Hunting History - Finding Family

With almost 2000 images in my Ancestry gallery, and another large personal family album full of old photos I'd inherited and scanned when my Nona passed, you'd think that the challenge of "Favorite Photo" would be a difficult one, but it wasn't.  As soon as I heard it, I knew exactly which photo I'd use.  So this will be a much shorter post, as these are people I've certainly blogged about many times before, and I'm going to focus a little more on them and a little less on the genealogy this time. Mary & Frank on their wedding day - 7/7/43 Hands down, this is my favorite photo ever.  There are so many things I love about it; including the people.  This is my Grandma Mary "Nona" Barra on the day she married Grandpa Frank Anthony Heigert, July 7th 1943 in Staunton IL.  This was taken at the farmhouse where Frank grew up, a big old home that's still there, unfortunately not still in the family, it was donated before I came along...

It took me three days to think of what subject to use for the "Long Line" prompt.  No lie.  I thought about my longest researched line, which would be the Wellers, but I've talked about them pretty extensively.  I thought about the long line of tough-as-nails Italian women I've descended from, but I've written of them more than once as well.  None of our branches have held a particular position over many generations, with the exception of farming, and that's pretty much every American's story, so I didn't find it all that interesting, albeit noble.  In the end, I did ultimately decide to go with a Weller's story, but in a different direction; the long line it took him to get here and thrive. Johannes "John" Weller was born in Diedenshausen, Germany May 24th, 1716.  At age 17, he made the long trek from Diedenshausen to Rotterdam, Netherlands and boarded the Lydia, a Strassburger-Hinke pioneer ship.  This move would have taken him about ...

"The first Weller to immigrate to America came from Germany, and the first Weller to live in South Palmyra township was Thomas Jefferson Weller.  Born May 1, 1808 in Kentucky, he married Eliza Ann Conlee October 13, 1831.  Family history states  the young couple walked into S Palmyra township with packs on their backs and proceeded to hew a home out of the wilderness.  The story is told that they built a log cabin on the South side of the road somewhere between present-day Concord Church and the East corner of it.  Their thirteenth child was also named Thomas Jefferson, and (I am) his direct descendant.  He lived his entire life less than a mile from his birthplace, and the home he built is now occupied by his great-grandson (my grandfather) Lawrence." -A Brief History of the Ancestors of Ralph Weller Almost all the way up until my grandparent's children, most of my Weller family has been on the same adjoining plots of land since it was purchased ...

I'm going to try and do a better job with the #52in52 this year, I think I wrote maybe a dozen last year, but we had some good ones, and hey, quality over quantity, right? Anywho, this year's first theme is "Fresh Start."  I actually wasn't sure who I was going to write about this week, until I opened ancestry just a little bit ago, followed a few leaves, and opened my 1st cousin 2x removed, Hilda Ida Berkel.  I actually thought the record hints I was viewing were incorrect at first, but after a few verification checks, I saw what an amazing life Hilda eventually lived.  Not only that, but she absolutely fits the Fresh Start theme for this week: Born to first generation German American parents (and a bit of a scandalous father) Hilda moved from poor rural Midwest to New York, only to marry very rich and live out the rest of her days in luxury.  A fresh start, indeed. My second great-grandparents, Benedict and Pauline Heigert, emigrated from Waldulm, Baden-Wurt...