SNGF – Ahnentafel Roulette No. 2

Note: After reviewing my Ahnentafel with greater care, I found that Jane Ebrey is No. 23 on my ancestor table while Marianna Stocker is No. 19. See Saturday, September 19,  for Ancestor 19.

This week’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun is Ahnentafel Roulette, a game played using your father’s age and a quick formula to find a number in your Ahnentafel or ancestry table.

My father was born in 1919 so would have been 90 this year. The figure 90 divided by 4 is 22.5, rounded up to 23. Ancestor 23 is a second-great grandmother on your paternal side.

My Ancestor 23 is Jane Ebrey, born about October 1839 in Prees, Shropshire, England. I say “about” because the many records I have for her show her birth year ranging from 1837 to 1855!  I suspect the 1837-1839 period is right, as census records give her age as 14 in 1851 and 22 in 1861.

To date I have not found a birth record for her, either through IGI or FreeBMD. I’ve even searched the latter for the name Jane in Shropshire, September 1837 through December 1840, hoping for a unique surname spelling, but no luck.

Research by a cousin showed Jane’s parents were Thomas Ebrey and Anne, and her uncle was Robert Ebrey, a widower for whom she kept house as we know from the 1861 Census in England.  While many records are available about Robert and another uncle, John Gilchrist Ebrey, Jane’s father Thomas Ebrey is illusive in the records. There is enough evidence to know these people are her family, but more research is needed!

The happy and romantic story for Jane Ebrey is her marriage to Benjamin Booth in the second quarter of 1866, perhaps in May or June,  the same time that her cousin Henry [Robert’s son] married Sarah Booth, sister to Benjamin.

Then Benjamin and Jane sailed for America on their honeymoon, according to family lore, coming to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where they established  family and career. They had two sons and four daughters including the oldest daughter, Grace, who is my great-grandmother.

Relative Musings:  Jane and Benjamin arrived in 1866, just 31 years after the building of Milwaukee had begun in the woods and swamps at a harbor on Lake Michigan and just 20 years after incorporation as a city. Benjamin’s carpentry skills played a role in the building of what has become a great city on a Great Lake!

NOTE: What is an Ahnentafel? The word is German for Ancestor table. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahnentafel

Thanks for the SNGF, Randy! http://www.geneamusings.com/

Please follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/BBPetura

Please join my group Finding Family for Free at GenealogyWise:
http://tiny.cc/GWFindingFamilyforFree

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SNGF – Ahnentafel Roulette

Note: After reviewing my Ahnentafel with greater care, I found that Marianna Stocker is No. 19 on my ancestor table. See the posting for Sunday, September 20, for Ancestor 23.

This week’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun is Ahnentafel Roulette, a game played as follows:
> Determine how old your father is or would be this year
> Divide that number by 4 and round up
> Find the ancestor in your own Ahnentafel chart who fills the slot with that number
> And then tell us three things about that ancestor.

My father Donald Custer Bradley was born in 1919 so would be 90 this year. The figure 90 divided by 4 is 22.5, rounded up to 23. Ancestor 23 is a second-great grandmother on your paternal side.

My ancestor 23 is Marianna Stocker, b. 18 Jun 1826 near Zweisimmen in Canton Bern, Switzerland, one of 11 children of Jacob Stocker and Magdalena Werren.

A family tree notes that Jacob and many of his children came to America, with other evidence showing their arrival about 1852-1854. Marianna settled in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin.

On 31 March 1857, Marianna married Joachim Speich, who had come in 1847  to Wisconsin from Luchsingen, Glarus, Switzerland, and they had 2 sons and 3 daughters, the youngest being Caroline Belle Speich, my great-grandmother.

Relative Musings:  Both Marianna and Joachim came from German-speaking regions of Switzerland so would have felt at home among the many German immigrants in mid-19th century Milwaukee. On the other hand, they surely missed the beautiful high mountains of Switzerland, their native home, as they lived in a pioneer city on Lake Michigan in the flat Midwest of the USA.

I am grateful for the research done by cousins on these Stocker and Speich ancestors and graciously shared!

NOTE: What is an Ahnentafel? The word is German for Ancestor table. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahnentafel

Thanks for the SNGF, Randy! http://www.geneamusings.com/

Please follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/BBPetura

Please join my group Finding Family for Free at GenealogyWise:
http://tiny.cc/GWFindingFamilyforFree

Genealogy Queries Work

Using queries in genealogy and family history research goes way back, but how they’re published has changed dramatically.  All for the better!

In the past, queries were mailed to genealogy newsletters and magazines, waited in line for space, and eventually went out the subcribers of the particular periodical. They must have worked as the query method remained popular.

Today, queries go via emails to genealogy discussion groups or onto Web pages tailored for queries. They’re organized by surname or geographical area or unique topic of interest. And the posting is either instantaneous or as soon as a moderator reviews and approves the query.

And many query sites allow the search engines to spider their content, so a surname search in Google or Bing can turn up queries your cousins have posted on your own family. How exciting is that!

Here are some good places to post queries online, for free:

GenForums – This is a very large collection of forums for surnames, countries, regions of countries and special topics. Post a query both in a surname forum and location forum. These work!

Message Boards – an integrated system for RootsWeb.com and Ancestry.com, free for all to use whether you access them from RootsWeb or Ancestry. See article about them.

CousinConnect – This site lets you post queries as well as browse and search them.

Progenealogists Free Queries – Post and search queries.

For many more resources about on this topic, visit the Queries page at Cyndi’s List here.

As you work on a surname or ancestor, post queries on all of the places relevant to that person or family. You may strike the proverbial pay dirt. I have so I know these work. Happy searching!

This is one in a series of genealogy and family history research articles with ideas to help you find your family and ancestors at little or no cost. Please follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/BBPetura

BBPetura on Twitter

Using Twitter is a fun way to meet genealogists, get tips on new family history resources and record research progress.  And also to follow news media, experts on archaeology and gardening, and more! Unique diary! Here are some of my recent tweets:

9/12/2009

Wisconsin 1875 Census on FamilySearch with index & scans is great! Ancestors Benjamin Church & Sherman A. Bradley in Milwaukee!

RT @Palaeogeek Thirty thousand year-old colored twine found in Georgia: http://is.gd/37AYC | Europe that is!

Beautiful day so I enjoyed a visit to Living in the Garden north of #Pullman for fall #flowers, food treats: http://tiny.cc/LvngInGrdn9

RT @Cherryteatime Condense #genealogy w/geography – Suffolk, Shropshire, Yorkshire ENG, Glarus SWISS, Pomerania, Holstein, Trier GER, more!

My http://books.google.com/ search – ancestor Ferdinand Hachez did weather observations 1865, helped found a hail insurance company 1870

#Genealogy tip: At least once a year, search for your ancestors in old books & documents at http://books.google.com/ Great finds possible!

Great idea: search anew for ancestors’ info on their birthday. Thanks @mjnrootdig for #Genealogy tip of the day: http://tinyurl.com/Bdays9

9/9/2009

RT @jefferymartin Skull has been found that rewrites the history of man — http://bit.ly/ypKRY | And woman we presume!

9/7/2009

Try to be a generous genealogy volunteer and help others find their families! See an example at Relative Musings: http://tiny.cc/RMsng939

Labor Day #genealogy – Ancestor Sherman A. Bradley was a carpenter, then pumpmaker, owned Badger Pump, Milwaukee. Pumps then made of wood!

Labor Day #genealogy – Ancestor John Nicholas Luehr was stonemason & farmer in late 1800s. His hard work meant two sons could go to college!

Labor Day #genealogy – Ancestor Benjamin Church, pioneer carpenter in 1835 in Milwaukee, from Ulster County, NY: http://tiny.cc/BnjChurch35

Labor Day #genealogy – Both of my grandmothers, Beatrice and Lucille, were teachers before marrying: one home ec, one elementary school.

Labor Day #genealogy – William Henry Luehr was a newspaper publisher, a school teacher & principal in Wisconsin: http://tiny.cc/WHLuehr

Labor Day #genealogy – Martin Friedrich Bruss came to Milwaukee from Cammin, Pomerania, to continue family tradtion of ship building, 1839.

Labor Day #genealogy fun: tweet about the labors of your ancestors – any of their occupations a suprise? a family tradition? Please RT!

9/6/2009

Amazed at my Hachez ancestors’ migrations: Brugge, Belgium, to Bremen, Germany, to village of New Holstein, Wisconsin, in 1854!

Just finished replying to a distanct cousin in Germany about the Hachez family of 3 who came to Wisconsin in 1854: http://tiny.cc/FHHachez

Note: The hash # tags and at @ tags you see above don’t work outside Twitter! You can find those tweeting by putting their Twitter handle after http://twitter.com/. Mine, for example, is http://twitter.com/BBPetura.  Please follow me!

Genealogy: Giving Back

Almost everyone doing family history research is helped by genealogists who have contributed their family trees or transcribed and posted family information online. Or volunteered to do look ups or answer questions on discussion groups. 

One of the first helpful transcriptions that I found was the obituary of my third great-grandfather Nicholas Boie who came to Wisconsin in 1854 from Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, with wife Cecilia and young daughter Elise. With one obituary, a wealth of family detail was discovered.

In turn, it is important to give back and contribute resources in ways that work  for you. Here are some materials I have donated to the Calumet County, Wisconsin, genealogy site, the same site that has the Boie obituary:

Obituaries – New Holstein, Wisconsin

Ferdinand Hachez, son of Ferdinand and Louise Hachez, husband of Elise Boie, father of many children including Clara

Clara Hachez Luehr, daughter of Ferdinand Hachez and Elise Boie Hachez, wife of William Henry Luehr, mother of Lucille Marguerite and Robert William Luehr

Mathilde Agnes “Tillie” Boie Sebelein, younger sister of Elise Boie Hachez and wife of Charles Sebelein

John August Hansen, husband of Lena Boie, sister to Elise Boie Hachez and Tillie Boie Sebelein

Anna Margretha Groth Luehr, wife of John Nicholas Luehr, mother of four sons: John, William Henry, Edward and Arthur

John Claudius Luehr, son of John Nicholas Luehr and Anna Groth Luehr, husband of Wilhelmina Kroehnke, father of three

William Henry Luehr, son of John Nicholas Luehr and Anna Groth Luehr, husband of Clara Hachez Luehr, father of Lucille Marguerite and Robert William Luehr.

Dr. Edward Luehr, son of John Nicholas Luehr and Anna Groth Luehr, husband of Louisa Holdenreid, father of two

Lydia Luehr, daugher of John Claudius and Wilhelmina Kroehnke Luehr

These are posted in the Obituaries section of the Calumet County, Wisconsin, Genealogy and History site.

Biographies – New Holstein, Wisconsin

William Henry Luehr, Wisconsin journalist, publisher, educator, principal and state government official.

This biography is posted on the Calumet County, Wisconsin, Genealogy and History site.

I also created a New Holstein genealogy and history guide on the Web that is filled with names of early pioneers and links to family and history resources.

Obituaries – Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin

Here are three obituaries I have donated to the genealogy site for Sheboygan County, which is east of Calumet County:

Lucille Marguerite Luehr Conger, daughter of William Henry Luehr and Clara Hachez Luehr, wife of Howard Dale Conger, mother of a son and a daughter

Howard Dale Conger, son of Robert Owen Conger and Eda Dell Morey Conger, husband of Lucille Marguerite Luehr Conger, father of a son and a daughter

Mary Schneider Bradley, daughter of Fred and Elisabeth Schneider of Plymouth, and second wife of Sherman A. Bradley of Milwaukee

Become a genealogy volunteer and help others find their families!

This is one in a series of genealogy and family history research articles with ideas to help you find your family and ancestors. Please follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/BBPetura