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Chronology of research

This is the chronological timeline of my research. It may be of no interest to anyone but myself, but it is a reminder that it takes many hours, weeks, months and years of work, and the assistance of other researchers, to put it all together.

Tim Winker

2008

  • Sep 2008 - Fellow LUX family researcher Ann Gilchrest spent the summer doing research in Minnesota. She lived in a motorhome parked near Shakopee. Her main interest was her direct lines, but she was able to assist quite a bit on the family of Florian LUX who lived near Jordan, MN. (Ann's great-great-grandmother was Caroline [Lux] Schindler of Chaska, Minnesota, a 1st cousin of Florian Lux). We are pretty certain that Florian had a sister named Catherine (or Caroline), married to August Knapp. They arrived in Jordan in 1881, about the same time as Florian's second wife, Johanna Knapp John. A younger Johanna Knapp, believed to be the daughter of August and Catherine, was listed on the 1880 Federal census living with the LUX family as "niece". She died later in 1881. Three wrought iron markers in the Catholic cemetery in in Jordan are believed to be those of young Johanna and her parents, August and Catherine. Thanks, Ann!

  • Aug 2008 - Cecilia Ann (Winker) Foley passed away in Connecticut on Aug. 2 as the result of a stroke. The funeral was held at St. James Catholic Church in Randall, MN, where she grew up. Her ashes were buried between the graves of her parents at the cemetery there. Her husband, Bill Foley, gave me what research Cele had done on the family, as well as many hierloom photos of the WINKER and FEUERSTEIN families.

    While at the St. James cemetery, I showed several cousins, nieces and nephews where the CALHOUN family is buried. For the nieces and nephews, Henry and Mary CALHOUN are their Great-great-great-grandparents. It's important for me to share the family history, and where it can be found, with the next generations.

    While there, I spent a little time at the Morrison County Historical Society and the Morrison County Court House in Little Falls. By digging through the land records I was able to add credence to the family lore that the WINKER property had been acquired from the CALHOUN family. The property that the Winkers owned in Parker Township, about a mile west of the town of Randall, was purchased from Thomas R. Calhoun, the brother of Kate Calhoun Winker and Lewis's uncle. A search through the land records in Morrison County revealed that Thomas R. Calhoun bought land in Section 1 of Parker Township on January 31, 1898. Thomas Calhoun sold the remaining 100 acre parcel to Lewis E. and Cecilia Winker in 1919. More...

  • July 2008 - Uncle Jim Winker provided a photo of Mary Winker (his aunt) and her first husband Julius Arndt. That led to another search for information on Ancestry.com, which revealed the date of their marriage as Oct. 16, 1905. Created a new page for Mary Winker.

  • June 2008 - Met with Ann Gilchrest, another Lux family researcher. Ann is spending the summer in Shakopee, MN, near where her great-great-grandparents, the Shindlers, lived (in Chaska). (See Aug 2007 below.) Caroline [Lux] Shindler was a first cousin to Florian Lux who settled near Jordan, MN. Both Caroline and Florian were born in Silesia and emigrated to the United States in the early 1850s. We shared some family history and photos, and briefly visited the Scott County Historical Society to do a little research.

  • June 2008 - Found a cache of old family photos and postcards at my parents home. Set Mom and Dad to labeling each one so we know who is in the photos. Will start scanning them ASAP as there are many hundreds.

  • May & June 2008 - Met with Uncle David Lux in a couple of sessions to record his history. Dave is 89 years old, but still pretty sharp. With over two hours of taped interview, it will take a little while to transcribe.

2007

  • Home of Georg and Maria Winker, 1846. December 2007 - Gebhard Fetzer in Germany sent some information on the place where Georg Winker lived in Denkingen, the village a few kilometers north of Spaichingen. Georg was the father of John [Johann] Winker (b. 10 Apr 1823, d. 20 Apr 1902), who immigrated to Wisconsin in the 1850s. The building was an inn called "Hirsch" that had been built in 1798, and was located next to the Catholic Church in Denkingen. It was used as an inn until 1835.
         According to Fetzer, Georg Winker (b. 1782, d. 1863) lived there in 1846. Agatha Streicher Winker, Georg's first wife, passed away in Feb. 1838. He married Maria Fetzer, a widow with two daughters, in August 1838. So Georg and Maria would have lived there. Together they had two more children:
          - Josef, born 16-Dec-1838 in Denkingen
          - Gregor, born 10-Mar-1840 in Denkingen, died 13 Mar 1840
         Maria Fetzer emigrated to America in 1868, along with her daughter Franziska Roos (b. 30 May 1825 in Denkingen), and grand-daughter Maria Roos (b. 1856).
          Oddly enough, while in Denkingen in 2005 I took a few photos of the church, and one of an interesting old building that was next to it. That old building is the same former inn where Georg and Maria Winker lived in 1846!

  • Lux's Factory Smokers August 2007 - Fred T. Lux was a cigar maker by trade. He learned the business at the Julius Adams Cigar Factory in St. Cloud, and worked in cigar factories in Minot, North Dakota, and Brainerd, Minnesota. He also made cigars under his own name in Albany, Minnesota, and eventually in Sauk Center. Pat Winker, one of Fred's grand-daughters who works in the antique business, recently located a wooden cigar box labelled "Lux's Factory Smokers". From it, we have been able to get some other information that may help to determine when and where the cigars were made.

  • August 2007 - Ann Gilchrest, whose great-great-grandmother was Caroline [Lux] Schindler of Chaska, Minnesota, has spent the past four months in Europe, mainly tracking down genealogy information on her family. We had been unable to locate a direct relationship between Florian Lux and Caroline Lux Schindler, other than the mention in a newspaper story about her death that Florian attended Caroline's funeral.
         Ann spent time looking through church and state archives in Poland, and even a few days in the villages where the Lux's and Schindlers lived prior to emigrating to the U.S. [Note: at that time, the area was German. It was not until after World War II that it became part of Poland.] Her most interesting finds came at the village churches in Briesnitz, Frankenberg, Riegersdorf and Banau, the ancestral region of both families. She found out that Florian and Caroline were first cousins, that their fathers were brothers -- Franz Carl Anton Lux (father of Florian, b. March 1877, d. ?) and Dominicus Joseph Lux (father of Caroline, b. 15 Oct 1778, d. 26 Mar 1842). She was also able to trace the Lux family back several more generations to Casper Lux, who was born in the late 1600s (exact date unknown).

  • Lux family celebrates 100th Aniversary July 2007 - The 100th Anniversary of the marriage of Fred T. Lux to Mary Goerger was celebrated by a couple of their offspring and grandchildren. Fred and Mary were wed on July 23rd, 1907, in St. Cloud, Minnesota. David Lux and Marguerite (Lux) Winker, along with their spouses and children Nancy Lux DeShane, Claudia Lux and Tim Winker, met in Calvary Cemetery in Sauk Centre at the family plot. The group took some photos and said a prayer of thanks. Other family graves were also visited, including that of Amelia (Borgmann) Lux Gaspard, mother of Fred T. Lux.
         From there the group headed to nearby St. Paul's Cemetery to visit the graves of the Borgmann family, our ancestors who came from Germany and were among the first settlers to the region.

  • July 2007 - Winker genealogy researcher Ginger Holinka has located some new information on the Winker family. She found the newspaper obituary for John Winker in the Weyauwega Chronicle, Wednesday, May 7, 1902. It confirms John's birth date as April 10, 1823.
         Ginger may have also solved the mystery of William Henry Winker's first wife. (William was the youngest son of John and Caroline Winker. He was married twice, and was father to 20 children.) All we had known was that his wife was Mary Jane Provonzo or Carboneau. Ginger located some information on the Juneau County, Wisconsin, genealogy site for Frank Provonsol. It appears that Frank was Mary Jane's father, though it took a bit more digging than is in the story to come to that conclusion. Thanks for your efforts, Ginger!

2006

  • Dec. 2006 - Not a lot of new information in the past year. Photos of some family grave markers have now been posted on Find-A-Grave.

  • June 2006 - Searched for evidence of Rosa Goerger while on a visit to St. Louis, MO. Rosa is believed to be the wife (first wife?) of Henry Goerger. They apparently separated or divorced as she lived in St. Louis, he in St. Cloud, MN, in their later years. Came away with very little new information. She died 6 March 1893 and is buried in Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis. There is no grave marker as that was considered optional in those days. The record at the cemetery does not indicate who paid for her burial, but the price paid was $11.50.

2005

  • Sept. 2005 - Visited the cemetery in Saunders County, Nebraska, where John N. and Anna Feuerstein are buried. Also took a few photos of "downtown" Leshara, the town closest to where the Feuerstein farm was located.

    While looking for information on the Feuersteins in Nebraska, I located this page on Frank Simon Feuerstein, son of John N. and Anna Feuerstein.

  • August 2005 - Spent a week in Germany trying to track down Borgmann, Schurmann and Winker family records. The search was not successful in locating records as most civil records do not begin until 1876, long after these families had arrived in America. However, I was able to come up with potential contacts who may be related. Letters will be sent over the next few weeks to see if anyone there has done genealogy research on these families.

    Cemetery in Spaichingen - I was able to take photos of over 50 WINKER graves in the Spaichingen Friedhof (cemetery). They are now available HERE.

  • July 2005 - Recently attended Winker family picnics in Madison, South Dakota, and Prior Lake, Minnesota. Picked up a little bit of new info as I had a chance to visit with Winker family researchers Cel Halter, Bridget Hoveland and Bill Feller.

    Planning a trip to Germany for Aug 3-15. While part of the trip will be to attend the International Saab Clubs Meeting in Essen, much of the time will be spent trying to locate family history. Germany is a large country and I only have limited time, so I will concntrate on the Borgmann and Schurmann families from Westphalia, and the Winker family from Württemberg. Follow my travels via a blog at the following location:
    http://winktimber05.blogspot.com/

  • June 2005 - There has been plenty of research activity over the past year; I have just not updated this section lately. Here is a very brief summary:

    Mary Winker Arndt Poole - The only daughter of George F. and Kate (Calhoun) Winker. From census records and Sioux Falls City Directories we have been able to piece together some of her life. Jim Winker was helpful in providing the directory information and photos. Details here.

    Fred E. Lux - Another family member passed away recently - Ferdinand Edward Lux, known as "Bud" to family members. About a month before he died in March, I had the opportunity interview him over the telephone and I taped it to transcribe later. Unfortunately I did not do the transcribing before he passed away, and was left with a few more questions. Fortunately, I did get his history in brief. His biography has now been posted HERE.

    Borgmann children - The Borgmann family history (Borgmann Blue Book) stated that there were twelve children born to Ferdinand and Antonette Borgmann, but only the seven that survived to adulthood were listed in the booklet. At least some information has now been located on the five who died young. Details here.

2004

  • July 2004 - The graves of Henry and Mary Calhoun have been located... in Randall, Minnesota! A trip to photograph other Calhoun grave markers led to the discovery that Henry and Mary (my great-great-grandparents) are buried in the Calhoun family plot in St. James Cemetery. It is the same cemetery where Lewis and Cecilia Winker are buried. Ann Hansen (nee Mildred Ann Calhoun) has provided considerable information on her branch of the Calhoun family, George Edward Calhoun, brother of Catherine Calhoun Winker. Thanks, Ann!
      Tom O'Connor has also provided information on his branch of the Calhouns, Hannah Jane Calhoun O'Connor, sister of Catherine Calhoun Winker. A copy of the 1871 Canadian census gives further evidence that Catherine Calhoun was born in 1856, not 1865.

  • June 2004 - The parents of John Winker may have lived in Denkingen, a village just a few miles from Spaichingen in Germany. An email from Thomas Koch says: 
      I feel that it is likely that your John Winker is the same 
as the Johann Winker that I find in the Denkingen family registry. 
Johann was born on 10 Apr 1823 to Georg Winker and Agatha Streicher. 
I am not sure how that connection can be proven. The Denkingen 
family registry only says that he was confirmed in 1837, it does 
not mention that he went to America. A possible clue is that both 
of his grandfathers were named Joseph, but that is pretty tenuous.
   Denkingen is less than 10 k north of Spaichingen.
    A quick search at FamilySearch.org found Georg WINCKER who married Agatha STREICHER on 30 Dec 1806 at Katholisch, Denkingen, Schwarzwaldkreis, Wuerttemberg. Since it is the marriage record, there are no children listed. A later message from Mr. Koch says: 
      My source is the church records for Denkingen. The Georg Winker 
family is on page 605 of the first family registry. As far as 
I know, none of the siblings of Johann Winker came to America. 
The nearest connection I can find is that some other Spaichingen 
people went to Rubicon, Dodge, Wisconsin in the 1850s.
    New information on the Calhoun and Feuerstein families, courtesy of other Calhoun descendants and Feuerstein descendants who found Winker.net. Thank you for your help.

  • May 2004 - Added page on Henry Calhoun and family.

2003

  • December 2003 - A hard drive failure on my home computer caused the loss of most of the family database and photos that I had saved there. I have been able to reconstruct some of it, but not all. Anyone who sent family information files or photos within the past year are asked to contact me so that I may attempt to reconstruct.

  • August 2003 - Did Florian Lux have sisters who also settled in the Jordan, Minnesota region? Caroline Lux, wife of Joseph Nicholas Schindler of Chaska, and Catherine Lux, wife of August Knapp of Jordan, lived in the region at the same time, and came from the same area of Silesia, Prussia, as Florian. Were they siblings? Cousins?

  • July 2003 - Attended the Borgmann Family Reunion in Sauk Centre, MN
    Visited the grave site of Lewis and Cecelia Winker in Randall, MN
    There has recently been a flood of information on the Lux family, primarily the sons and daughters of Florian and Theresia Lux. It also appears that Florian had a sister who lived in the Chaska, Minnesota, area: Caroline Lux Schindler, wife of Joseph Schindler.

  • June 2003 - Visited the grave sites of: Attended the 62nd Annual Winker Family Picnic in Madison, SD.

  • May 2003 - Added page on August Lux (1852-1910)

2002
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