About 5 years ago, maybe longer, I did some on-line inquiring about Joseph and Franziska (Fuchs) Janson, and got a reply from a man named August Gruelich, in California. He'd been researching the family for years. Our 'common ancestor' was through my Grandmother, Franziska Fuchs, and the connection was two or three generations back.
He eventually sent me the family tree gleaned from church records and a family record book he has access to.
I thought it was cool, and filed it away.
About that same time, I became online friends with Larry in Georgia, who's turned out to be a highly skilled researcher, and a genealogy nut to boot! When we started talking "family"--OMG--he kept finding articles, photos and related trees online, and asking me if they pertained! Some, I recognized. Some connected with both sides of my family thru the village of Buckman, Minnesota....only a few didn't connect at all.
Sheesh. When he sent me a copy of FamilyTreeMaker for my birthday, what could I do? Ever since, we've been doggedly looking for Nabers, Fuchs and Jansons while searching for dad's family, too....lol
There's more and more online these days--original American and European records, maps, and scholarly articles--about our forebearers lives in general. It's possible now to better understand their mindsets and the living conditions they left behind...and what they were looking for, here. It's a fascinating story.
My grandfather, Anton Janson, was a year old when he, his parents and siblings emmigrated. He was their 5th child ( 3 more were born here). One family story was that Joseph and his cousin, John, and HIS family, left Balzfeld and Horrenburg, Germany, at night, by row boat, floating down the river to Amsterdam, where they boarded a ship to America. And that Wendelin was in charge of the chamber pot, ALL the way....
There are more stories that need checking out, too. That's what this is all about!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment