(Genealogy) New Year's Resolutions

So, a new year is here. 2014 seemed to come and go so much faster than years before. I have a feeling 2015 will not be any less forgiving - darn, we're already going into our 2nd week of the year.

With that, I do have some genealogy related New Year's resolutions - ones that I hope I can stick to. Also, I feel having an itemized list will be beneficial for me - i.e. if I feel like I am running dry on blogging ideas or just need a little inspiration, I can always come back to this post to see what my hopes were for genealogical reasons (and blogging reasons, too)!

So, here's a go at it  -

1) My Irish Ancestors - I feel I am really neglecting this side of my roots, and I have quite a few tales to tell. Fact of the matter is, I need to hunker down and get more research done on my Irish ancestors. Things can often run dry in that area since many Irish records are still becoming digitized, but I will make it an aim to delve in this area a little more throughout the year!

2) My Father's Side - Recently, my Dad's sister has been writing me beautifully written accounts of her childhood (with memories of my Dad and the other siblings) and what she remembers of our grandparents and her parents and so on. These are priceless and I am protecting them like gold. They are all hand written, which to me, makes them even more special. I need to firstly digitize them so if they ever do get lost, I will always have a digital copy. Then, I would like to transcribe them into a word document. As for my blog, I would like to share more of my father's side. There is much to be revealed.

3) Use more Writing Prompts - I'd like to use more writing prompts to spice things up on here a bit more. I see quite a few websites that do a very good job of this and share their prompts with you. I aim to try some out and see what I can unearth in the process!

4) Network - I want to do a little more blog networking. I aim to give more comments on people's blogs or write a note of thanks for their knowledge. I'd like to see my blog in the future as a resource, in some ways, on certain genres of genealogy, especially the Black Sea Germans, which I feel my most comfortable with and have the most background in (which is why you see many related articles on them on here now and sure to see more in the future) - I am hoping my blog will bring in more Black Sea German researchers who are looking to share their memories or thoughts on the topic.

5) Noticing Interesting Patterns Interweave - Sometimes I find some interesting patterns during the migration of my ancestor's.  I'd like to focus more on these patterns and similarities as it's fun to point them out and make interesting connections. Some that I will focus on are two different waves of German colonization my ancestors were involved in - The Black Sea Germans to North Dakota and the Germanna Colonization in Virginia.

This is all for now - but maybe a year from now, I will be glad to have seen I met all of these goals.

Happy New Year to you all!

Living in the Now

Sometimes it is so easy to get caught up in our past as fervent genealogists, that we can lose a sense of living in the now.

 Sometimes I know genealogy is taking me over when I find I am having dreams of my dead ancestors. In some ways, hey, that's pretty cool and in other ways, it can be waaaaay creepy!

 So, sometimes it's good for me to take a step back and just live in the now - as John Lennon once sang, "Life is what is happening while we're busy making other plans."

 I used to be a professional photographer, but gave it up to focus more on my drawing and painting skills and to work full time in Commercial Insurance. I still photograph like a crazy person, but now it's more on my terms, and that makes me a happy camper. When photography became work, it was no longer a passion for me. It lost a lot of it's allure for me, especially the editing process.

 In a way, I don't want my genealogy to become a job. I love to just "stumble" across things at a leisurely pace. I love to help others I know also discover their family trees, but not have to sell them on something. Again, taking a step back for a bit allows me to love genealogy as it should be - a fun hobby.

 However, my obsession with old photos - that will probably never subside! And my dreams of dead people, well, they may just continue whether I want them to or not. And, you know what, that's okay. Some of my passed on family and friends are alive for a brief moment and that's a great comfort :)

Cold Days Ahead

The coldness of North Dakota, I heard from my Grandma, was at times unbearable. She used to have to share her bed with her sisters and one of the sisters would always take the sheet away from my Grandma. Then there was the outhouse. During the cold months, I can only imagine how difficult it was for her to have to go out in sub-zero weather and attempt to use the rest room. I am sure she tried to not do it.

These were still the pioneering days in the 1920's and 1930's and also the Great Depression. Living out in the middle of nowhere meant modern day conveniences for even that time were not readily available.

Here are a few photos showing some of the cold winter months in North Dakota from our family collection.

I have a better photo of this picture somewhere, but this was the only copy I could locate. This is my Aunt Doris, sometime around 1925, playing in the snow.

This is my Grandma (second from left) with her Babitzke cousins and their dog, Swifty (the cutest dog name and dog ever!!)

My great Aunt Martha (aka Mart) and cousin Donald Herr on a very simple looking boat on what could be Red Lake, near Wishek, ND.

Another photo of Mart and Donald (cousins)

A closer up, studio shot of Martha and what looks like a very warm coat and cute hat, circa 1915

Great Aunt Mart, George Roehm and Lydia with their newborn and first born, Doris, in 1915. These are my great grandparents. My grandma would come many years later.

Great Aunt Mart attempts to shoot something in the great plains of ND, circa 1915.

George Roehm Jr., Izetta Roehm, one of the Herr children, Doris and Joyce Roehm and possibly Babtizke cousin, circa 1927-28

Genealogy Bias

Okay, so maybe I am using this post to have an excuse to share another cute photo, especially of kids on sleighs, but ah well.

To get back on topic, the title of this post is to explain a little of the rhyme and reason behind most of my posts.

It may at times seem that I tend to post with a bias. What I mean by bias is that I will tend to post about certain particular family members or sides of family. Generally there are a few reasons behind this:

1) Access - I may post more about certain people because I have more access to their artifacts, especially concrete information, which at times can come in droves and at other times, can be a complete dry spell for many months or years. For example, I have ample access to my grandmother's family history due to her countless photo collection (and I mean countless!!), letters, family heirlooms, and hearing stories directly from her in person. She's my last oldest living family member on her side of the family.

2) Records - Due to knowing certain members information due to having initial access to them, allows me to find better and more accurate info about them online. The less I know is when I tend to hit roadblocks in my research and sometimes have to look up other family members to even get names or birth dates - sort of going through the back door to get info. So, access is really related to getting good records. Without the two, it can become very difficult.

3) Interest - Part of bias can also be blamed on a level of interest you have on certain family members. I think part of this is based on the two above factors - Having a personal connection really helps this. I will write more proficiently about those who I feel more of a connection with than those I still know little to nothing about. I can make assumptions at best with my findings, but generally, that's all they'll ever be. It's an ongoing frustration of any genealogist who cannot get to know their ancestors a little better. But, records, even the very factoid filled census records, can offer us some kind of idea of who they were.

So, if it seems I am a little biased about what I blog about, it's really about all of the factors above. However, I do aim to blog more about some journeys/roadblocks I have, too, in case someone runs across this blog and can possibly help me solve my problems.

A Baby on the Way in 1979

My mother (in center, with her sister on left, and mother, on right) was expecting my brother in 1979. They had a baby shower for her sometime in July of 1979 at her mother's house. At the time, my parents did not know if they were having a boy or girl, but then on August 18, 1979, my brother was born. 

Excuse the bad quality of the color of the photos. So many photos from the 1970's and early 1980's all have this bad discoloration due to cheap inks used when printing. It's too bad. 

Travel Tuesday

In what appears to be December 1918, my Great Grandmother, Lydia, received this post card from her aunt, Katie Herr, who lived in Los Angeles, CA.

The transcription reads:

Dear Niece Lydia, 

Was glad to hear from you, also glad to know that Geo [Lydia's husband] recovered from the flu. It was too bad that Stoney [Geo's brother] had to go so soon where I read it in the news I thought I was dreaming such a straight person he was. But it seems it took the fat people - always the first - Am feeling fine and wish you are very same with [unknown word] all am so ever. 

Your Aunt Katie

It appears Stoney, Geo's brother, passed on from the flu epidemic of 1918. I have a record that he had registered for the World War I draft. I am unsure if he died while on duty, as he registered in Septemeber of 1918 and he appears to have died sometime in November. Very sad, as I wondered what came of him and now I am just realizing what his fate was by re-reading this postcard.

It's amazing that a tiny artifact such as a postcard can give us so much information. This nice little postcard also tells us George also had the flu, but he survived it. Just imagine the pain the family must have felt, knowing his brother had died from it and that they could very well lose the breadwinner and patriarch of the family, too. Thank goodness George survived.

If George had not survived, my Grandma would have never been born, nor would have her brothers George, Alwin and James.

Sometimes it's easy to overlook these minor details in little things such as postcards, telegrams, or other small pieces of information. Like any skilled researcher knows, there's fantastic information in even the smallest of details. Just imagine how archaeologists have been able to unearth amazing artifacts due to their amazing efforts of perseverance.

*Also, I have no idea what Katie Herr meant about "fat people", but that was not very nice of her to say! Maybe she meant it in a different way. At least I hope so! Don't shoot me, I am just the messenger - haha!

Birthdays - Happy Birthday, George John Roehm (October 16th)

George John Roehm (10/16/1893 - 10/18/1948)

My Maternal Great Grandfather

He would be 121 years old

George was born in Green Lake, Wisconsin, shortly before his father moved the family to North Dakota. He was the sixth child out of ten children of Karl (often referred to as Charles or Carl) Roehm and Rebecca Stegemann Roehm. He was a middle child of sorts but appeared to be the most handsome of the sons. Unfortunately, the two eldest siblings passed away during an influenza epidemic in the late 1890s, which left him to be the 4th eldest of the Roehm children. He was friends with the Herr family, and eventually took a liking to the Herr's eldest daughter, Lydia. They married on December 25th, 1914. Most of the pictures below are from around that time of their marriage. 

Over the course of his life, he had many friends who were also hunting buddies. Many of these friends were local doctors, politicians, business owners and farmers. George seemed to attract intellectuals, even though he likely did not go past the 8th grade in education. He seemed to be a charming man and sure to have wit. He was once urged by these fellow men to become mayor of Wishek, but I think George liked his privacy, and did not go for it. During the Great Depression, he worked under the WPA as a superintendent, and built the Civic Auditorium in Wishek, N.D.

When the Great Depression got the best of the family, and with George still having children to take care of in the early 1940's, he and the family took the bold move to California, gathering all they could in their car and traveling out west. Many of his children had already headed west, and that's where it seemed jobs were more plentiful. He decided to work for the Kaiser Shipyard in Richmond, CA. This allowed the family to move into a new home in Richmond and rebuild their life. Lydia was likely never without want, as she came from a wealthier family and was sure to have gathered some kind of inheritance to possibly help the family get through the worst of the Depression. Her father was part owner of the Herr Mercantile Store, which stayed in business throughout the Great Depression.

George worked hard throughout the war years on the war ships that his sons likely were using to go and fight in. Shortly after the war, in 1948, George suffered a heart attack which killed him. He seemed to live a short life compared to most people, but he fit a lot in that life and built a family and took care of them. Happy Birthday, Great Grandpa George!

Enjoy!

 A nice candid shot of George, circa 1914-1915. He stood quite tall, somewhere around 6'1'' or 6'2''.

 George with his first born daughter, Doris Roehm, born September 1915.She had an eye patch on due to a vision problem she had during birth. She had to go to the doctor in Bismarck, N.D. to have it monitored and mostly wore glasses her whole life.

 I think there are several Roehm brothers in this photo, but they have not been clearly identified. I believe the one laying down in the middle, smiling, looks to be George Roehm. The one left to him, I believe is either Charles or Wilhelm (Will) Roehm. The man to the far right, also looks like a Roehm son, but I am unsure of which, since most of the other sons would be very young around the time this picture was taken, which I am gathering it was taken around 1915-1916.

 George Roehm, on the right, with possibly a brother of his, working inside a home, which could have been the home he was building for he and Lydia. I think Lydia took this photo, as she did most of the photography in the family.

 I believe George Roehm is the one in the middle, with the hat on in the boat. These could be his hunting buddies and possibly some of his brothers, circa late 1910's.

George Roehm with his rifle, circa 1915.

George Roehm on his wedding day to Lydia Herr, December 1914.

George Roehm (far right) with his hunted ducks and buddies, 1922.

 More of George Roehm with his brother Fred on the far left, two friends in the middle, and George on the far right, September 1929.

 George Roehm, in Wishek, still handsome, but showing some age, circa early 1930s.

George Roehm, on the far right, kneeling, in Los Angeles, CA, circa 1944-1945. His youngest daugther, Annette is in the middle with the arrow towards her. She said he was very protective of her. He treated her differently than the others because she was the only daughter that took after him. When she was born, he was hoping for a little girl with dark hair like his own, and he got exactly that.