 of typhoid dysentery;
• Marie Clara (1874-1916), who died of "organic heart disease;"
• Elizabeth Camilla (1877-1946); my great-grandmother, who married Frederick Henry Massmann; and
• Joseph, who was born and died in May 1880.

The photo above was probably taken in the Chicago area between 1896, when Fred Sr. died, and 1916, when Clara and Regina died. Regina is the short woman in the front. The siblings are, from left to right, Fred Jr., Clara, Kate, Elizabeth, Pauline, Minnie, and Laurence.

© Amanda Pape - 2010

Tombstone Tuesday / Wordless Wednesday: Myrtle J. Wolfe, 1882

Myrtle Jenny Wolfe, born in January 1882, died in February 1882, is buried to the right of her father, Joseph William Wolfe (her mother, Margaret Melzina "Maggie" Carroll Wolfe, is buried to Joseph's left), in the Monongahela Cemetery, Washington County, Pennsylvania. Myrtle was the fifth of these great-great-grandparents' eight children.

As I have strained my iliopsoas and/or piriformis muscle (no idea how) and can't sit for long, this post will be for both Tombstone Tuesday and Wordless Wednesday, as I have no other information about Myrtle.

© Amanda Pape - 2010

Wordless Wednesday: Great-Great-Grandparents

Joseph William Wolfe and Margaret Melzina "Maggie" Carroll Wolfe, probably taken between 1900 and 1911, when Maggie died at age 65.

© Amanda Pape - 2010

Tombstone Tuesday: Margaret M. Carroll Wolfe, 1846-1911

Margaret Melzin(a) "Maggie" Carroll, wife of Joseph William Wolfe, is my great-great-grandmother on my mother's side. She was born in Pennsylvania on November 12, 1846, to Jane Barr and Lewis Huffman Carroll. In 1850, the family was living in West Elizabeth, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, so perhaps Maggie was born there.

In 1860 the family is living in Carroll (post office Monongahela) in Washington County, Pennsylvania, and Maggie now has a little brother, Harvey Louis "Harry", born in 1858. On October 31, 1868, Maggie married Civil War veteran Joseph William Wolfe.

Over the next 20 years, Joseph and Maggie had eight children: Emma M. [Camp], James Shannon, Louis Henry (my great-grandfather), Margaret "Maggie" [Yohe], Myrtle Jenny (who died in infancy), Abram Cecil, Albert Allen, and Irma Linda. Joseph, Maggie, and Emma were living with Maggie's parents in 1870, but from 1880 on they lived in Monongahela in Washington County, Pennsylvania.

Maggie died December 3, 1911, and is buried in Monongahela Cemetery.

© Amanda Pape - 2010

Sentimental Sunday: Silver Jubilee, June 1974

I just got back from a trip to my parents' (both 81) home, where my maternal aunt (80 in September) was visiting. While there I scanned over 100 old family photos! This is just one, from said aunt's silver jubilee (25th anniversary) as a nun, in June 1974, in Houston, Texas.

Standing are my brother Brian, uncle Charles Guokas III and his wife Barbara, sister Karen, me, brother Mark, and dad Fred Pape. Seated are my great aunts Elizabeth "Lizzie" Guokas Sayers and Edith Wolfe Brown, my aunt Sister Jean Marie Guokas, my maternal grandmother Sara Wolfe Archibald, and my mother Gerrie Guokas Pape. My sister Mary is kneeling in front.

© Amanda Pape - 2010

Wordless Wednesday: Same Person?

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The photo on the left is definitely my maternal great-grandfather, Louis Henry Wolfe, 1874-1929. It's from his 1920 passport application. The photo on the right - I'm not so sure about. It was found among my maternal grandmother's photographs after she passed away, with no identifying information. My mother seems to think it is her grandfather and my grandmother's father, Louis Henry Wolfe, but I'm wondering if it might be Louis Henry's father, Joseph William Wolfe, 1845-1918. I have some other photos of the latter that make me think this is also him.

© Amanda Pape - 2010

ETA April 25, 2012:  Turns out I was looking at the wrong passport application photo!  See this post for a correction.

Tombstone Tuesday: Joseph William Wolfe, 1845-1918

Joseph William Wolfe is my maternal great-great-grandfather. He was born June 14, 1845, in Washington County, Pennsylvania (probably in East Pike Run Township, where the family lived in 1850), the third child and second son of William C. and Melinda Jane Smallwood Wolfe. William C. Wolfe died in 1855 and Melinda married William Peden, and in 1860 the blended family is living in Fallowfield, also in Washington County.

On September 2, 1861, Joseph enlisted as a private with Company D of the 79th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, which saw quite a bit of action in the Civil War. He rose to the rank of corporal and served through July 12, 1865. Apparently he eventually applied for a pension in December 1868 as 1883 pension rolls for Washington County show him receiving $4 a month.

Joseph married Margaret "Maggie" Melzen Carroll on October 31, 1868, and in 1870 they are living with her parents in Carroll, Washington County. Joseph and Maggie had eight children, one of whom passed away in infancy. From 1880 on, Joseph lived in Monongahela in Washington County.

The Annual Report of the Adjutant General of Pennsylvania [National Guard] for the year 1893 shows that Joseph was a member of the Tenth Regiment Infantry, enlisting as a private on December 17, 1888, promoted to corporal in June 1892, and to first lieutenant on May 26, 1893.

Joseph William Wolfe died on October 30, 1918, and is buried in Monongahela Cemetery, Monongahela, Pennsylvania. The star beside his grave appears to be a memorial flag holder for the G.A.R., the Grand Army of the Republic, a Civil War Union veterans' organization.

© Amanda Pape - 2010

Wordless Wednesday: Hawaiian Ho`okupu?

This is the last Hawai'i picture, I promise! This is some sort of memorial or ho'okupu (offering) that was at La'ie Point, O'ahu, on May 29, 2010. Any information that anyone can offer would be appreciated!

© Amanda Pape - 2010

Tombstone Tuesday: Charles Guokas III, 1927-1999

Charles Peter Guokas III was my uncle, my mother's brother. He was born February 6, 1927 in Harris County, Texas, the oldest of Charles Peter Guokas Jr. and Sarah Melzina Wolfe's three children. He married Barbara Ann Glaze, a nurse from Tyler, Texas, in 1962 - he was 33, she was 28. Sadly, Aunt Barbara got cancer and passed away March 25, 1980. They had no children. Charles married Mary Ann Russell in Shelby County, Texas, around June 20, 1981; they also had no children. Uncle Charles passed away May 27, 1999, in Tyler, Texas. He is buried at the Cathedral in the Pines Cemetery there.

The photo above is of Uncle Charles on Christmas Eve, 1982.


© Amanda Pape - 2010

Sentimental Sunday: Happy 4th of July!

July 4 has always been a special time for my family of origin. My brother Brian (pictured right) was born on July 3. One year I made a special drum cake for him (which my youngest sister Mary is looking at, below left).

In 1970, we were visiting my grandmother, Elizabeth Massmann Pape, aka Nana, at her home in Evanston, Illinois, on the 4th of July. A lot of my cousins came over - most of us wearing red, white, and/or blue, like cousin Ruth, my sister Karen, and cousin Donna, below:

Nana lived on the end triplex at the corner of Hastings and Central in Evanston, right across the street from Bent Park. We had a perfect view of the parade sponsored by the North Evanston 4th of July Association (still going strong!).

We wound up the day with sparklers - my siblings Mark, Brian, and Mary have theirs below.

copyright Amanda Pape - 2010