Helen Brausen's Origins

Out of all my great-great-grandparents, there's only one I haven't been able to find the exact origin of, Maria Magdalena "Helen" (Krings) Brausen. What I know about her is little. I have various different birth dates for her, various places of birth. She was supposedly born in Butzheim which is where her husband is born. I have looked at the records for Butzheim/Nettesheim & never found her. The odd thing is, there are Krings there. In fact, the witnesses for her husband Peter's birth in 1842 were Heinrich Esser & Christian Krings!

Her marriage record doesn't help much, it just makes things more confusing. She and Peter were married 30 Apr 1873 in St. Martin's, Springfield, Dane, WI. It asks for & lists the residence & place of birth of the husband but not the wife. Frustrating. It the spot where witnesses are supposed to be listed, it's blank. Her parents are listed as John Caris & Elis Krings. Are these the witnesses listed in the wrong spot? Is that her mother & step-father? Was her mother unwed when she was born and that's why both are Krings? This record just creates more questions than answers.

Her death record lists her mother as Mary, with no father listed. Her obituary is odd in that it lists being survived by, "one brother and a step-brother, Frank Ruker of Wisconsin". Why does it list the step-brother & not the brother? I have never ever been able to find a Frank Ruker, trying all sorts of spelling variations. I have found other Krings families but never a link to them. Her obituary also mentions something puzzling, "She came to America 59 years ago and two years later made her home in Milwaukee, Wis. Having lived in Milwaukee for 14 years she came to Morrison county where she has lived since." Did she really live in Milwaukee? Is that a mistake and it was Dane county as that's where they married & had children.

There is something that gives weight to her having lived in Milwaukee. I found this in my grandma's pictures and comparing it to the Brausen family picture, I'm almost positive this is Peter & Helen, perhaps at the time of their marriage. If you click and look at the enlarged version you will see that it is stamped from a studio in Milwaukee. In all the years I've done genealogy, this is the closest mystery to me that I have never been able to find any more information on.


Note: The originals of both of these pictures are in my possession. They came in the boxes of photos from my grandma, Eva (Meyer) Janson. The top picture is a digital restoration I did quite a few years ago. The original is almost in two pieces right down the middle & has a lot of the picture worn off. If you see this picture anywhere, I'm the source of it. I've seen it used all over the internet (and in printed family reports) with no mention of where it came from or the fact that I'm the one that digitally restored it.