My daughter has really gotten bitten by the genealogy bug. She's been pushing me to get back into the swing of genealogy. Tonight I played around a little with the new Family Search's Family Tree. It is a communal family tree that anyone can contribute too. One of the major problems is that if people don't search the tree before attaching a person in their line, there may be many matching people. I was looking for my James Wallace and there were two matching people, and there were two IDs. Same thing for Fredrick Stanley, but in his case, there were three matches. There will be a lot of cleaning up to do.
I have so ignored my genealogy the past month and a half. The health issues I've been experiencing over the past year, especially the last few weeks, leaves me exhausted. It is a challenge just making it through the day at work, then I come home and fall asleep. It's hard to do genealogy when you are asleep!
My daughter has really gotten bitten by the genealogy bug. She's been pushing me to get back into the swing of genealogy. Tonight I played around a little with the new Family Search's Family Tree. It is a communal family tree that anyone can contribute too. One of the major problems is that if people don't search the tree before attaching a person in their line, there may be many matching people. I was looking for my James Wallace and there were two matching people, and there were two IDs. Same thing for Fredrick Stanley, but in his case, there were three matches. There will be a lot of cleaning up to do.
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Hoping to make some progress today, as I'm going to have some help. My daughter is on her way over and she said she'd help me organized the stack of genealogy papers I need to file, Once I file them, I can add them to Roots Magic and my online trees, I have a tree on Ancestry,com and TribalPages.com. I know I have the answers to some of questions I have for some of my ancestors. Okay ancestors, here we come!
Well, I thought it was time to give my website a face lift. My first task is to create separate pages for each surname (at least the ones I've collected significant amounts of information). So far, this has been a fun project, especially as I have been able to see just how much information I know about each of my ancestors. Creating a synopsis for each ancestor will allow me to see which of my ancestors information is a little scarce. At the end of each surname page I plan on asking those questions I am missing answers, asking the questions in hopes that a reader will stumble upon my site and know the answer.
The construction will consist of three phases:
It is amazing, how many of my ancestors came from Germany. I do have a couple lines from the British Isles and Norway; however, I would have to add a disclaimer to the the lines (Stanley/Root) from the British Isles, as these lines could be considered coming from the U.S.The Stanley and Root families have been in the U.S. for eight to ten generations, whereas my German lines have only been in the U.S. for three or four generations.
Being that the majority of records I need to look at are from Germany, I need to re-learn German and more importantly learn to read the old German script. Brigham Young University (BYU) offers an Independent Study German Research Course that also includes reading the old German script. The best part is the course is offered free. I brought back over 100 German documents from Salt Lake, now just to learn what they say. I was able to read enough to know they were connected to my Seidlemann family. Who would have thought it would be easier to trace my Seidelmann in Germany than in the US. Although I came up empty on my Cleff line in Germany, even though I knew where they were from in Germany, the records available ended before the birth of my great-grandmother Helene Cleff. Luckily I came somewhat prepared to work on my Seidelmann line. I found Peter and Magdalena (Sauer) Seidelmann's marriage and the birth records for their four children Katherine Marie, Valentine I (died at 10 weeks) and Valentin II (died just over 7 months), and Magdalena.
The professional genealogist working with those on German records help me send a request for Helena Cleff's birth record and the marriage for her parents Otto and Helene (Ritz) Cleff. If I don't hear back by morning, I am prepared to continue my search on my Seidelmann line. My goal is to get as far as possible on my German lines as I don't know when I'll be able to get back here. US records are making there way online, so it is much easier to research from home or at least from the Fresno Public Library, where the Fresno Genealogical Society houses an extensive collection of US books. Hoping tomorrow will be just as productive. Was not able to do much genealogy on Friday, my first day in Salt Lake, as the train ride took a toll on me. My train got in at 3:00 am. Even though I had just been in Salt Lake about six months ago, I had to re-acclimate myself to the Family History Library. As I wasn't up to any serious genealogy, I just searched some of the databases on the computer, as these databases are not available online, only at the Library. Yesterday, I was able to view three microfilms, but once I finished for the day, I realized although the microfilms I reviewed were ones I eventually need, the films weren't on the family lines I planned to work on. Since today is Sunday and the Library is closed, I will spend some time getting organized to tomorrow.
My mom and dad drove to Salt Lake from California to stay with me a few days. My mom didn't care much for looking at microfilms, but the Library has a subscription to Newspaper Archives. She spent a few hours looking at old Forest Park Review newspapers (from Forest Park, IL). The clippings she found were about the Cleffs and/or Stanges. articles will add some color to my genealogy, and the clippings also provided some missing information (the surnames for several wives). My mom only got through about 90 articles out of 497 articles referencing the Stanges, so I'm sure she'll find many more. My dad tried to tackle his Briggs and Wallace lines, but came up pretty empty handed, which did not surprise me. I have been challenged in tracing the Briggs and Wallace lines as well. My Cleff, Wallace, Seidelmann, Oakley, and Root Ancestors, Only 5 More Days and Here I Come!6/8/2013 Five more days to go! As much as I want to go to Salt Lake City to do genealogy; what I need even more is a vacation. I'm taking the train, which is pretty relaxing too.
I've decided that I will have four focus surnames: * Cleff 1) confirm Helena's parents were Otto Cleff and Helene Ritz 2) find Helena's birth record in Elberfeld 3) determine why 3 young children were sent to America alone, who was there to meet them 4) find Helena's marriage to Herman Stange 5) find Helena' death record * Wallace 1) who was James Wallace? 2) where was James from? 3) where did James disappear to? 4) did James and Georgia divorce or did James die? 5) find Marietta Wallace's birth record 6) why did Georgia lie about Marietta's age on her marriage license to Ray Hayes? Was she pregnant? If so, what happened to the baby? 7) where is the divorce record 8) what were the church affiliations for James, Georgia, and Marietta? * Seidelmann 1) where were the Seidelmanns from? 2) did the Seidelmanns move around a lot in Germany or did the place names change? 3) what paper trail did the Seidelmanns leave? * Oakley/Root 1) work on documenting lineage back to Miles Oakley and Joshua Root for DAR Luckily, I'll have nine days for research. I have a lot to get accomplished. The reason I am leaving the Oakley and Root lines until last is I believe I can complete this research at the Fresno Public Library on Mariposa. The public library has a large collection of early-American records and DAR specialists who staff their genealogy room. Then again, you never know, my focus could change. A year and a half ago, I went to Salt Lake City and was part of a genealogy group, the Ancestor Seekers. I wasn't intending to work on my Stange line, but in a technique the professional genealogist taught us to find our immigrant ancestor's ancestral village in Germany. As I already had Helena's ancestral village, I figured I'd work on my Stange ancestors. I was able to go back several generations using church records. Maybe this trip will be successful. I figure with the health issues I've been having, I'm afraid this trip will probably be the last one I'll be able to take, so I extended my trip by six days, working on my own for the first four days and then two days after, for a total of thirteen days to focus on my genealogist.
Ancestor Seekers uses the Plaza Hotel for lodging. The Plaza has very comfortable rooms, friendly staff, and best of all, they are next door to Family History Library. Although I'll have 105 hours available to do research during the week, but I will have to pace myself so I don't get too tired. I also have to make sure I eat right. I tend to forget to eat when I get busy with things. I have not been keeping up on blogging the past month. I wish I didn't have to choose between genealogy and work, but I've have been SO busy at work, I've been working late and bringing home work to do. When I don't have to bring home work, I'm too tired to do genealogy. But now, I need to really focus on my genealogy, only 13 days until I leave for Salt Lake. Tomorrow it will definitely be an all-day genealogy day.
I have set a couple of goals for my trip. Firstly, I want to confirm the parentage of Helena Cleff. I believe her parents are Helene Ritz and Otto Cleff. I know the family is from Elberfeld or Barmen Germany, but so far I haven't found the linking evidence, its been hard since the family did not come over together. Secondly, I want to find Marietta Wallace's father. I do have a name, James Wallace, as I found Marietta's mother, Georgia Briggs and James Wallace. The 1890 census has definitely hindered finding out more about Marietta Wallace and Helene Ritz' parents. I can see I will have my work cut out for me when I go to Salt Lake City in June. Finding Helena is going to be challenging as records for Elberfeld, Germany are scarce. If I am lucky, there is one set of church records I could possibly find Helena. If I am unable to find her in the church records, I will begin looking at the marriage record for Otto Cleff and Helene Ritz. As I will be attending the Ancestor Seekers Research week, I'm hoping that the researcher on the International Floor will have some ideas on how I can find information on my great-grandmother, Helena W. Cleff.
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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
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