About Scattered Seeds

Hi, I’m Alora — welcome to Scattered Seeds.

I’ve spent years chasing ancestors across old parish registers, ship manifests, and archives on three continents, and I started this blog because I wanted a place to actually share what I find, rather than let it sit in my own research files. If you’ve ever stayed up too late squinting at a scanned church record trying to make out a priest’s handwriting, you’ll feel right at home here.

What you’ll find here

My own family tree and my husband’s family tree are a bit of a patchwork, which means my research spans a wider range of places than most single-focus genealogy blogs:

Silesian roots — tracing a line back to Alt Schalkowitz (Stare Siołkowice) in Kreis Oppeln for my husband’s maternal family
Czech & Bohemian roots – my husband’s paternal family
German Volhynian roots – my paternal family
Germans from Russia, originating in what was once South Russia and is now Ukraine – my paternal family
Canadian Mennonite roots – my paternal family
Wisconsin settlers, particularly in Clark County (husband’s family) and the southeastern counties (both of our families)

Some posts are deep dives into a specific brick wall I’m working through — the records I tried, what worked, what didn’t. Others are just the stories themselves: the people, the migrations, the small details that make an ancestor feel like more than a name on a chart. I’ll also share record-access strategies and archive navigation tips that apply well beyond my own family lines, in case they save a fellow researcher some of the trial and error I’ve already gone through.

A bit about me

I’m retired now, which means genealogy has gone from a weekend hobby to something closer to a second career — minus the paycheck. I’m not a professional genealogist (no certifications) and I’m not offering research services. I do have a lot of memberships that professionals are associated with and pro level subscriptions to assist with my research and for continuing education purposes..

This blog is purely a labor of love, shared in the hope that it’s useful or interesting to other people digging through their own family’s past. My own adult children are part of why I keep at this — I want the stories to outlast me — but I’ve come to love the research itself just as much as the outcome.

Let’s connect

If you’re researching any of the same lines or regions, I’d love to hear from you — there’s a good chance we’re pulling on the same thread from different ends. Reach out directly; cousin bait is half the fun of doing this in public.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you find something here that helps your own search along.