Week 7: Immigration (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – 2024 Version)

The theme for Week 7 is "Immigration." For many people, genealogy starts with a desire to know where our family came from. This week, consider an immigrant ancestor: where they came from, why they came, or how different their life was between their "old country" and their new one. Click here to check out all the 2024 prompts.

When I started my journey, 40+ years ago, my goal was to trace my lineage back to my Immigrant Ancestors. I was always told that my lineage was of more recent immigrants, those that came in the mid 1800’s. 

Image my surprise to find a few Revolutionary Patriots. They are of German descent who came to American between 1700 and 1710. In 1709 a group known as the Palatines made the journey from the Palatinate region of Germany. Palatines had trickled into British America since their earliest days. The first mass migration, however, began in 1708. Queen Anne's government had sympathy for the Palatines and had invited them to go to America and work in trade for passage. Official correspondence in British records shows a combined total of 13,146 refugees traveled down the Rhine and or from Amsterdam to England in the summer of 1709. Many died on the way over on crowded ships, but around 21,00 survived and settled in New York. 

A couple of books I used to research these two different branches of my family were “Early Families of Herkimer County New York, Descendants of the Burnetsfield Palatines” by William V.H. Barker and "Compendium of Early Mohawk Valley Families” by Maryly B. Penrose.

My 7th great grandfather is most likely, Christofel HÜLS, born about 1868 and died between 1725-1757. I say most likely, because my lineage from my 4th great grandfather to Christofel is not completely proven by me. I have some DNA matches through my 4th great grandfather, however, I haven’t really worked fully on this branch of the family because of the vast size of this family and the repeated names from generation to generation and brother’s naming their sons similar and many were born about the same year too. Christofel appears on the NY Palatine subsistence list of 1710 and 1712. The spelling through the years has changed from HÜLS to Hiltz or Hilts. Both spellings are being used by modern day descendants. Christofel’s grandson, Lorentz Hiltz (1754-1836) is the Patriot according to a pension record I found. However, I wasn’t able to prove my lineage to him.

My 6th great grandfather is Johannes Spanknable. He is my registered Daughters of the American Revoluation patriot, and thus he is my proven line. Johannes was born in 1747 in Germany. His Probate Abstract list him (of Palatine). His father-in-law, Johannes Philip Kring also might be a Revolutionary Patriot who served in the Tryon County Militia. However, this is a line I haven’t had a chance to full investigate. Plus, no one has yet proven him as a patriot through DAR.

Remember to have fun and Just Do Genealogy!

Week 6: Social Media (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – 2023 Version)

The theme for Week 6 is "Social Media." Social media can connect us to people we otherwise wouldn't have encountered. Have you made a family history discovery via social media? (What about in the social column of their newspaper -- that was basically their Facebook!) Have you ever imagined how an ancestor would have used social media? Write about it this week. Click here to check out all of the themes for 2023.

The Social column of newspapers can be gold mines. They report who is visiting whom, who is feeling ill, sometimes it will tell of surprise parties. Even marriages can be hidden in these social columns along with who from out of town is visiting for a funeral.

In this clipping I saved on Edward Hilts; I see “Mr. and Mrs. Clemons will occupy the house which Mr. Clemons recently purchased of Edward Hilts, December 1st. Mr. Hilts will move his family into the Bojus house at Fayetteville.” So I can see that he moved, in case I lost track of him, or wondered if this was the same Edward Hilts in this area. 

Look at the other postings in this little clipping, there are six different reporting’s in this little article.

This article told me about a Monument erected for my ancestor, Johannis Spangable (Johannes Spanknable as known with the Daughters of the American Revolution.). It even mentions that they have been unable to pinpoint the correct spelling of the surname.

I decided to create a Facebook page for my Revolutionary Ancestor, since I saw that 13 other people joined DAR with this Patriot. I created the Johannes Spanknable page so descendants of Johannes could connect. Also, when I write a blog post that involve the Sponable family, I create a Facebook post on this page to link back to the blog post. I have received positive feedback, I even received information or resources about the Sponable family. In fact, I read a little blurb in the newspapers that stated some library or museum had some papers of Johannes Spanknable which I wrote a blog post titled "#476 - Johannes Spanknable (1747-1825)." One of the followers of this page, stated they were going to the archive and they obtained copies of the papers and they shared them with me. 

Even though reading the social column of old newspapers can be time consuming, it is much easier if you have access to them via online either through a paid or free service. I remember many days of having to drive to the local library and using the microfilm reader machine and scrolling through numerous films. Now I have access to newspapers from all over the United States and elsewhere. I can type in a surname and the online website looks for the articles for me. Or I can go to a specific newspaper from that area (if available on line) and manual page through the newspaper looking for these little social columns.

I use Twitter to follow other genealogist to learn about resources or even to hear about their discoveries. I belong to many Facebook genealogy related groups to help me refine my genealogy skills, whether to get the most of my genealogy software package, or a genealogy website or just genealogy skills in general. I have even connected with a few distant relatives in these groups.

Remember to have fun and Just Do Genealogy!

Week 18: Social (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

Week 18's theme is "Social." Maybe you have a story or photo of an ancestor at an ice cream social. Maybe your ancestor was part of a society, like the Masons or Odd Fellows. Maybe you've made a connection with a cousin or made a great discovery thanks to social media. Whatever it is, write it down! Click here to check out all the themes for 2022.

When I think of social and genealogy, I think of collaboration.  

I started my first major collaboration with my maternal Aunt Mary. I have two Aunt Mary’s; both my mother and father have a sister Mary. Anyway, I never realized that my Aunt Mary was interested in genealogy until I attended a family reunion in 1990 and my aunt had started a family history book on her maiden name. She was a retired teacher; while I had a computer degree and I proposed that we work together to compile a formal book. Over the next year we visited courthouses, libraries, cemeteries and even relatives and collected information, family stories and I typed all the information up into Word Perfect. 

We published “The Hafenstein Family” in 1991 and did one update in 1992. Many years later, I managed to scan the entire book and created a version that family can purchase through LuLu and you can find it here. Keep in mind, this book is 30 years old and many updates have occurred in our family, including the birth of my fourth child and the death of my aunt. However, this book is a snapshot of our work from 1992. This was my start with documenting and sharing of my genealogy research. 

Through the years, I have connected with many distant cousins who were generous in sharing their genealogy research. Some shared written genealogies, some share specific documents, I even had one visit a courthouse and surprised me with my 2nd great grandfather’s will. A type document that I never really explored until I received it.

It is with these social connections that allowed me to expand my tree, expand my research skills and to develop friendships along the way.  This is one of the reason’s I started a blog. A way to share my research and skills with others. I even started a Facebook page for my Revolutionary Patriot, Johannes Spanknable and I have connected with various descendants. A cousin had a family site on the now defunct website of MyFamily which I turned into a private Facebook group. However, I spent many hours, downloading all the data on the site and shared with my distant relatives by sending them CD’s with this information. My relatives took me up on my offer.

So my advice, don’t be afraid to be social with your genealogy. Create small books on your family branches and share them with your siblings or other relatives. Don’t be afraid that it’s not perfect, or that it’s not complete. My personal genealogy motto that I didn’t come up with is “I think I shall never see a finished genealogy”. Thus, share what you have, it is a snapshot of what you found as of that day. People are born every day, people get married and unfortunately, people die too and thus we will never be done. Start somewhere and share what you have.

Remember, Just do Genealogy!