A German at Castle Garden in 1887

One of my automated alerts sent this to my inbox just now. Although whatever it is was uploaded today, the document has been deleted, which is frustrating because I’d like to read and see it in its entirety. My great grandparents were German, arriving on a ship and processed through the Castle Garden immigration depot in 1887. [...]

Stagecoaches in Pomerania in 1811

Heinz Radde, a man of German descent born in Pomerania who now lives in Switzerland, has just sent information on a map he recently discovered. The map is of the stagecoach (postkutschen) network in Pomerania in 1811, during the Napoleonic era. Heinz is likely a distant cousin of mine. We are both subscribers to a [...]

Bernice Schmeling, Member of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Rauville

It’s hard to believe, but I’ve just read about a woman who likely knew my maternal great grandparents. Bernice B. Schmeling lived to be 104. She and my great grandparents attended the same church, St. John’s Lutheran Church in Rauville, South Dakota. Reading her obituary has been fascinating. Bernice was the daughter of Albert and [...]

Playing Around with Wolfram|Alpha

When I first heard of Wolfram|Alpha, in a news story, the search engine tool sounded pretty cool. And it is. For some reason I don’t recall, I found myself at the site and decided to experiment with various keywords to see what results were returned. There may have been a link to something in one [...]

Herman & Pauline

Here’s what I found on Saturday while researching at the public library using Ancestry.com. I decided to delve into the lives of Herman Lentz and Pauline Fromke. Information from the 1930 census has that Herman immigrated in 1883, but I am having a hard time finding him in any of the databases. There should be [...]

Immanuel Lutheran Church and Cemetery

Through the years I’ve asked my mother about the religion of her father’s family. They were German Lutherans. It gets a bit complicated because of theological and doctrinal questions which have led to church splits. I still haven’t sorted it out in my mind. But yesterday, discovering that my great-great aunt and uncle were members [...]

Brothers and Sisters

I’d never given much thought to my great grandparents’ brothers and sisters. But I am hoping that finding them will help in the search for information on their parents. All I’ve had for years was names: Carl Fromke and Caroline Radde & Ludwig Lentz and Marie Scharnofske. A few years back a couple in Montana contacted me about information [...]

The Peasants and the Land in Pomerania

Ancestors on my mother’s side of the family were impoverished peasant farmers from Germany — before there was a Germany. They lived in a land dubbed Pomerania by the Romans. To the Germans it was known as Pommern. While at Willamette University’s main library today, I picked up a copy of Germany from Napoleon to [...]

Scharnofske!

Over the years I have founded a few groups and lists for genealogy research, and here’s the latest. I decided to start a mailing list at RootsWeb for the name Scharnofske. My grandmother had the name a bit mixed up. She had written it down as Schenovsky. Here’s what I know about my Scharnofske relatives. Marie Scharnofske (Schenovsky) married [...]

Heinz Radde’s Site on Bütow & Pomerania

Heinz Radde, probably a distant relative, is a German man from the region of Pomerania. He currently lives in Switzerland. He has some great material on his site about the history and people of the area, including a timeline of major events. I am focusing on the 18th and 19th centuries because I am not sure [...]