I decided a fun hobby would be tracing back the old family tree as far as I could go in all directions. After a Saturday on the couch with Ancestry.com, I made great progress! Today I will touch on the Glanzer side of the family.

GLANZER
The Glanzer side of the family dates back to 1685 to Wales, when a man named Martin Glanzer was born in Pembrokeshire. He moved on to Carinthia, Austria where he married a woman named Anna Ertl. They had five children, including a son named Christian Glanzer who was born in Sankt Peter, Austria in 1725. He married a woman named Maria and they had another son named Christian Glanzer, also in Sankt Peter, Austria in 1750. Christian married a woman named Gretal Wipf and together they had a son named Samuel Glanzer, who was born in Wischenka, Ukraine in 1779. He married a woman named Rebecca Hofer and they had a son named Paul Glanzer in Radichev, South Russia in 1810. He too married a Hofer and they had a son named Matthias Glanzer in 1842 in South Russia. Matthias married a woman named Anna Wurz and together they had a son named Paul M. Glanzer, born in 1866 in Russia. He married Anna Tschetter, and apparently arrived in the United States in the late 1880s. Eventually they made their way to South Dakota where they had a son named David Glanzer, born in Huron, SD. He married Katie Wipf and had three sons, the youngest being Richard J. Glanzer in 1929. He married Cleo Froke and together they had a son named Richard J. Glanzer, II. He married a woman named Marcie Bell and together they had three children, the oldest being one Ryan C. Glanzer. He married Lauren Poulter and together they have a beagle named Baxter and a baby whose due date is actually today. Will the long-standing chain of Glanzer men live on? We’ll find out soon!

Several things jump out to me in my research. First being how tightly knit these same few last names are. Names like Glanzer, Wipf, Tschetter, and Hofer were all living amongst each other in the 1720’s and a large portion of the Carpenter area today is made up of people from the same names!

I also stumbled upon this story of the original Glanzer family, who was being held in jail for religious reasons! They all escaped by walking right past dozing guards.

BELL
My mother’s side of the family has an interesting past as well, including a somewhat-famous name. Unfortunately I was not able to get too far on the Bell name itself, but these are direct ancestors to me nonetheless.

We must go back to 1540 to Lavenham, Suffolk, England where a man named John Piers was born. In 1569, he and his mystery wife had a daughter named Alice Piers, who married an English fellow named Hugh Downes. No, not that Hugh Downs. In 1590 in Kings Langley, they had a daughter named Elizabeth Downes. She married Sgt. Lewis “Master Falconer” Latham, who apparently was the falconer to King Charles I! They had a daughter named Frances Latham, who has a very interesting Wikipedia page and was known as the “Mother of Governors” as many of her descendants became governors of Rhode Island! Anyway, one of her husbands was an Irishman named William Dungan, and together they had a son named Thomas Dungan, who in the 1600s came to America, and along with wife Elizabeth Weaver, had a daughter named Rebecca Dungan, born in Newport, RI. She married Edmund Doyle, and their youngest son was Clemente Doyle. He married a woman named Margaret and they had a son named Jonathan Doyle. He married Pennsylvanian Ann Thomas Matthews and they had a son named Hugh Doyle. He and his wife had a daughter named Mary Doyle in 1814 in Huntingdon, PA, and… finally… she married Josiah Bell. They had a dozen kids, one of them being Johnathan Bell, who married Emma Vannorsdel, and they moved to Illinois where they had a whopping sixteen kids, the second-oldest being Clarence Bell. Clarence married Lulu Schoecraft and in 1903 in Elkhorn Township, Iowa, they too had sixteen kids, the third-oldest being Clifford Bell. He married Ruth Pendexter (who has quite an interesting lineage of her own, but that’s a story for another day), and they had four kids, one being Gene Bell in 1929. He married Betty Lou Petersen, and they had three kids, the youngest being Marcie Bell, born in Denver, Colorado in 1961. And she married Richard J. Glanzer, II and had three kids, the favorite being Ryan C. Glanzer.

There are many other stories to tell from my hours of family tree making, but I’ll save them for later. The Froke, Babler, Pendexter, Wipf, Petersen, and Terry branches of my family have some long and interesting roots as well. I also found it is far easier to trace backwards because it’s easiest to search by death records. I have little way of finding out modern-day living relatives using this site.

I thought it would be fun to research all this and then make a giant wall illustration for the baby’s room like this Simpsons Family Tree.