Fishing With A Guide, or What I Found at the ACPL Today

If you've read my blog before and seen my Bucketed List post, you will know that one of the things I've done is to go fishing in Alaska.  On that trip my friends and I commented more than once about how very glad we were that we had decided to hire a guide.  Not only did he row the boat (no noisy motors for us!) but he also helped us as much or little as we each needed.  For me, not being a "fisher-person", I was more than happy to let him bait the hook, take the fish off etc.  Nancy's husband Bob, on the other hand, needed nothing more than for the boat to stop and he was ready to fish.

So, what, you might ask, does this have to do with genealogy??  Have I change from "Random Relatives" to simply Random??  Nope - it's just that the last few days a small group of us have been enjoying the Allen County Public Library with Michael John Neill (who writes the great Casefile Clues) as our "guide."

Today was a great example of what this meant for me.  I have been discussing one of my German relatives with Michael.  William Eickelberg was born in Germany in 1863 and came to this country as a small child.  [picture is William Eickelberg as a young man with his family in about 1887/1888]  I've felt fortunate that in one of the census records I've found (1880, Meigs Co, Ohio) it is  specifically noted as "Mechlinberg."  Even better, on a passport application that I had found on Ancestry.com it showed that he had been born in Mecklenburg Strelitz.

Certainly that narrows it down - and Mecklenburg Strelitz is the smaller of the two Duchies of Mecklenburg - but still it's not enough to look at church records.  I needed a town.  Well to condense this somewhat - yesterday evening I found the passenger list for the family!  Not only that but I had a few lessons re-learned along the way.

I had actually seen this in an index earlier and dismissed it because only the father's name was right.  The children didn't seem right and the wife's age was all wrong.  Also, the index had "unknown" for the town were they came from so really, what did it matter anyway, right?!?!  I knew about when and about where - I needed a town.  Of course the first rule that we all know, myself included, is LOOK AT THE ORIGINAL IMAGE anyway. 

When Michael looked at the passport application with me - and pointed out a few things about naturalization laws along the way! - I decided to look again because the dates matched and were fairly specific - September, 1865.  (The date of the passenger list on the index at Castle Garden.org and the date William had on his passport when he had come over from Germany.)

I had to page through the images because this year (on the Hamburg passenger lists) is not indexed and the handwritten index seemed as much work as just looking at a few months.  Before too long there it was - and there was a town plainly indicated ~ Cölpin!

Also, the wife's age, which had been transcribed as 22 clearly showed 32 - which was a match.  Between the time I first looked at the index for this record and now when I was looking at the actual record, I had found the family in the 1870 census and found the "additional" child who had seemed out of place before - so again, this was now a match.  Second lesson, go back and review some of those items in your list of failures (you do keep that list, right??)  Sometime new information will shed new light on records.  The names still are not exactly what I would expect for the son and wife, but for the daughter, "Annie" in English and "Johanna" in German are close enough.

This was great - this was thrilling - but the search for Cölpin would prove even more interesting.  (I know that many of you have already jumped on Google and are saying to yourselves, "easy - there it is" but the challenge is - what German parish does it belong to?  If I wanted to now look at church records, I need to know that.  And for those of you with the complete 33 vol set of Map Guides to German Parish records at hand - it's not in the index!

How did my guide help solve that problem?  Tune in tomorrow!

More Fun at the Midwest Family History Expo

Another person I got to meet at the Family History Expo was Lisa Alzo, who writes the great blog at The Accidental Genealogist.

Not only did I get to meet Lisa but I also got to hang out with her at the blogger table and I attended her great class on “Finding Your Female Ancestors.”

While Lisa certainly gave us some great tips on locating female ancestors, I would say that the session was about so much more than just finding them.  It was focused on finding out about them, about telling their stories. Lisa has such a passion for this topic that it was just contagious. (Be sure to see who else Lisa has inspired by checking out Susan Petersen’s post on this same session.)  

Giving these female ancestors a voice is something that Lisa wants us all to do and she has done just that in her book, Three Slovak Woman.  She exhorted all of us to do the same.   Lisa's enthusiasm and passion for the subject started me thinking about a number of women in my own family tree. While I can't imagine that I could actually write a book, I can at least begin to document the struggles some of my ancestors had and try to better understand their lives.

I have this picture which is labeled simply “Four generations”

The little boy is my grandfather, Jack H Quick (1911 - 1999) and I can easily identify his mother (Nelle Eickelberg 1885 - 1970) and her mother, his grandmother (Nellie Auflick 1864 - 1940) from the many other pictures I have of each of these woman.

So, is the older woman Margaret Hannington (1830 - 1914), Nellie's mother, who died when Jack was 3 1/2?  He looks young enough in this picture to make that possible.  Or is this perhaps Louisa (1835 - 1928), wife of William Eickelberg, even though that would make her Nellie's mother-in-law and not her mother?

I do know from my Grandpa’s stories that his great-grandma Eickelberg did live with them for a time. He used to call her "little grandma" and apparently tormented her because she couldn't chase after him!  He once told me that he had to be careful to stay out of the reach of her cane or she would whack him with it. (and from other stories he's told me I'm sure he richly deserved to be whacked!)

Regardless, both women are people I should know more about. Both followed roughly similar paths, coming across the ocean to first settle in Ohio and then end up in Colorado.  Margaret came from England while Louisa came over from Germany without that advantage of knowing the language. Margaret moved from Ohio to Colorado with her husband, Thomas Auflick while Louisa buried her husband in Ohio and then later moved to Colorado when her daughter's family left Ohio.

I often wonder if Louisa wanted to go?  Of course with no other family that I have found - she was living with her daughter -  there was probably no other option. Her name was on the other side of her husband's marker I found in the Minersville Hill Cemetery in Ohio so clearly she intended to be buried there.  Of course Margaret had buried 4 children in Ohio and no woman's life in the mid-1800's was going to be an easy one!

So, I need to start understanding more about what their lives might have been like.  Even if I don't write a book, I can pass that knowledge on to future generations at least informally. It's up to me to make sure that they don't become anonymous names and dates on my pedigree chart!





“I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman”. ~ Virginia Woolf

Fun at the Midwest Family History Expo

While I was at the Midwest Family History Expo this past weekend, I had the pleasure of meeting Bill Smith aka “Dr. Bill” from Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories

This was a double pleasure since I am currently reading his book Back to the Homeplace (conveniently available on my Kindle!) and really enjoying it. Earlier, there had been a discussion on Facebook (started by Susan Petersen) regarding e-books and how one would “autograph” an e-book. Well, Dr. Bill solved that for me by presenting me with this:

In thinking about the whole e-book/autograph issue, I find that, for me anyway, the thrill is not so much having a book with a signature – that I may or may not be able to read – but in getting to meet a real live author! I’m always a little in awe of someone who can write books.* Now I just need to figure out if I can uploaded the picture to my Kindle – so I can have the autograph with the book!




More “Fun From the Family History Expo” tomorrow ~ because believe me, we had more fun that just one post can contain!




* "...if she had only books, that she might learn for herself what wise men knew! Saints and martyrs had never interested Maggie so much as sages and poets."
           from The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

Family History Expo ~ I'm in Kansas City!

It's more than past time for a new post here!!  Currently I'm sitting at the "Beacon of Bloggers" table so it only seems right that I actually update my blog.  It's been so much fun that I've actually gotten to meet in person a number of my facebook friends.

Susan Peterson (R) of  Long Lost Relatives and me just getting ready to start the day.

Jenna Mills (L) of Desperately Seeking Surnames.   Although you can't see it, we both have fresh pedicures :-)

And of course, Thomas MacEntee of Geneablogger fame.  He is as full of energy as you would imagine.  It's fun to be in the presents of  actual Blogger Royalty - well at least that's what one of his ribbons says ;-)   I attended his twitter class today and might actually be able to logically "follow along" now.


More later - but just wanted to let everyone know what a fun place Kansas City is this weekend.

A Bucket List or a Bucketed List?

Being a copy-cat, as we used to say when I was a child, I found a great post by Leah over at Random Notes [hey, with a name like that it HAS to be good, right?] and I want to jump on board.  Instead of creating a Bucket List, Leah decided to make a list of all the great things she'd already been able to do. She called this her "Already Bucketed List" 

I like this so much better than the Bucket List and here’s why. Some of the things that ended up on my "Bucketed" list would never have been on any list of things I hoped to do some day. For instance, I didn’t even know that my great-great-grandfather was buried in that Toronto cemetery until I went there for a different reason. Also, I’m not a whiskey drinker, but being able to taste the peat-y flavor imparted to the whiskey by the brewing techniques particular to a specific area was a not-to-be-missed experience when one is actually standing in a distillery on the Isle of Skye.

So thanks Leah!! –I have really enjoyed this chance to be reminded of all the wonderful, amazing things I’ve experienced in my first 50(ish) years. It makes me look forward to the next 50 with a renewed sense of excitement and wonder about what is yet to come…things that I don’t even know that I want to do but will love when they happen!!

Diana’s Already Bucketed List

1. Watched a “thundering herd” of buffalo as they ran madly across a meadow.


















2. Walked down the same dirt path from the small village of Blebo Craig (in Fife, Scotland) to the parish church of Kemback that my great-great-grandfather, James Ritchie would have walked with his siblings and parents in the mid-1800’s.

3. Tasted the smokey, peat-y whiskey distilled on the Isle of Skye - while ON the Isle of Skye.


4. Walked the very streets of Bath where Jane Austen set some memorable scenes in her novels Nothanger Abbey and Persuasion.

5. Drank water straight from a rushing mountain stream in Colorado. It was so cold it seemed like it must have been snow only moments ago. (And I lived to tell about it – ah the innocence of the times before everything we put into our mouths was going to kill us)

6. And speaking of Jane Austen, walked out on the Cobb in Lyme Regis.

7. Stood by my great-great-grandparents grave in Inverurie, Scotland. [well OK, that's my Dad, not me - but I was there too!]

8. Watched a Shakespearean play performed in Stratford-upon-Avon.

9. Stood at the continental divide and watch the water running both ways – twice! Once in Colorado as a child, once in Wyoming as an adult.

10. Stood in the ruts made by the wagons heading west on the Oregon Trail.

11. Happened to be right there when the Giant Geyser erupted in Yellowstone on Sept, 2005 . This geyser is know for its "spectacular, but sporadic eruptions."


12. Eaten strawberries just picked and popped straight into my mouth still warm from the sun. (Again, I haven’t died – but of course pesticides had never been near any of these berries.)

13. Watched a grizzly bear feeding – from a safe distance across a river, but none the less thrilling.

14. Sat in silence and listened to the erie sounds a glacier makes and then got to see it calve!

15. Slept in an actual castle. (It was haunted too, although the ghost didn’t see fit to visit me.)

 16. Been salmon fishing in Alaska – rowed out in the silence and mist of the early morning.





17. Been to a baseball playoff game in St. Louis – which was played on grass and during the daytime…as baseball was MEANT to be played.

18. Found the grave of my great-great-grandfather, James Ritchie, in Toronto, Ontario.

19. Watched John Denver live in concert.(I was a child of the 70’s…what can I say!)
 
20. Seen the names of pioneers etched in stone at Register Cliff.

21. Enjoyed tea with scones and clotted cream and jam in England.

22. Visited Hill Top Farm – home of Peter Rabbit, and just incidentally home of Beatrix Potter as well. 

This list could have been 3 times as long and actually was, but I picked out just 22 for this post.  Wow - that's really all I can say!