What I've Been Up To Lately and Other Things ...

Well, as you all have probably noticed, I haven't posted very much in a long time. Up until a couple of days ago, I had been extremely with school work, and therefore, I didn't have very much time to keep up with what has been going on in genealogy lately. Unfortunately, I am unsure as to when I will be resuming my normal posting schedule since I will still be taking a couple of classes this summer, and I will only have a few weeks break before I begin the next school year. Thus, blogging is probably going to be pretty light into the foreseeable future.

On a lighter note, I've noticed as everyone else has that FamilySearch's Record Search has added or updated quite a few databases, and I've done a little searching in some of the databases. I believe I have found some useful information on a few of my ancestors, and so, I have a few new leads to look up. Of course, I don't know if I'll be able to follow up on them this summer, but sometime in the future, I will pursue them.

I also wanted to list a few links that might help other people in their research. The first link is for some digitized parish books from Austria and Germany, which I learned about when I happened to be looking the website for the historical society of Gelnhausen, Germany for ways to further my research into my Kees ancestors. Only some of the parish books for the locations listed have been posted, but at the moment, it is free to view the images online. If you want to download any of the images, though, you would have to pay.

The other two links deal with genealogy research in Lancashire, England. The first link has transcriptions of parish records for churches in Lancashire, and are free to view. Transcriptions are added frequently, so if you don't happen to find transcriptions for the churches you are looking for, they might be posted eventually. The other link is for an index to the Birth, Marriages and Death records recorded in Lancashire county in 1837 and later. The index is also free to view, and the site lists information on how a person can order a certificate for the record. This site also frequently updates the index as well.

I hope these records might be useful and helpful for others in their research. Enjoy!

Family History Center Visit 13

Yesterday, I paid a visit to the local Family History Center, and I took a look at the microfilm that had arrived. That microfilm happened to be of civil marriage records from Gelnhausen, Germany, but unfortunately, I was unable to find the marriage record for my ancestors, Adolph Kees and Amelie Cotta. The problem was partially due to the fact that I had difficulty reading the handwriting and partly due to the fact that I was unfamiliar with this record type. (Up until this point in researching my German ancestors, I was only familiar with the civil records in Trippstadt, Germany which was a part of Bavaria in the time frame of my research. Gelnhausen was part of the country of Hessen-Nassau at that time, about early to mid-1800s. Thus, I was looking at the records for another country than I was used to, and so, I was unfamiliar with the records that I was researching.)

Of course, I thought that by ordering the civil records first, I might be able to find a record of my ancestors' marriage without having to look at the church records. (There was more than one microfilm of Protestant churches in the LDS catalogue, so I wasn't sure of which church to look at first.) Obviously, I was unsuccessful, so I'll have to order microfilms from the churches in Gelnhausen the next time. Of course, I'll have to wait until I'm on break from school because I will be going back to school soon. Hopefully, the other three microfilms will come in soon, especially the other German microfilm because I don't have much time left.

Family History Center Update

I called the local Family History Center, and I learned that one of the microfilms, the Gelnhausen, Germany marriage records, I ordered had arrived. Hopefully, I'll be able to visit the center soon, and look-up the marriage record for my Kees and Cotta ancestors.

As for the other microfilms, they haven't come in yet. Apparently, the microfilms have been backlogged, but I hope they come in soon because I won't have very much time left to do research before I go back to school.

Family History Center Visit 11

Earlier today, I visited the local Family History Center, and I took a look again at the microfilm of the church records for Trippstadt, Germany. On my previous visit, I couldn't find a burial record for one of my Kees' ancestor's children, so I decided to look again this time. And I found the record, and I printed out a copy of the record.

After I went through the Trippstadt microfilm, I ordered four microfilms, and I printed out of my great-grandfather's service records. One microfilm was of civil records, and the other three were microfilms of church records. Two of those church records were from Manchester, Lancashire, and the other was of church records from Bobenheim am Berg, Germany. The civil records microfilm was from Gelnhausen, Germany, and it contained marriage records for the city. Hopefully, the microfilms will come in soon, and I will be able to go back farther in my ancestry. Stay tuned ...