After many hours of preparation, I gave my first genealogy presentation on Friday! It was to my (wonderful) local genealogy group. We are usually in a bigger room and can hold more attendees, but we were in the computer lab since early voting was taking place. It was a GREAT first experience! The presentation, titled “Tracing German Families Using Online Records,” highlighted my search for my Peters family which I shared “live” on my blog. Besides this case study, I often shared tips for researching German families in Germany.
Searching newspaper sites for an address, instead of a name, can sometimes uncover articles which would not have been found otherwise. 1910 U.S. Census, Wayne County, Michigan, Detroit Ward 9, population schedule, page 12B [written], dwelling 181, family 247, 651 Chene St, Frank Kaechle, image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 16 October 2017), citing National Archives microfilm T624, roll 684. In 1910 the census record for my great grandmother, Anna (Adam) Kaechle, stated she was the mother of seven children with six still living. Since I knew of only six children, I assumed she must have had a seventh child who...
I cannot read German. But, thanks to technology, I can still search German newspapers to find stories of my German relatives. I recently found my first German newspaper story about Jerome Kaechle who was my great grandfather’s younger brother. The article, which I found on Chronicling America, was in the Detroiter Abend-Post on August 4th, 1916. After seeing his name, I painstakingly worked with Google Translate to translate the article. I also sent the article to my dad and shared it on the Genealogy Translations group on Facebook. Combining all of our work, I was able to come up with this...
With a lot of help, I now know the German villages of six of my ancestral families. I “discovered” their origins in a variety of ways. Map showing the origins of six of my “German” families created by Jon R Stewart, Sr. In Order of Discovery: March 2014 Kaechle/Köchle family, maternal side, immigrated from Grißheim, Baden, July 1851 Germany, Select Marriages, 1558-1929 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. Original data: Germany, Marriages, 1558-1929. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013. This breakthrough came with Ancestry.com’s “Germany, Select Marriages” index which showed that Thaddae Koechle married Katharina Kern on August...
I decided to see if I could trace another branch of my family back to Germany: the Werthers. They arrived in July of 1869 on the Carolina. Through Ancestry.com, I have both their New York and Hamburg passenger lists. As I found out while researching my Peters immigrant family, the Hamburg passenger list gives information about the previous residence. In this case, it appears the family came from Bergan or Bergau in Sondershausen. [See middle columns.] Unfortunately, when I go to Meyers Gazeteer, there is not a place called Bergan or Bergau in Sondershausen. “Hamburg Passenger Lists, 1850-1934,” database, Ancestry.com...
In October, I started telling the story of one of my immigrant families: the Peters. My purpose was to find additional details about this family and their immigration, but I ended up tracing them back to Germany! I also broke through a “brick wall” and found their parents, too! This post is a summary of that discovery with links to the posts I shared as I traced this immigrant family. Custom Map Created by My Dad At some point, I heard a lecture or podcast about finding your ancestor’s ship arrival in a New York newspaper. And, that is where...
After locating the church in Bellin, Germany, where my Peters family attended in the late 1850s, my dad found a website that appeared to have a dozen photos of this church. However, the writing was in German. I often copy and paste entire paragraphs into Google Translate which, although it isn’t an accurate translation, helps get me started. But, I’ve been reading “Trace Your German Roots Online” by James M. Beidler, and he had a tip about translating an entire webpage at one time! It’s really quite simple. Paste the URL for the website you are wanting translated directly into...
I spent hours looking for the baptismal record of my great, great, great grandmother, Henriette Maria Magdalena Bünger. I believed she was born on July 15, 1817 in the present day state of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in Germany. I knew her father’s name from her marriage record, Johann David Bünger, but I could NOT find her. I was trying every trick I knew. Then, I remembered MyHeritage and how it had helped me with another German family. I went to the site and put in Henriette’s name. Immediately, I found her on someone’s tree! It not only had her parents full names and dates,...
Although I didn’t get a word by word translation, volunteers at the Facebook group “Genealogy Translations” helped me to translate the marriage record of Joachim Carl Otto Peters and Henriette Maria Magdalena Bünger, my third great grandparents who would later immigrate to America. Ancestry.com, Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1519-1969 (Lehi: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016), online database,marriage record of Joachim Carl Otto Peters and Henriette Maria Magdalena Bünger, 21, July 1843, Dobbertin, Mecklenburg, page 12, item 49. The page this entry was found on was for 1843. The first column shows the date which both the translator and Ancestry...
I started researching our family in 1998, and my dad’s aunt, Beulah, had probably researched several decades before that time. But, discovering the full name of my third great grandparents earlier this week – Joachim Carl Otto Peters and Henriette Mary Magdalena Bünger – busted a hole in our brick wall. Now, it is falling down. [Read part 1 and part 2.] Yesterday morning, I found the marriage record of Joachim and Henriette. It shows the Peters family was from Bergfeld, which is one of the pieces of information I’d learned on Monday. And, most excitingly, the marriage record includes...
