Looking For My German Ancestors: My Research Experiences - Part 1 ...

I did write an earlier post about researching German ancestors for a previous edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy, but it was a fairly brief post. Plus, I wrote the post in terms of generalities. I did not go into detail about my experiences. So, how did I start?

Since my known German ancestors are on my paternal side, I first started out by talking to my paternal grandparents about my ancestors. (Well, actually one is supposed to do that anyway, regardless of ethnic background, but I digress.) From my grandma, I was able to learn the names of her grandparents and the names of two of her grandma's brothers. With that information, I was able to do searches in the censuses, and find the rest of the family. Of course, it also helped that my grandma had a family tree of one of her lines as well. Even though I had that family tree, I still verified the information that was on the tree, and I am glad I did so, as I found several errors on it, especially the portion of the family tree where one of the generations in the U.S was concerned.

After searching for my ancestors in the censuses, the next step for me was to start research in Michigan's vital records. Since I found my ancestors living in Saginaw and Bay counties in the censuses, I decided to start looking for records in those counties. Up at the county buildings for both counties, I was able to find marriage and death records for a few of my ancestors and their siblings. Of course, I did not find all the records that I had hoped to find, and I am still looking for records on my ancestors in this country. In another post, I will post more specifically on records that I collected and still collecting on my ancestors. Stay tuned ...