It started with Gary Schroeder researching his ancestry and is culminating with he and his wife taking on the tedious task of entering over 2000 names to the Find-A-Grave website for Home Cemetery. All made possible because of the record keeping efforts done by Home Cemetery Treasurer Jane Fischer.
Visit Sleepy Eye Home Cemetery on Find-A-Grave>>>
Here’s the Story as Told by Gary:
I have quite a few relatives at Home Cemetery, the oldest being on my mother’s side 2nd Great-grandfather, Wilhelm Friedrich Kunze (1832-1895). On my father side it would be my grandfather Fred William Schroeder (1883-1945).
I contacted Jane Fischer for information back in November 2020 as I wanted to start ramping up to come over in the spring of 2021.
Find -a- Grave had 2132 entered on-line as of 12/30/2020.
I came over on April 28-30 of this year to photograph/GPS. I got Section 1 done and there was so many that weren’t entered in Find-a-Grave I stopped. I then spoke with Jane to see if she had information on who was buried there. Jane stated she had file boxes of 3 x 5 card with information on them. My wife (Sue) and I scanned over 5000+ cards some had information on both sides.
From June through October, I went through all cards and verified in Find -a- Grave: Taking over 277 hours to complete
1. If person was entered – If not they were entered in
2. Attached the scanned card to each person
3. Alphabetized all cards scanned into
Today there are now 4416 names, 2080 new names entered, with 5444 cards attached.
This project will now provide:
- Electronic files for the cemetery
- Fellow researchers will be able to find their relatives without calling Jane to see if they know where they are buried
- After next spring 2022 all graves will be GPS (currently only 911 are GPS)
- After next spring 2022 all grave markers will be photographed if they are marked (currently only 1976 are)
Jane Fischer has been the “keeper” of all the information Gary entered onto the Find-A-Grave website. She has spent an incredible amount of time over the years collecting the information and typing up the cards on each person buried in Home Cemetery. Before Jane took over in 2006, Phyllis Larson had the task, and Carol Speckman before her.
If anyone would like to help in the spring 2022 you can contact Gary Schroeder at (507) 254-3024 or email: garylschroedersr@gmail.com (Gary lives in Rochester, MN)
People can go to Find-a-Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/82548/home-cemetery#
If they register then they can add, submit corrections or request to manage a memorial.
Other FREE sites for researchers:
- Minnesota Official Marriage System: https://moms.mn.gov/
- MN History Center: https://www.mnhs.org/library
- Family Search: https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/list/?cqs=Minnesota
- Plat Maps: http://geo.lib.umn.edu/collections/digitizedplatbooks/stateofmn1916.html
And for those of you interested in the Schroeder, Kunze, Schweiger, Drusch families (and Gary collects items from Bruggeman & Schroeder Implement)
My dad (Milton (Lefty) Schroeder and was born in Fairfax, MN to Fred & Emelia (nee Drusch) Schroeder. My grandfather (Fred Schroeder) along with L. J. Bruggeman and Otto Buerkle bought the Fred Flor Implement shop in Sleepy Eye in December 1937. Fred passed away in 1945.
My dad was on the Sleepy Eye FD
My mother (Lucille Kunze) oldest of six girls to George & Minnie (nee Schwieger) Kunze. George was airplane mechanic and pilot. My mother would fly along with George and take aerial photos. Mother taught country school at District 22 outside of Sleepy Eye.
My grandmother Minnie O. Schwieger was Valedictorian of Sleepy Eye high school class of 1910.
My 4th Cousin William Fredrick Kunze, Sr served in the MN House (1911 – 1913), Mayor of Mpls from 1929 – 1931 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_F._Kunze)
I started researching back my family history in 1984. Back then there was no internet. It was contacting my mother and aunts. My father passed away in 1977 and my grandma Schroeder in 1982. Then in the 1990’s Family Tree came out with floppy drive that had some information still not a lot. I had put together the information I gathered. Didn’t really do much after that.
Fast forward to 2014 my wife retired, and I started back up researching again. In 2017 my dad’s remaining sister passed away (Ruth Bertrand – She worked for the Sleepy Eye paper). My cousin Judy Collard asked if I knew a Dick Schroeder from Spokane, WA. I did not. Judy stated Dick was in her mother’s address book. Judy wrote Dick and informed him that her mother had passed and how he knew her mother. Dick replied that he was our 2nd cousin. Judy put me in contact with Dick. Before I wrote Dick Judy and I only knew of a few 1st cousins and that was about it.
In 2017 when I contacted Dick, he had old obituaries and funeral cards. After researching what Dick had sent, I had found that I have quite of few Schroeder cousins, some still in Fairfax, MN. The oldest cousin is Myron Schroeder (will be 96 in November). After speaking to Myron and his wife Vivian there had never been a Schroeder reunion. My wife and I started planning a reunion and it would have to be held in Fairfax. So on in July 2017 we had 50 people show up.
I also have a website on the Schroeder’s from Fairfax: https://schroeder-fairfaxmn.weebly.com/
My wife and I have done our DNA through ancestry