Once I have Helena's profile created I will post it to share with anyone reading my blog.
I have been struggling with my Cleff line and came across an interesting strategy that some researchers have found successful. The strategy is "profiling." Professional genealogist Heather Doherty relates profiling your ancestors to many of the strategies that are seen on popular crime shows like CSI, Criminal Minds, and NCIS. Profiling requires the researcher to build a profile of the "unsub" (or in my case my ancestor) by gathering everything you can find about the unsub, the time period, the location, and everyone in the life of the unsub. I plan to profile my ancestors, beginning with Helena and Herman. I would begin with Otto and Helene Cleff, but I know nothing about Otto and Helene at this time other than their names and the names of their children. I figured if I learn about Helena, I may ultimately learn about her parents.
Once I have Helena's profile created I will post it to share with anyone reading my blog.
0 Comments
I'm going to try to get a little genealogy in today. I've got a lot to do before heading to the Family History Library in Salt Lake in November. To make the most of my time there, I need to be really organized and have an action plan. With so much on the internet these days, I want to make sure I have exhausted as much searching as possible before I go, that way I can spend the time looking at resources that are not available on line.
When I was in Salt Lake last November, I did find my Stange ancestral village in Germany. I found my great-great-grandfather in the church records. One of the things I want to do this time is copy all of the church records for Milow. I only copied the records that had my family. As Milow was a small village, there is the possibility that I may be able to connect some collateral lines. I did copy all of the church records for Epperthausen. Instead of having to print all of those pages, the Family History Library has it set up so you can save the copies to a flash drive. That makes genealogy travel much easier. I read an article recently and the author talked about "Cluster Research." Cluster research is where you do not search only for you ancestors, but also all of the collateral (brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.), friends and neighbors. The author stated, that many times whole families moved together, or friends and neighbors moved to new areas together. It seemed to make sense, so I am trying to create a cluster for my Cleff ancestors. Right now, Otto Cleff and Helene Ritz are my "brick wall" ancestors. I believe that Otto came to the US, but don't think I have found him yet. I am doubtful that Helene Ritz made the journey.
The cluster theory works, as I've seen other family lines move around the country together. The Root and Stanley families individually and eventually connecting the family lines in Southeast Michigan. My Norwegian lines along with many friends and relatives immigrated from Norway, all settling in Southwest Minnesota. The process of cluster research is a little more time consuming, but well worth the effort. It paints a more thorough picture of the family group. It is exciting when you "spy" a familiar name in the census, a name that in later years became a member of the family, as occasionally neighbors would marry (saw this a lot in Spring Grove, as young m |
Click the link below for one of the best values in Genealogy Education!
Author - Dr. Kathryn M. WattsI live in Orange, California with my husband Bill, and my service dog Timber. Genealogy is one of my favorite past times. Archives
May 2019
Categories |