Join This GroupApril 2, 2008
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SHARE your FAMILY HISTORY with us???
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Littlemite said:
on January 21, 2008 06:44 PM ET
edited on February 4, 2009 09:14 PM ET Hi Everyone, What is your family history? My Grandparents emigrated to this Country in the Mid 1800's. At that time, the immigrants were under the impression that the streets of New York were paved with Gold. They soon learned rather quickly, this wasn't the case, and that getting ahead was NOT an easy road to follow.. It was only through diligence, hard work, and ingenuity that these immigrants became successful My Grandmother on my Father's side came from Germany, and my Grandfather came from Lithuania which later became part of Poland. He started as a Peddler, and then supplied other peddlers with Merchandise, which they manufactured in their own home, He saved his money and later went into Real Estate, accumulating his own properties. Most European Immigrants brought their Children into the business, and my family was no different. My Grandfather brought his oldest Son, my Uncle E.A. into the business, and my Uncle multiplied my Grandfathers holdings, becoming extremely wealthy. Later my Uncle brough my Father into the business to manage his properties! He did very well for my Uncle, but later not so well for himself, mainly because he was in love with the Arts, but that is another part of my story! Please us about your background, so we can learn about each other, for America is made up of people from different Countries throughout the world, and that's what makes our country great, and our lives most interesting!!! Shelby |
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In talking to my mother I realized the importance of recording everything I could. I have been using the notes section of my Family Treemaker program to record all the stories. I have been putting down stories as I hear them, and then trying to prove them. Some that I have not been successful at I have noted as unproven family tradition.
I have been making use of message boards on several sites to ask for information, and have had people send me names of, and where I can obtain, local history books and articles that have had stories about some of my ancestors. I, too, have subscriptions at both Ancestry and Footnote. I have made use of the MiGenWeb site some too (the Michigan Gen Web). Volunteers there have transcribed records, but I have found it gives me a place to start in looking for the original records. The USGenWeb and the individual state projects are by no means complete, and some areas will have more information available, but it is a free site, and the local histories are interesting to read even if none of my ancestors are mentioned. They can give a good picture of what it was like to live in that place at that time.
Having fun looking and reading!
Arlene
Reply to Post
Thanks for the suggestion! I'm on a heavy deadline right now, but will update my profile when this job is finished.
Glad to be in the group and help any way I can.
rmmold
Hi RMMOLD and WELCOME,
Your background is most interesting too, and I'm so happy your pleased with our Group! I know our members are thankful for your information, so they can look further into their Ancestry.
My Daughter dug up the record which shows my Grandparents signatures on the Ship's Passenger Registry, and I think it came from the website I listed below.
You mentioned writing about one's background for family and friends to see, and I think it's wonderful that you are helping your friends with the same. I do have a good suggestion, as you develop your PROFILE here, utilize the JOURNALS there to write about your background as I have.
Of course one doesn't have to be exact as to ones location, so it's still possible to enjoy a degree of annonymity! Here is my profile for some ideas! Shelby http://www.aarp.org/community/Littlemite
Ellis Island - FREE Port of New York Passenger Records Search Ellis Island is the symbol of American immigration and the immigrant experience. Use our Free Search to find your immigrant ancestors arriving through the ...
www.ellisislandrecords.org/ - 43k -
- Ellis Island records, the history of Ellis Island, the immigrants that passed through it, and a US immigration records.
www.ellisislandimmigrants.org/ - 27k -
Hello Friends,
I just found your group today and have spent the time to read all the posts about your family heritages. The stories were so wonderful that, as a personal historian, I hope you have all recorded what you know, the stories you have heard, etc. in a format that can be shared with others. I have done this for myself and now help clients who have wonderful life stories to tell.
On my father's side, both of his parents came from little Bohemian (now in the Czech Republic) within an hour's drive from Prague. They and several other families from the same area settled in Blue Hill, Nebraska. I have the passports for my father's mother, her mother and her sister. I treasure them. I also have the small wooden chest my grandmother's father made for them to use when they came to America.
Finding records for that area during the time period when they were there (late 1800s) is very difficult since the government will not allow any records to be filmed and placed in repositories where people can access them. I was fortunate enough to go to Prague several years ago and with an interpreter at the national archives saw the actual parish records for my father's father and grandparents. What a thrill! I continue to do what research I can and am trying to piece together a history to print and share with my children and grandchildren.
My mother's side of the family are mostly from England, Scotland, and Wales. I'm finding more and more records all the time.
I have a paid membership to Ancestry.com as well as Footnote.com. Both of these sights are adding many records each day and I'm waiting for the time when the Czech records can be made available. I have had a lot of success from both of these sights and from Family Search at LDS.org. Family Search is free of charge, Ancestry and Footnote have free trial periods--but the information you can access from the free trial is limited, so there may be information there that you couldn't access with the free trial.
With all of these sites, if I don't find any specific information, I often find a clue of somewhere else to look. My current favorite is to look at old newpaper collections that have been digitized and are on online. I had a family with only the names of the parents and a location. I was able to gather enough information on the family from the newspapers--and sources that the newspaper articles led me to--that I actually was able to write a history of their family.
I've rambled long enough. I loved all your stories! Isn't it fun putting the puzzles together?
Sincerely,
rmmold
edited on May 25, 2009 10:04 PM ET
Entered incorrect years of birth. The correct years are:
Maternal Great Grandfather (1871) / Maternal Great Grandmother (1871) in Germany
Paternal Great Grandfather (1860) / Paternal Great Grandmother (1862) in England
Hi Tess,
Like you I didn't question until later in life. By then my Father and Mother had passed on and I had to ask my incapacitated Cousin who couldn't get all her facts straight. Fortunately, my Cousin found me, through her extensive e research and shared her knowledge with me and the rest of the family.
With you you used to enjoy lighting your Great Grand Pa's pipe, and with me it was my fathers pipe. I too loved the smell of that pipe tobacco. My father even kept a piece of apple inside, I was told later that to keep it moist, but what do I know about pipes!
Like your Great Grandpa, my parents enjoyed All-Star wrestling, and my father took took my Mother and me, because he felt it would take my Mother's mind off of her illness which was MS. We also sat up front, but with us it was in the second or third row. It was I who got up and screamed at the bad guys!
One time I was on the commuter train, and met Mark Lewin who was wrestling in Asbury Park. He and Don Curtis were tag team champions, and I brought Mark home for dinner, before driving him to the matches. My parents were delighted!
In fact one time we saw Argentine Wrestler Antonino Rocco after the match, and my father came over to him on the boardwalk and asked him to say something to my Mother. She then said, "I wish I could do with my feet what you can do with yours", and Rocco then said "it's all in the mind!" If you remember Rocca was famous for his flying drop kicks!
You were fortunate to have known your Grandparents and Great Grandfather, for I only knew my little old Grandma from my Mothers side of the family. When I say old, to us they were old, and now I'm a Grandparent of 4. Two little ones and two in college! How time flies! Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us, and for inspiring these memories! Shelby
Hi Katie and Welcome,
Thank you for telling us about your heritage! You have an extremely interesting background, and it's wonderful that you have done such extensive research, and have been rewarded with such knowledge, along with meeting other individuals even remotely related to you.
I had a relative find me, and when I learned about Claire I was amazed. She and her husband were New York City people,, who escaped to a then remote logging island in North West Canada, and built a home with their own hands! Today, that Logging Island "Quadra Island" is now a popular tourist destination, even if you have to get to it by ferry, and still they take pride in the home they built!
Katie, no one else in my family would have been so adventurous! Yet, if Claire hadn't done such research, I would have known nothing about her existence, and still she continues in her quest for knowledge. One would think she was writing a book, which you can do with your interesting background! So keep up the good work and keep us informed on your new findings! Shelby
I'm of Irish, Scotch, Welsh, and German bloodlines.
W.Berry was the only one of his family to survive the trip from Ireland - I've got his Rev War papers. His widow setled in Indiana (Quaker). J. Fernand came from Cork on the Ottawa in 1851 and his grt grandson married a Berry in Ireland.
The Wests left Maryland in the late 1700s for KY. The Jacksons left Virginia about the same time and in 1824 in Indiana, William West wed Narcissa Jackson. West married Fernand and in 1916 Fernand married Berry.
Fernand daughter married Morris, grt grandson of Welsh miners who settled in Trumbull Co. Ohio and one married a lovely German girl named Emma Rudolph.
One of the Berry's, John, wanted to join the Army during the Civil War but had two big toes on one foot so they wouldn't take him because he couldn't wear boots so couldn't march. He sent his younger brother for the doctor and went to the barn and chopped the toe off with an ax! A year later he marched off to war - survived Andersonville - and is buried in Lexington Cemetary in Scott Co. IN.
J.Fernand (who came from Ireland in 1851 married in 1853 and volunteered for the Infantry. He was shot in the left ankle by the enemy during a battle at Atlanta, was mustered out in Washington DC as a Corporal, and died in Westport Indiana in 1878 from infection in his old wound.
The wonderful thing about this research was that when I began almost 10 years ago, I knew only two names and it seemed hopeless and like a big, big world. After only two months I'd met so many people I am directly and obscurely reltated to -that I realized what a small world it is and how important it is to leave some records of our ancestors for the generations to come. When my grandmother grew up in Indiana - everybody knew everybody's blood lines - there were church and county records.....but there were fires that destroyed a lot of records, after the wars young men moved away to find land of their own, the elders passed away with their knowledge, and then came divorces and remarriages and it is well worth the time, frustration, and effort to find every little piece.
