Mabel (Schrader) Polzin with daughter Nancy & mother Pauline holding baby Clyde (1949).
To my father, who got me started;
To his mother, whose passing prompted me to finish;
And to her mother, for having had the foresight igniting inspiration for a lifetime.
Hello!
My name is Krista Polansky and Walter Carl (“Wallie”) & Mabel Henrietta Frieda (Schrader) Polzin are my great-grandparents; their daughter and only child, Nancy Leigh Dawn is my paternal grandmother and passed away recently in February here of this year.
Prior to the start of this genealogical project (one of many!) the only information I had of my great-grandfather was this photo in front of their home with their dog, Sandy, at 3000 Wildwood Lane in Wausau, Wisconsin..:
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Mabel & Walter with Sandy (1982)
…until my grandmother passed earlier this year. You see, I was about 2 years old when Walter passed away in 1983; Mabel passed in 1999 (while I was in high school). Prior to my grandmother’s death, I had no idea who he was or what he did for a living; all I knew is that my father had his name for his middle name, and merely judging from the above photo, had almost appeared to me to have been yet another ornery old German male in my family tree.
However, I have learned upon inheriting much of my grandmother’s things (for which she was an only child), I could not have been any more mistaken. As it turns out, Walter–or rather Wallie–was quite the romantic; the very type many women would swoon over and dream about! And not only that–my own personal discovery had been in the fact that he had worked in public accounting as an auditor before his 38 year career at Milwaukee Stamping Co. as a cost accountant–and here I’d became a CPA myself. I did not know this—and it turns out that my cousin, Lisa, another great-granddaughter of Walter and Mabel’s, also works in both public and private accounting as well so apparently this career field runs in the family. Who knew?
His chosen career takes a back seat to his amazing relationship to my great-grandmother however, as it is his romantic and eloquent way of writing and declaring his love for her against the timeless historical backdrop that is the primary focus here, and one cannot help but feel just how he is absolutely smitten by her. For all the years my great-grandmother Mabel had carefully saved and stowed away every single letter he’d ever written to her, he never wavers in his undying love for her, through the Depression, the birth of their only daughter, Wisconsin weather and beyond… With a Carload of Love… Letters from Wallie is truly a piece of historical nonfiction romance you’ll want to follow along as we read for the first time together. I’ve fallen in love and became inspired by their love story and it is my hope that you will too. Anyway, judge for yourself–start reading now!
Enjoy!
P.S. [SPOILER ALERT] – I have included within this site the very collection of stories from The Milwaukee Journal my great-grandmother read throughout her pregnancy with my grandmother, Nancy. Before you consider it extraneous material, I feel it is relevant in that although Mabel and Walter were expecting a little fellow, I believe they were inspired for her name from the story The Secret of Margaret Yorke upon their surprise.
Additionally, I believe the name of Nancy’s son Clyde – my father – to have been inspired by the name of Walter’s boss Clyde Arenz of the Milwaukee Stamping Co.
My point is this: Everything–and I mean every thing–is relevant in family history research; these discoveries make apparent that one should leave no stone unturned!
With a Carload of Love... 