I first became interested in genealogy back in the early 1970s when I found out that the farm we were living on had been in the family since 1856. I then began looking into records at county courthouses and visiting cemetaries. It was then that I realized that my mother's and father's families had both been living in Racine and Kenosha counties in Wisconsin since the mid-1800s.
I did a lot of research into what properties had been purchased and by whom. Unfortunately, I've lost most of this information during the past 30 years. What follows is a short summary of my family's history in Wisconsin.
On my father's side of the family:
Sometime in the late 1830s my ggg-grandparents Theodore and Susannah (Lansen) Myers came to Wisconsin and purchased property near the border of Pleasant Prairie and Paris townships in Kenosha county. At about this same time, my gg-grandfather Peter Mungen moved to the same area and purchased land. He would later marry Theodore and Susannah's daughter, Margaret.
At about this same time over in Racine county, Peter Fuhrman and his wife Catherine (Unknown) came to America from "Germany" and purchased some farm land in Caledonia township. Leonard Thelen had immigrated from Germany with his mother Mary Eva (Siegel) and married Peter and Catherine's daughter Lucy. Leonard and Lucy also purchased a farm in Caledonia township and later ran a store in Raymond Center.
It was Leonard's brother Frederick who bought our farm in 1856 before selling it to Leonard in 1862.
Peter Thelen, Leonard and Lucy's son, would later marry Margaret Mungen, daughter of the afore-mentioned Peter Mungen and Margaret (Myers).
Another great-grandfather, Peter Lichter, came to America from the Bitburg region of Germany in 1852 with his mother Margaretha (Bangart) and two sisters, first settling in Racine, before he bought some farm land in Somers township in Kenosha county. He married Barbara Lotz, daughter of Philip Lurtz and Catherine (Schwert) of Milwaukee. Their son Peter married Mary C. Thelen, daughter of Peter Thelen and Margaret (Mungen). One of their sons was Walter Lichter, my father.
On my mother's side of the family:
I believe that one of my gg-grandfathers, Michael Malone, born in Boston, MA in 1797 and married to Lydia (Bryant) came to Wisconsin in the 1840s. Their son John fought in the Civil War. John later married Alice Dunigan.
Another great-grandfather, Michael Kearney, came to Racine from Ireland in the early 1840s, helping to build the Racine harbor before purchasing farm land in Raymond township. He married Mary Ann Whalen of Port Washington, WI. One of their son's, Patrick Kearney, married Alice Malone, daughter of John Malone and Alice (Dunigan).
The youngest daughter of Patrick and Alice Kearney is Ruth Kearney, my mother.
