Tuesday, December 1, 2009

One more step back in time

It's been six months since I had any luck in furthering the search of my family tree. Last month I wrote a letter to the priest of a small town in Germany, asking for information on my father's ancestors. Today, I received an email with some new information.

Granted, it is a small amount of information, but important. Baby steps at this time. It is only one generation back that I found, but now I am more determined to reach back even further.

Do any of you do research of your ancestry? Thanks to the Internet, it is a lot easier.

5 comments:

  1. This is what I'm going to do when I'm not making sure kids are doing research papers for school! My Husbands family has traced their family to 700ad to a sea captain on the Baltic Sea. We are pretty much all German on both sides. I love ancestry, and how fun it is to get little nuggets from the past.

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  2. Jody, how wonderful your husband's family is traced that far back. My father;s mother's family is back to the 1700's. but his father is the one I am working on now, and just back to 1830. Need lots of work.

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  3. I would love to know more about my ancestors. My paternal grandfather's family came to this country after the Civil War from Germany and I know more about them than my mother's side because of saved obituaries. You're right; the internet has really changed things.
    Sam

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  4. Susan, I think it is important that we know were our ancestors came from. It not only defines who we are, but also allows us to journey back in time.

    I recently moved back to my hometown after leaving 35 years ago, when I headed off to college. Since my return, I have been traveling around to various churches, cemeteries & homes to visit with my great-grandparents, aunts & uncles and grandparents resting spots. It’s kind of like reporting back, letting them know where & what our family has done and achieved. But it also is a way to let them know they are not forgotten.

    Back when I was 16, my grandmother gave me an assignment ~ research the family tree back 4 generations. This was a wonderful gift, more so than an assignment, because it taught me the importance of family past & present. At the end of my search, which took about three years, my grandmother gave me a signet family crust ring, which is my prized possession.

    This journey has given me a love of history, architecture, nature and respect. A journey that continues to this day…. Tomorrow I will be heading up to the old family church ~ Ceder Springs A.R.P. Presbyterian, founded 1779 ~ just outside Greenwood, SC; where my great, great grandfathers were ministers, along with their brothers, uncles & cousins. There I will put wreaths & poinsettias on tombstones dating back to the early 1800’s.

    So, Susan I congratulate your desire to search the origins of your family and the journey you will have doing it.

    Thanks for this wonderful post...

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  5. Good job Susan! I worked on my family genealogy for about 3 years and finally got it done several years ago... but continue to do research here and there. The joy of discovery! Some of it is so difficult to find, but when you find a treasure following months of looking for it... well, cannot explain that to others... but you know.

    I was able to take my paternal grandparents back to Germany and 1700, and maternal grandparents to 1700 in Lithuania, but that will be all as any records prior to that time are non-existent, at least for the Lithuanian. The most wonderful gift for me was to travel to Lithuania and meet "family", those I had discovered and of course they knew nothing of us... an emotional time for us all.

    Keep pluggin'. And as you say, without the internet this never would have happened.

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