Posted by
Mike on Tuesday, December 20, 2011 4:56:23 PM
http://www.westernperspective.blogspot.com/
Social stratification in America largely depends upon ancestry, ethnicity and arrival date. My own family origins are traceable conjecturally from my paternal grandmother from a Bartelme family to the maître d'hôtel for Charles VIII of France, only because his name Péron is a form of Peter which matches Pétrange, the family château in Boulay, France, drawing a connection with ancestors in Provence going back to Italy. Péron's younger brother Thadée was ancestor of a Huguenot family of Vignolles, whose descendants later were to include a Continental Army officer Lewis Nicola whom George Washington had to reprimand for suggesting that Washington become king. The Bartelme family could also be related to a pre-Revolutionary Pennsylvania family of the same name going back to the same location in Lorraine.
My grandmother's father John Bartelme was a successful cattle dealer in the area of Green Bay, Wisconsin.
His cousin Mary became the first woman judge in Chicago, an early Progressive known for her volunteer work rehabilitating wayward girls, for whom Bartelme Park in Chicago with modernist design was dedicated.
Her nephew Phillip became athletic director at the University of Michigan and allowed Branch Rickey to play baseball for Michigan even though he was a law student at the time. He and Rickey later went on to manage professional baseball being instrumental in allowing Blacks including Jackie Robinson to play Major League baseball.
My father's cousin Joe Bartelme became VP for network news at NBC. His sister Betty was an author and publishing editor for Macmillan.
To be continued...