So excited that Kos member, edwardssl, has started this Genealogy group. For those of you interested, here's my story. Look forward to reading diaries of everyone else's history and progress looking for their ancestors.
I've been interested in genealogy for over 30 years. When I first got interested, finding information was a long process. At the time I did have the advantage of my maternal grandmother being alive and able to answer questions. Funny part is that with the internet, I have been able to find out more information about her own parents than she knew. I kept a list of all the information she recalled but, as with many people, there were lots of blanks.
Back then most of my information came through the postal mail. Writing to various government agencies, churches, etc. was a long process. After researching which church or agency, you had to determine the contact person and then wait for a reply. Usually a fee was involved and that had to be sent back and then another wait for the information. If you were looking for ‘instant gratification’ this was not the hobby to have.
Today using the internet has been a great tool for genealogical purposes. I have been using Ancestry.com for several years and finding records has become much easier. Right now I’m working on European sources and for my German ancestry, language is a big barrier.
Many years after my grandmother died, we were going through her papers. One item found was like the Holy Grail. It was a German document stating my maternal great grandfather and great grandmother were visiting family for a certain period of time at a certain location. The location turned out to be my great grandfather's childhood home where family members lived. An interesting sidebar to this trip was a story about my great grandparents going to the Dutch embassy to get out of Germany since WWI was starting and the Germans were going to force my great grandfather to enlist in the German army since he was born a German.
This document was similar to a travel visa. I had it translated and it gave an exact address in Lohlbach, Germany. At that time I posted on a genealogy discussion board for German ancestry. This was before Google groups but I don’t remember the board. I got a response from a person in Germany who worked near the location of my family. He offered to go there for me. He actually knocked on the door but the people living there did not recall any ancestor who lived there and left for the US. But my great-grandfather had left in 1881 so this wasn’t a surprise. The surprise was the family still lived in the same house he did. My German contact took pictures of the house for me and even went to the local church to get a contact name for me. What a thrill to get so much information from a complete stranger!! I generously compensated him for his time and now proceeded to write to the church. A few weeks later I received a letter with a listing of family members going back to the 1700s!! Getting so much authenticated information from one source was a gold mine. Since then I’ve been able to obtain a book written about the town and found my great-grandfather mentioned and his brother who had been a mayor of the town in the early 1900s. Hopefully one day I can go visit myself.
But that is just one branch of the family and my maternal great-grandmother who is also from Germany has been difficult. But as with each new piece of information, I was thrilled to find the family listed in a ship manifest for when they emigrated from Germany to the US. Part of the problem in finding them was they came to the US through Philadelphia and I was always looking in the Port of New York. All my family stayed in New York City so it never dawned on me to look at another port.
Another branch in the maternal side is my grandfather who came from Denmark. He is difficult because his mother was unmarried and left Denmark when he was two years of age. Many years ago, I received an inquiry from a Danish newspaper who saw my original family website online and asked if they could do a story on my looking for my Danish roots. I sent whatever information I could plus a photo and this produced a response from a family in Denmark who said they are related. However, one of the big responsibilities of genealogy is to have actual documentation to confirm lineage. So far, I have not been able to do this for this branch.
On my paternal side of the family my ancestors all came from Ireland. Luckily one of my cousins had kept some correspondence my grandfather wrote with sources in Ireland. I expanded on it and was able to find the exact location in Ireland, Claremorris, Mayo County to look for information. Presently I’m up to my great-great grandfather.
At present I have 1000 people listed. I try to keep the 'branches' tight so I can focus on the main lineage. It is easy to go off to one side of the tree but it then becomes burdensome to fill in the blanks. Because of the way ancestry.com connects you to relatives that may be related, you can wind up with thousands of people on your tree who are so far removed from you that your tree can easily become huge. This is why I don’t venture too far out from the main line. The last census they have available is the 1930 US one (the 1940 should be available next year). I like to fill in all the descendants but this is also a heavy investigative task. Women who take on their husband’s names are easily lost in the search unless you know the married name.
A few times I used the peoplefinder.com services (fee involved) and have found descendants. That’s a thrill because you can update to the current if the person you find is willing to share. You need to be upfront with them on why you want the info due to security reasons on someone giving out personal information.
On Ancestry.com I also have over 200 photos along with a few stories. One project I just finished was my father's military history during WWII. It was fascinating to work on because he died when I was 9. I also found a few other tidbits I thought were interesting:
• A paternal great Aunt of mine died due to the fire on the SS Morro Castle off the shore of New Jersey in 1934. I found on the internet a story about her being thrown overboard but since she could not swim, she drowned. My husband's maternal grandfather was the Chief Engineer for the Ward Line of which the SS Morro Castle belongs to. Even stranger - his grandfather and my great aunt both had Clark as their last name though no relation.
• All my direct ancestors who came to the US through New York City came in at Castle Garden except for my maternal grandfather who came through Ellis Island in 1895. Castle Garden in downtown Manhattan was used until 1892 when Ellis Island was opened.
• My paternal grandfather, as an assistant District Attorney, worked in the investigation of the death of William D'Olier, a key figure in the 1928 Queens County sewer scandal. He also worked on the 1925 "Dumb-Bell Murder"; crime story of Ruth Snyder & Judd Gray.
• My paternal aunt was the first female to work in the Queens County District Attorney's office.
• My maternal great-grandfather's brother was the Mayor of Lohlbach, Germany in the early 1900s.
Some of this information I was able to find through newspaperarchive.com. This is a great source because you can get a copy of the original newspaper article.
That's all the tidbits I can remember at the moment. No famous people in the family no outlandish stories. Just the everyday lives of average people - like all of us all around the world and all through time.
I hope some of you found this interesting. I’m sure I have more tips I can think of to share again. If anyone is stuck on a particular person, I can look them up through ancestry.com for you. Just send me an email and I’ll see what I can do.
So glad we all have this group and look forward to getting to know everyone.