Category Archives: Personal Research

Week 12 Prompt: 12 This week’s 52 Ancestors theme is the number 12. My brain went to the year 1912, and I was curious to see who in my family died in 1912.

Week 11 Prompt: Large Family This week’s 52 Ancestors theme is “Large Family.”Coming from lines where the recent generations were small families, a “large family” to me is anything over three children! But I digress. When I saw this prompt, I immediately thought of one of my collateral families that I work with quite frequently. Since this is Week 11 of the challenge, the fact that this family consisted of 11 children is fitting.

Week 10 Prompt: Bachelor Uncle This week’s 52 Ancestors theme is “Bachelor Uncle.” My great-granduncle Joseph Webster Garrison holds a special place in my heart. Even though I didn’t know him, it was because of him that I learned about my eligibility for the Daughters of the American Revolution, as he was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution. I am fortunate to have an SAR membership card for him among my family papers. With that in hand, I was able to get a copy of his SAR […]

Week 9 Prompt: At the Courthouse This week’s 52 Ancestors theme is “At the Courthouse.” I have various court-related events among my family. But one in particular has always made me wonder…why? My second great-grandparents Timothy McMahon and Sarah Jane Ward were both living in Chicago, but decided to get married before a judge in Lake County, Indiana, instead of locally in a church. I believe Lake County may be something akin to a Gretna Green, although I haven’t looked into it in any depth, primarily because nothing in their […]

Week 8 Prompt: Family Photo This week’s 52 Ancestors theme is “family photo.” Here are some of my favorites. Me with My Parents

Week 7 Prompt: Love This week’s 52 Ancestors theme is “love.” I thought it would be interesting to see if anyone in my family married on Valentine’s Day, since that’s tomorrow. As it turns out, I do have relatives that married on that special day.

Week 5 Prompt: At the Library This week’s 52 Ancestors theme is “at the library.” Couldn’t have come at a better time since I’m heading to Salt Lake City next week and plan to spend a day researching at the Family History Library. I will be focusing on two German branches. Unfortunately, these are records that are digitized, but I cannot access them even at a Family History Center, as only LDS members can view them. So microfilm it is. On tap are my Stoffel/Braun family (which I blogged about […]

Week 3 Prompt: Unusual Name This week’s 52 Ancestors theme is unusual names. I thought I’d focus on one of my German surnames for this theme. A few years ago, I attended the 2016 Jamboree live stream of Fritz Juengling’s lecture “German Names: Their Origins, Meanings and Distribution.” It was extremely fascinating and I got all sorts of ideas. Some of my German surnames are obvious: Müller = occupational surname for a miller Schwartz = descriptive surname, probably someone with black hair But other surnames are not so obvious. One […]