I may have just found some 7th and 8th cousins out on Ancestry.com via my 7x great-grandparents, Johann David Steinbrenner and Anna Maria Breunig. That is, if I did the family math right - I've never tried that distance before! Assuming that the tree owners on Ancestry.com are the home people in their respective trees*, then I may have found an 8th cousin and a 7th cousin once removed.
My friend Shannon sent me a relationship chart to help work out the connections; I also found a different chart which gives a cool mathematical formula and has one more row & column!
* Which is an assumption - I just spent a good bit of time moving a lot
of my cousins' family into a separate tree, with their father, my aunt's
husband, as the home person, since I found a lot on his relations and
have had several contacts with cousins of my cousins who aren't my
cousins.
A chronicle of genealogy adventures
Showing posts with label Germany. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Germany. Show all posts
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
German for Travelers
I've just signed up for a 10 week "German for Travelers" class through the Adult Education program at one of the local high schools that starts next week. Here's to step 1 on the path to learning more about my German ancestors!
Saturday, October 15, 2011
The Harburg Bible
Yesterday was an awesome day out visiting the National Archives, both as researcher and as tourist, and meeting with experts at the Smithsonian to learn about conservation/preservation of the family bible I recently acquired. This bible was sent to my great grandmother Marie Bierdümpfel Jurgens from Germany after she had migrated to America.
More images of the bible can be found at http://www.jordanclan.org/family_tree/Research/bible.html
The short answer - find a local book conservator (http://www.conservation-us.org/) and commission them to build a box specifically to store the book. For this particular book, given that it appears to still be in its original binding and in good shape for its age, I was advised not to try to get it restored, but to protect it as is. Although several pages at the front and back have had attempts at repair in the past, at this point those attempts are also historical. History within history! :)
 |
| German Bible from 1575 |
More images of the bible can be found at http://www.jordanclan.org/family_tree/Research/bible.html
The short answer - find a local book conservator (http://www.conservation-us.org/) and commission them to build a box specifically to store the book. For this particular book, given that it appears to still be in its original binding and in good shape for its age, I was advised not to try to get it restored, but to protect it as is. Although several pages at the front and back have had attempts at repair in the past, at this point those attempts are also historical. History within history! :)
Monday, May 23, 2011
Reviewing Family Documents and Heirlooms
More genealogy wonders - I have been looking through the treasure trove of documents and pictures provided by my aunt (my mother's sister) on Saturday, which includes my great-grandfather William Jurgen's US naturalization certificate and Masonic tie pins and clips, and a necklace pendant of my great-grandmother Marie Bierdümpfel's family (supposed) arms.
Names written on the backs of pictures confirm info I discovered online, which means I made good guesses! Whether the Johann von Bierdümpfel who earned these arms has any relation to my Bierdümpfel family is another question, however. My great-grandmother had these pendants made for her two children, my grandfather and great aunt, so they are not long-time family heirlooms.
And now that I have my great-grandfather's naturalization certificate, I can request the rest of his papers using the naturalization date and the name they were filed under: Heinrich William Otto Jurgens. The requests for William Jurgens have not yielded results - now I think I know why. :)
 |
| Pendant of Bierdümpfel Arms |
More details on the crest can be found at http://jordanclan.org/family_tree/Research/bierdumpfel_crest.html
Names written on the backs of pictures confirm info I discovered online, which means I made good guesses! Whether the Johann von Bierdümpfel who earned these arms has any relation to my Bierdümpfel family is another question, however. My great-grandmother had these pendants made for her two children, my grandfather and great aunt, so they are not long-time family heirlooms.
And now that I have my great-grandfather's naturalization certificate, I can request the rest of his papers using the naturalization date and the name they were filed under: Heinrich William Otto Jurgens. The requests for William Jurgens have not yielded results - now I think I know why. :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)