Scattered Seeds

  • WHO WERE HENRY’S PARENTS?

    For years my paternal first cousins got nowhere with attempts of identifying with validation who the parents were of a great-grandfather I will identify as Henry.  I was up for the challenge and began with looking at family trees created by DNA match first cousins in July 2023. I began with the research question: Who were Henry’s parents?

    I had no clue at the time as to what Henry’s country of origin was for certain. What I could find in the form of Social Security and naturalization documents didn’t match up to one cousin’s thought that it was “somewhere in Germany – the Mecklenburg-Schwerin area.” 

    A number of family trees on Ancestry.com identified his parents as William and Ottilie. My research question by September 2023 changed: Were William (aka Wilhelm) and Ottillie Henry’s parents? I also was curious as to where family tree owners got the idea that this couple were his parents. No one seemed to know.

    I was interested in going back to William and Ottilie’s origins before they emigrated to the Wautoma, Wisconsin, area where they married, lived and died.  The research process started with locating the couple’s obituaries to get some idea who their children were.  

    I was able to get this information both online (Ancestry.com, MyHeritage.com, FamilySearch to name a few) and through a library from the Wautoma area.  The librarian was very helpful in locating obituaries that GenealogyBank.com didn’t have, including those of the couple’s children.

    I recorded my findings on family group sheets, hourglass charts and Google Drive documents and spreadsheets, citing sources along the way.  But, the information from obituaries for William and some of his children didn’t really add up. 

  • UNLOCKING FAMILY HISTORY: MY DNA JOURNEY

    I’m obsessed with family history and the social and historical events that play a part in it.  My obsession became pronounced back in December 2022.

    I had submitted a DNA kit back in 2019 to hopefully find out who my biological father was. As a result, I received over 14,000 matches on my biological father’s side alone!  I saw surnames that could be helpful.  But, I had no clue how to use these match results to my advantage.

    Then just before Christmas 2022, an Ancestry DNA match’s daughter reached out to me via Facebook Messenger chat. I hadn’t checked in with my Ancestry account at all since 2019 until I was informed in that chat there were messages for me.  Indeed, there were messages.  Lots of them! As I responded to these messages, I realized I was a missing piece to a puzzle.  DNA helped find that missing piece.  

    While this did help me to some degree and the information newly found relatives provided was useful, I needed more to go on that was specific. We couldn’t quite narrow down who out of a set of grandparents was my biological father exactly.

    There just had to be a process to guide me through doing the genealogy using DNA.  I wanted to do this as efficiently as I could.  A busy life at the time didn’t allow much time to work on this research project.  

    Still, I wanted to get some real validation ASAP.  First, I traded off hours doing less meaningful activities for more meaningful ones to work on this project.  I was realistic, making a goal of getting this tackled within a year’s time.

    So, what do we all do when we want to know how to do something?  We do a Google search, of course!  Well, I did that and got even more overwhelmed.

    About that time, I registered for the virtual RootsTech 2023.  I chose topics both related to my research question and genealogy in general.  Do Genealogy Step-by-Step (The Search Party Method) was on my watch list.

    Genealogists Janet Hovorka, Crista Cowan and Diahan Southard shared a simple 5-step plan to help people “do genealogy better.”  You can find a video by FamilySearch from this presentation at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STKYNwda_pQ.

    What really sparked my interest was learning that Diahan Southard, a genealogist specializing in DNA education, offered a workshop teaching DNA skills to help figure out DNA kit results.  She shared a personal story that I could relate to.

    I found her workshop online and registered.  Right away, a coach was assigned to me to work out what I was researching for.  The process learned in the workshop is not a one size fits all approach.  Though the tools provided are the same, the way they are used depends on your research question.

    As I worked through the workshop I learned about how to work with not only DNA matches on Ancestry but also MyHeritage and 23&Me.  By the time it ended, I had a good part of my research question addressed.  I was able to back up my findings too.

    As a result, this research project took less than a year, not even 6 months.  It was worth the time and effort.  Best of all, I gained a lot more family than I expected using techniques I learned to communicate with them in an otherwise awkward situation.  

    Eventually my obsession became a passion.  I learned about a genealogical brick wall my newly found family had to deal with for years.  This sparked a desire to help them.  

    I didn’t realize helping them was helping me grow as a genealogist and family historian.  Since signing up for Diahan Southard’s DNA Skills Workshop, I’ve joined quite a few genealogical societies (National Genealogical Society or NGS, The Society for German Genealogy in Eastern Europe, Germans from Russia Heritage Society to name a few).  I’ve also picked up a few classes online through NGS and the International Institute of Genealogical Studies along the way.  

    I hope you’ll follow my blog, which I hope educates and inspires you. My goal is to share the knowledge I’ve gained from my own personal genealogical journey. I’m not a professional genealogist but what you call an intermediate-level genealogist.

  • LAUNCH OF MY NEW WEBSITE, SCATTERED SEEDS

    For quite a while I’ve been wondering how I could share the genealogical content I’ve created while working on print family history books. I’m no stranger to blogging and am aware that there are bloggers who focus just on genealogy. There is a group of them that are members of GeneaBloggers.

    GeneaBloggers is a nonprofit organization of volunteers that support those who share genealogical content through blogging, vlogging and other formats. I’ve heard of GeneaBloggers before, but I never really looked into becoming a genealogy blogger up until recently. 

    What motivated me to look into genealogy blogging was after a recent encounter with a genealogy website that was a blog. It was very helpful when I was doing research about a particular family that was heading toward a genealogical brick wall. That sparked the realization that starting a genealogy website would be a great way to reach out to both interested family members and other genealogy enthusiasts alike. 

    After exploring what this website would look like and include, I’m making my first move with this blog post. Although I have the website set up with headings across the top of the home page, also known as the menu, I have a ways to go with filling those pages with posts and content. So, bear with me as I begin sharing what I’ve encountered along the way while progressing through journeys in time while “doing the genealogy.”