Tag Archives: Family: Rottman

Week 46 Prompt: Poor Man This week’s 52 Ancestors theme is ”Poor Man.” I decided not to go the monetary route. Instead, I’m going the emotional route; a sad story about my second great-grandfather—poor Philip. As I’ve stated in this blog before, Philip Rottman is one of my biggest brick walls. I have managed to unravel some of his story and it’s a sad one. Here’s what I know. Philip and his wife Mary Eva had eight children, two of whom died as infants. After the family finally settled in […]

Week 34 Prompt: Tragedy This week’s 52 Ancestors theme is”Tragedy.” I wrote about this briefly ten years ago. Before writing this post, I set out to correlate all the information I had regarding the death of my great-grandfather George Rottman. Here’s what I’ve been able to glean. There were ten newspaper clippings related to his death in my family files—I also found four additional articles. The short story is that George “fell” off a streetcar, suffered skull fractures, and died hours later. But there are various versions of what really […]

Week 33 Prompt: Comedy This week’s 52 Ancestors theme is”Comedy.” I really couldn’t think of anything, so I enlisted the help of my mom. Here’s a cute little story about my maternal grandparents, as told by my mom. “Soooo, once upon a time my mom and dad were having an argument. Mom was very upset. She had been making a pie and thought it turned out pretty good. Mom always had a heck of a time making a pie crust and she thought this one was the best. Well, during […]

Week 29 Prompt: Challenging This week’s 52 Ancestors theme is”Challenging.” First thought—brick walls! Ten years ago (almost to the date!), I wrote about all of my German brick walls at that time. They were all tied to an immigrant ancestor, and were mainly self-imposed due to a lack of knowledge in researching German ancestors. A lot has changed in the last ten years. My understanding of German research has soared, my ability to decipher the German language has grown, and the availability of online records has multiplied. I can take […]

Week 24 Prompt: Dear Diary This week’s 52 Ancestors theme is”Dear Diary.” I actually do have a “diary” that belonged to my maternal grandmother. It’s really a travel log, where she recorded where she went, what she did, and expenses.   I posted about it back in 2010 with a goal of someday transcribing the journal. Sadly, it’s been over nine years and I have yet to do that. So, today, I’m setting a goal to first digitize the entire journal, and then transcribe it, by April 29, 2020. Why […]

Week 20 Prompt: Nature This week’s 52 Ancestors theme is “Nature.” Boy, this month’s themes are certainly lending themselves to photos, so why stop now. Here’s another favorite of my maternal grandmother. This was taken in the mid- to late 1980s in front of her favorite redbud tree in the backyard.

Week 18 Prompt: Road Trip This week’s 52 Ancestors theme is Road Trip.” After wrestling with ideas for this theme, I decided to focus on my maternal grandmother. My nana loved to take road trips. Her and papa would go all sorts of places. Even after he died, she still traveled, even though she did not drive (mind you, she did have a driver’s license, but she never drove). My mom was usually her travel companion, and sometimes I would tag along.

Week 16 Prompt: Out of Place This week’s 52 Ancestors theme is “Out of Place.” The one family that comes to mind is my Rottman clan, that seemed to roam the country starting in 1870. Philip Rottman and Mary Eva Reeder (or Lasser) are second great-grandparents on my maternal side. They have been the most difficult to research (and continue to be so).