Category: Research

Be The Source For Another Family

7/12/2016

1933 East Tech High School Yearbook

Genealogy bloggers know the value of putting their family history on the Internet. It makes it easier to share information with far-flung family and it serves as "cousin bait," so that, hopefully, we are able to find more people who share our ancestors. But one recent experience has made me realize the positive impact that putting my family history online can do for other family historians who are completely unrelated to me or my husband.

Think about your life. How many people, unrelated to you, have you befriended, interacted with, or just simply crossed paths with? Hundreds? Thousands? And for how many of those interactions were there physical records made? Think about group photos, union and military newsletters, newspaper articles, yearbooks, graduation and wedding programs, school alumni reports, and church bulletins and rosters. We, as family historians, all have some of these sources within our possessions - sources that would prove valuable to many other family researchers out there, and I'm here to argue that it's our mission to more or less "advertise" these more personal sources of information within our family websites and blogs.

At the end of May, I received an email from a gentleman who had found my blog post, "Jesse Owens & My Grandpa." He had recently discovered a high school track team photo picturing his grandfather and Jesse Owens, but the photo didn't label any names, so he wasn't 100% sure it was his grandfather. So, he was now on the hunt for his grandfather's 1933 high school yearbook. He had looked everywhere online and in local libraries, but could not locate a copy.

I had a copy.

The only way he knew I had a copy was because of my blog post.

The yearbook resides at my parents' house, so when I visited them for Father's Day a few weeks later, I snapped a few photos of his grandfather's photo in the yearbook, and then I also took photos of the commencement program, also listing both of our grandfathers' names. I emailed them off to him, and he was ecstatic and very grateful.

This experience has made me view my family history 'holdings' differently. I realize now that I have sources that no library or online database does, and that these sources may mean as much to another family as they do to ours. It has made me want to transcribe and share more of these personal types of sources on my website and blog, in the hopes that other family researchers, whose ancestors crossed paths with mine, will find them.

©2016 Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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Old Photos: Research, Return & Repeat

8/19/2015

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Old Photos: Research, Return, and Repeat

This past week, I was re-scanning some of my grandmother's old photos from her service in the U.S. Coast Guard SPARS during WWII. (I wrote a short blog post about it here.) In many of these photos, my grandmother is pictured with fellow SPAR women, and a few military men as well. The great thing about her photo album is that, for nearly every photo, she wrote down each person's name and where they were from.

So, as I was scanning, I came across several photos of an Army man by the name of Bart Noland from Iowa. I was curious. I Googled 'Bart Noland Iowa army,' but didn't really come up with anything. I went to Ancestry and searched for him. In a public tree on Ancestry, I found a Bartley W. Noland from Iowa who was born in 1918, so I decided to message the owner and hope for the best.

The next day, the owner of that tree wrote me back and told me a little bit about their family's Bart Noland. (The tree owner turned out to be a cousin of Bart's wife.) He sent me his email address, I sent him scans of the photos, and he sent those scans to one of Bart's living children, who confirmed that this was indeed her father, who had passed away in 2001. (Lesson: Keep a family tree PUBLIC on Ancestry, even if it is just the basics. I would not have found Bart's family if this gentleman's tree had been private.)

Even though she now has all of the photos in digital form, I will be sending Bart's daughter the physical photos of her father, as well as a photo of his barracks he stayed in while in Florida, and some scenic snapshots he sent my grandmother during his time in Hawaii. They belong to her and her family. I can always have the photos of him reprinted if I want to fill in the empty holes in my grandmother's scrapbook.

Are you in possession of any old photos of non-family members? If you have names attached to those photos, I urge you to use your research skills to try to find living descendants of those pictured, and, if possible, return those photos (or at least email the scans) to living family members. Bart's daughter was SO grateful to me for reaching out and finding their family - She found out about these photos on her 35th wedding anniversary and said she felt like this was her Dad "remembering" this special day for her.

My mission now is to try to find some of these women pictured in the photos. Most of them married after the war and, of course, changed their names, so it may be much harder to find any of their children or grandchildren with whom to share these photos. But I will still try. :-)

©2015, Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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Minster Obituary File and Funeral Card File

7/11/2015

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I haven't posted on this blog recently, but that doesn't mean I've haven't been busy in other genealogy-related ways. If you read my blog frequently, you know that my husband's family, past and present, hail from western Ohio. Last month, I took a trip to the village of Minster, Ohio, which is located in the southwestern part of Auglaize County. I visited the Minster Historical Society and Museum, and wanted to share a couple of the resources available to researchers who have ancestors from this portion of western Ohio.

Minster Obituary File: The historical society has collected, translated, and organized obituaries for area residents, and, in some cases, non-residents who have family ties to the area. The important information has been extracted from newspaper obituaries, places on index cards, and organized alphabetically in a card catalog. It was easy to find the names on my list, and then I simply used my phone to snap a photo of the cards. Each card referenced the original source of the obituary, which is usually (but not always) the town newspaper, The Minster Post. Anyone can access past issues of The Minster Post at this site for FREE, so you would easily able to track down the original, as-published, obit. Truth be told, I had already tracked down most the obituaries I needed just by using the newspaper database from home, but there were a couple of names for whom I had no idea when they passed away, so searching through issue after issue of the newspaper was not practical. Found them in this file, and - voila - obituary found! Here is an example of one of the obituary file cards:

Obituary from Minster Obituary File

Minster Funeral Card Collection: The Minster Historical Society and Museum boasts a collection of over 20,000 funeral cards, and they are adding more all the time. This collection was again housed in simple card catalog draws and arranged alphabetically and with the deceased's birthday at the top. The important information from the cards was photocopied and then pasted right onto the index card itself. Again, I just used my phone and snapped pictures of the cards pertaining to my husband's family. (Of course, they aren't all in German - these are some of my favorites, though!)

I should mention that ANYONE can send in copies of funeral cards to add to their collection. I recently received my grandmother-in-law's collection of funeral cards and I'm in the process of scanning them right now. From what I saw on my trip, I know that they already have a lot of the cards I have, but they also DIDN'T have some, so I will make sure I send them copies of those.

If your family or clients have any ancestors that may have had ties to western Ohio (even as far north as Toledo or as far south as Cincinnati), I highly recommend you check out these sources. The obituaries can be searched through the Rutherford B. Hayes Obituary Index, but the funeral cards must be searched on-site. (I've been told by a reliable source that they are working on getting the funeral cards online at some point as well.)

©2015, Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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CIAO Italian Genealogy Seminar

6/27/2014

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This past weekend, I attended the Cleveland Italian Ancestry Organization (CIAO) Italian Genealogy Seminar at the Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland, Ohio. The all-day seminar featured two nationally-known expert Italian genealogists: Paola Manfredi, AG and Suzanne Russo Adams, AG, both of whom are currently employed with FamilySeach.org.

The seminar consisted of four main presentation sessions, with each presenter speaking simultaneously on a different topic, so I had to choose which talks I wanted to attend for each session. I attended Suzanne's first session, entitled 'Beginning Italian Research,' and, although I do not consider myself a beginner, it was a great review of some of the documents and resources I already know about. And, I actually learned things that I didn't know about, especially with regards to the hierarchy of how the records in Italy are made and where they are kept.

During the second session, I attended Paola's talk entitled, 'Post Napoleonic Civil Records in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.' Her previous presentation was about Napoleonic Civil Records, and she did give a little review of how the recording of civil records differed between the two periods. (Quick note: Both presenters did a great job of explaining the history behind the record-keeping, which was both interesting and helpful.) Paola showed us a lot of examples of actual birth, marriage, and death records so that we could get a feel for how they are arranged, which really helps in picking out the important information. Before this seminar, I was pretty intimidated by records written in Italian. However, I've learned that once you can recognize certain repetitive words and phrases, deciphering the information within the records becomes much easier. Here is the link to FamilySearch.org's educational page on Italian civil records.

I stayed with Paola for the third session. She presented on Italian military records, which a.) I knew nothing about and b.) I wanted to learn about because my great-grandfather served in the Italian Army during WWI. This presentation was fascinating; Paola spoke about the liste di leva, which lists information about ALL 18 year old men in a particular comune (town). Not only can you discover a man's parents' names from these records, but they also include a physical description of each 'draftee.' We also looked at a sample ruoli matricolari record, which is basically a description of a soldier's entire military service. While many state archives throughout Italy have started to put indexed records online, Sicily (where my great-grandfather was from) has not yet done so. (FamilySearch.org has a nice summary of Italian Military Records at this link.)

For the fourth and final session, I went back to listen to Suzanne present about online Italian research resources. She gave us a list of fifty websites that could potential help us with our Italian ancestor research. She highlighted a few of her favorites, including the Portale Antenanti, which contains over 19 million images from state archives all over Italy. Suzanne really emphasized trying to learn about your ancestor's hometown and the region's history, even before you delve into the search for individual records. She told us to try to Google location names in Italian, because doing so will likely yield more results. Currently, there are 30(!) cameras all over Italy, digitizing records that will soon be made available on FamilySearch.org (for LDS members) AND on the Portale Antenanti (for everyone). So, Suzanne told us, if your ancestors are nowhere to be found online as of yet, they probably will be there soon. Exciting news, for sure!

Overall, it was a great seminar. I learned a lot, and had an enjoyable time, too! We were served a yummy, yummy lunch and there was even a raffle of some great Italian- and genealogy-related books, food, and gift certificates. We were given awesome, comprehensive syllabus materials and a neat bag in which to carry everything. The price ($45) was very reasonable, and I hope the organization sponsors something like this again in the future.

CIAO Italian Genealogy Seminar Materials and Hand-Outs

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Tuesday's Tip: Visiting the Family History Library

5/26/2014

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Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah

Last week, I made my first ever trip to Salt Lake City, with one of my goals being a couple of good research days at the Family History Library. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about my general preparations and goals: focusing on only a few family lines and only looking for indexed records or records for which I already knew where and when certain ancestors were born. With only two days, I did not have time to sit down with a gazetteer and try to search the microfilms for every village in which Great-Grandpa Kowalski may have been born.

Originally, I was going to use an online form to contact the library beforehand and let them know what films I would like to search. I messaged them a few times through Facebook, and they assured me that, because none of the films in which I were interested were solely kept in the Vault, I should have no problems finding them when I arrived.

Well, with my (bad) luck, wouldn't you know it, but the first film I search for was not in its proper place in the microfilm drawers. One of the volunteers kindly helped me search the overflow drawers and even looked around at other patrons to see if they were using it, but we couldn't find it. He ordered it from the Vault and it was thankfully there the next morning! Phew!

In the past, I've also had notoriously bad luck with getting the hang of different types of microfilm machines, so I was a little worried about that on the first day. Turns out that I had nothing to worry about; the machines were well-maintained, easy-to-use, and instructions were printed on each one. Not to mention the fact that there were many library volunteers eager to assist anyone who needed it.

This is the machine at used for 2 1/4 days. I sat at the same one each day; it was next to a wall outlet, so I was able to charge my phone when it ran low on battery.

"My" microfilm reader

Before I arrived at the library, I knew that if I wanted to save any images digitally, I would need to transfer the microfilm reel to one of the special scanner computers that had USB drives. I fully intended to do this, and even bought myself a new USB drive. However, I quickly realized that, with the number of records I wanted to save, and considering that the scanner computers had time limits of only 30 minutes, this process would severely cut into my available research time. So, instead I experimented with taking photos of the records directly off the microfilm reader with my iPad 4 and iPhone 5. After carefully reviewing a few images - zooming in, looking at clarity and details - I determined that these photo images were more than adequate digital records of what I was looking at on the microfilm reader. Of course, the photos were saved in JPEG format, but I could easily convert them to TIFF format when I save them to my permanent hard drive and cloud.

Each time I located a record of interest - one that I photographed - I wrote down the name(s), date, location and film number in a steno notebook. I was very careful to maintain my notes in the exact order of the photos I took, so that when I do go to organize the record photos into their proper "family" folders, I will know exactly what record I am looking at and who it 'belongs' to.

One of many pages of notes

Thanks to my planning, I was able to find at least some records for all but one of the families I had prepared to research. For those of you who follow the families I research, these are the ones on which I focused my research this time:

- The family of my great-grandfather, Michael Bodziony in southern Poland
- The family of my great-grandfather, Sophia Krupa in southern Poland
- The family of my husband's ancestor, Ferdinand Waterkotte in Ostbevern, Germany
- The family of my husband's ancestors, Gottfried and Maria Eva Wimmers in Garzweiler, Germany
- The family of my husband's ancestor, Johann Michael Drees in Cloppenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
- The family of my husband's ancestor, Maria Catharine Wellerding in Steinfeld, Oldenburg, Germany

It was a great first trip to THE library, and I'm looking forward to going back someday. I spent all of my time on the International Floor. It was so great to look around and see people researching so many different countries of the world, and hearing other patrons and volunteers speak in languages other than English. Even though I didn't really talk with the other patrons, I did feel as if there was a camaraderie between us, and I realized that there really are quite a few of us who are more than a little obsessed with learning about our ancestors. :-)

©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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I'm Going to the FHL! - And I Need Your Help!

5/3/2014

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Family History Library (Source: Wikicommons)

Two weeks from today, my husband and I will be on our way to Salt Lake City. There is a short conference/class that my husband wanted to attend for work, and he suggested that I come along and we make a little non-kid vacation out of it. (And, yes, he knew when he mentioned it to me that I wouldn't be able to refuse! He knows the power of the Family History Library, lol!)

This will be my first trip to the FHL. I will only have two days of research time. I am going into this experience with realistic expectations of how much (how little) research I will probably be able to accomplish in that short period of time. I will only be concentrating on a couple of family lines, and I will be primarily searching for microfilmed records that I have already found to be indexed on FamilySearch.org. All of the films are international. I know exactly which microfilms I will need, and I will be using this online form to request them ahead of time, so they are ready to go when I arrive. I have printed out copies of the indexed records and paper-clipped them together with a single-page print out of that portion of the family tree. I will have a stenographer's notebook where I have written down who and what I am looking for in each family, and I will also use it to take additional source notes, if necessary. I also plan on bringing my iPad so that I can access all of my family tree records that I have put online, if I need to look something up.

If possible, I would like to avoid having to bring my laptop, mainly just for travel reasons. I plan on using a USB flash drive to collect records, and I will copy what I find onto my OneDrive 'cloud' or Google Drive just to be on the safe side. I actually want to invest in a new flash drive for the occasion - any recommendations or suggestions?

So, for those of you who have done research at the FHL, what am I forgetting? Any advice or suggestions for a newbie? My husband and I will also be taking some time to tour Salt Lake City and the surrounding area, and I'd love to hear suggestions for what to see, where to eat, etc.

©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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A Seminar With Cyndi Ingle

3/22/2014

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Today, at the Indiana Historical Society in Indianapolis, Indiana, I attended an all-day seminar given by Cyndi Ingle. For those who aren't familiar with Cyndi, she is the creator of Cyndi's List, which is a website containing the MOST comprehensive listing of ALL genealogy-related websites - research sites, database sites, methods and organization sites, history sites, blogs - everything. She is quite famous within the genealogy community, so I was glad that she came to Indy and that I had the opportunity to hear her speak. The seminar was entitled, "Genealogy Online: Productive, Organized and Successful."

Each attendee was given a nice booklet containing all of Cyndi's presentation notes, which I really appreciated, because it meant I could relax and pay more attention to exactly what she was saying, instead of worrying about taking notes to try to remember it all. (I was also able to do some live tweeting, too, which I enjoyed!)

Seminar Booklet

Of course, Cyndi took us through her website, explained HOW it was organized and highlighted some of the main categories of links found there. She gave us some great tips about how to develop a research plan, and she was even kind enough to provide us with links to templates to help us make a research plan of our own. She talked a lot about using Evernote in genealogy research, which I wasn't necessarily expecting, but I'm glad she did. I do have an Evernote account; however, I do not use it regularly in my research and my Evernote notes and notebooks are not as organized as I would like them to be. Cyndi showed us Evernote's full capabilities as far as aiding in genealogy research and organization. And there's an entire section on her website listing links that are helpful in learning and using Evernote for family history research.

Here are a few main points of her talk that really stuck with me:

- Even when you go through an entire database and find NOTHING helpful in learning about a particular ancestor, it is still a step forward as far as your research process goes. (So many of us get discouraged when this happens, but now we are free to "check off" that record set and move onto the next potential source of information.)

- Take research notes along every step of the way. Cyndi referred to it as 'having an ongoing dialogue with yourself.' This is so important when you have to leave your research alone for a period of time. We need to know exactly what we were working on and where we left off in the search, especially so we don't backtrack and search the same database or record set AGAIN to no avail.

- Genealogy research is a circular process; there is no end. She showed us this GREAT graphic from the FamilySearch.org Research Process Wiki, which really helped me better visualize what a successful research process looks like.

- Speaking of visualization, she reminded us to try to visualize our research as much as possible. Using timelines and maps of migration and immigration patterns can all be extremely helpful when we are trying to put all the pieces of the puzzle together.

If you ever get the chance to hear Cyndi speak live, please be sure that you do! She is an engaging speaker and you can tell that she really loves what she does. After her seminar today, I am so much more motivated to put more of my research in Evernote, and to be more meticulous in making research plans and keeping better research notes.

©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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Those Places Thursday: Google Street View Matches an Old Photograph

3/19/2014

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This past Sunday, I wrote a blog post about how I used 1940 enumeration district maps to figure out just where my grandmother and great-grandparents were living at that time. From about 1934-1940, they were living at 3591 East Blvd, which has since changed names to Martin Luther King Jr Dr. Once I sorted out the mystery of the street name change, I plugged the address into Google Street View and found an image of the old home. Nothing really surprising - it's an old, large home on a fairly long, but narrow, lot. My great-grandparents were only renting it at the time, and another family is shown living at the same address in the 1940 census, so they only occupied either the upper floor or the main floor.

3591 MLK Dr, Cleveland, Ohio (Image: Google Maps)

I then decided to look through some of the old 1930s photos that my grandmother had saved. My great-grandparents loved to take photos of their girls standing with each other, not unlike what most parents (including myself) do today with their kids. I have several from this period of the 1930s when they were living in this house, but one in particular caught my eye. It's blurry and doesn't really do justice to my grandma and her sister, but I was more interested in the setting and background.

Dina (left) and Yola (right) on porch of 3591 East Blvd, September 1935

Thankfully, my grandma (shown on the left) was pretty good at labeling photos with the proper dates, so I know this one was from September of 1935. (She didn't label it as such, but if it was a special occasion, it may have been around her 21st birthday.) But there are bunches of homes in this part of Cleveland with brick porches very similar to what the photograph shows; how do I know that they were standing at the same home shown in Google Street View?

Check out that porch post right over the back of my grandmother's shoulder. It has a nice, unique little diamond decorative touch to it. I tried to zoom in as far as I could on the home in Google Street View; the resolution isn't great, but it was enough to convince me.

Porch of 3591 MLK Dr, Cleveland, Ohio (Image: Google Maps)

That's it! That's the pillar in the picture. Usually seeing these older homes in disrepair makes me sad, but in this case, I am glad nobody has painted over that pillar. My grandma and her sister took that photo on that porch almost 80 years ago, and before now, I didn't know where it had been taken. I think this is pretty good proof that I've figure it out.

©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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Tuesday's Tip: Local Library Periodicals

3/10/2014

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All family historians know the value of libraries and their vital roles in genealogy research. Local history books, church book transcriptions, microfilms, tax records, probate records, maps, subscriptions to online databases - all of which can be found at local libraries and all of which are useful in discovering who are ancestors were. But how many of us regularly use our local library's periodical holdings in our genealogy education and research?

I am usually at our local town library at least once a week for children's programs, but, honestly, I rarely have the chance to browse the shelves for myself. My daughter and I walked past the magazine stands the other day and there I saw Family Tree Magazine. A light bulb went off in my head - why didn't I ever think to look here in the magazine section for titles that may help me with my genealogy research?

I also noticed that there were several general history titles among the racks: WWII History, Civil War Times Illustrated, and American History. And, as I look through the online catalog, I see that even our smaller town library holds several local and state-specific periodicals that could be very useful to Indiana family historians: Indiana Magazine of History, Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History, and Hoosier Genealogist. (Unfortunately, nearly all of my U.S. genealogy research consists of Ohio ancestors, so these titles probably wouldn't be that useful to me personally.)

So, it's all right to rush to the probate record books, microfilms, and online databases when you are doing genealogy research at the big city/states libraries, but don't forget that some great resources might just be found in your local library's periodical department. And of course, the best part is they are FREE!

©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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Matrilineal Monday: Mary Wilkens Drees

12/2/2013

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Over the past couple of weeks, I have had the opportunity to do something I have not done in awhile: research a branch of my husband's family tree almost from scratch. I have been able to trace most of my husband's branches back to the point at which they came to America in the 19th century - some lines even further back, but until recently, I had not earnestly tried researching the family of my husband's great-great-grandmother, Mary Wilkens Drees (1857-1942). Why didn't I? Part of the reason lies in the fact that she married into the Drees family - a large, influential family in the area - so I had always been preoccupied with collecting information and documents pertaining to THAT branch of the family, and she sort of got placed on the back burner. Another reason is because, when I did try to dig further back in time, I now know that I was going off of false parentage information that was listed in her obituary and on her death certificate, so even when I did a quick search, nothing relevant seemed to come up.

Mike and Mary (Wilkens) Drees with their youngest daughter, Frances (my husband's great-grandmother)

For awhile now, I've had Mary's obituary and death certificate. She married J.M. "Mike" Drees sometime around 1880-1881, after Mike's first wife passed away. In her obituary, her parents are listed as 'Theodore Wilkens' and 'Mary Fortman,' and in her death certificate, they are 'Theodore Wilkens' and 'Catherine Fortman.' While searching through documents, I found that there was no Theodore Wilkens anywhere in the area old enough to be her father, BUT in the 1880 Census, I do find a Theodore Wilkens living with his parents, J.H. and Elizabeth Wilkens AND a sibling named Mary Wilkens. The family lives just over the county line, very close to where her future husband is living. Mary's age is a couple of years off from the 1857 birth date listed on her death certificate, but this is as good of a lead as I've had, so I just go with it.

Along with Theodore and Mary, there are six other children in the household, so I begin to research these siblings of Mary Wilkens. Almost right away, I find Theodore's death certificate on FamilySearch.org and his obituary in The Minster Post newspaper archives, both of which list his parents as Henry Wilkens and Elizabeth Fortman. I use these websites to look up the same documents for a couple other of Mary's siblings. The parents' names agree with those of Theodore, AND Mary is actually listed as a sibling in a couple of the obits. Now, I know I have the right family in the 1880 census.

Theodore's 1916 obituary states that his father, Henry, died in 1908. One of my favorite pieces of information to search for with regard to a deceased person is his/her will, and luckily, FamilySearch,org has an extensive collection of probate records from Shelby County, Ohio during this time period. I almost-too-easily find the will of John Henry (J.H.!) Wilkens, and in it, he listed all of his children, including the married names of his daughters. Golden. AND based on the date of the will, I went back to the old issues of The Minster Post and found John Henry's (Johann Heinrich's) obituary, too:

Not only does this obituary list John Henry's children, but it also lists his age at death, where he was born in Germany (Twistringen, Hanover), his year of marriage, the year of his wife's death, where he lived prior to Shelby County, Ohio, and that his parents also made the trip over from Germany. In the 1900 U.S. Census, John Henry is living with his son, Theodore. That census form states that he immigrated to America around 1830, so I know he has spent most of his life in America. I then am able to find him, his wife, Elizabeth, and their children in the 1860 and 1870 census forms, living with John Henry's parents, John Henry and Catherine Wilkens. Quite serendipitous, really, and it helped that the family stayed in the same county and township for so many decades. It appears that the elder John Henry passed away sometime between 1870 and 1880, because Catherine is listed as a widow living with her son and grandchildren in the 1880 census.

Just a couple of days ago, I was looking through another of my favorite collections on FamilySearch: Ohio, County Naturalization Records, 1800-1977. I was able to find the elder John Henry's Declaration of Intention to become a citizen from 1844. But what is interesting about this document, is that it is actually a replacement of the original document, and it recounts an important event in this family's life that I probably would have never known about otherwise (see my transcription below:)

"John Henry Wilkins of the county aforesaid makes solemn oath that he made his declaration of intention to become a citizen of the United States seven years ago, in the Court of Common Pleas of Miami County Ohio, that he received at that time a certificate of the clerk of said court of that fact: But that six years ago last spring his house was consumed by fire, and said certificate was consumed in it."

So, the fire would have occurred around 1838, and they probably would have been living in Miami County, Ohio, which is one county south of Shelby County. By the 1840 Census, he is living in Shelby County. Would he ever have picked up and moved to Shelby County if not for the fire? I'll probably never know for sure, but it has really made me think about how a family's future (and not just the immediate future, I'm talking generations down the line, as well) can be changed by events such as these.

©2013, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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<<Previous

Be The Source For Another Family

Old Photos: Research, Return & Repeat

Minster Obituary File and Funeral Card File

CIAO Italian Genealogy Seminar

Tuesday's Tip: Visiting the Family History Library

I'm Going to the FHL! - And I Need Your Help!

A Seminar With Cyndi Ingle

Those Places Thursday: Google Street View Matches an Old Photograph

Tuesday's Tip: Local Library Periodicals

Matrilineal Monday: Mary Wilkens Drees

Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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