In the next 2 months we have a class on finding ancestors in Ireland, another look from a new presenter on Social History, and a look at researching in Missouri. I am looking at how I can use the previous class which included some social history information and prepare for Ireland and the next social history presentation.

One of my focus points recently has been on where people came from when they came to America early on. For example, were there German communities in Butler County, Ohio in early 1800? If no, move on. If there were, did they come directly from Germany or did they come from Germany to another American location and migrate to Ohio?

I will often google the question and then look at the resources used by google. I am not looking for ancestor’s names and vitals. I am looking for migration patterns. Now, I don’t know if this is the professional family historian’s way, but it makes sense to me. If the patterns indicate that, for example, yes there were German communities in Ohio in the early 1800s then where does history say they came from? What part of Germany? Why did they leave Germany at that time?

What I am learning is more about history than family history, but I can then apply it to my family history. In my case I have found that many of my German ancestors came from SW German states like Wurttemberg and Baden for example. That immigrants into Butler County, Ohio at the time were Swiss-German. I have learned the reasons they came for farming, religious freedom, which also told me the potential religious beliefs of my family and occupations. Now these aren’t facts about my family necessarily, but they lead me down the road for more research locations which might lead to those facts.

After finding this and more about history at the time, I can investigate the locations I have for ancestors and see if anything fits, which it does. I can look for the churches from the areas in which they lived and then research church records to find names possibly.

I will repeat what I have said before and what I must tell myself all the time, “Family History research is not simple, and it is not quick.” I have yet to find my family names in any country beyond the Atlantic. But all the presenters say the same or similar things, “find everything you can on this side of the pond, before you try to cross.” With that, I think I am getting closer. If the hints that I have gotten from DNA or from the big databases have any truth to them, then looking for German or Swiss or Scots-Irish or whatever only makes sense to me, if people from those places landed in the American locations around the time I have.

All my school history teachers, both my own and those I supervised, would be so proud, I think?!

See you in the next class.
Heidi Geise, education@hqrl.com