where2look4ancestors

  • Autos Kill Two Great-Grandfathers

    Family stories provide great clues for genealogy research. Even if the whole story turns out to be slightly less than factual, there is often a kernel of truth contained therein. My paternal great-grandmother’s 2nd husband died 27 Feb 1956. My dad’s recollection of Charlie Otto’s death was that he had stepped…

  • Earning a Living during the Depression

    Grandpa was one of the kindest men I have ever known. So two of the family stories about him make me cringe every time I hear them. Born on this day in 1905, John George Walton was a married father of two during the worst days of the Great Depression. Having…

  • A Tale of Two Sisters

    When the two sisters traveled from France to America with their mother and seven of their siblings in 1854, Elisabeth was seven and Christina was just five years old. Hailing from the Lorraine region of France, both girls spoke German. They both attended church and school in their new hometown of Cincinnati Ohio,…

  • She Was Once Young

    When you meet someone who is old, do you think they were always old? Or do you wonder about the path that led them to this place, the events that shaped them into the person standing before you? Ranghild Katarina Henrietta Tolf a.k.a. “Auntie” was my great-grandfather‘s sister. She was a surrogate grandmother…

  • Where Did the Time Go?

    He’ll be 15 years old tomorrow. Where on earth did the time go?

  • Reading Foreign Language Obituaries

    My third-great grandfather Nicholas Schmitt died on this day in 1876 in Cincinnati Ohio. His obituary* appeared in the German-language newspaper The Cincinnati Volksfreund: Transcription: “Todes-Anzeige. Starb am Montag, den 21. Februar 1876, Abends um 11 Uhr, unser innigst geliebter Vater: Nikolaus Schmitt, im Alter von 64 Jahren, geboren in…

  • Fun with Genealogy Files Part 4

    In Fun with Genealogy Files Part 3, I shared my obsessive need desire to create virtual place holders. Ones that match the paper file place holders I made for each of my direct line ancestors. You’ll be pleased to know that I have been plodding along, methodically moving documents into their respective…

  • Single Tasking Day

    Multi-tasking simply doesn’t live up to all the hype. We humans do our best work when we focus, giving each task our full attention. To celebrate that fact today has been declared Single Tasking Day. I, for one, am a big fan.      

  • Life Interrupted

    She’s buried at Oak Woods Cemetery in Chicago. Until recently, I didn’t know much more than that about Waity Chandler Plum. According to the marriage certificate below, she was 32 years old when she married Carl E. Plum in July of 1901: She would not survive to celebrate their first…

  • Genealogy Random Acts of Kindness

    “At one time there were thousands of volunteers in every U.S. state” who volunteered their time and genealogical expertise to an organization called RAOGK – Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness according to a new organization by the same name. For years I both volunteered and employed volunteers many times. Genealogy is…