Sadly, it's been four months since I posted, and even longer since I wrote a legitimate blog post and not just a re-post of some Facebook Throwback Thursday photos. So, I'll try here to do a recap of research and discovery for 2016. I know there's a month to go, but I can almost guarantee I won't get much posting done between now and the holidays.
This was actually a pretty significant year in family history research for me. I made connections with cousins in Germany, I solved a century-old mystery, and I uncovered remarkable photos of people near and dear to me. I'll try to keep the summaries brief, though that's always hard for me once I get writing...
- I finally know the fate of Loren Alfred Finch, my great-great grandfather who abandoned his family in 1909! This really deserves its own lengthy blog post, but for the sake of brevity I'll say he moved to Illinois, changed his name, remarried, and and a bunch more kids - one of them still living today. This revelation came about thanks to Ancestry DNA, which helped me find Marilyn, my grandfather's half first cousin. We were matched through DNA, and by looking at her tree and discovering a Lawrence Alfred O'Neil, who shared the same middle name and same birth date as Loren Finch, that we were able to piece things together. There was also a second DNA test (my grandfather), photo comparisons, and some archival investigation. Like I said, I'll save it for a separate post (someday).
- I began a lengthy letter correspondence with my fourth cousin in Germany. Birgit is a descendant of Margaretha (Krambeck) Ehlers, older sister of my great-great grandmother, Freida (Krambeck) Sienknecht. It has been wonderful exchanging letters with Birgit and learning more about not-so-distant cousins still living in Germany.
- I made so many contacts with cousins across the state! I visited cousins in Cedar Rapids, who had photos of the Ackerman and Adler family, including two with my grandmother at three years old. I visited my grandmother's cousin in Elgin and took home boxes of photo albums to scan and record - hundreds of photos of aunts and uncles, great-great grandparents and cousins.
- I made another stop at the Elgin Museum, where once again I unearthed a box of seemingly random photos that proved to be filled with Shaffer family images dating back to the early 1880s. They appeared to be part of the collection that once belonged to Leota (Phillips) Welch, my great-great grandfather's first cousin, who died without heirs in the 1970s. I so appreciate the generosity of the museum volunteers, who let me bring a scanner inside (always travel with a scanner!) to make copies of the images. Another reason I ALWAYS send a pledge check when they are fundraising.
- I wrote so many letters. Seriously, it's safe to say I wrote more than 15 letters - old school envelope-and-stamp letters. I find that's easiest for contacting distant relatives for several reasons. First, I hate cold calls. People don't often answer calls from strangers, and if I don't know the person, it's too hard to explain that I'm their third cousin twice moved in the course of making initial introductions. Second, I like to provide evidence. Every time I write to someone I send them some of my research and some photos if I can. I like to show that I'm "legit" and can help them learn something while I'm also learning from them. I have a pretty good success rate. My unofficial tally right now tells me that I had at least five people write, call, or email me based on letters I wrote them. A lot of the letters in the 15 I mentioned above just went out in the last week, so it's too early to say if they'll bring results.
- I had an unexpected package arrive from Montana. It contained photos of the Reinig family dating back to the 1860s. It was addressed to my late great aunt, Pauline, whose house I purchased after her death in 2011. It came from Pauline's second cousin, now 96, who hoped to find a home for the images in the Reinig Civic Center built in Toledo. I have talked to the city about having some of the photos on display there, but haven't really pursued it much further. We had a nice conversation on the phone and I plan to write to her again to thank her and follow up on some of the photos and information she sent me. In fact, I think I'll do that tonight.
