My Family History Month 2013 To-Do List

Here’s a rainy day project idea. Peruse the surnames of your direct line ancestors and jot down a question or two you’d like answered for each name on your list. My list is below: Françoise ADAM (my French 6th great-grandmother): when/where was she born? when/where did she marry Jean Schmitt? Magnus ÅMAN (my Swedish 4th great-grandfather):…

Reasons to Research

How many names are in your tree? How far back have you gone? If you’ve ever told anybody that you are climbing your family tree, chances are you’ve heard these questions more than once. The answer I’d like to give? Ugh. Why? Because I’m not a collector of names and dates; I collect stories. Some…

September Anniversaries

Ah, wedded bliss. Not always the case in my family tree: My great-grandmother divorced her first husband and gave away their three children. A few years later Esther Ingeborg CLARIN married Charles Fredrick OTTO in Chicago, Cook, Illinois. I located their 10 Sept 1918  marriage certificate on familysearch.org where Esther’s name was indexed as Esther Kerien Wamgel…

August Birthdays

Happy August birthday to my incredibly wonderful husband and to our beautiful granddaughter, to my sister, my paternal grandfather, my uncle Bob, my cousin Bill, my grand-uncle Bud, and my first cousin once removed Faith. Birthdays among my (possibly) German Clarkes: A second great grand-aunt Zora E CLARKE was born in Maryland on the 19th of August…