Hunting History - Finding Family

I chose William Henry Etter as this week's 52 in 52 challenge, "Unusual Name."  While I have much more unusual names in my tree (Docia Ann White, Margarete Gertraudt Althaus, Leonardas Barker...the list goes on) I ended up choosing William because Etter to me is an unusual last name, and has several meanings; the South German/Swiss is a topographical name, meaning someone who lived near the boundary fence of a village, from the German word "eter" meaning a 'woven boundary fence.'   In High German and Dutch speaking countries "eter" means 'cousin' or 'uncle.'  In 1724, Johannes Hans Etter and wife Anna Marie Siegrist emigrated from Bern, Switzerland to Lancaster county, Virginia, what was then Colonial America.  Three generations later his great grandson, and my 5th great grandfather, William Henry Etter, was born May 6th, 1800, the son of Daniel Etter and Mary Magdalena Reihm, in Evansham, Wythe, Virginia. William Henry was ...

For my third installment of 52 Ancestors in 52 weeks, we're looking at my second great grandmother, Christine Wilhelmine Aschebrok.  This week's prompt is "I'd like to meet."  I maybe should have saved Angela Nardin for this one, even without knowing the prompts ahead of time I knew eventually it would be coming, but I am almost equally enchanted with my Heigert/Brockman side, in fact I'm super proud of my German heritage.  Christine went through a lot (as you'll read) and I bet she was an amazing woman.  It takes a lot of strength to handle what she did in her lifetime and not be hardened by it.  Christine was born to Johann Heinrich Gerhard Aschebrok and Anna Christine Elizabeth Steingeweg Oct 12th, 1849 in Holne, Lengerich, Steinfurt, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, just over 100 miles from Hanover.  She was Christened in the Evangelical Church Oct 26th, 1849. At 22 Christine had a son, Ernst Gerhard Bernhard Aschebrok with an unknown father.  ...

I knew this ancestor spotlight would come sooner rather than later, and I didn't have to think real hard for this weeks 52 in 52 submission, which the prompt is "Challenge."  Eventually, I will probably compile all my facts and write a book about great grandma Angela (Which will be a challenge in and of itself, I'm just a hobby novelist) but for now a spotlight blog will do.  Angela is perfect for the "Challenge" prompt, as you'll see when you read about her life, she was faced with one challenge after another, but she always rose above.  I can only image the strength this woman had. I never got to meet her, but I bet I would have loved her.  As the mother of one of my favorite people in the world (my Nona Mary) I expect them to be very much alike.  Nona always said she spoke "very broken English," as of course Italian would have been her first language.  Nona never said she herself  knew Italian, she certainly never spoke it and had no accen...

My maiden name is Heigert, (in English; Hi-gert, in German; Hee-kert) and on that side I am a third generation American.  I feel pretty strongly about immigrants, if we hadn't been allowed in I wouldn't be here, although both my Italian and German immigrant ancestors came here via Ellis Island.  I won't get into the political debate, that's not what this blog is about.  Instead, lets get into my immigrant's stories. My great grandfather, Roman Heigert was born 8th of August 1867 in Waldulm, Baden-Wurttemburg, Germany to 27 year old Benedict Heigert and 22 year old Paulina Schmelzle.  Benedict and Paulina had married the 29th of May 1865 in Waldulm, and had one child before Roman, brother Gottfried Frederick born in 1866.   Benedict & Pauina's Marriage Bann Roman's Birth Record I won't even pretend to know how someone from Alton Illinois got in touch with the Heigert's in Waldulm, but family record has it that the Springman Distri...

A census record can either be your brick-wall busting best friend or a migraine inducing annoyance.   I'll be using a clients tree as an example, as I've recently had a very bad census as well as a very good one. Debbie's (my client) third great grandfather is Felix Stacey, born in Kentucky in 1823.  In 1880 we find him in Perry co, Kentucky with his wife and children.  Now I have a marriage license and multiple other census records, so I know for a fact who his family is.  Felix married Cynthia Couch in 1850, and they had nine children: Polly Ann, John, Farmer, Peter, Granville, Nancy, Rachel, Alford, and Lucinda.  On the 1880 census, not all are living and not all live at home, but here's what the census reads: Felix Stacy (suname spelled wrong) wife: Sinthy Stacy (not even close) children: Former, Loucinda, Granville, Rachel, Nancy, and Alford. (Well they got 4 of the 6 right anyway....) If I hadn't known the names of the children from previous ...

I have been searching for a client's grandmother FOREVER.  OK maybe that's not entirely true, but she's been a big focus of our search since we started.  Debbie (client) was told grandma's name was Valentine Poole and she came from England. That's all we knew. Now this family doesn't share secrets.  No one talks.  It's all a big ol mystery.  I love those. I knew "Valentine" was married to Debbie's grandfather, David George, and I knew he had a son, Edward David George.  We knew David had died around 1980 and was buried in Florida.  Let the search begin. I searchedandsearchedandsearched..... I found a record hit that was a maybe.  You'd be surprised how many David Bryants there are.  One married a Dorothy Valentine, and I wasn't even positive enough to save the record onto his file, but I kept it in memory, just in case. I searched ancestry many times for Valentine Poole, David Bryant, Edward David....all nothing.  I hit family...