Midwest Rural Roots Genealogy & Family Trees

Midwest Rural Roots Genealogy & Family Trees Perfect gift for any occasion for loved ones:
-Wedding Engagement Anniversary
-Baby Shower-Adoption Let me take the stress and guesswork out the process!

Family Trees make wonderful and personal gifts for many occasions. I do ALL the research and design to create for you a 1 of a kind custom family tree!

5,6, 7+ Generation Family Tree
Includes names, birth/death dates/locations, wedding date/location

*If information (like a date) cannot be verified through documentation, it will not be guessed or just 'filled-in'. Will be discussed through compl

etion of project. Each Tree Custom to Order:----- RIGHT NOW I AM TAKING ORDERS-
Pricing varies and starts at $100 for a 5 generation tree, research and digital design included. Basic size of 24'x18" is suggested but other sizes are available as well as other printed options. Discuss your ideas with me, more/less generations, fonts, colors etc.- I want to make your family tree special ! Contact me with questions and for a customized quote today. I take orders personally through facebook and by email currently. I hold a B.A. in History from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville as well as a certificate in Genealogy from Boston University. I have been researching family genealogy as well as local rural property history in the Tri-State area for 15 years.

📜 Don’t let your local history end up in the trash! 📜​Hi everyone! I run Midwest Rural Roots Genealogy & Family Trees , ...
05/31/2026

📜 Don’t let your local history end up in the trash! 📜
​Hi everyone! I run Midwest Rural Roots Genealogy & Family Trees , and I am on a mission to rescue and preserve our area's history—one forgotten photograph at a time.

​Do you have old, black-and-white, or vintage photos sitting in boxes in your attic, basement, or garage? Newspapers or even old letters from the area? Maybe they are unidentified, or from families you aren't related to, and you just don’t know what to do with them?

​If you are looking to declutter but can't bear to throw history away, I would love to adopt them.

​What I do with them:

​🔎 Research & Identify: I use my genealogy background to try to track down the people, places, and stories behind the image.

​💻 Digital Preservation: I scan and preserve them so local history isn't lost forever.

​👥 Community Sharing: I share the photos and the history I uncover back to local groups like this one, hoping to reconnect them with living relatives or local archives.

​Please note: I am a local researcher, not a collector or reseller. I do not buy photos, and I absolutely never sell them. My goal is strictly historical preservation.

​If you have a box or even just a few loose photos, letters or newspapers you’d like to donate to a good home, please drop a comment below or send me a direct message! Let’s keep our local history alive.

I found this photo with only the year (1910) written on the back, and the place noted. I wanted to find out what group o...
05/29/2026

I found this photo with only the year (1910) written on the back, and the place noted. I wanted to find out what group of people they were and why they were commemorating the moment with a photo. After some research I was able to find more about this Badger team's history.

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The Cursed 1910 Poughkeepsie Trip: UW Rowing’s Ultimate Disaster

The UW Madison men's rowing team competed in June 1910 in the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) National Championship on the Hudson River in Poughkeepsie. It is remembered as one of the most disastrous road trips in Wisconsin Badgers history.

Here is how the Poughkeepsie Regatta derailed the entire program in a matter of days:
Just before the marquee events, freshman rower E.R. Schmidt contracted the mumps, completely crippling the lineup depth and team morale.

Having defeated the University of Washington earlier that summer meant nothing on the Hudson. A depleted, exhausted Wisconsin squad finished dead last in both the grueling 4-mile Varsity Eight and the Freshman Eight races.

The ultimate insult occurred off the water. While stored at the regatta site, the team's custom motor launch caught fire and burned to a crisp.

Facing total destruction of their equipment and back-to-back last-place finishes, legendary Head Coach Edward H. "Ned" Ten Eyck resigned in frustration before the month even ended

Team Members:
Coxswain: Lyman Shotwell
Stroke: Broussais “B.C.” Beck
No. 7: Captain Bartlett Lovejoy
No. 6: Henry Tiedje
No. 5: Halsey “Hal” Wyckoff
No. 4: Royal Pullen
No. 3: William “Bill” Godfrey
No. 2: Walter Wand
Bow: Paul Buwaldo

05/29/2026

Forgotten Name Friday

Unearthing Peculiar First Names from the past
A Weekly Series researched and presented by Midwest Rural Roots.

For our next Forgotten Name Friday, I spent some time exploring local headstones in Louisa County, Iowa to find names that haven't quite made the "modern revival" cut.

Scinderilla
Tirzah
Veit
Genetta
Elitha
Reverdy
Ruhama
Emmarilla
Vachel
Zadok
Ilzaid
Sephronia
Rodine
Origen
Canida
Sina "Siner"
Finander
Valorus
Sylvanes

These names tell a story of a different era—a time of different heroes, different sounds, and different traditions.

Do you have a favorite "weird" name in your own family tree? Let me know in the comments!

Follow Midwest Rural Roots for more Forgotten First Name Fridays, historically true stories, restored family photos, ancestry and more !

05/29/2026

I found this great old photo with the following written on the back: "Thompson Home" Manitowoc 1940s.
The windows, different entrances and style of the house caught my eye. I wanted to find out if the house was still there and what it looked like today.
Turns out this house is on the corner of North 5th Street and Cleveland Street.
So the old photo is the side view on 5th street. It looks almost the same ! A window was turned into a door, and the side stairs taken off and a garage added.
Have you seen this house driving through Manitowoc ?
(The other "front" of the home has the address of 906 Cleveland Street).

If you enjoyed this video, follow me at Midwest Rural Roots for more found and restored old photos from the Midwest, historically true family stories, genealogy tips and so much more !

05/18/2026

The "Hardware Merchant" Who Prescribed Community:
The Story of A. J. Ironmonger

The Rexall Drug Store of Henry, Illinois

If your family has roots in Henry Illinois, chances are your ancestors stepped up to the counter of the Rexall Drug Store on Edward Street. For over 4 decades, the man behind that counter was my great-grand-uncle, Arthur Joseph Ironmonger—a man whose very surname means "hardware merchant," but who found his true calling in pharmacy.

Born in Delavan, Illinois, on January 22, 1871, to John and Elizabeth (Stubbs) Ironmonger, Arthur grew up in Mason City. He pursued his education at the Northwestern School of Pharmacy, graduating in 1894.

After briefly practicing in Eureka, he arrived in Henry in 1895 to work as a clerk under the guidance of the prominent Dr. F. A. Powell.
In 1907, A.J. formally bought out Dr. Powell’s interest in the store, launching a 55-year career of service to the community.

In 1909, A.J. aligned the business with the burgeoning Rexall organization when it was just six years old, making his shop the official regional headquarters for Rexall products for decades.

The building itself, located in the 400 block of Edward Street, was built back in 1857 by Charles Everett as the "City Drug Store."
Even though A.J.’s shelving and display cases were built way back in 1868, a 1936 review noted they perfectly conformed to the newest modern standards!

A Quiet Life of Devotion
While active as an alderman, a Free Mason, a Woodman, and a dedicated member of the Presbyterian church, A.J.’s heart belonged at home. On October 15th, 1900, he married Clara May Sleater. Though they had no children of their own, they gave a loving home to their nephew, James Hickman Kincaid, who lived with them and later helped them both out in the business for many years

After 42 years of marriage, Clara passed away—a loss neighbors noted the quiet, unassuming druggist never fully recovered from. He continued running his all-consuming interest, the Rexall Store, until his own health failed. A.J. passed away on September 20th, 1948, at the age of 77 at the Peoria hospital following a brief illness. The community's respect for him was so profound that every single business house in Henry closed its doors during his funeral service.

Thank you for watching and sharing in the preservation of local history stories like this one !
Follow me at Midwest Rural Roots for more historically true stories, Genealogy tips, restored family photos and so much more !

*Photos from Personal Family Photo Collection of Laura Kincaid-Patten Lehman


05/15/2026

Tell me your most interesting Family History story or secret in your family!

What type of Genealogist are you ??!I'm a mix between Shiny Object Hopper and Over-Organizer 😂
05/13/2026

What type of Genealogist are you ??!

I'm a mix between Shiny Object Hopper and Over-Organizer 😂

Mother’s Day often brings a complex mix of emotions, especially when we look back through the branches of a family tree....
05/10/2026

Mother’s Day often brings a complex mix of emotions, especially when we look back through the branches of a family tree. In genealogy, we don't just find names and dates; we find the stories of women who stepped into roles of all kinds—some by blood, some by choice, and some through resilience.

Every heart on this list represents a woman who shaped a generation. Whether she was a biological mother, a foster mother who provided safety, a stepmother who built new foundations, or a woman who mothered through grief and loss, her impact is woven into the history we research today.

It is a legacy of love that proves genealogy is about more than DNA; it is about the "mothering" that sustains a lineage. Love is what makes a mother.

Today, we honor the women in your family tree—the ones who raised us, the ones who paved the way, and the ones who may be missing from the records but are never forgotten in our hearts.

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Milwaukee County, WI

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