2023 LEISZ FAMILY REUNION IN TURTLE LAKE, WISCONSIN—A BIG SUCCESS!
Anna Maria "Mary" Schmidt Leisz
Our common ancestor. She is the mother of the 6 Leisz brothers and 2 sisters from which we're all descended.
Mary was born on June 16, 1840 (alternate date June 18, 1840) and died on July 31,1918 in Turtle Lake, Barron County, Wisconsin. The BIRTH CERTIFICATE (in the original German and translated to English) for her firstborn daughter, Mary Leisz Minnichsoffer, shows the following...This information is courtesy of Roberta Lombardino (granddaughter of Leisz Brother Leopold) and Robert Leisz, son of Stuart Leisz, who is grandson of Leisz Brother Frank:
LAND & COUNTRY = Moravia & Znaim = Area in the south region of Czech Republic today.
PARISH = Grafendorf = Small area in that region of the Czech Republic near Austrian border today.
CITY OF RESIDENCE = Schonau (in German) or Sanov as the city is known by today and located north of Vienna.
Robert says: "I’ve realized that just about every country in that area has a city by the name of “Schonau,” but the birth certificate gives a specific location. It also provides names of grandparents who lived in the same village."
DON'T MISS this incredible Leisz Family Tree dating back to late 1700s and attached Family History from Robert Leisz...Thank You, Robert!!
Also check out THIS INFORMATION also from Robert Leisz about the family name and its origins in Europe.
Records show that in 1862-1863, she and her husband Leopold (1835-1893) moved to Peregu Mare (known as Nemet Pereg before the world wars), Arad, in what today is Romania. Before they left Maehren, their first child John and first daughter Mary were born there; the rest of their children were born in Peregu Mare.
She immigrated to America with most of her children in 1893. Eldest daughter Mary and her husband Janos Minniksoffer came to America in 1900 by way of Canada. And son Leopold and his wife Anna Supparits Leisz came to America in 1902 with their four eldest children.
Her husband Leo perished in a tavern fire shortly before the Leisz family departed for America from the Port of Bremen, Germany.
Twins born to Leopold and Anna Maria Leisz in 1874
Hardships of giving birth in rural 19th Century Eastern Europe
When Anna Maria Schmidt Leisz (1840-1918) gave birth to twin girls on January 22, 1874, the challenges were likely great.
Imagine: She was 33 years old, her husband Leopold (Lipot) was 39. The couple farmed in the village of Peregu Mare, Arad, in what is today Romania. Anna Maria had experienced SEVEN pregnancies and live births, but had only four children who had lived through infancy:
Son JOHN was 12
Daughter MARY was 11
Son LEOPOLD was 10
Son JOSEPH was 5
The year before the twins' birth, son Mihál died at one and a half years old in February 1873; HERE is his 1871 baptismal record, and HERE is his death record.
The couple had also lost two other children in infancy:
A daughter, born in 1866, whom they named Theresia, likely after Annamaria's mother Theresia Mathias Werner Schmied, who was born on June 10, 1826 in Steyr St. Michael, Oberosterreich, Austria. The child Theresia died on November 4, 1866 at 9 months old. HERE is the register of her death.
Then, another daughter, Erzsebet, was baptized in November 1869, see HERE.
As if this weren't enough grief for Anna Maria and Leopold Leisz, when the twins came along in 1874, Erzsebet and Teresia both died in infancy, Erzsebet on Jan. 25, 1874. HERE is the twins' baptismal record. And HERE is an 1874 Death Register for a "Terez" Leisz, child of Annamaria and Leopold Leisz. Finally, HERE is the 1874 Death Register for Erzsbet.
Note how the Leisz's used the same names again and again. When one Theresia died in 1866, and another baby girl was born in 1874, she too received the name Teresia. So too with Erzsebet and Mihál.
How were their parents Anna Maria and Leopold Leisz affected by burying so many of their children? How were the parents able to function, did they drink alcohol to excess to numb the pain, or have what we today call clinical and/or postpartum depression? Were the younger children who lived not given the attention that the older children received early in life, due to their parents being older and in a state of grief so much of the time?
Infant mortality
"In the period of 1870-1900 approximately, the village of Peregu Mare was stricken by different lethal illnesses...malaria, dysentery, scarlet fever—and many people died from these, especially children," says Gigi Sitaru, a Romanian tour guide who helped Roberta Meyer Lombardino, granddaughter of Leopold and Anna, and her husband Joseph tour the area where our ancestors were from in 2001. Read Gigi's 2002 email to Roberta here.
All the children mentioned at left were buried in Peregu Mare, Arad, Romania.
In the late 19th Century and early 20th Century, women often became pregnant every 12-18 months.
This appears to be the case with Anna Maria, thus explaining the five-year gap between Leopold's birth in 1863 and Joseph's birth in 1868, then Frank's birth seven years later in 1875; and also the five years between Frank's birth and Anton's birth in 1880.
memories of Anna Maria
Strong willed
Anna Maria Schmidt Leisz, or "Mary," lived with her son Anton "Tony" Leisz and his wife Sophia Donaker for a time.
"By all accounts, she was a very strong-willed person and not always appreciated by the grandkids, or her daughter-in-law, for that matter," says Patricia Ann Leisz Garcia, daughter of Anton and Sophia's son Albert Paul Leisz (1916-1998), in an email dated April 29, 2002.
"Aunt Gladys (Leisz Wick) tells me that her mom wanted just one dress, well, the fabric to sew a dress, and her mother-in-law, Mary, put the nix on that one. She also used to put the kittens in a bag and go off to the pond and drown them. I guess cats were kept on the farm to help eliminate pests and mice and such, so they needed a cat or two, but not a bunch of kittens. And so Mary probably was just doing what she figured had to be done, but the grandkids thought it was mean."
A challenge
"I feel that my grandparents were very caring to take in Anton's mother, Mary Schmidt, and then Anna Minnichsoffer when she lost her mother. They raised her as their own.
Mary Schmidt was not the easiest person to live with either, and Sophia really put up with a lot and kept her mouth shut.
I learned that they were both hardworking, dedicated people, and Sophia was kind of quiet and very nice. They wanted the best for their children!"
- KATHIE "KAT" HAMMANG WAGNER, granddaughter of Anton and Sophia and daughter of their youngest child Mary Magdalena Leisz, 2002
Uploaded May 22, 2018
PHOTO: Our "Great" Grandmother Anna Maria "Mary" Schmied (Schmidt) Leisz (1840-1918). We just uploaded interesting papers regarding her—some received from her granddaughter, Marian Leisz Hammang (b. 1928), youngest child of Leisz Brother Anton; and Anna Maria's great-granddaughter, Roberta Meyer Lombardino (b. 1935), granddaughter of Leisz Brother Leopold (1863-1925). Check out below!
"Old Settler"
Mary's obituary in the Aug. 8, 1918 edition of the Turtle Lake Times newspaper notes she was 78 when she died, had 43 grandchildren, and was living with her son, Leisz Brother Anton and his family at the time of her passing on July 31, 1918.
13 children! Or is it 14??!
We only knew about 8—the six Leisz Brothers, plus sister Mary Leisz Minnichsoffer and youngest child Julianna. But 1900 U.S. census information contained in this document (note theh handwriting is that of Anna Leisz Meyer (1902-1976), daughter of Leisz Brother Leopold) notes Mary and husband Leopold (1835-1893) had 13 children! But we've found records for 14 children on ancestry,com, see details HERE.
Citizenship paperwork
In 1897, four years after coming to the United States, Mary signed this Declaration of Intention to become a U.S. citizen.
Death certificate
Mary's death certificate showed she lived to be 78 years old—longer than her husband and ALL of her children! In 1918, the average lifespan for a woman was only 42 years! Mary's lifespan is nearly double that, stretching from 1840 rural Eastern Europe to Turtle Lake, Wis., where she passed. The death certificate shows she died of atherosclerosis (heart disease) with what appears to be apoplexy as a contributing factor.
wives and deaths
Longest lived
Eldest Leisz Brother John outlived his two wives! All of his brothers died before their wives, with Leopold being the first of the brothers to die—in 1925.
John was the first of the six brothers to lose his wife—Agnes, to death at age 28 in 1904 of what records show as a tumor on the spleen. He was 43 years old at the time. He outlived Agnes by 33 years, despite the fact that she was 5 years younger than him.
It was just a year after his sister Mary died.
John's second wife Gertrude (it was a second marriage for both of them) died in 1937 when she was 66 years of age, two years before he passed on.
John lived the longest of his siblings—to the age of 78. In contrast, sister Mary died at age 41.
Age 62 was a tough year
Three of the six Leisz Brothers died when they were 62 years old: Leopold in 1925, Anton in 1942, and Michael in 1944. Records show Leopold died of chronic myocarditis, chronic valvular and chronic intestinal nephritis.
Brothers Joseph and Frank both lived to be 74 years of age, with Joseph passing in 1942 and Frank in 1949. Frank was the last of the Leisz brothers to pass on.
Longest living spouse
Rosalia E "Rosa" Prosser Leisz, wife of youngest brother Michael, lived the longest of her brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law. She died in 1979 in Turtle Lake at age 88. She was just 17 when she married Michael, and he was 26 at the time. Rosa was born in 1891 in Lacrosse Township, Jackson, Minnesota.
The next spouse of the Brothers who lived the longest, after Rosa, was Louisa Haspray Leisz, second wife of Joseph, who died in 1956, 14 years after her husband died.
Joseph, Louisa's husband, married her when he was 31 years old, after his first wife Anna Graenke, died in childbirth. Joseph went on to have nine children with Louisa.
Where are the babies buried?
Cemetery at St. Theresa of Avila Church in Peregu Mare, Arad, Romania, 2002
Some of the neatly-kept graves at St. Theresa of Avila Church, 2002
Roberta Meyer Lombardino inspects the mass gravesite where our patriarch Lipot/Leopold Leisz is interred with 16 other victims of the 1893 fire.
Stone memorializing the mass gravesite of Lipot Leisz and other victims of the 1893 fire, a gift from Roberta Meyer Lombardino and installed in 2003