Family research files

[Schultz]

Back to the 1300s! Wow! Very impressive!

Thankfully, my uncle did most of the work for my father's family, tracing most of the family back to Bavaria in the early 19th century. Nothing short of going to Germany (or paying someone, but where's the fun in that?) will lengthen that trail. I've inherited the task to continue his work, so it's off to Bavaria with me at some point in the very near future. The McDevitt trail, however, ends in Pittsburgh in the middle of the 19th century. That's the one I'm most interested in, for obvious reasons

I just have to get up to da Burgh and spend a few days haunting the McKeesport Historical Society to see if I can come up with anything more.

[bubba]

Schultz, the trouble withtrying to trace German genealogy is so many records were destroyed during WW II. In far too many cases the records simply no longer exist.

[Schultz]

bubba,

I know. It's a shame. From what I've gathered from other people who've done similar research, church records are the way to go, and the only way you're going to get anywhere with that is to actually visit the towns and villages. Not many churches have the resources to index their records in a database!

[AckZel]

There is only one line which my mom was able to get down to 1393 and that probably is not absolutely accurate information. Most of the lines in my family ends around 1600's. That work has been fairly easy because Finnish protestant church has kept very accurate list of population from 1600's. Some books have burn or taken other damage which makes up most of the problems.

[bubba]

church records are the way to go, and the only way you're going to get anywhere with that is to actually visit the towns and villages. Not many churches have the resources to index their records in a database!

Adding to the problem there is if the churches were anywhere near an industrial city they likely no longer exist. One of my Dads cousins tried. The branch of the family was from around Hamburg and records were completely lost in the bombings.

[Schultz]

Adding to the problem there is if the churches were anywhere near an industrial city they likely no longer exist. One of my Dads cousins tried. The branch of the family was from around Hamburg and records were completely lost in the bombings.

Well, yes, of course, there's that problem.

There's also the off-chance of finding some distant cousin who may be wondering what happened to John Wendelinus Beck after he left Bavaria in the 1850s!

it's what makes this hobby so much fun

[bubba]

Hobby?? More like obsession! I have a dozen boxes of genealogy records and papers that I need to catalog.

[Big Paul]

I too have a couple of boxes... and they keep getting bigger...

[Sherry]

My husband's Lebanese side is traced back to the 1300's due to church records. To think they've all been Christians (at least religiously) for centuries! And, perhaps even more awesome is that if the church hadn't burned down in the 14thC, the records would have gone back further still.

Sherry