My Ancestors - News You Can Use

Discoveries are waiting for you at the Northern Utah Family History Conference & Symposium on Oct. 6th and 7th in Ogden, Utah! You won't want to miss the fantastic classes (more than 70) and excellent teachers that are lined just for you. A multitude of vendors will also be on hand to share their expertise and demonstrate the latest in genealogy products and services.

This is going to be a spectacular event! Elder Marlin K. Jensen, LDS church historian, will be the keynote speaker and DearMYRTLE is our Friday night dinner speaker. In case you haven't heard, there will be an extra special performance, "Remember the Tears," on both Friday and Saturday nights in the Peery Egyptian Theater. If you have registered for the conference, admission to this performance is free, but you must request tickets. Click here for more information and to sign up.

Next stop! -- Cheyenne, Wyoming -- for the Genealogy & Family Heritage Jamboree on Oct. 20th and 21st.

Then, it's on to the LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake City for the Nov. 13-18 Research Retreat!

Query and Answer - Fall FREE Query Offer!

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You can submit a query like the one below, and one of our 70+ professional genealogists will guide you with some advice on where to take your research next.

Take advantage of our FREE fall query offer. Just go to www.myancestorsfound.com/q&a.htm and enter Sept06 as your promotional code. If you are one of the first 50 participants, skip right over the Order button because your query will be absolutely free!

QUERY
Surnames: Zerbel, Turk, Tuerk, Wollenburg, Lewandowski (Query # 05079 Swoboda)

Ancestor Name: Emma Henrietta Toska Zerbel nee Turk (Tuerk)
Research Goal: Locate her date and place of birth Locate her date and place of death
Ancestor's Birth: Unknown - Possibly Augusteneau, Kolmar, West Prussia or Province of Posen
Ancestor's Death: Probably after 1884 and before 1888, Berlin, Germany or Nakel, Province of Posen
Spouse's Name: Carl Wilhelm Zerbel
Marriage: 7-21-1858 Nakel, Province of Posen, Preussen
Children's Names: Emil Johann Zerbel b. 12-24-1860 Nakel, Posen Karl Wilhelm Zerbel b. 2-11-1863 Nakel, Posen Ottillie L. Zerbe. b. 1-04-1865 Nakel, Posen Gustave Johann Zerbel b. 7-31-1867 Gromaden, Posen Clara Zerbel b. 11-02-1871 Kovelifoko, Posen
Parents' Names: Gottfried Turk and Henrietta Wollenburg
Religion: Probably Lutheran
Occupation: Unknown/Probably Housewife

Records Searched: The names of her parents were located by tracing her sister's family, all obituaries for family members have been traced. This sister had a daughter who emigrated from Erlau in 1900 and married one of the sons of Emma and Carl Wilhelm Zerbel, she was born in Biewlowo or some such name. I have never looked at the original records on these marriages just the Internet records and I am not sure whether or not they would include any further information or not

Helpful Info: She had a sister, Auguste Alvine Turk who married August Lewandowski, eventually I found her descendants and their records confirmed the names of her parents and their residence that is not very far from Nakel now known as Naklo, There is a Franz Turk who married a Louise Manthey at Nakel on 9-06-1874 who is also no doubt related to this family as her picture was found in family records. The family started immigrating in 1884, 1886, and finally Carl Wilhelm Zerbel and his youngest daughter immigrated in 1888 after the death of Emma Henrietta Toska Turk, His son Emil Johhann and his family had probably left the Nakel area as a record has been located that states his daughter was born in Berlin, Germany, so just where my great-great grandmother Emma Zerbel died is questionable

Suggested Research Approach: Many times that information is given in the marriage record of the German ancestor. Your information indicates Emma married Carl Wilhelm Zerbel in the town of Nakel on 21 Jul 1858.

A search should be conducted of the original parish records for Nakel, in the Province of Posen. The records are, of course, in the German language, and the German Gothic handwriting style.

It is possible a search of the original marriage information will give the birth date and place for Emma. Additionally, that information may have been listed in her children's records. There was no standardized record keeping format throughout the German Empire for listing information, but, experience has shown often such pieces as you desire are given.

The Genealogical Society of Utah has only been allowed to film German records until 1875, so, if Emma did die between 1884 and 1888 in Nakel, only correspondence will bring that information

Some of the parish registers available for the city of Berlin do contain birth, marriage and death information well into the early 1900s. However, there are many Lutheran parishes in the city, so, it would first be necessary to try and find the family in extant Berlin City directories, to obtain an address. Then, that address would need to be plotted on a map to locate the parishes which that street ran through, trying to locate the nearest Lutheran Church(es).

If the handwriting is reasonably legible in the Nakel parish records, it is estimated it would take about 1 hr. to find, photocopy and transcribe the marriage entry for Emma Turk and Carl Zerbel. If that entry did not give her birth place and date, the time would be used to find the births of the children born in Nakel, to see what information about Emma would be given there.

The searches in the City of Berlin could take 2-4 hours. If there was more than one "C. W. Zerbel" listed in the directory for the years 1884-1889, each would have to be followed through, plotting the churches for each address listed in each year. Then, the actual church records would have to be located and searched. Most of the time only initials and/or shortened versions of the first names are listed in the directories.

Search Once, Twice, Three Times or More
by LaRae Free Kerr, M. ED

How long has it been since you searched the Library of Congress’s Local History and Genealogical Index? If it’s been a while, you might want to run your ancestors through it again. Go to http://www.loc.gov/rr/genealogy/ to find it.

I’ll give you fair warning: the site’s search engine does not work like www.FamilySearch.org or www.Ancestry.com. So it is imperative you read the search tips found at http://www.loc.gov/rr/genealogy/tips.html. Then be sure to use all three options in the upper right of the Local History and Genealogical Index screen: Local History and Genealogy Pages, Researchers Web Pages, and All Library of Congress Pages.

Even after those three options, I could not bring up a book I know is in that library. So from http://www.loc.gov/rr/genealogy/ I clicked on Search the Library’s Catalog. Even then the book would not come up by topic. But it did come up by title and author.

The Library of Congress has extensive holdings, including most books published in the United States and many interesting pictures and maps, etc. For example the Library contains a journal written by Civil War prisoner Miles O. Sherrill describing prisoners wearing “barrel” shirts as punishment for stealing cabbage leaves from the garbage heaps. The site includes information about an early nineteenth-century Elizabeth Sherrill who illustrated text books for author Emma Hart Willard when Elizabeth was only a student herself.

When I searched for Morganton, a town many ancestors came from, up came pictures of a bridge. The bridge was built way too late to have been used by any of my family, but the foliage around it probably hasn’t changed much, leaving a sense of ancestors’ terrain.

So be sure to search deep on this website. Enter your family name, specific names in both forms – last name first and first name first, towns, counties, even states.

Click on each option at the left of the Local History and Genealogical Index home page. When you get to Internet Subscription Services, click on A List of Selected Genealogy Websites and search those as well. Great finds may be waiting for you.

In addition, The Library of Congress allows people to ask librarians questions. I have attempted to locate an autobiography/reminiscence written by Sarah Perkins, wife of Jonas White, for some time without success. So I asked for help. Maybe I’ll get it.

The Mormon Historical site announced a joint effort between Salt Lake County and the Genealogical Society of Utah to index early Salt Lake County births and deaths printed in the Salt Lake Tribune. See http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_4100803. Apparently, the digitizing is done, and the whole package will be on the web next year. Anyone interested in checking the pioneer records now can contact the county's archives office at 801-468-2330.

Since I recommend running each ancestor through an AltaVista or Google search regularly, when a reader asked me to explain AltaVista, one of many search engines, I was delighted to do it. People all over the world send their ideas, experiences, research, pictures and venting into the Internet ether. It would just sit there forever, unread, if a way to retrieve the bits and pieces were not created.

Search engines crawl along the airways noticing each individual bit. It would be impossible for one search engine to find and categorize every single piece of information, so many search engines exist. Google is the most familiar one. AltaVista is another search engine which locates more on my family names than Google or others I have tried.

Ok, so how do you use AltaVista? When you click on Internet Explorer, several search engines probably come up. On my computer, Google, Yahoo and MSN all come up. If I want to use AltaVista, I type in www.altavista.com. AltaVista’s input rectangle shows up; I enter an ancestor’s name. A list of sites bearing that name shows up just like it does when I use Google. But because AltaVista crawls along slightly different paths, it brings up slightly different websites.

If you are still looking for addresses for lost cousins, try www.ZabaSearch.com. Reader recommended, this is the best site of its kind I’ve seen so far. Say you find an obituary for your great aunt that lists all her children. How can you contact the children? Go to Zabasearch and enter their names. Up comes everyone in the United States who has those names. If the names are common, the site will ask for a middle name or a town or state. This is one useful site.

Reader J. Shelley asked for an address in Illinois that would lead her to the massive card files mentioned in a Spring column. That address is Illinois State Archives, Norton Building, Capitol Complex, Springfield, IL 62756 or call at 217-782-4682. These marvelous people will research small requests.

Redoing certain website searches, such as those mentioned here, are required because the information about our people is ever-increasing. Thanks to all who add to the good stuff on the Internet.

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