My Trails into the Past

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's Saturday Night again - Time for some more Genealogy Fun!!   Our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to:   1)  Who is one of your most elusive ancestors?  What research have you done to identify him or her?  What research do you need to do? Here's mine: On my Saturday Night Genealogy Fun post on 12 August 2023, I posted the fan chart of my ancestors. The closest blanks on the chart are at my paternal third great-grandparents. I do not know the parents of Susana Raduntz , who was born about 1831, likely in Posen, and who married Winzent Siewert (Vincent Sievert in US). Both immigrated to the United States in the 1850s. A researcher in Poland discovered the parents of Winzent, but not of Susanna, who perhaps had lived in a different village. Susanna’s sister, Wilhelmine, also came to the U.S., but her records have not revealed their origin either. The other set of 3x-gg-grandparents, Jeremiah Sulliva...

It's  Saturday Night  - time for more  Genealogy Fun! Our mission from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing is to: 1) Who is a mysterious person in the family tree you'd like to learn more about? [Thank you to Linda Stufflebean for suggesting topics!] 2)  Write your own blog post, or add your response as a comment to this blog post, in a Facebook Status post or note. Here’s mine: When I look at my RootsMagic software under the pedigree view, I have six blank spots at the 3x-great-parents on my father’s side. The parents of Susanna Raduntz, who were likely from Schneidemuhl, Posen, a former German village in present-day Poland. Susana was born about 1832 and married Winzent Siewert on 10 February 1850. I do not have the original church record that the information came from—only the data. So, I don’t know if Susanna’s parents’ names were mentioned in the record. Winzent and Susanna came to the U.S. aboard the ship Johanna Elise on 23 June 1852 w...

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing has a new assignment this week.  Here is my assignment: 1) Who is your MRUA - your Most Recent Unknown Ancestor? This is the person with the lowest number on your Pedigree Chart or Ahnentafel List that you have not identified a last name for, or a first name if you know a surname but not a first name. 2) Have you looked at your research files for this unknown person recently? Why don't you scan it again just to see if there's something you have missed? 3) What online or offline resources might you search that might help identify your MRUA? 4) Tell us about him or her, and your answers to 2) and 3) above, in a blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a comment on Facebook or Google Plus. I don’t know the parents of my ancestor, Susanna Raduntz , who is no. 19. Susanna was born about 1832 possibly in Posen, Prussia. She married Vincent Siewert in Schneidemuehl, Posen, Prussia on 10 Feb 1850.  There are not many records in this area ...

I am participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge (April 2016) , where we write 26 blog posts featuring each letter of the alphabet. I is for Ireland One fourth of my ancestry is Irish.  This comes from my father’s side of the family. Here you can see his ancestry on his mother’s side of the family. My father's maternal Irish ancestry Irish surnames I am researching: Gleeson Tierney Murray Sullivan Sheehan The Gleeson , Tierney , and Murray families ended up in Ontario, Canada. Some of the Gleesons moved to the United States. I think the Tierney and Gleeson  families came from County Tipperary, near Nenagh. County Tipperary The Sullivan and Sheehan families were from County Cork near Castletown Berehaven, which on the map below is near Schull. The Sullivans arrived in the United States in the 1860s.  County Cork I hope to someday visit the land of my Irish ancestors, both in Canada and Ireland. Copyr...

My father, William J. Hork, was one half German through his father’s line and one half Irish through his mother’s line.  In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, I decided to summarize a bit about the Irish side of my family. These families came from both Ireland and Canada. The records in Ireland are a bit sketchy and I hope to someday learn more! Generation 1 1. William Joseph Hork : born 23 Apr 1930 in Ontario, San Bernardino Co, California, USA; died 13 Oct 2007 in Walnut Creek, Contra Costa Co, California, USA. Generation 2 3. Anna Marie "Anne" Sullivan : born 15 Oct 1892 in Anaconda, Deer Lodge Co, Montana, USA; died 14 Feb 1979 in Palo Alto, Santa Clara Co, California, USA. Generation 3 6. John H. Sullivan : born 20 Jun 1854 in Ireland; married Anna Marie Gleeson 1882 in South Dakota, USA; died 28 May 1932 in San Bernardino, San Bernardino Co, California, USA. He claimed on the 1900 census he arrived in the U.S. in 1866. He was not naturalized until 1...

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings has challenged us to find where our ancestors were living on 1 Jun 1863.  This was very challenging but lots of fun.  I found that I need to do land research to learn more about exactly where my ancestors were living!  I have no photos of their residences.  Here are my father's side of the family: My second great-grandmother, Maria Catharine (Trösster) Hork (1813-1874) was living in Oberhundem, Westfalen (present day Germany).  I do not have a photograph of their residence, nor do I know exactly which house it is.  I would love to visit the small community someday.  My great-grandfather, Johan Anton Hork (1843-1906) was part of this household, as he had not left for America yet. My second great-grandparents, Vincent (1823-1890) and Susanna (Raduntz) Sievert (1832-1911) were living in Joliet, Will County, Illinois.  I do not know where their residence is located, although in later years they lived on Hicko...

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings has a fun Saturday blog activity and today I decided to play.  What the Name Roulette is: Find the name of one of your great-grandmothers. Divide her birth date by 90 and round to the nearest whole number.  Use that number to find the ancestor in your tree with the same Ahnetafel number. Write 3 facts about that ancestor. To find the roulette number I took the birthdates of all four of my great-grandmothers and found that by dividing by 90, I came up with the same rounded number of 21.  The ancestor with 21 is my great-great-grandmother, Mary Sheehan. Mary Sheehan was born probably in Cahirkeem, Co Cork, Ireland. (1)  I do not know her exact birthdate.  The two census entries (1870 & 1880) in the United States have her birth year as 1827 and 1832. Her tombstone listed her age as 70 making her birth in 1832. She married Jeremiah Sullivan sometime around 1841-1842, as their first child was born in Nov 1843. (2) ...

Ah, Genea-folks, it's   Saturday Night   again - are you ready for more   Genealogy Fun? Your mission tonight, should you decide to accept it, is to: 1)  List your 16 great-great-grandparents with their birth, death and marriage data (dates and places).  [Hint - you might use an Ancestral Name List from your software for this.] 2)  Determine the countries (or states) that these ancestors lived in at their birth and at their death. 3)  For extra credit, go make a "Heritage Pie" chart for the country of origin (birth place) for these 16 ancestors. [Hint: you could use the    chart generator   from   Kid Zone  for this.] [Note: Thank you to Sheri Fenley for the   "Heritage Pie" chart idea.] 4.  Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a post on Facebook or google+. Here's mine: My 16 Great-great grandparents are: 16.    Joseph Heinrich Horoch , born 2 Feb ...