The week 2 theme for 52 Ancestors is “King”. Gosh … my mind goes directly to royalty! Imagine that! It’s wild to imagine that a family that landed in America before it even was, then migrated from the Carolinas through Tennessee and up to Illinois would be descendant from any King, let alone Robert the…
In honor of Wishful Wednesday … Have you ever been asked, “If you could sit down with anyone in history and have a conversation, who would it be?”. I have … several times. I always have a different answer, too. Sometimes it’s Eleanor Roosevelt, sometimes it is Mary Queen of Scots or Robert the Bruce….
I have been fascinated with cemeteries for as long as I can remember. It feels a little morbid, but there is great history lurking among the grave markers! I’ve wandered through my fair share of cemeteries, too … sometimes just to imagine the lives of those buried in them. As the family genealogy nut (one of…
If you were to ask me what my favorite pie is, I’d say raisin … or strawberry-rhubarb … or raisin. It’s a toss-up between the two! Raisin was also my grandpa’s favorite pie. I don’t recall my grandma ever making it, but I certainly remember my mom baking one at least once a year so…
It always seems odd to refer to grandparents as ancestors. I suppose that’s because I’ve been raised around them or grown to know them well in my adulthood. They’re people who have helped me become who I am in ways that “dead people” ancestors haven’t. Alas, grandparents are ancestors, so this week I’m writing about…
As I continue to answer the “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks” challenge set forth by Amy Johnson Crow over at “No Story Too Small”, I find myself doing more and more research on ancestors I know very little about. I’m determined to make it to number 52, but I think it’s going to take longer…
You probably have concluded that I have an attraction to “old” cookbooks and cookbooks about “old” food. I have always found the cookbooks are one of the best ways to peak into history and learn about the daily life of our ancestors … certainly of our female ancestors. I picked up this little gem online…
Sophia Fredericka Arnold was barely 6 months old when she arrived in New York on June 19, 1843 from Hamburg, Germany. She came to America with her parents, Leonard and Christine; two sisters Katharine and Barbara; and a brother, George. Sophia is my maternal 3rd great grandmother. While the Arnold family is found on…
If you have Germany ancestors and need help figuring out where – on the map – they originated, this is a great resource! Personally, I can never remember where the different political divisions (L änder) are without looking. Map from PlanetWare.com
My Grandma Raines’ grandparents, Jake and Anna Mueller, were married on October 29, 1895 in Ava, Illinois. This wedding photo was nestled in a box of family portraits that Grandma kept on a shelf above her washing machine … a likely place for family photos, eh? Jake is the grandson of Jacob Heinrich…
Piecing together family history from 18th and 19th century published genealogies is like putting together a puzzle with frayed pieces … nothing fits quite as perfectly as you’d like. It seems, at least, that the Lindsay Clan was established well enough in Scotland to merit some record keeping. There are variety of books and publications…
My Grandma Raines kept all of the Schuster family photos in a box marked “trophies” on the top shelf of the linen closet. She would often get it out and show me photos of long lost relatives that were completely foreign to me. To her, however, they were memories of childhood and stories of the past….
Over 900,000 German men, women and children immigrated to the United States between 1845 and 1855. My 3rd great-grandfather, Philip Friederich Schuster was one of them. Philip was 13 years old when he arrived in New Orleans with his parents and younger sister. Philip Friederich Schuster was born on September 16, 1838 in Hassloch, Germany…
My mom and I frequent the antique stores in Murphysboro, Illinois. We’re almost never looking for anything specific … but almost always find something interesting. On our most recent trek, I found a 1946 edition of The Joy of Cooking that seemed to call to me from the bookshelf. Have you ever had that feeling?…
One thing I find most frustrating about being relatively young and tracing family history is that I don’t hold much of the actual history in my own memory. Someday I will, I suppose. Now, however, I rely a lot on older relatives and old books that have bits and pieces of the puzzle. Unfortunately, I’m…
Jacob Heinrich Mueller is my 4th great grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born in Darmstadt, Germany in 1798 to John George Mueller and Anna Maria Rhutz (1800-1844). He immigrated to America in 1828 and settled in St. Clair County, Illinois. He was employed as a blacksmith after he arrived in St. Clair County. Jacob married Mary Margaret Weber…
When I was a little girl, portraits of my dad’s grandparents and great grandparents hung on the wall outside my bedroom. These are from the early 20th century and earlier … a time when it wasn’t appropriate to smile in photographs like it is today. These portraits scared the crap out of me! Especially the…
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays … and it is, of course, all about the food! Okay, it’s not totally about the food. Our family has a lot to be thankful for and we celebrate that on this holiday by coming together and taking time out just to be with each other. There will…
I’m continuing with my spaetzle (spätzle) adventure! After a bit of research on how this dish is typically served in Germany, I decided to mix the variations and … well … do my own thing! Cheesy Spaetzle After you make your spaetzle, melt 1-2 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet and add your…
I remember the first time I saw my mom make spaetzle … I wasn’t quite a teenager … and I wondered what I had done to deserve such punishment! Spaetzle wasn’t something I was overly fond of as a kid, I much preferred spaghetti and meatballs as my pasta of choice. I wasn’t old enough…
I must confess, I have an addiction to cookbooks, especially those published in the 19th and early 20th century. I love how they are written – the language is beautiful – and they are so simply done. The recipes and the narrative around them give us a glimpse of what life was like during a…
German wurst (or wurste) can be loosely translated as sausage … and sometimes cold cuts. There are many different varieties of wursts, but only a few are readily available to us in the US. That’s too bad, because they’re all pretty amazing. My grandpa used to eat blood sausage (blutwurst), and there was pretty much…