A Study of Granville, Mequon, and Milwaukee Townships
And the Record Books of St. Peter's Evangelical Lutheran Church (1841-1941)

This project started as a simple translation of some church records. It has expanded to include census and farm reports plus information from other sources. At the bottom of this page you will find an important discussion of the data used in preparing this web site. This will be a plain vanilla web site– no dancing family trees or flashing birth certificates.

Your best bet is to start by searching in the Surnames to find the surname you are looking for and possible alternate spellings. When you click on the surname you are looking for it will take you to the index of people containing that surname. You can then click on an individual to go to the family for that person.

This site is still not complete. The census data for 1860, 70 and 80 is all here. Farm data and detailed maps will be added next. There will also be improvements to the indexes and surname lists. Below is a table showing the status of information. Don't be surprised by links that don't work yet– I haven't had time to create them. (Latest revision 5/1/03)
The best place to start your search would be with the surname lists
Surnames - Indexes - Miscellaneous Information - Sources & References

Granville Milwaukee Mequon
1850 Census
 Not acquired yet
 Not acquired yet
 Not acquired yet
1860 Census
 On web On web On web
1870 Census
 On web On web On web
I am Currently adding the 1873 plat maps.
1880 Census
 On web On web (ED 92)
and On web (ED 91) 		On web  
1885 Census Not coded yet Not coded yet Not coded yet
1892 Directory
 Parts incorporated into 1880 census
 Parts incorporated into 1880 census
 Not acquired
1895 Census Not acquired yet Not acquired yet Not acquired yet
1850 Farm Records Not acquired yet Not acquired yet Not acquired yet
1860 Farm Records, Industrial Records and Death Schedule
 Not coded yet
 Not coded yet
 Not coded yet
1870 Farm Records, Industrial Records and Death Schedule
 Not coded yet
 Not coded yet
 Not coded yet
1880 Farm Records, Industrial Records and Death Schedule
 Not coded yet
 Not coded yet
(Death Schedule is appended to 1880 census.)
 Not coded yet
(Death Schedule is appended to 1880 census.)
Land Records
 Not acquired yet
 Not acquired yet
 Not acquired yet
St. Peter's Records
 Not finished translating yet and not coded yet.

This research has been greatly assisted by the Wisconsin State Historical Society.
The information and web site has been prepared by John Faludi (johnfaludi@mac.com).
Suggestions, corrections and additional information is always welcome.

Discussion
Nearly all of this information is from original handwritten sources. There are many ways in which errors can, could, and did creep into the data. I have tried to control the errors as much as I can. If you find any mistakes, please let me know. It is important to know some of the sources of errors because it will help you think divergently in your searching.

Some errors are due to physical causes:
  • Crumbling paper
  • Mildewed paper
  • Water-stained paper
  • Paper damaged in other ways (i.e. torn and scotch-taped back together)
  • Faded ink
  • Ink blurred by water or dampness.
  • Ink spattered and spilled across the paper

Many errors are due to problems with people.
  • Reading the handwriting, especially under the physical conditions listed above, was very challenging at times. Especially in the earlier decades and with St. Peter's records. I used microfilms and where available, the original copies. The handwriting style used was old European or a mixture of old European and modern American. Some of the Germanic letters are wildly different from modern ones. And some letters are so similar to other letters in the person's handwriting style that they can only be read in context if at all. And when you throw abbreviations on top of the handwriting, things can get even more interesting.
  • At times, the enumerators were wildly creative in spelling names.
  • The enumerator's knowledge and training. The enumerators had a tendancy to write with a German accent. When they didn't know how to spell a name, they would often spell it phonetically. Sometimes they thought they knew how to spell a name but got it wrong. This is especially true of the Granville enumerator. (I also suspect that the Granville enumerator was slightly dyslexic since he tended to transpose letters far more often than the others.)
  • When people were not at home, enumerators would sometimes ask neighbors for information on the missing family. Neighbors were not necessarily well informed.
  • Enumerators also missed people. They missed individuals and they missed whole families. Just because you don't find who you are looking for, don't assume they weren't there.