The Nachtwey-Trackett-Fitzmaurice papers document a number of families who homesteaded in Wisconsin in the mid-1800s. The papers date from 1745 to 1993, with the bulk of the material dating from 1930 to 1993. The collection was compiled by Mary Trackett Reynolds and her husband Lloyd Reynolds in the course of their genealogical research. It consists of their research notes and correspondence, diaries, journals, scrapbooks, greeting cards, probate records, wills, pension records, census records, birth and death certificates, photographs, household financial records, historic letters, and property maps.
The papers are divided into seven series, GENERAL RESEARCH, NACHTWEY FAMILY, FITZMAURICE FAMILY, TRACKETT FAMILY, REYNOLDS FAMILY, WEST BEND, WISCONSIN, and VISUAL MATERIALS.
The GENERAL RESEARCH series includes correspondence calendars, research notes, reference books, lists of searches, and bibliographies that relate to more than one family.
The NACHTWEY FAMILY series documents a family that came to Wisconsin around 1849 and settled in Manitowoc County. The series includes a history of Manitowoc County, research notes, vital records, land and census records, pedigrees, and burial locations.
The FITZMAURICE FAMILY series consists of papers documenting an Outagamie and Manitowoc County family who settled in Wisconsin in 1851. The series includes correspondence with the Irish genealogical office in Dublin, maps, birth certificates, probate records, death certificates, land deeds, and census records. Included are several diaries of Walter J. Fitzmaurice's trips to Ireland and Italy, his 1904 passport application, a few newspaper clippings about his appointment as monsignor, mass cards, and his will.
The TRACKETT FAMILY is the most extensively documented family in the collection. Julius and Kristoff Trackett settled in West Bend Township, Washington County, Wisconsin in 1851. They came from Prussia. The Trackett family intermarried with the Brown and Schenberg families which are also well documented in this series. The Genealogical Research Files subseries documents Mary Trackett Reynolds' efforts to trace the Trackett line back to Germany, and to include descendants living in Europe. Because of this, the series contains German language documents--both historical documents and modern correspondence written in German. Many of the German documents have English translations. Also included are a correspondence calendar, maps, birth certificates, diaries, letters, probate records, wills, death certificates, land deeds, census records, notes of indenture, and homestead papers for this family as well as criminal proceedings involving a land jumper who killed a sheriff on Trackett land in Nebraska.
The Mamie Nachtwey Trackett subseries consist of materials that were created by Mamie Nachtwey (1882-1945) during the course of her life while she was yet a single woman, during her marriage, and after the death of her husband. It also paints a very detailed picture of the life of teachers in the early decades of the 1900s. This subseries consists of scrapbooks, autograph books, and ledgers that contain her birth and marriage certificates, assorted correspondence, school report cards, essays Mamie wrote in high school, letters of application, the teacher certificates she earned, rejection letters, letters of recommendation, drawings, and directions to her son-in-law to be followed on her death. The ledgers list her salary and detailed expenditures, supplemental income from boarders, and some ledger listings by Mary Trackett Reynolds during her college years.
The REYNOLDS FAMILY series contains documents produced while researching the families related to Lloyd George Reynolds. The Reynolds intermarried with the Carl, Moore, Williams, Lewis, Webster, and Walker families. These families resided in Missouri, Ohio, Oregon, and British Columbia and Alberta, Canada. Contents include a correspondence calendar, maps, birth certificates, a family tree with family group sheets, probate records, death certificates, land deeds, and census records. The series also includes a small folder of miscellaneous material from New York and Harvard (1937-1939).
The WEST BEND, WISCONSIN series documents Mary Trackett Reynolds' research on the history, property ownership, and land use in the Town of West Bend, Washington County, Wisconsin. Contents include maps, probate records, legal proceedings, some historic board of supervisors meeting minutes, land deeds, census records and tax records, and compiled histories for the Town of West Bend.
The VISUAL MATERIALS series consists of photographs of members of these families, gravestones, and houses and remains of a homestead. Also included are two images of Plum Creek, Nebraska, an engraving, and a small painting done by Mary Trackett Reynolds.
