I hope you enjoy this family site. And will leave a comment in the guest book. The surnames in this tree are -HELD- HELDT-STEINKE-LOHSE-REGALL-STEPKOWSKI-HEFT-NOWACKI- HECKENDORF- DAHL-KRUGER.If you are a member you can update your immediate family only you can add pictures too. So ask for a invitation add your email address and I will add you as a member.     
  We start off with the Anton Held family and his son August who were born in Germany but  moved to Vohlynia Russia to work the farms there.

August Held married Louisa Giester in Russia and they had 5 children when there last  son Robert was born Louisa died in 1897 and August then married Regina Tiepher  Zielke, they had one son Herman Held.

At start of wars in Russia the older sons Edward and Gustave left Russia for a better life.  . 
 The oldest son Edward Held came to the United States in 1907 he came on the Ship SS  Badenia his name on the ships roster  was Eduard Elt arriving in New York on Feb 11,  1907 he settled in Athens Wisconsin, because a lumber baron named Rietbrock had a  lumber business there and was hiring coming to Athens WI and made his home  there .Edward sent for his wife Emilie Gunter  they had all there children born in Athens  WI. The children were Olga, Edwin,Arthur,Ervin,Herman,and Walter.

He then was followed by his brother Gustave Held he also come to Athens on Jan 3,  1908 on the ship Celtic and sent for his future wife Marie Bergholz, Marie arrived on 23 Nov 1910  she arrived on the ship Batavia, they settled on a farm in Athens WI. Gus and Marie's children  were son Reinhold, and daughter Ida Held Heckendorf.

The third too come was Christof or Christ Held, Christ arrived on July 8, 1911  landing in New York he then went too Kenora Canada and worked in a lumber camp there.  
 We do not know why he went there and not Athens but for some reason he did anyway  on  weekends they would go to Manitobia for dinner and relaxing this is  where he met our  grandmother Pauline Steinke as she worked as a waitress in a resturant Hotel and  after only three dates they married on Dec 26,1913 in Manitoba Canada this was where  Pauline lived with her parents Fredrich and Rosalie nee'Heft Steinke.

Christ and Pauline then packed up and moved to Athens on September 27,1914 where  they bought a farm and had all there children,George,Lydia,Ruth,Art,Meta,Herbert,Elmer and David  thye lived on the farm till they passed away. 
  
 On September 1, 1923 the brothers put there money together and bought passenger  tickets for there parents August and his wife Regina and there son and half brother Herman  Held and his wife Helena Winter they arrived in Athens WI. and Herman and his wife  bought a farm in Edgar Wisconsin about a 25 minute ride from Athens and had his  father and mother lived with them till there death.
  
 Their brother Robert Helt as his spelling is stayed in Germany and never came to the  United States as his son was in the war and he wanted to make sure he came home and  then was going to come with his Olga and son Edward but that never happened as by the  time the war was over it was too late to get them out, Germany has split and they  were in what was called East Germany or the DDR where they had a very hard life.  
  I found the family in 1982 and began writing too them, Aunt Lydia had given me Grandma  Helds old address book and by chance I wrote to the address she had for Robert and  his son Erwin got the letter and was just so happy, all the letters stopped coming  from the brothers once the Berlin wall went up so they had lost all contact with any  of the family here.
  So they were just pleased to find us again, Robert and his wife  and died before I sent the letters so Erwin was sad that  his father never knew what  had happend to his family. Erwin is gone but his son is still living with his family  in Janisroda Germany, but has stopped writing too me they have two children and his  name is Bernard Helt his brother Gert Gunter still lives there too.

My father was the son of Christ Held and Pauline Steinke his name was Athur Eric Held he married  Ferne Regall on July 19,1941 at Athens WI.
 They had four children, Gerald, Diane, Phyllis, and Allan.

Art and Ferne  bought a farm in Athens after they married and farmed till 1961, when they sold  the farm and moved to Rockford, Illinois.
  
 There my father worked for his brother George building homes and my mother Ferne  worked in the Swedish American hospital they lived in Rockford till 1964 when they then moved back  to Wausau WI and purchased a farm, my mother worked at the Wausau Clinic till her retirement.  
 My father farmed for awhile and he then worked with a contractor building homes till his  retirement, they moved to  Waupaca WI on Jan 19, 1989, and lived there till they both passed away.

My parents were both loving and caring and gave us a wonderful life with many memories we love and  miss them very much, Dad passed in 1996 and Mom in 2008.

NOW FOR THE ERNST AND MARY LOHSE REGALL FAMILY.

Ernest Regall left Schoenhagen Germany in 1907 and came to the United States, leaving all his family to start a new life he came to New York and from there went too Manitowac WI, where at a dance he met Mary Lohse, he was 30 and she was 20. They took a boat ride to Ludington Michigan on Aug 29, 1908 and got married. They lived in Manitowac for awhile then they moved to Unity WI where they bought a farm and most of the other children were born. Will finish this at a later date  
  
    
   NOW FOR THE STEINKE SIDE OF THE FAMILY INFORMATION;
 Fredrich Steinke was born in Sompolno Poland in 1864, his father was Martin Steinke  born in 1835 and his mother was Caroline Stepkowski, born in 1833 all from Sompolno  Poland, Martin Steinke's father was Frederich Steinke he married Eva Klotzbaum in  Sompolno Poland. I will continue there story later when I have more material completed so stay  with me and keep coming back.