Connell Kronschnabel Johnson Bissen

Picture: Me and my family at Stephens' Falls in Dodgeville, WI

This is another bit of a work in progress, one without much of an idea of what the ultimate outcome and finished product will be. It's more of a research project than it is a story or piece of "creative writing". I had come across lots of information on my family history, on my ancestors, and of course I found it all super fascinating. There are so many parallels between my two sides of family, it's bizarre. I wanted to write something about it all and turn it into a story, but I just don't know how yet.

Anyway, there are a few splotchy gaps in the information/facts due to the fact that some things required more extensive research than I had anticipated, information/facts have not been proofread, and some of the information/facts just don’t exist anymore.

Hope you enjoy.

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Special thanks to Kathy Laatsch and the research team of Edward Halbach, Cecilia Halbach, and Martha (Bissen) Heinrichs.

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I am an aspiring storyteller of adventure with fantasy and imagination twisted into the seams. But, not without historical accuracy and thoughtful research, and inspirations from real stories of real people. As much as there is thrilling and adventurous intrigue in the twists of fantasy and make-believe, there is always the reminder that such imaginative stories stem from what a person really knows, what a person really experiences. Life itself is an adventure.

I began a bit of a compiling project — one that may actually be classified as a research project, but I cannot take the credit for the research that had been done by others before me. I compiled information about direct lines of ancestry that lead to the birth of me. I had two sources of information about my lineage and ancestry for this project, one of my mom’s history and one of my dad’s, two sources full of adventure and life of the people that eventually led to me and my own adventure. As it is for any tree, though, there are numerous branches in a family tree, and I found myself working to organize this compilation by focusing on only two entirely separate patriarchal routes to try and maintain just one narrative of adventure. But, as stories are passed down from generation to generation, things are lost, changed, forgotten. The missing pieces become a part of the adventure, though, the parts that become the thrilling intrigue of imagination.

I wanted to get as much of the facts as I could first, and let the gaps stay as satisfyingly mysterious gaps — for now, at least — and then let the facts lead into more of a narrative. I’ve also found thrilling revelations in parallels and coincidences between these two completely separate lines of ancestry, giving me the idea that in some regards it is indeed a small world.

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Kathy Laatsch (born Kathleen Ann Connell) put together a binder of her family history and ancestry. The furthest back she could trace her ancestry is to James A. O’Connell, who is believed to have been born in Ireland in 1810.

There is a book titled The Bissen Story. It contains information on ancestors and descendants that have a connection to the Bissen name. It has information that dates from 17?? to its publication date in 1996. The first ancestor that is mentioned in the book is Petrus Bissen, who was born 17?? in Affler, Germany. Very little is known about him, but it is known he married in 1760 and had twelve kids. Their ninth child was born in 1775 and he is the only one of the twelve children in which researchers could gather enough information to trace back to. His name was Johann Bissen, and he is the baseline of ancestry within The Bissen Story.

The Irish Potato Famine ravaged the population of Ireland in the mid nineteenth century. Population dropped about 25% due to mortality and emigration. It is believed that this is what caused James A. O’Connell, his wife Mary Malone O’Connell, and their kids to flee to Quebec, Canada in 1842, and then later relocate to New York City. James died in 1847, leaving Mary and their remaining children. Mary moved to Ottawa County in Michigan and remarried. She died there in 1880.

The Thirty Years' War was fought from 1618-1648. Much of the fighting occurred in Germany, which caused Germany’s population to plummet. It is believed that this drop in population was around 60% due to military battles, starvation, and disease. This led to centuries of suffering across Germany’s soil. When the French Revolution broke out in 1789, armies marched across European soil again, and Napoleon, the French Emperor, tried to unite the various states of Germany, causing more unrest and misery for its people. Much of German’s population (especially younger sons who would most likely not inherit much from their fathers) at this time looked to America for a new beginning. But, it is known that Napoleon’s invasion caused the destruction of numerous church and civil records, making the path of a person’s lineage hard to track. As we know that The Bissen Story follows its pathways from the starting point of Johann Bissen, in 1933 it was discovered that there is a relative with some connection to Johann’s father, Petrus, with the Bissen name, that found his way to Hawaii in either 1880 or 1881.

James A. O’Connell left behind a son that went by the name of Richard J. Connell. He was born in Ireland in 1835, emigrated to Quebec then to New York City with his family then to Ottawa County with his mother, but then lost his father when he was twelve years old. It is believed that Richard went to work on ships that sailed across the Great Lakes at a young age, in the job of shipping and transporting goods. Lake Michigan is known to be a tumultuous body of water, shipwrecks a common phenomenon even to the present. In 1855, at just twenty years old, Richard was the First Mate of the wooden schooner the Vermont, a ship set to sail across Lake Michigan to transport lumber and oats from Chicago to Grand Haven. A terrible storm hit and although the other ship, the Telegraph, that sailed alongside the Vermont managed to navigate through the storm and into the harbor, the Vermont was not so lucky. The Vermont sunk and Richard swam to safety. He was reportedly pulled ashore by four Indians, and later he was assisted by a local. Richard then went back to the shipwreck and rigged up a breeches buoy, saving the remaining eighteen crewmates, including the captain. In 1871, Captain William R. Loutit started the first volunteer life-saving operation, with Captain Richard J. Connell in charge. Captain Richard saved countless lives in the ten years of holding the position, especially since there was a recording of at least 6,000 shipwrecks between 1878-1898 alone. An article was printed in 1922 describing his adventures, just a few months before his passing from pneumonia at age 87.

Henry William Bissen was born in Brachtenbach, Luxembourg. His son reported he was born around 1869, the 1900 Hawaiian census reported he was born in 1866, and his death certificate reported he was born in 1866. Around the age of twelve, Henry was shanghaied to serve as a cabin boy on a whaling ship. Because of poor treatment aboard the schooner, he jumped ship when they arrived on the shores of the Hawaiian Island of Maui. It is reported that Hawaiians of Maui Island found him hiding in the woods, but what happened after that is unclear. It is known that he became a ship carpenter at around age 17, and married Lilia Paakaula a year later, thus making him settle in Honolulu. They had five children together before Lilia passed, and later remarried to Victoria “Kalet” Kaleialoha Luaehu in 1897. Henry only spoke English and Victoria only spoke Hawaiian, but they started a family of their own and had six children together. The two stayed together until Henry’s death, because though he was a skilled carpenter, he died of a construction accident while helping build the YMCA building in Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii in 1911.

Captain Richard J. Connell had five kids with Mary Malone Connell, one of which went by the name of James R. Connell. He was born in 1861, and married Susan Smith in 1884. There is not much known about them, as their son Elmer W. Connell was left at the St. Aemilian’s Orphanage in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the age of two. It is recorded that his mother Susan died in 1902, but there are two different records of his father’s death of either being in 1942 or 1961. But, Elmer W. Connell graduated from Aemilian’s High School and attended Mount St. Francis College. He became a travelling salesman, then became a dispatcher in the garage for Miller Brewing Company in Milwaukee, then later became the manager of Princeton Apartments in Milwaukee. He married Aurelia E. Williams in 1919, and they had one son together. He died in 1985, just a few months after his wife’s passing.

The oldest of the six kids between Henry William Bissen and Victoria “Kalet” was William John Bissen. He was born 1898 in Specklesville, Maui, Hawaii. He lived with his father in Honolulu until his passing in 1911, then moved to Kahului, Maui, Hawaii with his widowed mother, then at age 15 lived in Hilo, Hawaii to work on a sugar plantation. But, by 1916, he moved back to Kahului and began to work for the Kahului Railroad Company. He started as a fireman and worked his way up to become an engineer. He married Annie K. Emmsely, a descendant of Queen Kamakawiwiole, in 1924. Before William’s passing of lung cancer in 1959, he and his wife had seven kids together: William John Bissen Jr., Kenneth Louis Bissen, Anita Marie (Bissen) Brennan, Leslie Harvey Michael Bissen, Patrick James Bissen, Damien Leopold Bissen, and Robert Anthony Bissen.

Elmer W. Connell and Aurelia Williams Connell’s only son was James H. “Mickey” Connell. He was born in 1921, and graduated from high school in 1939. He then attended an Auto Mechanic program at Boys Tech in Milwaukee, while he began dating his later wife, Geraldine Staab. But, as the United States entered World War II, James Connell enlisted in the army in 1942. He went to Aero Industries Technical Institute in Los Angeles, California for an airplane engine mechanics program. Once the program was completed, he was sent to Australia for the war. He attained the rank of Staff Sergeant — with a crew of three. He worked on and test flew all types of military grade aircrafts, including B-24’s and B-17’s. His skills as a mechanic also led him to the assembly and disassembly of aircraft engines. In 1945, he was discharged. In 1946, after keeping in contact with Geraldine Staab through letters throughout his entire time of service, the two were married. In 1957, James Connell’s cousin Jack Schliesleder inherited Bearings, Inc. and became president of the company. Jack asked James to work for the company, and he did in the sales of industrial bearings until his passing. James and Geraldine had four kids together: Patrick Duff Connell, Mary Beth (Connell) Bourque, Michael Joseph Connell, and Kathleen Ann (Connell) Laatsch. But, Geraldine passed of a brain aneurysm in 1977, and James died at age 85 in 2007.

William John Bissen’s fifth born child is Patrick James Bissen. He was born in 1934, in Puunene, Maui, Hawaii. In 1941, just a few weeks before his seventh birthday, he remembers hearing and seeing the smoke of the bombings of Pearl Harbor in 1941. In 1953, Patrick decided to move to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to attend Marquette University. He did so for two years, but by 1958 he joined the army, and became a Battalion Sergeant Major for the 84th Army Reserves. He was also a supervisor for AC-Rocester, General Motors Company for thirty-three years, until his retirement in 1991. When he first moved to Milwaukee, he met Monica Mae Kronschnabel, and the two were married in 1961. They had four sons together: Steven Patrick Bissen, Andrew James Bissen, Mark Edward Bissen, and Christopher Michael Bissen.

James H. Connell and Geraldine Staab Connell’s oldest son is Patrick Duff Bissen. He was born in 1947. In 1954, the United States began its involvement in the Vietnam War. By 1964, the National Service Act required 20 year old men to be selected by a ballot of birthdays to serve the war effort for two years in regular army units. Around 1967, Patrick was conscripted and stationed in Havre de Grace, Maryland as a mechanic who worked on, repaired, and built tanks that served the war effort. During his time in Maryland, he and Janice Johnson had their first daughter together, Carri Lynn Connell. When Patrick and Janice moved back to Milwaukee, they had three more kids together: Ryan Connell, Wendy Connell, and Kevin Connell.

Steven Bissen is now married to Christine (Jester) Bissen and they have two sons: Quinn Bissen and Drew Bissen. Andrew Bissen died of leukemia at age 13 in 1977. Christopher Bissen was once married to Sally (. . .) Bissen, and they have one daughter: Shyan Bissen.

Ryan Connell was married and divorced, but has no children. Wendy Connell has three children: Jeremy Klimowicz, Jazmynn Klimowicz, and Wryder Klimowicz. Kevin Connell has one daughter: Ava Connell.

Mark Edward Bissen was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1965, and graduated from St. Catherine’s High School in 1983 in Racine, Wisconsin. Carri Lynn Connell was born in Havre de Grace, Maryland in 1967, and graduated from Washington Park High School in Racine, Wisconsin in 1985. The two met while working at the local Boston Store in their early twenties, Carri a manager and Mark working under her. By 1989, they were married on a rock in Peninsula State Park in Fish Creek, Wisconsin. They had five kids together:

Andi May Bissen - born May 27th, 1992

Jake Vernon Bissen - born March 27th, 1994

Luke James Bissen - born May 30th, 1999

Kade Patrick Bissen - born March 31st, 2003

Dani Jean Bissen - born March 30th 2006

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May no seas fare smooth.

—Andi May