January 12

I have been working on finding the descendants of Herman Kepke (1861-1921) and Augusta Thielke (1864-1965)

As mentioned yesterday, Augusta had 7 children, 1 with her first husband and he was childless, plus 6 more with Herman her 2^nd husband.

Some of the family appears to have moved from South Dakota to Minnesota. Using GenealogyBank.com, I do find a lot of information on the South Dakota branches. Using Ancestry.com I found a wealth of information on the Minnesota branches.

I did a search of Minnesota records only with the last name of Kepke and hit a bonanza of vital records. So I decided to start printing out the pages for input tomorrow. I know this is not very “green” of me, but I find it’s easier for me to see if I have the record this way. Of the 21 births listed, I only could not connect two of the names. I won’t print these at this time.

When I went to print their birth records, it gave me suggestions of marriages. I decided to print those too. Sometimes it would also suggest a divorce or a death and if they matched, these were printed too.

All these papers will go into my marriage folder for Herman and Augusta. Augusta is the sister of my great grandmother. I create a folder for siblings of my ancestors, and then I put all their descendants into that folder. I hope to print out a report of their descendants to place into this folder too.

Several years ago, I wasn’t able to find much on this branch. It’s amazing how much new information seems to appear on the computers these days. It makes expanding my family slightly easier. Now if only one of these Kepke descendants is also doing research, so we can touch base and fill in more blanks.

Task of the day

January 12 – Start a list of microfilm to order from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Family History Library (FHL) www.familysearch.org for viewing at the local branch Family History Center (FHC). Check each item in the online catalog to be sure it covers the right places and years. Keep in mind when you place your order, don’t order too many, because you might not find enough time to review them all. Start small and see how long one or two films take you to review before going crazy. Check with your local library and check to see they don’t already have it.

I have been finding a lot more information on familysearch.org and you may not need to order as many microfilms as in the past. Starting a list is always a good method, and remember to check out places on-line to see if you can obtain the same information elsewhere.