In 1929 Francis (Frank) Gobernatz and his brother Andrew emigrated from Germany to the United States. At that time, the law required immigrants have a U.S. sponsor before they could move to the United States. Their sponsors were farmers in Spring Green, Wisconsin who they worked for until their sponsorship debt was paid off. Frank then moved to Milwaukee and got a job at a cookie factory and sent for his wife Walburga and their two small children, Ann and Johnny, who had stayed behind in Germany.
By late 1929, Walburga with her two young children, made the long voyage by boat to the United States. When they arrived at Ellis Island in New York City, they were quarantined for at least a week because another child on the boat had come down with measles. When they were finally allowed to leave, they had yet to take the long train ride to Wisconsin before they would again meet up with their father and husband.
Ann soon began first grade at a Catholic school in Milwaukee but couldn’t participate with the other students because she knew only German. However she listened intently to her classmates and the teacher and before long she could recite her lessons as well as the others.
The Great Depression hit the newly emigrated family extremely hard and they moved often. Frank and Walburga had three more daughters after becoming U.S. citizens; Mary in 1932, Hildegard (Hildy) in 1936, and Irmengard (Immy) in 1938.
In 1942, Andrew married Katie who had also emigrated from Germany. They had no children.
John Gobernatz died from a heart attack in 1959, two weeks before his 32nd birthday. He was not married and did not have children. His sisters all married and stayed in Wisconsin. Most of their 29 children have also stayed in Wisconsin to raise their families.
This blog is for the Gobernatz sisters –-
Ann Acker, Mary Havey, Hildy Boor, and Immy Kalmon.
Great work Laura!
Hello,
Just ran across your website and was wondering if we were retated. My grandparents lived in Holdingford, MN. Frank Gobernatz was his name. He died in 1959 at 52 of a heart attack.
Very nice work Laura. My name is Dennis Acker Jr. Ann Acker’s grandson. This was very informative and taught me some things I did not know. THank you so much for the time you spent on creating this site. Very much appreciated.
Thanks Denny! I too just learned some of this from your Grandma last summer. I was hoping others would post photos, so maybe you can talk some of those Ackers into it. I could change the setup so it would be easier for others to post photos if I knew someone would.
He Uncle Denny I was just looking on Great Grandmas obituary at school then I seen that Frank Gobernatz was dead with her so i decided to look up and see what it was all about and then i saw you where on!! I hope you come home this summer and i really like this site and love you!
Hi, Amy sent me this link and I just started checking it out and have already learned a few things, nice!
Bruce Kalmon
Thanks Bruce. I learned stuff too when I was doing this, mostly from Ann Acker. Anyone is welcome to add photos. We need more from when we were kids.
I am related. Hildy is my grandmother, married to Bob Boor.
Added Dad’s photo in the memory section tonight. I like that photo with his big winnings. See my blog post to find the cute photo of me with him when I was 3 or 4. http://lettersfromlaura.com/my-favorite-irishman-james-joseph-havey