Hogan (video clip) and Howlett gravesites, Allouez Catholic Cemetery, Green Bay, WI, February 4, 2006

Tracey's dad's ancestors are buried here.  It had snowed the day before, so I really got lucky finding all of them.  Since we know so little about these people, it means a lot to me to at least find these monuments.  This is as far as I can trace the family in America , since these people were English and Irish emigrants who came to Green Bay via Quebec .  I tend to see dead people as cardboard cutouts, just a dash between the dates on the headstones.  It’s hard to imagine that their lives were as rich and full of children, jobs and all the stuff that we stay busy with, since so little evidence remains of them.  Little trips like this add detail to my awareness of the past members of our family.  Two of them, Tracey’s dad’s grandma and his aunt, died 4 days apart during the Flu Pandemic of 1918.  The mom was 55 and her daughter was 14.  Two funerals in 4 days.  My family had two funerals in two weeks in 1985 when my mom and brother died 9 days apart, so I felt some empathy for what they went through. 

Walter Hogan was Tracey's dad, Gerald's, mom's dad.  He lost his first wife, with whom he had 5 children, when she was 32, then his second wife, with whom he had 7 children, died at 55. 

James Howlett was the father of Catherine (Howlett) Hogan, above.  You can find photos of these people here.

This photo shows 5 of James Howlett's boys, all brothers of Catherine Howlett Hogan, Tracey's dad's grandma.  John C Howlett (on the headstone) was killed when a spike fell from a trestle while he was working on the railroad right before Christmas, 1900.  Frank Edward Howlett is listed on the cemetery index, so he's buried here but is not listed on the headstone.

These are from an earlier trip to Milwaukee, July, 2004. 

I spoke with Tracey's 2nd cousin, Jane Grobe Wegner, last night.  Her grandfather, Geo. E. Hogan, 1888-1986, was Tracey's grandma's half-brother.  I don't have a picture of them together, but I found this one of George and his brothers: