It’s been a while since I’ve talked about my genealogy work here.
I keep trudging along at things. I’ve added some 60 or more cousins in Germany along the Mayer line, including several who died in World War II serving in the German military. I’ve assumed for the moment they were in the Wehrmacht, but have no real basis for that assumption. At least two were lost in Russia. There’s a good resource for German war dead that I’ll be looking in to soon, but I have little for them to go on at the moment.
I’ve reached out to a cousin-type in the Fulton line, hoping to fill in some blanks there. I’m not sure I ever met either of the two cousins (nieces of my ex-mother-in-law), so I’m not sure how the one will feel when she reads the letter.
The dates and names turn out to be the relatively easy part of what I do. But dates and names are only a tiny part of a history. What I really want are the stories behind the dates. One example is my great-grandfather, Johann Karl Müller. My dad was never able to find out much about him. Dad had JC’s birth record in Germany, and family legend about JC marrying Louisa Schirmer in New York. Then they appear in Texas a few years later, but we haven’t found any records between their apparent marriage in 1872 and the birth of their first child in 1875. So many questions here: Why did he come to America? How did he and Louisa meet, and what led them to Texas? And that’s just one couple out of over 1,500 people and over 500 families!I hope to be able to add more stories and histories to the site as family members connect with me and each other. That’s really what it’s all about to me: connecting and reconnecting, and keeping the history alive.
Watch for format and style changes to the site, too. I’ve always liked the layout that I use, but have started thinking the colors are a little dark, so I’m going to be tweaking those in the weeks ahead.
If you’ve never visited the site, check it out: http://genealogy.ravensbeak.com/. If we’re related, tell me more!
Share your thoughts!