My Trails into the Past

Vincent Sievert and Susanna Raduntz are my paternal 2nd great-grandparents and two of my German immigrant ancestors. They had eleven known children and lived in Joliet, Will County, Illinois, once they arrived in the United States. Pre-immigration Vincent was born on 24 January 1823 in Schneidemühl, Posen to Christoph Siewert and Anna Marianna Ewald. He was the third son and fifth child of seven. One brother and two sisters also immigrated and lived in Joliet: Johannes Daniel Sievert, Eva Sievert, and Henrietta Charlotte Sievert. Vincent married Susanna Raduntz on 10 February 1850 in Schneidemühl. He was twenty-seven and she was eighteen. The origins of Susanna are not known from this marriage record. This information was acquired by a third cousin who had hired a researcher in Poland. We do not have any documentation nor does my cousin have the paperwork anymore. This is something I wish to recreate – hoping the church records will someday be online. I do not even know the name of...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's  Saturday Night  again -  Time for some more  Genealogy Fun!! Our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings:  1)  Have you researched the ancestors of your spouse (or significant other)?  Please list the names and vital records data for your spouse/SO's grandparents and great-grandparents like in an Ahnentafel Report. 2)  Have you written genealogical sketches and/or biographies for each of them?  Here's mine: I am on the California Zephyr traveling across Nevada, logging in when we get to a big city where there is cell service. Let’s start with part 2 first. Yes, I have written about my husband’s family. I wrote a three-generation book about his Nilsen family who immigrated from Sweden, and a three-generation Kinship Determination Project (KDP) about his Lundquist family for my initial BCG certification. I also write posts about them regularly on my blog. Here is the ahnenta...

Here is a photo of the John Gleeson and Margaret Tierney family at their home in Portland, Oregon. They lived in Portland from about 1901 to 1920 when Margaret died. According to records, they lived first at 486 Burnside. [1] Later, they lived at 410 Ross Street. [2]   The photo is undated. In the photo is John and Margaret with four daughters or perhaps a few granddaughters. In 1910, the following were living in the household of John and Margaret, living at 410 Ross. Elizabeth, daughter, 34 Helena, daughter, 32 William, son, 30 Margaret, daughter, 28 Frank, son, 26 [3] These daughters were single. John and Margaret had two daughters who were married. Mary Martha lived in Los Angeles and Anna lived in Anaconda, Montana. By 1912, two of Anna’s daughters, Loretto and Ethel, lived with John and Margaret after Anna died. They, too, were living at 410 Ross. [4] The dark-haired girls could be Loretto and Ethel. Another of the girls was likely Margaret, as she lived with her paren...

It’s February and time to move on to another genealogical couple, this time, my husband’s paternal 2x-great-grandparents, Frederick Henry Davey (1853-1915), and Matilda “Tillie” Wollenweber (1859-1885). Introduction Frederick Henry Davey was born on 10 October 1853 in Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania, the only child of Thomas Davey and Mary Nicholas born in the United States. He married Matilda “Tillie” Wollenweber on 26 June 1878 and they had four children: Fred James, Matilda “Tillie”, William Edward, and Leon Thomas. Matilda “Tillie” Wollenweber was born on 27 August 1859 in Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky, to Ludwig “Louis” Wilhelm Wollenweber and Philappina Margaretha Voehringer. She was the oldest child of five. She died on 1 November 1885 in Carthage, Jasper County, Missouri. Fred married her sister, Julia Wollenweber on 28 July 1887. They had one son, George Thomas Davey. Julia divorced Fred in 1892. He married Angeline McDonald Grace on 16 Mar 1898 in Jasper Coun...

Outside activities included two trips to the History Center, phenology, Oakland FamilySearch Center, phenology, and attending a model railroad meet.   Genealogy Genealogy Volunteer/Work: I made two trips to the History Center on Tuesday and Thursday. I entered more descriptions into the library database answered some email research requests. On one of them, I visited the county recorder’s office to retrieve some deeds and a map. Genealogy Meetings:  The BCG renewal group met and we discussed the projects we’re working on. Jacqueline and I met and we discussed the work I’m doing with the Hutson/Selman family. The CCCGS Roundtable met and we discussed Ancestry DNA during most of the time, as well as the changes at the FS Library. Genealogy Writing/Research : I have been working on my Hutson/Selman project and spent most of the day at the Oakland FamilySearch Center looking at locked films for Leon and Cherokee Counties in Texas. I still haven’t finished but the month i...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's  Saturday Night  again -  Time for some more  Genealogy Fun!! Here is our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings :  1)  What genealogy fun have you had this past month?  What is your genealogy research highlight of the past month?  It could be attending or watching a webinar or local genealogy society meeting,  it could be finding a new ancestor, or it could be reading a new genealogy book, or anything else that you have enjoyed. Here's mine: This past month, I have been working on a month-long project concerning my 2x-great-grandparents, Peter H. Hutson and his wife, Sarah H. Selman, who married in 1879. Their families lived in Texas in Cherokee, Leon, and Comanche Counties. I have been collecting whatever documents I can find using traditional searches in records and through the catalog, and also using full-text search. Some of Leon and Cherokee Counties’ records are availa...

Many years ago in 1997, a kind church secretary sent me the page from the St. John the Baptist Church in Joliet of the marriage of my great-grandparents, Johan Anton Hork and Julia Ann Sievert on 6 June 1872. [1] It was the breakthrough I needed to research my German ancestors in Germany. This record named both Johan Anton’s parents and the place where they were from in Germany. The writing was hard to read but with the help of an online Westphalia Rootsweb group, we figured out the town he was from was Oberhundem in the District (Kreis) Olpe. Today, the church records of that Joliet church are now on Ancestry and I have found the records of all their children, Julia’s aunts and uncles, and cousins. I might find more when Ancestry’s full-text search includes these records. [2]   Finding German Records While researching in 2010 at the Family History Library, I used the catalog to find church records from Oberhundem. Oberhundem is in Kreis Olpe, and part of Westfalen, Prussia, ...