Our Families Matter - Past and Present: Emma Kujawski Schroeder

Today's topic is my Great Grand Aunt, Emma

Emma Kujawski Schroeder is the youngest daughter of John and Mary Kujawski. She is the sister to my Great Grandmother, Ottilie Kuawski Schoenewald.

Below is the family chart:

I not only wanted to research the grandparents but their children too. It is interesting to see how the families are connected throughout their lives. Each child will have their own blog post and scrapbook pages.

One of the things that should be done when looking at the documents, especially the census, is to go back a few pages and look at all the names. Then go forward a few pages, looking again at all the names. A name might jump out at you. Is it friends and/or family that moved too? That was very common. It just might give you another avenue to research. As I was looking at the different pages, I found something really exciting - anyway exciting to me! Two pages from where I found Emma and her family was a listing for William and Eliza Hollingsworth on the 1920 Census in Kalispell, Montana. That family is my Great Grandparents on my Mother's maternal side. Emma is my Great Aunt on my Mother's paternal side. My Grandmother, Emmeline Hollingsworth married into the Kujawski family but not until 1928. So..... the assumption is: Emma's kids (ages 12,7 and 5) may have known Emmeline and her siblings (ages 12, 9 and 6). Maybe even went to the same school. A little confusing if you don't have all the names and dates straight in your head or on paper. I would not have found this bit of information had I not researched the children of my Great Great Grandparents. The man that Emmeline married was John Schoenewald, the son of Emma's sister (Ottilie) who was 11 years older than Emmeline in an entirely different town.

So now on to Emma's story:

Emma, the youngest of the four children, was only ten when she embarked on a journey from her home at Demmin, Pommern in the country, Prussia (Germany) to a different life far away. She was traveling with her parents, John and Mary Kujawski, and her older sister, Ida, who was twelve years old. At the age of ten the world could seem scary or it could be exciting. Wish I knew how she felt. The family left the port of Hamburg, Deutschland on 21 Marz (March) 1897, arriving in New York on the ship named "Pennsylvania" with Captain Kopff. Her accommodation was on the Zwischendeck. From New York, they made the cross county trip to their new home in New Auburn, Minnesota, where her two older sisters were living. Both of them were married and had children. It had been many years since Emma had seen her sisters, that excitement would probably take the edge off the scary unknown that she was facing in this new country.

Her parents moved in with Emelia, one of their daughters, and her husband, however; both Ida and Emma were not listed on the 1900 census. Did the enumerator miss them when filling out the paperwork for the census or were both girls staying with someone else?

Emma fell in love at the age of 16 to William Schroeder. Since she was a minor, her father had to sign a permission slip on the 26th of August, 1903 to allow them to get married. Their marriage took place on the 9th of September, 1903 in the county of Stearns, Minnesota and documented in the County Record Book.

Emma and her new husband made their home in Minnesota for a few years, then moved to Leland, Idaho where they were blessed with another child on the 11th of July in 1907. A girl named Martha. A joyous occasion since there had been such sadness after their first child, a son they named Herman who had only lived 16 days in September 1904.

Sometime around 1910, Emma and William decided to make the move to the Flathead Valley at Kalispell, Montana where they were blessed with two more children. A son, John, in 1912 and another son, William, in 1915.

Montana become their home for the rest of their life. Emma and William saw their children grow up and get married. Their daughter, Martha, married Otto Koenig in 1927 at the age of 20 and lived her life in the state of Washington not far from her parents. The boys married the Fritz sisters. John (22) in 1935 to Marie (16) and owned a farm close by while William Jr. (24) married in 1939 to Ida (18) and stayed with his parents working the family farm along side his father, William Sr. Grand-babies filled the house. The family farm was located north of Kalispell.

Emma at seventy two years old died on a Wednesday afternoon at the Flathead County Hospital on the 24th of September, 1958 of Arteriosclerosis Heart Disease. The next month found William, her husband, in the Hospital with the same Heart Disease and died on the 24th of October, 1958 at the age of eighty four. What a sad thing - to lose both parents within a month apart of each other.

Both Emma and William are buried at the Conrad Memorial Cemetery in Kalispell, Montana.

Emma was born on the 30th of August, 1886 at Campenau, PreuBen (Prussia/Germany.

Things to Research: