Perry meets His Great, Great Grandfather Schulze
And then there is Perry Schulze who is frequently insulted by the nefarious Rush Boys who call their esteemed cousin, the 6th Rush Boy.
As has been my wont of late, I was digging around in the genealogy at FamilySearch.org. Perry obviously shares one side of his heritage with the aforementioned villainous Rush Boys, but I was curious to trace his father’s side. I did not go back very far before I encountered his Great, Great Grandfather, Johann Ernst Schulz, Jr. with his second wife, Louise Schmidt, Perry’s Great, Great Grandmother in one of those stiff, family photographs from the 1800s. Someone had actually summed up his life up to his first marriage in a brief memory attached to his information at FamilySearch.
Here is that story:
A Short History of Johann Ernst Schulz, Jr. ~~ Contributed By Lanell Rabner
John Ernst Schulze was born on 27 October 1826 in Anhalt-Dessau, Königreich Sachsen. He was the son of John Ernst Schulze, Sr. and Marie Dorothea Voigt, one of seven children, two brothers and five sisters. He was baptized on April 18, 1827.
In his youth, John Ernst followed the same occupation as his father, namely, cabinet making.
As was customary at the time, all young men had to serve in the military. When he came of age and entered the army, the March 1848 revolution broke out, seeking relief from heavy taxation and political censorship.The people wanted a constitution, social justice, and electoral reform. When the revolution failed, he fled to Tsaritsyn, Russia, which eventually became Stalingrad. During this time, many Germans left, immigrating to America from Wisconsin to Texas.
When the political turmoil settled down, he returned to Anhalt-Dessau and married Dorette Els, about 1853.
This is Lanell’s narrative end.
Looking at more detail on the FamilySearch listing, I discovered that he and Dorette had one child, Louise Marie Schulze, and Dorette died (reasons unknown) in 1860. Sometime shortly after this he immigrated to the United States settling in Texas. Wow, that took a lot of courage, desperation or maybe just unawareness of the conditions. But to immigrate to this country, with a small child, during our Civil War or just after…
He married Louise Schmidt in 1867 in Texas, afterwards having a total of nine children. The nights must have been long and cold back in the day in Texas.
As I ignorantly stumble my way around the genealogy world, I have encountered some interesting stories, but I cannot help but think of how many other interesting stories have been lost forever. How little do any of us know that as we lurch through life, just trying to get through each day the best we can, that we are making history.