About

The Hanneman Archive is a project of Joe Hanneman, a writer, editor, and marketer with 40 years of experience. The Archive started as a small project helping Hanneman’s father, David D. Hanneman, with his 55th high school reunion at Mauston High School in Wisconsin.

When the senior Hanneman became ill with cancer in 2006, he entrusted his family history collection to his son and asked that the material be shared. Thus, the Hanneman Archive was born. David Hanneman died on April 14, 2007 at age 74.

In 2010, Joe Hanneman chronicled his father’s battle with cancer in a book, The Journey Home: My Father’s Story of Cancer, Faith and Life-Changing Miracles. The Journey Home is available at Amazon.com. The book and The Hanneman Archive project are dedicated to David D. Hanneman, for his love of history and family. He no doubt received that penchant for history from his parents, the late Carl F. Hanneman and Ruby V. (Treutel) Hanneman. Thankfully for us, they were savers and pack-rats.

Joe Hanneman has been writing compelling human-interest stories for nearly 40 years as a magazine editor, newspaper reporter, owner of a small communications business, and marketing director. He has interviewed and written about war heroes, pioneers, best-selling authors, cancer survivors, medical researchers, governors, priests, and presidential hopefuls.

During his career, Hanneman has reported and written for the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison, The Journal Times of Racine, and The Epoch Times, a global newspaper circulated in 36 countries. In Madison, he was a police reporter and general-assignment scribe for the state’s second-largest daily newspaper. In Racine, he covered virtually every beat and won numerous awards for news and feature writing. He previously served as a Wisconsin-based freelance correspondent for The Chicago Tribune. One of his stories appeared above the fold on Page 1 of the Tribune’s national edition. At the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, he wrote, edited, and designed the university’s alumni magazine, Perspective. From 2015-2021, he wrote news, features, and investigative reports for The Catholic World Report. He is currently a senior investigative reporter for The Epoch Times.

Hanneman is also the creative force behind Treasured Lives, a family history and investigative journalism company. Treasured Lives helps individuals, organizations, and companies with history projects from beginner to complex.

24 thoughts on “About”

  1. Dear Joe Hanneman,

    I am sorry I am contacting you through the comment section, but there is no contact email or phone number. You can delete this message if you like.

    I am the op-ed editor at The Art of Polemics Magazine: http://www.theartofpolemics.com . We are a small online publication but we also have a sporadic e-zine. We found some of your family history pieces really enticing, namely “RARE 1911 MANUAL SHOWS TEACHER’S LOOK AT LIFE AT VESPER GRADED SCHOOL”. We are very much interested in individual and personal narratives, and we would like to re-publish that particular in our magazine.

    We are non-profit and consist only of a handful of writers, so we are looking for good historical pieces. We cannot offer and financial merit for your website, but we can offer a link back to it, as well as a Full Author Description.

    Contact me at op-ed@theartofpolemics.com

    Aaron Watts
    Op-ed Editor
    The Art of Polemics

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    1. Mr Hannerman,

      I also apologize for contacting you like this. But I would like to thank you for all your hard work.

      I am trying to gather information regarding my family and your work has been very helpful.

      Thanks again,
      Terri
      Great grand daughter of Frank Benish and Mary Ladick

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      1. I am delighted to learn that this web site has been of value to you! Have you made contact with Shirley (Ladick) Oleson in Vesper? She has much information and many photos.

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      2. Thanks for the speedy reply! I have not, but I am going on July 17 to meet with Elaine Swetz. Hopefully she can help me, but I would love to talk with Mrs. Olson. So, if you talk to Mrs Olson please forward her my information. That would be greatly appreciated.

        I believe I read somewhere you are located in Mauston WI? If so, I am in Cazenovia WI.

        Thanks again for everything!

        Terri

        On Sat, Jul 3, 2021 at 11:00 AM The Hanneman Archive wrote:

        > Joe Hanneman commented: “I am delighted to learn that this web site has > been of value to you! Have you made contact with Shirley (Ladick) Oleson in > Vesper? She has much information and many photos.” >

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      3. My father (a Treutel/Ladick descendant) grew up in Mauston and I have visited there many times! I live in Sun Prairie, just northeast of Madison. I also have a family tree kept in Family Tree Maker. I would be glad to share any of that information with you.

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      4. Thank you so much for ALL your help and hard work! I will be in touch and if there is anything I can do to help you let me know.

        Thanks again!

        Terri

        On Sat, Jul 3, 2021 at 11:24 AM The Hanneman Archive wrote:

        > Joe Hanneman commented: “My father (a Treutel/Ladick descendant) grew up > in Mauston and I have visited there many times! I live in Sun Prairie, just > northeast of Madison. I also have a family tree kept in Family Tree Maker. > I would be glad to share any of that information with yo” >

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  3. Pingback: Individual Narratives: Rare 1911 Manual Shows Teacher’s Look At Life At Vesper Graded School | The Art of Polemics

    1. Thanks for the kind words. I noticed that you read my post about my three uncles in World War II. Uncle Earl, the U.S. Marine, was based in New Zealand during the war. The Marines loved the people of New Zealand. He even returned there in the 1970s to tour the country. I might just have to write about NZ and the U.S. military.

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      1. I’d like to read that. My family came here from the UK in the 1960s, so I have no sense of New Zealand’s war, although I believe there was a documentary made recently about US soldiers stationed here. Cheers, Su.
        PS: Thanks for following ZimmerBitch too 🙂

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      2. Hi Joe. Just popped over to say thanks for following ZimmerBitch and noticed this exchange. The Auckland Museum has digitized a whole bunch of photos of US servicemen that were taken by a Kiwi photographer while the guys were stationed near Auckland before being shipped out to the Pacific theatre in WWII. None of the photos has been captioned, and the museum is putting out the word, trying to find people whose loved ones were stationed here, to see if anyone recognises any of the men. This probably sounds a bit convoluted — I shouldn’t blog before my morning coffee. Anyway, I wondered if you had networks that you could alert to the photos. They are all on the Auckland Museum website http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/collections-research/collections/explore-highlights/american-soldiers-in-new-zealand-during-wwii. Many thanks. Su

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  5. The Kiwis took the Marines into their homes and basically adopted the Corps during their time in New Zealand. I have a letter somewhere in my archive from a lady who wrote home to my grandmother in Wisconsin to fill her in on how my uncle was doing. I’ve added it to my list of future posts.

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    1. I will check out the photo collection. My uncle was with the 2nd U.S. Marine Division. I’ll work up a blog post on this photo collection. Thanks for the tip! By the way, that photo you posted of chickpea fritters made me hungry!

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  6. Are you by any chance related to Warren Joseph Hanneman ? They lived in South Dakota -Iowa -Wisconsin 1890 -1940’s?

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    1. I have some information in my files related to this Hanneman family line. I believe they are from the same Hanneman tree that emigrated from Pomerania to Wisconsin starting in the 1860s, but as of yet I don’t have proof. The Hanneman family that originally settled in rural Marathon County moved to Lake County, South Dakota and other nearby areas. There were also Hanneman enclaves in Nebraska and Iowa. My father’s line emigrated to Portage and Wood counties (Wisconsin) between 1861 and 1882.

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  7. Hi Joe, My name is Donald Hanneman and I am from South Africa. A couple of days ago I was given a Photo Album that was apparently started by my great grandfather and handed down to my grandfather who passed it on to his son, my father Ernst Donald Hanneman.
    The photos go way back into the late 1890’s with photos of unidentified family members. There was also one of my grandfather taken on 15/09/1918. There was also a photo from an attractive young lady named Violet, addressed to my grandfather dated 1924. This was before his marriage to my grandmother on 2 June 1928. I would love to uncover the story behind this photo.
    In the late 18h00 and early 1900’s, it appears it was customary to print photos onto post cards that were then sent with messages to family and friends. Knowing this I carefully started loosening some of the photos to see if I could identify the persons on the Photo’s that had been glued onto the black carbon like pages of the photo album.
    With some careful scraping and rubbing with a rubber, I managed to get some information on my grandfathers army photos. He apparently served as a Sergeant in the WWI against the German forces in SW Africa and Nigeria.
    I came across your website by chance while trying to find information on my great grand father. I would appreciate any help you could provide on the origins of the various Hanneman family lines. When I was a boy my grandfather told me we originally came from Denmark? My great grand father was apparently a Ship Builder and carpenter, I have been unable to confirm this. Hoping to hear from you.
    Email: Donald.hanneman@vodamail.co.za.
    Rgds
    Donald Hanneman

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    1. Hello Donald,

      That photo album sounds like quite a treasure! I know a very knowledgeable Hannemann historian in Germany. He might be able to shed light on how the Hannemann/Hanneman family line got from Europe to South Africa. I know some of the Hannemans emigrated from Germany to Australia and even Hawaii, but this is the first I’ve heard of South Africa. I will look up my historian friend’s email and see what I can learn.

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    2. It funny to read about the other Hannemans. I’m from the Michigan Hanneman (and we’ve heard about the Wisconsin, Hannemans and I think were related through Fred or Carl.). My father’s name is also….

      David D. Hanneman. 😮😜😁

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  8. I have a Treutel family connection. I know I have a Hanneman family connection as well, however I haven’t found the link yet. While deployed to Baghdad, Iraq in 2008 with the Arkansas Army National Guard 39th Infantry Division I ran into a cousin Ike Hanneman from Wisconsin. He was also deployed there from the 3rd Infantry Division out of Georgia.

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    1. Thanks for sharing. Do you know how you link to the Treutels? Does Ike Hanneman have any ties to Wisconsin? There are probably a half-dozen enclaves of Hannemans in Wisconsin that date to the 1860s. The Treutels primarily settled in Wisconsin, although one brother went to Alabama and Louisiana.

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    1. For more than a dozen years I’ve been the only writer here, and was never able to pay myself. It’s a family labor of love, so I’ve never entertained freelance articles. Thanks for the query, though!

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