Sheboygan County Historical Research Center

10/07/2026

Northgate Shopping Center 1957, Quasius article, 1954

10/07/2026

Many reasons to like history. Not Sheboygan County, but you get the gist. Is it the house restoration, the family history, the bigger picture, the national history, the land, the stories? So many reasons to love history.

10/07/2026

Keeping in mind that October is Family History Month, we want you to know that SCHRC offers a monthly genealogy class. They are open to the public. There is a slight charge. Here's the schedule: October 12. Genealogy Show and Tell: Sharing Family Treasures, November 9. Researching Your Irish Ancestors, January 11. Dating Family Photos: Identifying Clues and Preserving Images, February 8. Researching Your Dutch Ancestors, March 8. Find a Grave: Search, Contribute, and Connect, April 12. Tech Tips for Genealogists: Organizing, Preserving, and Researching Smarter, May 10. Genealogy Problem–Solving Roundtable.

10/07/2026

Part of working in an archive means dealing with maps. SCHRC has a great selection of maps including resources about European countries especially Germany. Since Sheboygan County and this part of Wisconsin was historically settled heavily by Germans the Research Center has a good collection of German items. Something like this map comes from an atlas done by Linda Herrick for German Genealogy, German Maps and Facts for Genealogy. It's great for beginners. The book is out of print, but copies of pages are available for researchers.

10/07/2026

March 8, 1930

10/06/2026

Thanks Gibbsville Cheese.

10/06/2026

Did you know that besides Family History month, October is also Italian American Heritage Month, Filipino American Month, Polish American Month and German American Heritage Month? Feel free to share your immigration stories here.

From Our German Heritage by James E. Schultz

Christoph Sinner and Katherine Wannemacher lived in Nauheim near what is now the Frankfurt airport.

Nauheim is also near the picturesque Falzgrafenstein Castle on the Rhine River, where they likely had to pay a toll to pass by when they emigrated. (I had flown into the Frankfurt airport several times and seen this castle before I knew how close I was to my German roots.)

The Sinners, like so many others, were farmers. Typical of Germany to this day, farm homes were located in a village surrounded by their respective farms. When flying over Germany this arrangement of village hubs surrounded by farmland is evident as seen in the second photo above, unlike the way farm homes dot the landscape in the United States. The brilliant yellow crop is rapeseed, used to make canola oil.

The Nauheim church (built in 1753) with its rooster atop the steeple is shown below. The wooden interior with plain glass windows is modest. Christoph Sinner’s 1817 birth record is shown in the fourth photo below. After scanning films for countless hours in the United States to locate records, actually holding the old original church books was quite a thrill!

According to an early tax record shown below the tax on the family’s 2-story house and barn and pig house consisted of 1 basket of oats and 1 chicken! Land transfer records show that Christoph sold his property in Nauheim in 1847 and purchased land from the United States government later in 1847 via a warrant granted to an Alabama veteran of the Mexican War. This and his wife’s death record confirm they immigrated in 1847, the same year that the Phoenix, a Great Lakes steamer, burned to the water level with great loss of life within sight of Sheboygan.

10/06/2026

As part of National Archive Month, we'll tell you about the Burton Leavens Collection. He was a local guy with many interests including photography. Four binders of Sheboygan Falls' photos were one of the first donations given to SCHRC early in its history. He photographed so many things that have disappeared. The quality of the photography was very good. He also documented his WWI experiences. The photos you see here are from that part of his life.

10/06/2026

If you're interested in stained glass or church architecture, the Conrad Schmitt Studios FB site is wonderful. Photos are great. It's like taking a daily vacation across the country and the world. They have done a number of the churches in Sheboygan. It's interesting stuff.

10/06/2026

It's part of our charm.

Friday nights are for fish fries and cold beers, a true Wisconsin tradition. Link in comments to find out more. ⬇️