I’ve managed to find out a few bits and pieces on the Hillinger side of my family since my first Brickwall post. I haven’t actually managed to find any more previous generations, but I have found a few more details about what I do have, thanks to my father and pieces written by both of my grandparents.
One thing I’ve learned is that my grandfather’s father’s name changed several times over the course of his life. I’m still not 100% sure of his birth name, but I’ve seen his first as Elias, Alec, and Alex. And his last name before 1919 was Seneft or Senft (not sure which spelling is correct, as I have seen both versions on documents), and after was Hillinger.
I have also learned a good deal more about his earlier life, though we are still not absolutely certain where he was born. It seems that his family moved from somewhere in Russia or the Prussian states when he was fairly young, possibly around the age of 7, and settled in London.
Another fascinating bit I learned was the names of three of four of his siblings (we’re not sure if there were more): Annie, Jennie and Jack. We also know there was another brother. The names all sound a bit Anglicized to me. I have a feeling that Elias is closer to his true name than Alex, and that the others are probably forms of more Yiddish or Biblical names, though I have no proof for certain. I have no ages for any of them aside from Elias, but I do have a bit more information on their spouses and children. Annie married a Moshe (?) Wolf, and lived and died in Tennessee after the First World War. She had no children that we are aware of. Jennie married a Moshe (?) Hirsch and lived in the states for many years, but moved back to England before she died. She also had no children we’re aware of. Jack lived in New York after the war, but never married or had any children we’re aware of. The final child did marry, and had at least five children: four sons, and a daughter named Kitty. She married and had at least two children, a son named Ivan, and a daughter.
And there was something else that I’d never heard of before. A place called Camp Douglas.
Obviously, as someone who is the descendant of German Jews, the thought of any detention camp is a bit sickening. And as someone who took a class on the Japanese internment camps here in the states, I know how bad these things can be even without purposefully setting out to kill the prisoners as was done in the Nazi camps. The fact that this family, my family, was sent to one while in England feels somehow that much more sickening.
For those who, like me, have not heard of Camp Douglas before, it was an internment camp set up during World War I for Prussian nationals and other enemy aliens to be sent to so as to keep them away from the rest of the nation. It was a campground on the Isle of Man, and was one of two camps set aside for prisoners during this time. Douglas handled the civilian population (ie, women and children and families) while the other handled POWs. Douglas was later re-opened for similar use during World War II. The thing that disgusted me most at learning of this place, though, was the fact that they felt that the Jewish population of the camp needed to be separated out from the rest—then sent many of them back off to the Prussian states after the War, where many were later killed by the Nazi purges.
My family was one of the lucky ones. My great-grandfather decided in 1933, after his business ventures failed, to move his family from Frankfurt to France, and from there to the US, so they were well out of range when the worst of the Nazi programs began in Europe. Still, it gives me pause just how close we came to not being here at all.
For more information on this side of my family, see these posts:
Brickwall Ancestors
The Life of Sam Hillinger as told by Maggie Hillinger
Surname Saturday: Hillinger
Brickwall Update - the Senft/Hillingers
Surname Saturday: HILLINGER (Austria?>Germany>US)
So, I'm going to be trying something new for a while... I found something called Surname Saturday at another Genealogy Blog that I found quite intriguing, so I thought I'd try it as well. I'm not sure how many generations I'll go back--several lines use patrynomics only about three generations back, meaning that the names change every generation, so that makes it difficult to keep up with something like this...but we'll see.
For more information, the master post about Surname Saturday is here.
For my purposes, I'm going to start with my maiden Surname and work my way back from there.
HILLINGER (Austria?>Germany>US)
Meaning/Pronunciation: English pronunciation: Hill-in-jer. Germanic pronunciation: Hil-ling-er. I’ve been unable to find a meaning for the name, but if anyone out there has an idea, do let me know.
Origin: Though I have not be able to confirm this, I have been told the name is Austrian in origin. For my family, the earliest we have the name is my great-great grandmother, but we don’t know where she was born, unfortunately, though we believe her son was born in Germany, or was otherwise a German citizen.
Variations: None known at this time.
Relation to me: This is my maiden name.
Ancestors:
i: Hillinger, E; (private), Germany; married R Bordewick; 2 daughters.
ii: Hillinger, Sam; born 1922, died 2000; born in Frankfurt, Germany; married Margaret Hansen, 2 sons, 2 daughters.
iii: Hilinger (Senft), Elias (Alex); born about 1883, died 1948; German; married Dora Kresch, 2 sons, 4 daughters.
iv: Hilinger, Mindel, born before 1873, died unknown; unknown birth location; married Leon Seneft, 1 son known.
Looking for:
More about Mindel Hilinger and her family, and her husband’s family. Particularly their birth locations and dates, any other children they may have had, and their parents’ names.
The Bordewick Family
Written by George R Bordewick
Bellevue, Washington
Transcribed by Mika Bartroff 4/8/10
My father was born in a small fishing village (fiskevaer) in the Lofoten Islands, north of the Arctic Circle in northern Norway. My mother was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania of Belfast Irish parents. I was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. How did we all get together? Briefly stated, northern Norway is temperate all year round which may be surprising to some. The Gulf Stream flows up the coast and in the north the cod fishery was the largest in the world. From 1896 to about 1900 the Gulf Stream departed from its usual course along the coast and diverted itself a couple of hundred miles westward.
This unfortunate turn of events resulted in the cod following the stream. In those days the fishermen used open boats, propelled by a square sail and oars when necessary, and the fish were out of their reach. My Grandfather, Bergithon Bordewick was in partnership with his brother Eivind in a fish buying and exporting business. Industry practice is that the buyer stakes the fisherman at the beginning of the season, and settles with him at the end, paying him for his catch and deducting for provisions, nets and other gear supplied during the season.
By 1900 Bergithon and Eivind were in desperate straits. Bergithon elected to go to Antwerp in Belgium where he had business connections. His family consisted of his wife, Leonharda, and three sons, Bjarne, Hans, and Harald. They remained in Antwerp for about six months, but they were not comfortable. They were mistaken for Englishmen, and the Flemish, who were sympathetic to the Dutch in the South African Boer War. Feelings ran high against he British, and on one occasion they were spat upon by indignant patriots.
Leonharda had a brother who had left Lofoten previously and was well established as a Ship Broker in Hull. Bergithon made a connection in Grimsby, which is across the river from Hull and he engaged himself to a firm of ship brokers. The three boys had a tutor in Henningsvaer, and must have had a good start in the English language. They attended school in Grimsby, and Clee Grammar School (“Fan Mentis Honestae Gloria”), where they did well in their studies and became ardent soccer players. Bjarne (my father) was a good student and successfully passed the entrance examinations for Cambridge.
My grandfather was not entirely happy with his situation and the family looked around for better prospects. My grandmother had a sister who had emigrated to Vancouver, British Columbia, which was then a boom town, and in 1910 they decided to try their luck in Canada. Grandfather found employment with the Atlantic-Pacific Steamship Company, and remained with them until the opening of the Panama Canal, which put the A-P out of business. It had employed ships on the Eastern seaboard which transshipped their cargo across Central America by rail, and thence by other vessels northward to the Pacific Coast of the United States and Canada. Apparently, other established lines were able to perform intercoastal freighting more efficiently than the A-P which went out of business. Bergithon then found employment as Dock Cashier with the Evans Colman and Evans Co which had a dock and stevedoring business, and were coal merchants.
My mother, Mary Dunlop Park, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her parents, Robert and Elizabeth Park, had emigrated to Philadelphia in the early 1880’s. He was a cabinet maker. They had seven children, all born in Philadelphia, one of whom died when a young man. The economy of the United States was in a precarious state, and my grandmother said that when the Democrats were in power, the Republicans did everything possible to make it impossible for them to succeed. As they controlled the business of the country, this was probably easy to arrange. President Teddy Roosevelt had much to do with disciplining the “trusts” and other business combinations.
About 1900 the family went back to Belfast, Northern Ireland where they remained until 1911. My grandmother had a sister who was married to a canny Scot from the Hebrides. He had gone to the Yukon and struck it rich during the Gold Rush. He was in the real estate business in Vancouver, BC, which was then a boom town and expanding rapidly. The family decided to come West and one of the sisters, Rhoda came out first, and followed by the others soon after. They did well, and lived in Grandview, a suburb of Vancouver for many years.
The influence of sisters and a brother who prospered elsewhere had a great influence in the movements of the two branches of the family. However the element of chance entered into the presence of my wife’s family in Vancouver. Her father, Daniel Thomas Jones, was born in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales. “Merthyr” is Welsh for “martyr” and commemorates the death of an heroic Welsh damsel who was murdered by the heathen.
A group of young lads from Merthyr and vicinity resolved to go to the Canadian prairies to harvest wheat, which they did, accompanied by Daniel. At the end of the job some were for going back to Wales, but Daniel and others tossed a coin to see if they would go West to Vancouver, or East to home. The toss was in favor of Vancouver. During his stay in the Prairies, Daniel had met a beautiful young Welsh girl (who later did not remember the occasion), and they met again in Vancouver while pursuing the common interest of choral music. They subsequently married and had four children: Marjorie, Edwina, Merle and Ivor.
I attended Zion United Church in Grandview, Vancouver, BC during my youth, and while attending a youth meeting in downtown Vancouver, made the acquaintance of Merle Jones. She was the only girlfriend I ever had. I had access to a bicycle built for two, and we enjoyed many rides together. Her home was near undeveloped land owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, and we picked berries, cut Christmas Trees and did other things in those leisurely times.
The Great Depression lasted from about 1930 to 1937, but our fathers were fortunate, and I was able to pick up a job, assisted by a gentleman who was a leader in one of our youth groups. Thousands had a very difficult time, but we were lucky. These easy times were ended by World War II.
My wife, Merle, and I have been blessed with four children...all of whom are doing well. We have two grandchildren...who show great promise.
That’s how we all got together.
My Nain - Eliza Anne Jones
So, I debated quite a while about what I was going to post today, and decided I'd organize some old computer files so that I had all my family tree information in one folder, and stumbled across something about my great-grandmother that I felt I had to post. Before this, I was thinking of writing up something about the female lines of my family tree, but that can wait. Though this does fall into that category.
I wrote the prose and poem for this piece for different classes. One was for a Folklore class where we were asked to talk about a family heirloom, and one for a creative writing class that was just something that flowed out of a generic assignment that ended up focusing on her, which I believe was about old photos (I could be wrong). Each of the stanzas of the poem are based on moments or photos that spring to mind when I think of her.
A rose on her grave --
The frail, white-haired old woman,
Who smiled when she saw me.
“I think I’m shrinking as fast as you are growing.”
An elderly woman,
Saying good-bye to the man she loved.
Clattering around in an empty house
After fifty-three years, alone.
A doting grandmother,
Holding three fidgeting children on her lap
Helping turn the pages
As she read.
A proud mother,
Sending her son off to war,
Protecting her remaining family
From harm.
The mother of four,
A child in her arms,
And three at her feet,
Building castles in the sand.
A young mother,
Holding her baby daughter
A toddler
Clinging to her skirts.
The bashful bride
Of a man who traveled
Halfway round the world
To find her.
A gold sunburst necklace
Engraved “EH”--
All that I have
Of a woman I called “Nain”
- MKB, 12/98
One of my most treasured belongings, possibly the most treasured, is a starburst necklace that I got for my twenty-first birthday from my grandmother. My parents were both young when I was born, and I was the first grandchild on either side of my family, so I happily had two full sets of grandparents, and even three great-grandparents for about the first ten years of my life. Of these great-grandparents, the one that I recall especially fondly is my grandmother’s mother, a woman I called Nain (pronounced nine). Nain died in the early eighties when I was about ten, and her belongings were split among her children and grandchildren. I believe that this is when my grandmother came into possession of the necklace. When I reached my twenty-first birthday, my grandmother thought of giving me the necklace, since it had originally been given to her mother for her twenty-first birthday, and I was the only grandchild who recalled her, she thought that I should have something to remember her by.
My great-grandmother was born Eliza Anne Howells in 1885 in Southern Wales, the fourth child of a coal miner. Shortly after her birth, her father decided it would be better for his family if he found a healthier job, so he moved the family to his brother’s farm in Alberta, Canada. They lived there for a few years until the pressure of having two large families in a small house became too much, and the family moved again. This time they moved to the west coast—Vancouver, British Columbia. There he set up his own farm and became moderately prosperous. On Eliza’s twenty-first birthday, the family had a necklace made, and engraved with her initials, EH.
When I received the necklace on my twenty-first birthday, I was thrilled. I had nothing that reminded me of her except a picture or two, and those only showed her in the last years of her life. I have since become one of my family’s historians, and I know far more about her than I ever did before. This simple necklace, not expensively made, meant as a gift to a daughter who had just become an adult has since become much more as well. To my great-grandmother, it became a reminder of the family she loved. To my grandmother, her daughter, it was a way to recall the mother she had lost. For me, the necklace is my link to a woman who I adored, and a link to her past; a past that I am learning more about every day. The necklace has a place of honor next to my bedroom mirror, where I can see it each morning, and recall the woman it was made for.
- MKB, 2/2000
The necklace is the old-fashioned sort, that was made to give the owner other options in wearing it aside from as a necklace, so the pendant is also a broach. To have my great-grandmother close to me during my wedding, I pinned it to the inside of my sash on my wedding dress. It no longer hangs near my mirror, but has a special place of honour in my jewelry box along with my few other treasured pieces of jewelry. It’s still one of my most valued possessions.
The Life of Sam Hillinger as told by Maggie Hillinger
Sam Hillinger was born January 5, 1922, in Frankfurt/am Main, Germany, to Elias (Alex) and Dora Hillinger. His brother Ben was two years older, his twin sister was Minna, and his younger sisters were Helene, Peppi and Selma. The father supported the family very well with various enterprises such as movie theatres and restaurants but was in the end forced out of business and the country in 1933 by the Nazis.
With the help of the International Jewish Relief agency, the family moved to Paris for a year or so. Sam was fond of saying he sold newspapers on the streets of Paris, but school was unbearable because of bullying by French schoolmates.
The family was finally able to emigrate to the U.S. about 1933-34. A relative (ed: Dora’s brother, apparently) who was supposed to meet them in New York to vouch for them apparently did not show up on time and they were saved by a former Frankfurt neighbor who was meeting someone else and apparently sponsored the family.
They settled in Memphis, Tenn, where the tardy uncle lived and where Sam’s father suffered a stroke, rendering him disabled. A year or so later the family moved to Hot Springs, Ark, where mother Dora supported them by working in a hospital as a cook. Sam graduated from the High School there (ed: picture of Sam’s highschool yearbook) (Where Pres. Clinton subsequently graduated) and went on to work for a while in ElDorado, Texas, for an oilfield-related business.
When the family moved to Chicago he followed along, taking a job as a billing clerk for a railroad company until he was drafted about 1943. Shortly he was assigned to a Signal Corps school at Camp Crowder, MO, where he was naturalized along with about 200-300 other aliens!
From there he was sent to England for a time and then was sent to France a few weeks after D-Day in June 1944 as a replacement. I believe he was assigned to 12th Army Group (let by General Mark Clark) as a clerk-typist/interpreter since he spoke German and some French. He was never in combat but moved about with the headquarters company in France and Germany, ending in Wiesbaden, Germany. Here he was assigned to the Inspector General’s office where his court reporting and language skills were most useful. Eventually he was assigned to Frankfurt, Germany, to the same work for the American Army of Occupation. Some of his work involved auditing non-appropriated funds which undoubtedly led him to eventually becoming a CPA.
By this time thousands of GIs were clamoring to get home but having to wait in line for space on troopships. Sam figured he could get home for leave very quickly by signing up to take the same job for Civil Service when he came back from his leave.
In February 1947 he took a train out of Frankfurt for a week’s leave to St. Moritz, Switzerland, with several housemates from the quarters where he lived. In the same train compartment was Maggie Hansen, an Air Force 1st Lt, and for the next week with this same tour group they learned to ski and eat Swiss pastries and enjoy Swiss scenery and hospitality.
Maggie was assigned to Wiesbaden, headquarters for U.S. Air Force in Europe, about 45 minutes from Frankfurt, and Sam was able to get the use of a Jeep so that the romance continued apace. Sam and Maggie were married June 12, 1948, and settled into an apartment in Frankfurt. Same was able to show the places he lived as a boy, now hopelessly bombed to ruins; 20 years later Frankfurt was almost completely rebuilt. First-born Ellis Dane came into the world at the 97th General Hospital in Frankfurt on July 5, 1949.
The following year Sam brought his family back to the U.S. where we visited his family in Chicago and Maggie’s family in Cleveland. Sam’s father died while we were in Germany, so he never met Maggie, or [the grandson] who was named after him.
A quick trip to Columbus, Ohio, resulted in Sam’s acceptance at Ohio State University on the G.I. Bill (paid tuition, books and a small stipend). Sam graduated magna cum laude in accounting in 1952 after which he drove his family across country to a new home in Seattle, Washington. His first job was with Touch, Niven, Bailey & Smart, one of the big 8 accounting firms at the time. He passed the Washington State CPA exam in one sitting and got his liscense. He subsequently worked for the Sunny Jim Company (jams, jellies and peanut butter) and then for Modern Home Builders (land development).
In 1966 he decided to go into practice for himself and for about 18 months he did so out of a home office. Subsequently he took office space in Ballard and his practice grew until 1987 when he sold it all and retired to his office at home again where he confined himself to doing mostly estate work. This suited him well because of his personal work ethic. He could more easily indulge his passion for downhill skiing as well as traveling frequently. [Three more children were born throughout the course of the 1950's, another son and two daughters.]
The family lived for 42 years [in Crown Hill in] Seattle, Wa, until Sam died unexpectedly in Barcelona, Spain, on November 25, 2000. Sam loved his family devotedly, never stopped studying and learning, was morally strong, and was honored by all who knew him.
Compiled by Maggie Hillinger 10-11-01.
Typed by Mika Bartroff 03-24-10
Brickwall Ancestors
For those who don’t know what a brick wall ancestor is, that is the furthest-back ancestor you’ve managed to find on a branch of your tree, but have never been able to find more. Often this is because of immigration, or war, or other issues that left records scattered or scarce. The two most obvious forms of this in the last few centuries would be American Slavery and the Nazi purge in Europe during WWII, but most could probably come up with several other examples of such in their own family tree.
I’ve been lucky in the fact that from the beginning of the time I began working on my genealogy, I had my tree traced back on all sides through my great-great grandparents. That is, my grandparents’ grandparents. In all cases I have full (or mostly-full) names, and in many at least a year of birth and/or death. However, in too many cases, that’s almost all I have, aside from children. And in a few cases, barely even that.
Brick Wall I
My grandfather, Sam Hillinger, was born in Frankfurt shortly before the rise of the Nazis. His family were Jewish, and his father was a shopkeeper, which means they were targets of the growing aggression around them. His family emigrated from Germany to the US in the mid-thirties, thankfully, but it has left that part of our family tree rather sparse. Especially since the Nazis systematically destroyed all records of their victims—birth, weddings, any documentation about Jews in Germany were quickly destroyed. Which means all we know about our family came from my grandfather, who was, unsurprisingly, close-mouthed about his family.
But here’s what we do know. Sam’s parents were Alex and Dora (nee Kresh) Hillinger, a couple who met in Frankfurt and decided to raise a family there together.
Alex was born 1883, to Leon Seneft and Mindel Hillinger, though we’re not sure where, precisely. We have no idea if his parents had any other children, or his parent’s birthdates or birth places. Only that they were German citizens when he was born. He was born Alex Seneft, but after World War I, he was ejected from England as a German national. When he arrived in Germany, he was told that his parents’ wedding could not be recognized, since it was a religious (Jewish) rather than civil ceremony. So he had to take on his mother’s maiden name of Hillinger. Alex died in 1948.
Dora was born January 15, 1892, possibly in the border area between Germany and Poland, as my grandfather was listed as Polish on his immigration card despite being born in Frankfurt, Germany. Her parents were Benzion and Feige Golda (nee Reich) Kresch. Again, we have no birthdates or other kids for either of her parents, though I do know that there are siblings on either her side or Alex’s side, as I have recently heard mention of a cousin. Dora died in April of 1969.
Alex and Dora had six kids. Ben (born 7/20/1920), Sam and Mina (born 1/5/1922, Helena (1923), Hilda (1927), and Selma (1931), in that order. I also know that there was a cousin Selma (as mentioned above), but I do not know to whom she was related. I have more information on the kids and their families, but what I truly need is the information about Alex and Dora and their families.
Brick Wall II
My great grandmother, Julie Oline Hansen (known as Oline), died when my grandmother was nine years of age of pneumonia, so my grandmother and her siblings (all younger than her) lost contact with her mother’s family, most of which was still back in Denmark, since my grandmother’s parents had set up their home in Cleveland, Illinois.
In the early 80’s, my grandmother’s sister, set out to find more about that side of their family, and sent a letter to the town where their mother had been listed as being born in the documents she was able to find: Fjenneslev, Denmark. The town mayor was kind enough not only to respond, but to send along detailed information about Oline’s parents and her siblings.
So here’s what we have for certain. Oline’s parents were Rasmus Hansen, born October 20, 1845 in Knudstrup, Denmark, and Maren Sophie Olsen, born June 27, 1855 in Slots-Bjergby, Denmark. Rasmus and Maren had six children: Herman (born June 20, 1882), Maren Hansine Marie (born October 15, 1884), Julie Oline (born December 26, 1886), Hans Kristian (born July 5, 1890), Johanne Kristen (born October 24, 1891), and Ole (born August 7, 1892).
We speculate that Oline came over to the US with her brother Hans and possibly an aunt or uncle’s family, and did not meet her husband Holger until she came back from a visit to Denmark in the nineteen-teens on the same boat he was on when he first came to the states.
We know nothing for certain about Rasmus or Sophie’s families, though one very helpful online friend did help me by looking for them in the census of the area. He was able to find a farming family in the area Rasmus was born with a son named Rasmus who was the right age, so that may be my great-great grandfather. The head of the family was Hans Nielson, and his wife’s name was Maren Rasmussen. They had five children listed on the census: Ole, Niels, Rasmus, Jorgen, and Jens. I’m still looking for any information that will verify that connection, and I have yet to find any information on Sophie’s family.
Brick Wall III
This is the first branch of my family tree that drew my attention when I started working on my genealogy. And it is the one that has given me the most headaches. As I said in an earlier post, my grandfather’s death in 1991 was the reason I got into researching my family tree in the first place. He was the last of his direct line, and I worried that we would have none of it recorded because he was now gone. It turned out not to be completely true. The Norwegian side of the family, his father’s, is well-traced out. But his mother’s side of the family, we have almost no information.
Mary Dunlop Park was one of seven children born to Robert James and Elizabeth (nee Curran) Park. The two immigrated from Ireland to Philadelphia sometime in the late 1800’s, and most if not all their children, including Mary, were born there. Sometime after that, the family left Philadelphia and, according to the family story, they returned to Ireland, followed sometime after by another move—this time to Canada, eventually settling (I believe) in Vancouver BC.
Their children’s names were Robert, Elizabeth, Mary, Rhoda, Margaret, George and Florence. The only two children whose birthdates I’m certain of are my great-grandmother Mary, who was born January 5, 1891, and her younger sister Margaret, aka Margie, who was born February 7, 1895. Robert’s birthdate I have down as June 1852, and Elizabeth I have listed as February 19, 1861. I also know that she apparently was born in Belfast, and had at least two siblings—Sarah and Rhoda.
Beyond that, we know nothing at all about this branch of the tree, and navigating the maze of the Curran family online is difficult at best. But I keep trying, in hopes that I will eventually find something someday.
To my family reading this: if you see anything in here that I’ve left out—names, dates, other information you know on these specific areas of our tree, do let me know. I would love to add it.
And to anyone else out there searching for these names…if you have info that looks like it fits, I would love to talk with you about the similarities and differences between our bits of information.
For everyone that read this far, thank you, and good luck in your own research.
Why I got into Genealogy
I am my family’s genealogist. And I love doing it.
Over the years, it’s sort of been my replacement for having a kid; my way of contributing to the family line, as it were. I never wanted kids, and sometimes, the pressure from my family can be hard to take, though it was far worse when I was younger. But when I focused on getting information for my family tree, suddenly, I had something else to talk about with them. It was easier to talk to my grandmother about the people in the photos than deal with her questions about when I would have a child.
But I had more specific reasons for getting interested in genealogy. In 1991, my grandfather died. An event that happens to everyone, but I had grown up as the first grandchild on either side of the family, lucky enough to not only have all four grandparents alive and well through all my life to that point, but even had two great-grandmothers who I got to know fairly well, and a great-grandfather whom I met on at least one occasion. For me, it was hard to imagine a time when I wouldn’t have four grandparents.
So when my grandfather died, I felt the loss strongly. Even more when I realized that I knew almost nothing about his family. He was the eldest of his parents’ two children, and his younger brother had died in the war when his plane had crashed on the way to Europe. When my grandfather died, all that was left was a great-great aunt and a great-great uncle, and another great-great aunt and her children, though they were far across the country from me.
I knew that there had been a space in time when my father had taken it upon himself to work on both sides of my family tree, even doing his best to help track down his own grandmother’s family, who had been lost to us since she had died when my grandmother was nine. He was the first that I went to, but he wasn’t the last.
I invested in a shareware program for collating all the information, and my family tree has been on my computer in one form or another ever since. First Brother’s Keeper, which was the shareware program, and then, a few years after, Family Tree Maker, which is what I currently use, though I’ve noticed my version is now four years out of date…might be time to get another. But my latest foray into genealogy “software” is actually online: Geni, which allows people to collaborate on their trees, both their own family, and when they find connections further on up their family tree, with others. There is one caveat to Geni—they’re trying to milk it for everything it’s worth, and making it hard to get past the “Pay to get Pro” ads everywhere on the site. I’m inclined to think they would make more if they kept it low-key and found other ways to encourage paid accounts—like picture posting, and higher level of detail in your tree, or something.
Over my years of working on my family tree, I’ve learned the hard way that it can feel like you’ll never find anything. Or worse, that the ones you want to find most are the hardest to find. I was lucky enough in the past year to find connections for my grandfather’s father’s line, but his mother’s family, whom I know so little about, I still have found absolutely nothing new on.
I’ve also learned that my focus has changed based on what I’ve learned. Before, I was very curious about my grandfather’s Irish roots…and learned that Curren is a horrifyingly common name. But then my focus shifted to my grandmother’s side of the family—entirely Welsh, which was not something I’d even fully understood before that. Unfortunately, that line is as difficult to find new info on—Jones, Howell, and Roberts, among other very common names. My most recent obsession is my other grandmother’s family in Denmark. As I mentioned above, her mother died when she was very young, so we didn’t learn much of anything about her family until I was around, in the early 80s. We still don’t know a whole lot, but it’s more than we had before. And I have strong hopes that I will manage to find one or both of my grandmother’s grandparents. I have one possibility for her grandfather, but I need to find more information to be sure. If you’re interested, a more detailed version of my grandmother’s story is here.
I do wish this would be something I could make money at, but I know I’m not the only one, and most are far better at this than I am. I’m a weekend genealogist, and I’ve only managed to expand my tree in a few places, and at a few times. Still, every time I find a new link, it’s such a thrill. I doubt the feeling will ever get old.