Something had clearly been erased and a new word written in it’s place. I assumed “farmer” was the erased word. That’s the occupation I most often associated with my 2nd great-grandfather William Penrod CLARKE. And optician? Why would the census taker have written that? William was the second of 11 children born to shoemaker Morgan…
I booted up my computer to draft a blog post about my Schmitt ancestors for this Surname Saturday. While things were warming up, I checked email. And found this: 54 is a large number of new hints, which in itself is interesting. More interesting however, are the hints that stem from new collections. What really…
But of her? I really know only that she existed.
Much of Maria’s life remains a mystery. You’d think such a unique surname would help in my search, but I’ve always gotten the the same results: Nothing. Nada. Zip. Then today with my swanky new subscription to Newspapers.com, I did a global search for that German? Russian? Polish? surname. Imagine my surprise when I actually got some hits! The first thing I…
Her son’s 22 Nov 1774 marriage record reads in part, “Christophe GROS fils majeur et légitime des défunts Nicolas GROS en son vivant laboureur de WIRMING et de Catherine BRUN…” Which [in English] reads, “Christophe GROS legitimate son of age [of majority] of the late Nicolas GROS, plowman in Wirming when he was living, and of the…
When I last wrote about my 6th great-grandmother Françoise Adam, I didn’t know very much about her. Her first husband Jean Bouché died in 1737. Françoise married my widowed 6th great-grandfather Jean Schmitt in Boulay, Moselle, Lorraine, France on 02 Sep 1739. The couple had at least three children. Shortly after the birth of her last child in…
I’ve been climbing my family tree since the days of writing letters and reading microfiche. And while I’m still interested in dead people, in 2015 I focused less on the ones related to me [1] and more on those buried in various Midwest cemeteries [2]. Which means my ancestors have been gathering dust. Well not them exactly, but the files…
Literally. According to Google Maps, it was a three-minute walk from 655 W 61st Street to 538 W 61st Street in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood. The other day I wondered about the possibility of my 2nd great-grandmother Elise Mueller and her brother John N. Schmitt attending the same church. I knew they lived near one another (and…
For the past few weeks I’ve been busy indexing records posted online by the Service Départemental d’Archives de la Moselle. I dearly love Microsoft Excel and as the self-appointed indexer of these records, I’m in spreadsheet heaven. But how, you may ask, will this help my genealogical research? My project began as an attempt to more systematically search…
I come from a long line of Tolfs. And that’s quite an accomplishment for a Swede! You see, genealogists researching in Scandinavian countries generally encounter the patronymic naming practice early on. Since Tolf was the first name I added to my family tree, I was fortunate not to have the extra challenge of ever-changing surnames. According to Ancestry.com, Tolf was…
where2look4ancestors 