Appolonia Marquardt was born on February 3, 1849 in the village of Marthe near Tütz in the Deutsch Krone portion of West Prussia. Today, the village is called Martew in the Zachodniopomorskie province of Poland. Her parents were Johann Marquardt and Juliane Stelter. They were married in the same village on November 26, 1844. Appolonia was Roman Catholic and had siblings Maria (1845), Juliane (1847), Joseph (1851), Rosalia (1853), Michael (1855).

Family tradition says that August Brueske was born on the same day and that he was Lutheran. After they were married they agreed to raise all their boys Lutheran and all their girls Catholic. The possible discovery of August's baptismal record now throws this story into question. Together they had twelve children, but only two girls survived childhood.

August Brueske gave his occupation as tinman when they arrived in Baltimore but he may not have practiced his trade after arriving. By 1888, the family was in Michigan. They bought a farm in Nankin Township (now Westland), west of Detroit, where they lived from the 1890's until the 1920's.

By 1935 they were living with their daughter Mary and her husband Frank Selinske on 15th Street in Detroit. Appolonia died in November 1935 and August followed in 1940. Both are buried in Section 15, Lot 1324 at Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Detroit, in the Selinske family plot. Appolonia's grave is marked with the stone shown below. August has no marker on his grave.

The only other surviving child of August and Appolonia was Anna Rose. She was born in Detroit in 1888 and baptized at St. Boniface. She married Joseph Pasuit around 1912 and lived in Oakland Co., Michigan where Joe farmed. They had four children; Appolonia (b.1913), Joseph (b.1915), Edward (b.1917) and Agnes (b.1919). Anna died in 1937 and was buried in Mt. Olivet Cemetery. Her husband Joe died in 1988 at the age of 104.

Anna Rose Brueske Pasuit abt. 1909