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Brandon Moran
UWRT 1103-E02
Professor Raymond
October 31, 2015
My Ancestral Heritage
My family stretches back through history and various cultures to the ancient continent of
Europe. Because of the exceedingly violent and sometimes oppressive history that Europe
experienced during the late 19th century my family was forced to leave their own homelands and
journey to the land of promise that they believed would provide them with all of the necessities
in starting a new life. Although they had less than favorable beginnings my family maintained a
strong sense of pride in themselves and their heritage, remaining faithful to their new country as
they became accustomed to this new and unknown world that promised freedom from the
tyrannies of the old countries. While my family has not lived in the United States for the entire
duration of its existence as some have they still considered themselves proud Americans and did
everything within their power to contribute to their new homeland and aid her by building her up
as she entered the new century. My mothers side of the family can be traced in some parts all
the way back to the 14th century back through the ages to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the
British Isles and the ancient Gaelic tribes.
On my grandmothers side of the family the name Blasy-Wehrstein is the most common
surname in my lineage. This name can be traced back to the 13th century in Germany during the
late middle ages and is Jewish in origins. Following the brutal attacks of the Mongols on
Western Europe the northern regions of the eastern Slavic regions of the European nations were

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vastly depleted of both resources both physically and in terms of moral as they had been all but
wiped out by the savage attacks of the eastern barbarians. This led to several waves of ethnic
Germanic peoples coming into the area to revive the culture that had stagnated during the times
of fear at the hands of the Mongol invaders. According to my Grandmother my family were
members of the common class and served as serfs under the directions of their feudal overlords.
It was common practice during this era that serfs adopt the name of their overlord for the purpose
of protection and this is most likely the explanation as to where my family received the name
Blasy-Wehrstein as the surname Von Blazey was the name of a powerful family that were feudal
lords over the region during this time period. My great-great grandfather, Johann Andrew Blasy,
was born in 1882 in Johrmark, Austria. Orphaned at the tender age of six years he was raised by
one of his sisters in the Banat region of present day Romania. Since he was not of a noble birth
and possessed no formal education he was extremely limited in what he was allowed to pursue as
a career. Once he reached adulthood he joined the military within the Austrian-Hungarian
Calvary and held the distinction of being a member of The Flower of the Austrian Youth, the
Kaisers personal regiment in the military. His role in this prestigious part of the AustrianHungarian military was to lead a small section of the guard responsible for the security of the
Emperors palace in the city of Vienna, the capital of the Empire. It was around this time that he
married his love in Austria and had a son and three daughters. The names of his first wife and the
children born to the couple are unknown, possibly due to the massive quantity of records lost
after the Empire fell in the years after the Great War. Sadly his whole family including the
children died in an outbreak of cholera, a deadly disease that is acquired through the
consumption of contaminated water or food. The bacterium found in such circumstances infects
the small intestine and creates violent diarrhea movements and causes one to lose the majority of

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their body fluids becoming dehydrated. Overcome by grief, Johann fled to the Americas were he
hoped to leave his painful past behind him forever. He traveled to the United States aboard the
Darmstadt, a cruise liner that was one of the largest in the world at the time of my Grandfathers
crossing over the Atlantic.
Since my great-great-great-grandfather was a soldier and had little money he was forced
to travel steerage with the cattle as the ship crossed to Atlantic. This only made him stronger
mentally and he began his new life in America with a dream that he would own his own land and
be able to raise a family in a nation where he would be recognized as a human being and not
simply as another peasant only fit for tilling the land and serving in the Emperors battles.
Because of his expertise in cavalry he was personally hired by the United States government in
order to train the newly formed regiments of cavalry in the preceding years to the First World
War as America prepared for the now inevitable conflict. Although he did not serve personally in
this horrific conflict he did spend the duration of the war continuing to train cavalry at Fort
Leavenworth, KS. After this period he drove teams of horses for Anheuser Busch during the
1910s. A cousin of his named Jacob Blasy immigrated during this time and joined him in the
new world and holds the title of being one of the six original brewers in the Anheuser Busch
Corporation. After several years Johann remarried he moved his newly formed family to
Michigan were he had two sons, John and Julius Blasy. During the Prohibition era Johann
worked with a close friend of his known as Tony Riskey and created stills in order to service the
local demand for illicit drinks. His two sons would help their father hide the stills in the nearby
forest several times a year whenever the local law enforcement made their rounds searching for
any lawbreakers. Following Prohibition he settled down on a farm in Bach, MI. He had finally
achieved his dream of being a landowning individual.

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It wasnt until this period in 1930 that he become a legally naturalized US citizen. It was
here on this farm that he passed away in 1957 following a massive stroke that reportedly shook
him so violently that he was thrown from his bed. He was laid to rest in the local church by his
family. His son Julius Blasy, my great-grandfather, would become a civil servant and would
serve in several different positions during his life one of them being as the mayor of Midland,
MI, from 1968-1972. Midland is the headquarters of the international chemical giant DOW
Chemical. Many of my family on my mothers side would serve in this company over the years
as it was the primary employer for the local area. Julius would marry Louise Samson, another
Hungarian immigrant, and they would have six children together. One of which was my
grandmother, Dorothy Blasy. One of their other children, Dick Blasy, would become a nationally
ranked speed skater and was being looked at to go to the Olympics. As fate would have it he
suffered an unfortunate injury, tearing his ACL during a practice lap the year of the games and
he sadly was incapable of being able to recover in time to participate. My grandmother was
raised in a three bedroom house in Midland and spend her entire childhood in this one solitary
dwelling. She shares memories of her childhood being both full of happiness and bliss as she
recalls always being satisfied with what she had simply because she had no idea how poor they
actually were as everyone shared similar circumstances. She would eventually meet my
grandfather, Wayne Pero, through DOW chemical as he was a chemical engineer within the
industry and she was a secretary within the same company. They would eventually marry and
have two daughters, one of them being my mother, Robyn Pero. My mother would be raised in a
family that constantly moved around the nation and even the world as my grandfather was made
to serve in numerous positions in DOW within several different sectors both administratively and
as a researcher developing new methods to create fertilizers and other chemical agents. It was

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because of this occupation that he was not made to register in the draft as his position within the
corporation was deemed important to the war effort. Because of this my mother would live in
states such as Texas, Colorado, and Michigan as well as foreign countries such as Italy and
Australia during her childhood. After studying biology and physical therapy in college she met
my father, Steve Moran, while in graduate school at the University of Michigan. My father had
ironically lived within a couple of miles of my mother for several years but they didnt meet until
they were introduced by a mutual friend. They were married in July of 1994 and I was born in
August of 1996 in Dearborn, Michigan. I am the oldest of six children, three being boys and the
other three being girls.
My mothers side on my grandfathers side shares numerous similarities but with a major
difference being a completely separate country of origin. Although the records are much darker
on this side of the family some information still surfaced after investigating deeply into the
matter. My entire family in this section of my family is British in origin from both England in the
counties of Norfolk and Suffolk but also from Ireland and Scotland. Both of my great-greatgreat-grandfathers on this side were from England in the common class. Their names were
Thomas Crisp and Samuel Frosdick and both were simple craftsmen of exceedingly humble
beginnings. Thomas was a carpenter and Samuel served within a shipyard. Both coincidentally
immigrated to the United States following the American Civil War in search of a more rewarding
life outside of their native lands. Both traveled to the United States in ships as it was the only
way in which they were able to reach the new world. Both also landed in New York City and
were processed at Ellis Island. Although no physical records have been found that would
definitively prove this through inquiries conducted by my great aunt Jane Pero this was
considered to be the most likely route considering the country of origin and the time perios in

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which my ancestors immigrated. My ancestors quickly discovered work in their new country
because of the skills that they possessed which were just as needed in a country that was growing
extremely rapidly. Samuel Frosdick married a woman named Sophia whom he had met in New
York and they had eleven children together. They moved to Rochester, NY where they raised
their children away from the bustle of the city. One of their daughters, Pearl Fosdick, married a
man named George Warren. Nothing is known for certain about George Warren, my great-greatgrandfather, except that he was from Ireland and had no living family in the New World. He
never told how he had managed to come to the New World but it is presumed that he immigrated
here in the late 19th century as a boy to escape the violence that was brewing in response to the
growing Irish desire for independence from their longtime English oppressors. Nevertheless,
Pearl and George had five children together in Rochester throughout their marriage to one
another. One of these children was Marjorie Warren, my great-grandmother. Her future son,
Wayne Pero, would become my mothers father and my maternal grandfather. He would also
become the very first person in my entire family that had gone to college for higher education.
He would eventually graduate with a chemical engineering degree from Bucknell University in
Pennsylvania. In regards to Thomas Crisp on my grandfathers side of the family he moved to
New York City in the closing years of the 19th century and met a young woman named Bertha
Hammen. They would become married soon after his arrival in the United States and had a total
of nine children together during their marriage. Their daughter, Isabel Crisp, met a man named
Arthur Pero and this was the man that she married later in her life. Surprisingly though she had a
son also by the name of Arthur Pero before this marriage occurred. In spite of having identical
names her son bore no resemblance to this man whom was presented to others as his biological
father. In addition to this anomaly my great-grandfather was born in Detroit, MI instead of in the

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state of NY where his entire family lived at the time. Later on in his life my great-grandfather
learned that his real father was a man named Albert Perno, a machinist that worked in Brooklyn.
They had met each other during their younger years and had developed a romantic relationship.
Even though they had a child together they were not allowed to marry because Isabels family
would not have supported a marriage between their daughter who had been raised in a Protestant
family and a man of both Italian heritage and Catholic beliefs. Sadly nothing more is known
about Albert and he leaves the pages of my family almost as soon as he entered them. My greatgrandfather would eventually meet my great-grandmother in high school as his family had
moved to Rochester following his birth. They would marry and have three children, two sons and
a daughter. One of these sons is Wayne Pero, my grandfather.
While my mothers side of the family originates from several different nations and
backgrounds they all came to the United States in search of a more meaningful and free existence
distanced from the pain and sorrow that the Old World had caused them. They were of different
spiritual beliefs as well as races but all came together to better both their new nation but also to
create a safer and more secure society for their children distinct from the treacherous and
dangerous countries that they had immigrated from that were saturated with centuries of
bloodshed and ethnic divisions. And because of their actions both active and passive they sought
to preserve the most pure elements of what make us human and to encourage the spread of
compassion and understanding instead of violence and aggression.

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Works Cited
Berenger, Jean and Simpson, C.A. The Habsburg Empire 1700-1918. Routledge, 2014. Print.
Parsons, Timothy H. The British Imperial Century, 1815-1914. Rowman & Littlefield
Publishers, 1999. Print.
Brandt, E.N. Growth Company: Dow Chemicals First Century. 1997. Print.