July Theme’s and Week 27: The Great Outdoors (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

The theme for Week 27 is "The Great Outdoors." (It's ironic that's the theme this week, considering I've had to stay inside most of the time due to smoke from the Canadian wildfires. Yes, I'm in Ohio.) Has your family enjoyed hunting, fishing, camping, or hiking? Or maybe their experiences with nature weren't so pleasant. Either way, this is the week to write about it. Click here to check out all the themes for 2023.

This week, I am writing my story for “The Great Outdoors”. As a child, my family went on 3-week camping trips during the summer, mostly in the month of July. My father, as a bachelor married a widow with six children and then had three more. I am the youngest.

Anyway, when I was about 4 or 5, my parents borrowed my aunt and uncle’s camper to see if they would like camping. I don’t remember much of that trip. We went down to New Orleans; I have a few memories of that city. I remember eating at a restaurant, which is something we rarely did with a family of eleven. I remember the hamburger I got was the size of the plate, at least that is how I remembered it. Story has it that a hurricane hit the area shortly after we left the area.

The camping trip must have been a success because my parents bought a pop-up camper that had an awning room addition, where my parent’s slept on cots. I can tell you; those cots were not comfortable; I don’t know how my parent’s survived. Well, they only did that a few years, because soon, the oldest kids had moved out of the house and they slept in the camper. I mostly remember camping with my three sisters and one or two brothers.

We traveled all over the United States and Canada over the years. By the time I was 18, there was only about 2 states I hadn’t visited, Alaska and Hawaii. I finally visited Alaska in May of 2022. I went to Hawaii in 1997 and in 2002, I will be going this October to celebrate my 40th wedding anniversary.

My love for history was developed during those trips, we visited many historical homes and sites. I was amazed how our ancestors lived. I learned how to read a map, because lucky me, I got motion sickness and was delegated to the front seat, between my parents. I would follow our route on the map, learned about how highways were numbered, how mile markers work while traveling through the states. 

As any normal child, I didn’t appreciate the trips when they happened, being away from my friends for 3 weeks every summer seemed like a life time. Plus, it was usually during the county fair, and I only managed to see maybe two when growing up. I even missed going to my friend’s wedding during my 17th summer, after graduation because we were camping.

My parents did trade in the pop-up camper for an Argosy trailer (a painted Airstream) when I was in sixth or seventh grade. I felt like we were in luxury. It had a TV, bathroom, A/C and heat. My parent’s slept on the pull-out sofa and my three siblings and I slept on bunks that folded down to couches that faced each other. My parents sold that camper a few years after I got married. It was easier for them to just get hotel rooms for vacation. 

I tried tent camping a few times with my husband and children. However, my husband never enjoyed camping, being a farmer boy, he just didn’t get the thrill of being that close to nature. I still long for camping and I would love to have a small Class C RV so that I could travel with my cats and not worry about finding someone to come and feed them. 

I think a Class C RV would come in handy for genealogy road trips. I could bring all my necessary supplies. How convenient it would be when visiting those remote cemeteries and you need a potty break. Plus, I could park at the cemetery and make a day of it and still have all the amenities of home. My husband could stay in the Camper in the parking lot while I was researching in a courthouse, library, or other repository. He could always explore the area too, no more worrying about finding a place to eat.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

Week 26: Slow (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – 2023 Version)

The theme for Week 26 is "Slow." We living in a rapid world. Everything seems instantaneous. What is something an ancestor did that would seem slow by today's standards? (Farming and laundry come to my mind.) What about a line that has been slow for you to research? Click here to check out all of the themes for 2023.

Last week I talked about how Genealogy is not Fast, but some things with Genealogy seem to take forever. I remember when I started my Genealogy journey back when I was 20 years old, that was forty years ago. Anyway, if we couldn’t visit the repository, we might have to write for information. 

I kept a correspondence log to record my outgoing correspondence and then would patiently, or not so patiently, wait for a response. It wasn’t uncommon for months and even years to go by before hearing anything back. My mailbox became my wishing well.

I would write to older family members, introducing myself by giving my parent’s names and ask specific questions, such as “Do you know who your maternal or paternal (depending on which side I was needing) grandparents were?” I would send them a pedigree chart, and many didn’t know how to fill it out, so I made sure I would start with the information I had about them, their parents and ask for the next few generations. Whatever they knew. I even sent family group sheets to know more about them and their children.

I had people write back and attach their own hand-drawn charts that I didn’t know what I was looking at. It didn’t matter, they replied. Many didn’t. I even had a reply many years later, when a spouse was going through her deceased husband’s files and found my letter. It arrived when he was alive, but he set it aside. Oh, the information that was lost when he died.

I still have the treasured letters, I have scanned them and placed them into my computer, however, I have also kept the originals. They seem too valuable to just toss after I scanned them. These are one-of-a-kind letters, with valuable family information, I will never throw them away.

Talk about slow, scanning all my documents from pre-computer days, I purchased my first computer back in 1988. But scanning didn’t really become affordable or easy until about the early 2000’s. I had a hand-held scanner before that, but for big scans, you had to scan sections and piece them together. Plus, you had to be smooth with your movement. Later I purchased a flat-bed scanner and just placed the sheet on the scanner. It did an okay job, but still it was a lot of work sometimes just to get my computer to talk to the scanner. Plus, it took up so much space, I had my hubby create a small roll out table that stored underneath my desk when not in use. Now I have an all-in-one printer, that prints, faxes, scans, copies, and web. Even though I don’t fax because I don’t have a landline, I can fax by scanning and sending it through a special online website. Anyway, the scans are so much nicer and in color. Plus, with smart phones, we have scanners on our phones, just take a picture, send it to our email and like magic, we have a scan or copy of whatever we want!

Now the only thing slow might be my internet connection. If I am on the road and want to look something up, my bandwidth might be slow or not found. Then I would have to wait until I was in a better reception area. 

Since, not everything is available on-line, many aspects of Genealogy can be slow. It might be months before I am able to take a short road trip to the desired courthouse to view records in person. Or if I send for a request, it might take a while before I hear anything back. Anyone who has sent a request to the state of New York, will tell you that they may still be waiting for over two years. Plus, when Covid reared its ugly head, Genealogy requests took a back burner to all other requests.

I am a firm believer that all good things come to those that wait. But why do we Genealogist have to wait so long.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

Week 25: Fast (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – 2023 Version)

The theme for Week 25 is "Fast." I feel the need... the need for speed! (Yeah, the coffee has kicked in.) This theme might make you think of cars or horses, but it could also be an ancestor who didn't take long to find. Don't forget about names like Quick and Race! Have fun with this theme! Click here to check out all of the themes for 2023.

When I think of Genealogy, Fast is not the first thing that comes to mind. Many years ago, an acquaintance made the following statement “I don’t know why you say Genealogy takes so long, last weekend I went to do my family history and I traced it back to the 1700s. I just went online and found my tree.” My response to her was “How do you know it’s correct? Did you verify everything? Other people’s trees can have errors in them? Are you sure it was really your family?”. She gave me a blank puzzled look. You know the deer in the headlights look. 

Anyway, Genealogy isn’t fast. You might get lucky and find lots of information on a person you are looking for. You know those “green leaves” from Ancestry. Those hints. I had to remind a genealogy friend, a beginner that those Ancestry green leaves are just hints. They have not been verified; they just match your search criteria. A look of horror came over her face as she said, “I just have been accepting all those hints because I thought they were for my person.”

I have also reminded people that Ancestry trees have not been verified by Ancestry or by any employee of Ancestry. That those trees are only as reliable as the person who is doing the research. I stated that I could put anything in my tree, a TV family, a made-up family, just random records that I attach to people in my tree. I am amazed by how many people never stopped to think about this. 

I have gotten some things “Fast” in genealogy. For example, an obituary can provide lots of details about a person, their parents, their spouse, their children, their siblings and in-laws, their grandchildren, and so on. Now usually in an obituary, it just a matter of gathering names and perhaps places where the survivors are currently living or who preceded the person in death. However, with that information, I can usually find more records to expand on the names, birth dates, marriage dates, death dates. But is it fast? Not really, researching the people from an obituary can take me anywhere from an hour to several days. 

Have you followed a line through Find A Grave, you know the links to the parents, siblings, children, and so forth. Keep in mind, that those links are only suggestions from other people. Also, those people who create memorials from obituaries of strangers might even have them listed in the wrong cemetery. This happened when my brother died, someone created a Memorial and placed him in the wrong cemetery. A cemetery by the same name, located near the proper cemetery, but still the wrong cemetery. Plus, obituaries might have wrong information because in my mom’s obituary it listed this same brother as Tom when his name was Tim. A typo can really change everything. Even if there is a picture of the stone, the stone could be wrong. My paternal grandfather has the wrong year of birth on his stone. How do I know, because I did research and found out that he was born in 1899 and not 1900. He was born in Aug of 1899 and appears on a census record for April of 1900. His World War I draft card has Aug 1899 written on it. Thus, I know the 1900 date on his gravestone isn't correct.

So basically, I am saying Genealogy isn’t Fast, we might find an ancestor or relative fast, but seriously, was it fast? How long have you been doing genealogy? I might finally get the names of the next generation on a marriage record, but I might have been trying to figure out where and when they really got married to find that record. I have added 100 people to my tree in one day and on other days, only a handful. 

Seriously, if Genealogy was Fast, won’t everyone be doing it. I enjoy that it isn’t fast. That it is a big puzzle that I must take my time to make sure every piece fits. It not a race for me or to force the pieces to fit.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

June’s Theme and Week 23: So Many Descendants (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – 2023 Version)

The theme for Week 23 is "So Many Descendants." Sometimes when we're researching, we'll come across a set of ancestors who seem to have a gazillion descendants. Who is that in your family tree? Click here to check out all of the themes for 2023.

What I love the best about the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, is the fact it makes me look at my family tree with a new set of eyes. 

I decided to look at my DNA matches and which ancestor(s) seem to have the most descendants who have tested. I decided to look at AncestryDNA and use ThruLines. Now with my disclaimer: You get ThruLines when ancestors from your tree are also in a match’s tree. However, Ancestry will look at other peoples’ trees and build out your matches tree to find common ancestors. Therefore, your match must have a tree attached to their DNA results. Then common ancestors need to match, you might not get a match because they have a different birth, death, or marriage date for an ancestor. Perhaps you use the birth name of an ancestor and your DNA match uses a nickname. Thus, ThruLines are just hints, and I have found lots correct and a few incorrect things. However, the better your tree is built out, the better the ThruLines matches become.

I have a couple, my 4th great-grandparents through my maternal grandmother’s line, Lorentz Hilts (1782-1850) and Margaretha Wartenbach (1785-1850) which have 60 DNA matches. The Hilts/Hiltz line is quite huge. The immigrant ancestor, my 7th great-grandparents Christofel HÜLS and Eva Catherine Engel came to America in 1710. They have at least 10 children. They were the second group of Germans that England invited to populate the new World. However, the lineage between Lorentz and Christofel is not totally proven. It was given to me by a relative, however, I can’t absolutely prove each generation. At least to my satisfaction. 

ThruLines shows 6 descendants for the couple, I only have four of the 6 children. My ancestor has 20 matches, the next child has one that I need to evaluate, the third child has 17, the fourth has 15, the fifth has 5 and the last child has one that I need to evaluate. This branch of the family has a lot of descendants and with repeat names, children sometimes get attached to the wrong parents. This is why I need to evaluate James and Elizabeth. Also, even though it states that Susan needs to be evaluated, I already have Susan in my tree, so perhaps there is more to evaluate. 

I have a custom fact in my Family Tree Maker program for tracking my DNA matches. I noticed I only have 8 DNA matches documented. These are people that I can prove their line down from Lorentz and Margaretha. Therefore, I see another project in my future on verifying the DNA matches for this line. 

I decided to see how many descendants I have for Christofel and his wife Eva and when I export that branch of the family, I get 5362 people. This does include spouses of the descendants, still this is quite a large branch of the family.

If I check how big the export file would be if I choose Lorentz and Margaretha, I get 891 people. This is quite a drop of people. It just shows how quickly a family expands with each generation back we take our trees. 

Thus, if the set of your ancestors seem to have a gazillion descendants, is it because they are your 7th great-grandparents or more? 

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!