An Awesome View of Life

Lost in DNA... Or just lost?  I love genealogy.  A couple of months ago I had my Dad donate a bit of DNA to be tested for ancestry.com.  Interesting results.  With these results I have made contact with a 2nd cousin and a 3rd cousin.  There are hundreds of matches.  The challenging part is doing the detective work to find the common ancestor.   Then a few weeks ago I had my hubby give a donation as well.  His results were a bit surprising to me.  I'm not sure why but they were surprising.  The closest matches were 3rd cousins and only 3 of those.  For the past 3 days I have done nothing but research these people trying to find a common ancestor.   One was quick and easy because they had the Chapman surname on their tree.  It was a great find for me because she was a lost soul on my tree.  I couldn't find her in any records once she was old enough to be married.   Doing the DNA research also m...

May never find my way out... Two straight days of digging through online genealogy records.  Through all of my digging I have been unable to find much on my 2x great grandmother, Reka.  I have my great grandmother's baptismal record which shows Reka's maiden name and I've stood at her grave.  There is nothing before or in between. I can't find a marriage or death record for her. I know she was born in Germany but have no idea when she immigrated.  If she came by herself or did her entire family come to America? Yesterday I stumbled across a couple of records that now has me researching a woman who may be Reka's aunt.  Note I said "may".  I am purely driven on a very strong gut feeling.  The biggest problem is I have no clue how to prove this theory.  I think I need to make a trip to Wisconsin so I can look at actual records.  Hmmm...   So I am now exhausted, frustrated and not sure I can find my way out of this mess. ...

My Genealogy Corner Fun day of rearranging and reorganizing my "office" space in the corner of our family room.  My wonderful Christmas present is hanging on the wall (the poster of Germany not the calendar of my photos).  The bookcase is full of my research and reference books. The poster will be framed tomorrow.  Now I just need to convince my hubby to build me a new desk with matching bookcase.  I drew up plans for one this afternoon but don't think I got a positive reaction from him.  ha!  

  Plans...   Our house is overflowing with my business.  There never seems to be enough space for hobbies or personal things. My passion is doing family genealogy research.  I have several notebooks full of notes.  Folders full of documents.  And 3 ring binders for several family members.  Most of the time it is all piled up on the floor next to my big comfy chair.   Today I drew up this plan for a fold-out desk.  There is a spot in my family room that would be perfect for a workspace.  This desk will fit perfectly there.  It will be  about the size of a bookcase.  30"x30" and 14" deep.  It will look like a bookcase other than it will have hinged fold out work surfaces on both sides.  When fully opened it will give me a 44"x30" work surface.   Now we just need some warmer weather so my wonderful husband can get this made for me.  I even incorporated 4 built-in drawers for pens, mar...

My great-great grandfather's baptismal record... He was born on 29 Jan 1826.  His baptism was on 5 Feb 1826. He was named Simon Heinrich Ernst to Simon Heinrich Winter and Amelia Louisa Kerchoff.   These are the records we spent about 3 hours looking through today.  We made it through the baptism records today.  Confirmation, marriage and death records left to peruse.  Can't wait. ha!   The photo isn't the best but it's kind of cool to think I have a copy of something from the past that is connected to my family. 

  Tools of the Family Historian...   Researching my family ancestry has been a passion of mine for the last year or so.  Today, I used the snowy weather as an excuse to do a little research.  Oh wait, I don't need ANY kind of excuse to do family research. And I do some kind of research EVERY day. Each family I am researching has it's own notebook and now 3 ring binder.  Earlier this week I learned to read an old German script called Kurrent that has been used to keep records in Germany since the 1500's. By learning this I was able to decipher my great-great grandmother's maiden name on my great grandmother's  baptismal record.  She has been a total mystery for me.  I'm hoping this information helps me to find more information on her. I can trace my Dad's mother's family in Germany back to the late 1600's though.  If this job paid a little better, I'd gladly make it my full time profession.