Two of Charles' brothers (Albert and Joseph) were married to two sisters, Florentyna and Martha Ulezelski. (Another brother, Lawrence, was married to Anna Machajewski, daughter of Katherine Olezelski, who may have been a cousin.) It was this Ulezelski family, specifically, the family of Theodor Ulezelski, brother to Florentyna and Martha, which had just suffered multiple tragedies.
First, the only son of Theodor and Antonia (Sadowski) died. Alois was only seven months old when he passed away in March, 1908.
The family must have still been reeling from this loss when they took a day trip to Pewaukee Lake to celebrate the 4th of July. Horrifically, tragedy struck again. This time, Theodor died when he fell out of a boat and drowned. The following appeared in the Chicago Daily Tribune on July 6, 1908:
This left Antonia to fend for herself and her (at least) three surviving young children. She was also pregnant at the time.
Sadly, bad luck does come in 3's sometimes and this was not the end of loss for this family. Antonia gave birth to the child on October 2, 1908. Unfortunately, the baby survived only one day.
It is hard to imagine so much grief for one family in so short a time. Fortunately, Antonia was able to move on. She married Frank Siergiej in 1910 and they had two children together.
