Great Grandfather Frederick C. Baugniet

Frederick Baugniet was born in the village of Mehaigne in Belgium on 08 July 1855, the son of Clement and Augustine Paquet Baugniet. His brother Francois had just turned 10 in June and his brother Florent was 3 years old in March. There is a birth certificate for Augustine Baugniet, born in July 1844 and listed as the daughter of Clement Baugniet and Augustine Paquet, but when they left their homeland only the boys traveled with them.
Clement was born in Mont St. Andre, a small village not far from Mehaigne. After he and Augustine were married 16 November 1842 they settled in her home town of Mehaigne which was the custom.
However, due to the economic situation of the times, they decided to leave family and friends for a new life in America. Frederick was not yet 8 months old when they sailed from Antwerp with the ship "Trumbull" on 04 March 1856. The travel lasted for 6 weeks and they arrived in New York on 22 April 1856.

Linking the Branches of My Family Tree

Paternal Great Grandparents Macila LaPlante and Frederick Baugniet

Linking the Branches

Welding the links of my family tree proved more time consuming that I had thought. There are three pieces of information needed to link one generation of a family to the next: birth, marriage and death certificates; in the case of women, maiden names are required though not always easy to obtain.

The best way to research the family history is to begin with yourself and your parents, gathering any existent vital records for birth, marriage, and death. Then work backwards to where and when grandparents and great grandparents died, married, and were born. Each document links the person to the next or previous generation.

After completing that research, secondary records come into play: federal census records starting with 1850, working forward to 1920, and if available to you, 1930; and obituaries which can often be found at local libraries. Last, but not least, are the word-of-mouth stories passed on by living relatives.

I have collected copies of birth records and certificates of marriage wherever possible, along with death certificates of ancestors. Each document lists the name of the family member and often includes the names of their parents (and of great importance, the maiden name of the mothers) to connect one generation to the next. In this way, the links are welded together to form an unbroken chain that winds through history, back to the homelands of my ancestors.

Slideshow of Grandparents

Click on photograph to see all pictures:

Family Ancestors

Maternal Grandmother Anna Plohar

Anna Ida Plohar was born on 24 December 1881 in Kewaunee, Wisconsin. She was the second child born to Matt and Mary Plohar, after her brother Mathias. Five sisters and three more brothers were born over the years.
Her father Matt purchased land from his father in 1878, the same year he married Anna's mother Mary Schuller.
The Plohar family (originally spelled Plouhar) came from Bohemia in 1858 and the Schullers arrived from Prussia in 1854. Both families settled in Kewaunee where they bought land for farming.
Anna met Charles Maigatter, the son of a farmer who owned land a few miles northeast of her dad's farm. She was 23 years old when she and Charles were married by clergyman Joseph F. Valecka in a civil ceremony on 07 June 1905. Subscribing witnesses to their marriage were Charles' brother Gustav (who signed the certificate "G.C. Maigatter") and Anna's sister, Emma Plohar.

Maternal Grandfather Charles Maigatter

Mom's father, Charles Henry Maigatter, was born on 24 February 1881, the second of eight children born to Gustav and Caroline (Heider) Maigatter.
The Maigatters from the Kingdom of Prussia emigrated to Wisconsin in 1866. The family lived on a farm near the winding Kewaunee River in Kewaunee Wisconsin where Charles and his siblings were raised and attended school.
The Heider family came from Bavaria in 1853 and eventually settled on a farm north of the land the Maigatters later purchased.
During his younger years, Charles helped on the family farm which was located northeast of the Plohar farm in Kewaunee. This proximity allowed him to meet and court Matt and Mary Plohar's eldest daughter, Anna.
Charles had a natural talent and special love for carpentry. Among the furniture items he handcrafted over the years was a cedar-lined hope chest which is now a family heirloom. After he and Anna married, they gave up farm life and moved to their new home in Two Rivers, Wisconsin where they raised their family of three daughters and two sons. Charles worked as a carpenter for Hamilton Mfg. Co. in Two Rivers and later for Manitowoc Ship Building. When he died in 1973, he had 15 grandchildren and 27 great grandchildren.

Paternal Grandmother Julia Yana

Julia Yana was born 20 March 1894, the youngest daughter of Wenzel Jana (later spelled Yanna) and Anna Panoch, both emigrants of Bohemia. A younger brother, Adolph, was born four years later to rescue her from being the baby of the family.
Julia was very close to her sisters, especially Emma who was three years older. They grew up in Kellnersville, Wisconsin and remained close friends throughout their lives.
By 1905, Julia was employed as a servant as was the custom of the time. She worked and lived with a family in Gibson, a small town detached from Mishicot. She was 11 years old at the time.
At the age of . . . well, Julia was not fond of revealing her true age and soon it became obscured in the records. She did, at an early age, meet Archie Baugniet who was living in Mishicott and helping on the family farm. Julia and Archie were married on 07 September 1914 and raised two sons and a daughter in Two Rivers, Wisconsin.

Paternal Grandfather Archie Baugniet

My dad's father was baptized Thomas Arthur Baugniet, or Bongier if you go by the actual record from the Holy Cross Church document archived at the Diocese of Green Bay. His parents are listed as Frederic Bongier and Caecilia Bongier. His godparents were Georgino Peltier and Harriet Peltier (alias Pelkey.) He was born on 06 January 1893 in the town of Mishicott in Wisconsin. Because his sister Jennie was unable to say the name "Arthur" she said "Archie", and the name stuck.
The picture at right was taken when Archie was about 17.
Archie was the son of Frederick Baugniet of Belgium and Macila LaPlante whose paternal ancestors emigrated from France to Canada and maternal ancestors who emigrated from Ireland to Canada. Archie's parents were among the earliest settlers in the area. The memorial obituary for Archie states that after he graduated from Mishicot High School in 1909, he attended the Manitowoc County Normal School at Manitowoc. In 1913, he went to Oshkosh where he took a course at a telegraphy school after which he took a position at the Chicago & North Western Railway Co. station at Wabeno. After a year he returned to assist his father on the farm.
Around that time, he met a young lady from Kellnersville, Julia Yana.