How to Eat an Elephant - Part 2

In part one of this post, I talked about how to eat an elephant, one bite at a time. Move your enormous project along a little bit at a time and before long you'll be done. This really is the way I accomplish a lot of my genealogy and other goals. However, some people don't agree with that way of getting large projects done. They say, to expand on the eating an elephant analogy, that you'll soon get tired of elephant. Plus, once the dead elephant has been sitting around for a while, it begins to smell.

How to Eat an Elephant - Part 1

Here's an old riddle for you. How do you eat an elephant? The answer? One bite at a time. The same thing goes for any seemingly impossibly large task.

What big tasks do you have that you'd really like to accomplish, if only you had the time or the ability to actually get it done? One task that can be massive is scanning in several large boxes of photos you got from your parents or grandparents. With all those hundreds or thousands of photos, how can you possibly get them all done?

Family Search - Iowa Death Certificates

When was the last time you looked at the records available at Family Search? If it's been a while, I encourage you to go and look at the collections available. To do this, go to Search, Records, then click the link "Browse all published collections". Then, if you haven't visited in a while, click on "Last Updated" to sort them by the last updated date, newest first. When I did this, I saw that they had recently added "Iowa, Death Records, 1921-1940".

I found scans of official death certificates for a large number of people in my genealogy database, including several that I had paid for official copies of previously, such as my great-grandmother, Elizabeth Dunzinger Panther, and great-grandfathers Tom Doran and Charles Miller.

Family Portraits

Some of my favorite pieces of family history documentation are family portraits. They literally let you see the family structure at a given point in time and give you perspective on the difference in ages between generations and let you see similarities between different family members and sometimes can show you the personalities of your ancestors. Here are a few family portraits. Some from my immediate ancestry and some from collateral lines.

First we'll focus on the Panther family. First up is the family of my great-grandfather, Alois Panther:

F: Veronica, Mary, Anna
M: George, Alvin Edward (Middle), Joseph, Elizabeth
B: Leonard, Benedict (my grandfather), Frank, Aloysius, Morris

DNA Testing and Distant Cousins

The story about my great-grandmother, Elizabeth (Lizzie) Dunzinger Panther is that she was born in 1854 in New York City and after the death of her parents when she was two years old, her grandparents brought her to live with family in Burlington, Des Moines County, Iowa. I found her in the 1855 New York State Census as one of two children of Andrew and Fanny Dunzinger along with her sister Mary A. Dunzinger. It says she was born in 1854.

She's found in the 1870 US Federal Census living as a servant in Burlington in the Charles and Walburga Wagner household. I found her in the 1905 Iowa State Census where it states that she had been in Iowa for all except two years of her life.

Andrew Dunzinger is found prior to immigration to America, in Wemding, Bavaria, as is the Wagner family. So logic follows that this would mean that the family she was brought to live with would have been the Wagners.

Re-examine What You Have and What You Need

Not sure what to do next in your genealogical research? I know I was recently at the point that I kept reaching dead-ends. I couldn't break through a couple of genealogical brick walls and was making no progress. So what to do now? Rather than continue to hammer away at these impenetrable walls, I looked at my direct ancestors and the documentation I had for them. Surprisingly, there were several basic documents I didn't have. For example, I didn't have the 1920, 1930 and 1940 US Federal Census pages for several of them. Realizing this, I went to Family Search, and browsed through their home town, page by page, in order to find their entries.

To to this, go to Family Search, go to Search and click Records

 

Surnames - Why Your Ancestors' Names Were Not What You Think They Should Be

I got to thinking about surnames and how many of the surnames of my ancestors did not follow the rule of children taking their father's last name and daughters changing theirs to their husband's last name when they get married. Because they didn't follow this rule, both of my grandmothers had last names other than what they would have been had their ancestors strictly followed this rule. Here is a list of the surnames that did not follow this rule and an explanation of how this happened.

It wasn't changed at Ellis Island - My great-grandfather, Carl Müller, and his brothers and sisters were all born with the surname of Müller. Previous family histories said that it was changed to Miller at Ellis Island or that he gave them the wrong name because he was hiding from the German military. While he may or may not have been hiding from the military, we know that his name change was not because of this and it certainly wasn't changed at Ellis Island.

Ancestors of Maria Magdalena and Anna Maria Liebrich

This is part three of the results of my research of the ancestors of my great-grandfather, Charles Miller. These are the ancestors of his mother, Maria Magdalena Liebrich and her sister Anna Maria Liebrich. After Maria Magdalena died, his father married her sister, Anna Maria.

First Generation

1. Maria Magdalena Liebrich, daughter of Ludwig Liebrich and Maria Catharina Maier, was born on 30 Apr 1830 in Ohmden, Esslingen, Württemberg and died on 6 Feb 1865 in Nürtingen, Esslingen, Württemberg at age 34.

Maria Magdalena Liebrich baptismal record

Maria married Johannes Handal. Johannes died July 6, 1851.

Maria married Johan Christian Müller, son of Christian Gottlieb Müller and Anna Maria Schach, in 1852.

Johan Christian Müller and Maria Magdalena Liebrich marriage record

Children from this marriage were:

i. Carl Christian Miller was born on 7 Oct 1852 in Nürtingen, Esslingen, Württemberg, died on 20 Oct 1923 in Fort Madison, Lee, Iowa at age 71, and was buried in Fort Madison, Lee, Iowa. Another name for Carl was Charles. Carl married Philomena Bixenman, daughter of Benedict Bixenman and Crescentia Wolfgang, on 14 Apr 1891 in Wien, Chariton, Missouri.

ii. Christiana Friederika Müller was born on 12 Nov 1854 in Nürtingen, Esslingen, Württemberg.

iii. Christian Luis Müller was born on 26 May 1856 in Nürtingen, Esslingen, Württemberg.

iv. Maria Louisa Müller was born on 28 Oct 1857.

v. Luisa Friederika Müller was born in Sep 1859 in Nürtingen, Esslingen, Württemberg and died on 25 Dec 1872 in Nürtingen, Esslingen, Württemberg at age 13.

vi. Dorothea Fredricka Müller was born on 2 Aug 1861 in Nürtingen, Esslingen, Baden-Wurtemburg and died in 1939 in New York, New York, New York at age 78. Dorothea married Christian Kurz about 1900. Dorothea next married John Gusenburger in New York, , New York.

Ancestors of Johan Christian Müller

This is part two of the ancestors of my great-grandfather, Charles Miller. Here are the ancestors of his father, Johan Christian Müller.

1. Johan Christian Müller, son of Christian Gottlieb Müller and Anna Maria Schach, was born on 6 Dec 1828 in Nürtingen, Esslingen, Württemberg and died on 21 Nov 1899 in Nürtingen, Esslingen, Württemberg at age 70. Another name for Johan was Gottlieb.

Johan married Maria Magdalena Liebrich, daughter of Ludwig Liebrich and Maria Catharina Maier, in 1852.

Marriage record of Maria Magdalena Liebrich and Johan Christian Müller

Children from this marriage were:

i. Carl Christian Miller was born on 7 Oct 1852 in Nürtingen, Esslingen, Württemberg, died on 20 Oct 1923 in Fort Madison, Lee, Iowa at age 71, and was buried in Fort Madison, Lee, Iowa. Another name for Carl was Charles. Carl married Philomena Bixenman, daughter of Benedict Bixenman and Crescentia Wolfgang, on 14 Apr 1891 in Wien, Chariton, Missouri.

ii. Christiana Friederika Müller was born on 12 Nov 1854 in Nürtingen, Esslingen, Württemberg.

iii. Christian Luis Müller was born on 26 May 1856 in Nürtingen, Esslingen, Württemberg.

iv. Maria Louisa Müller was born on 28 Oct 1857.

v. Luisa Friederika Müller was born in Sep 1859 in Nürtingen, Esslingen, Württemberg and died on 25 Dec 1872 in Nürtingen, Esslingen, Württemberg at age 13.

vi. Dorothea Fredricka Müller was born on 2 Aug 1861 in Nürtingen, Esslingen, Baden-Wurtemburg and died in 1939 in New York, New York, New York at age 78. Dorothea married Christian Kurz about 1900. Dorothea next married John Gusenburger in New York, , New York.

Johan next married Anna Maria Liebrich, daughter of Ludwig Liebrich and Maria Catharina Maier, in 1866.

Descendants of Johan Christian Müller

This is the first of what will likely be three posts regarding my findings from my discovery of the origin of my Miller/Müller ancestors and relations in New York City and Germany. This is part 1, the descendants of Johan Christian Müller. Among his children was my great-grandfather, Charles Miller, who moved to Wien, Missouri and eventually to Fort Madison, Iowa.
 

Descendants of Johan Christian Müller

First Generation

1. Johan Christian Müller, son of Christian Gottlieb Müller and Anna Maria Schach, was born on 6 Dec 1828 in Nürtingen, Esslingen, Württemberg and died on 21 Nov 1899 in Nürtingen, Esslingen, Württemberg at age 70.

Johan Christian married Maria Magdalena Liebrich, daughter of Ludwig Liebrich and Maria Catharina Maier, in 1852. Maria Magdalena was born on 30 Apr 1830 in Ohmden, Esslingen, Württemberg and died on 6 Feb 1865 in Nürtingen, Esslingen, Württemberg at age 34.

Marriage Record

Children from this marriage were:

+ 2 M i. Carl Christian Miller was born on 7 Oct 1852 in Nürtingen, Esslingen, Württemberg, died on 20 Oct 1923 in Fort Madison, Lee, Iowa at age 71, and was buried in Fort Madison, Lee, Iowa. 

 

Carl Christian's Baptismal Record

Genealogy Podcasts

Once I got serious at genealogical research, I realized that I wanted to hang out with people who were also interested in genealogy. I haven't listened to music on the radio regularly for a long time. I'd always end up listening to talk radio, sometimes struggling to find topics that I'm interested in. The solution? Genealogy podcasts! Given the large number of back episodes available, you can have your own personal genealogy radio station for months on end. You can subscribe to them through iTunes but what I did was just went to their web sites and downloaded the mp3 files to my laptop's hard drive, connected my phone and copied the files there. I then plugged my phone into the audio system of my car and listened to them like they were a radio station.

Possible Surname for Thomas Doran's Father

I've been trying to track down the name of my great-grandfather's father. Looking at my Family Tree DNA matches, I'm seeing a pretty large number of matches with one particular surname as an ancestral surname. This surname is Gallagher. One person that matches some of these Gallagher matches of mine has his only Irish ancestral origins in the Ardara area of Donegal.

X-DNA Inheritance and What It Tells You

I felt I wasn't getting a lot of genealogical value from my DNA test. I was speaking with a distant cousin of mine and she reminded me to take a look at my xDNA matches. Taking a closer look at this does tell me quite a bit more about my matches and could help narrow down how some are related to me.

What is xDNA? xDNA is the other half of the chromosome pair that includes the yDNA that males receive from their father. Mothers always pass along half of their xDNA to all of their offspring. If their child is male, all of his xDNA came from his mother and all of his yDNA came from his father. If their child is female, the daughter will receive half of her xDNA from their mother and the other half from her father.

The Death of 17 Month Old T. Patrick Miller

In this article, I described my search for information regarding the death of T. Patrick Miller, son of Leo and Julia Doran Miller. I had tried searching through property records of their home to determine where and how he may have died. In the Bixenman family history book by Sister Catherine Seeman, it was said that he died at 2 years old by drowning in a pond on the property.

During my most recent trip to Fort Madison, Lee County, Iowa, I visited the genealogy department of the Fort Madison library. While there, I was able to track down his obituary. When I found the index card, I didn't know I had found it. This is because the obituary was for Thomas Patrick Miller. I had been looking for Anthony Patrick Miller. I figured it was worth a look at the obituary just to be sure.

Father's Day - yDNA Male Miller Ancestors

In honor of Father's Day, I'm posting my yDNA, which is my direct male line, my father's father's father's etc... showing my direct male Miller ancestors.

First Generation
 1. John Anthony Miller  "Jack" was born on 16 Jun 1929 in Fort Madison, Lee, Iowa. He died on 21 Jan 2000 in Columbus, Platte County, Nebraska. He was buried on 25 Jan 2000 in St. Bonaventure Catholic Cemetery in Columbus, Platte County, Nebraska. 

John Anthony Miller - First Communion - about 1936

Panther Family Reunion Reminder

Don't forget! The Panther family reunion is coming up in a little over three weeks! If you're related to the Panther family, you're invited!

Here are the details:

When: Saturday, July 2, 2016. Start showing up at Noon. Food will be served at 4:00pm.
Where: Address: 2445 110th, West Point, IA 52656
GPS Coordinates: 40.8 -91.438 (That's 40.8 degrees North and 91.438 degrees West)
Google Maps: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=2445+110th.+West+Point%2C+IA+52656&ll=40.800962%2C-91.43731&spn=0.006846%2C0.013196&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&hnear=2445+110th+St%2C+West+Point%2C+Iowa+52656&gl=us&t=h&z=17

Map of the reunion location

Directions from West Point, Iowa:

Go north on 7th St which turns into 240th Ave/County Road X23
Drive approximately 5 miles
Turn right (east) on 110th Street
After about 0.7 miles, it will be on the left.

The current estimated attendance is at about 175 Panthers. We hope to see you there!

--Matt

My Full Ancestral Tree

I realized that while I've been posting about all the various family surnames, I've never posted my entire tree. My links page contains a link to my Rootsweb database and you can browse my entire tree that way. Here are links to my ancestors in this database and screenshots showing my ancestry.

First is the ancestry of my father, John Anthony Miller. I've recently made a breakthrough on his Miller line and you'll be hearing more about that in the coming weeks and months. For now, I've documented his Miller line back to his great-great-great-grandfather. This branch will be expanding soon.

Miller Brickwall Shattered

I was stumped. How in the world could I possibly find information about my Miller line? Here is everything I knew about them, taken from Sister Catherine Seemann's book "The Bixenman Family and Allied Families - Volume 1" - Page 285:

 The Millers original name was Mueller with two dots over the u, as they were Germans from Germany. Mary Ann Seemann McNamara gave the picture of the Mueller family, with the brothers and sisters of Charles, for inclusion in this book. Cecelia Baldwin also sent one so several families must have it. Anna Miller Seemann named the group but did not remember the name of one brother. They are listed here as they were on the back of the picture:

-Gottlieb (William) Mueller;
-Annie Mueller; married a Quinzer;
-unknown brother;
-Sophie Mueller; born around 1868; married a Schmalzl;
-Karl (Charles E.) Mueller (Miller); born October 7, 1852 in Germany; emmigrated in 1874; in 1889 married Philomena Bixenman (born April 27, 1870; died 1939); died October 31, 1923;
-Rika Mueller; married a Susenberger;

I Say Miller, You Say Muller

I'm hot on the trail of relatives on my Miller line. Charles Miller, aka Karl Müller was my great-grandfather. Sister Catherine Seaman's Bixenman family history book lists his siblings as brother Gottlieb, who was partner with a man named George Quenzer in a clothes cleaning and dying business in New York City, Annie, who married a man named Frederick Quenzer, who was involved in a clothes cleaning and dying business in New York City, Sophia, who married a man named Joseph Schmalzl, who owned a clothes cleaning business in New York City and Rika (possibly Fredrika), who married a man whose last name was Susenberger. The name of one of the brothers is unknown. There were a few Quenzer brothers involved in clothes cleaning businesses in New York at the time.

Brandstetter Descendants

I stumbled upon a hand-drawn Brandstetter family tree. It shows the descendants of Christian Brandstetter on several branches down to the 1950s. You can find the full document here: http://www.renchen.de/kultur-stadtgeschichte/stammbaum-brandstetter/

You shouldn't just take a family tree that someone else put together without supporting documentation but I went ahead and put the tree into a database so I could browse through the tree. Here is a pdf showing all of the descendants of Christian Brandstetter down to the generation of my great-grandfather, Aloys Panther.

A Trick to Find Obituaries and Newspaper Articles

I thought of a simple trick to tweak a Google search in order to help you find newspaper articles and obituaries for people of relatively uncommon surnames and especially for those with surnames that are also common words.

The trick is to search for "Mr. Surname" or "Mrs. Surname", including the quotes. Let's say you're searching for someone with the last name of Swords. Doing a Google search for just the word Swords is going to find many pages regarding the bladed weapon.

Ancestry Lost RootsWeb Data

When I first started getting serious about genealogy research, I loved RootsWeb. It provided surname and location message boards, a place to post your family tree data for free and even provided a large amount of disk space available for genealogy-related web pages. Best of all, it was free!

Then Ancestry bought Rootsweb. They assured us that nothing would change in the way Rootsweb was run. I never noticed any problems but was always wary because I just have never trusted Ancestry to do the right thing. This is only my personal opinion. It is not based on anything that has gone on in the past. I just always thought their share holders were more important than doing the right thing.

Family Tree DNA and GEDMatch

I've used Family Tree DNA for all genetic testing I've had done or recommended. I also upload my data to GEDMatch to expand my search for genetic cousins. Now, it appears the two organizations are in a spat. It's become a he-said/she-said argument but neither has publicly stated what the problem is. All we know for certain is that Family Tree DNA says that data uploaded to GEDMatch compromises the privacy of Family Tree DNA customers. GEDMatch says that Family Tree DNA has threatened legal action. Family Tree DNA has said (sort of) that they didn't threaten legal action. GEDMatch says that Family Tree DNA demanded that uploads of FTDNA kits to GEDMatch be suspended. Family Tree DNA says that they were surprised that GEDMatch suspended the uploads unilaterally. However, in the same and other statements, Family Tree DNA says they requested that uploads be suspended. Based on the fact that Family Tree DNA has issued conflicting statements, I'm believing what GEDMatch is telling us.

The Doran Family - Facts and Speculation

Happy St. Patrick's Day 2016! In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I'm presenting the known facts and what I believe is true of one of my Irish ancestral families.

First Generation

    1.    Thomas Doran  was born about 1804 in Ireland. His naturalization papers state that he was originally from County Donegal, Ireland. Several of my genetic matches that have Donegal ancestors have their ancestors from near Ardara. I don't know if this is where the Dorans are from but it is a possibility.

Thomas married Catherine O'Hara . Catherine was born about 1804 in Ireland.

Emigrants Out of Germany in the Mid-1800s

What are the reasons people left Germany in the mid-1800s? I've always wondered and could never find the answer. When my cousin visited our great-grandfather's home village last year, a local reporter wrote an article about his visit. In addition, part of the article was about the mass emigration of people out of the Black Forest region in the 1850s. I found this extremely interesting. While it wouldn't explain my great-grandfather's reasons for leaving in 1872, it could explain his brother leaving in 1854. The article was written in German. This is a translation that my cousin had a friend do for him.

New Roots Miniseries

I was excited to find out that they are remaking the Roots miniseries. I was first introduced to family history by watching this show in 1977. While I enjoyed it at the time, a recent rewatch made me realize that some parts of it haven't aged very well. I look forward to watching the remake.

I know some people criticized Alex Haley for making up a lot of the story of his ancestors. When I finally read the book, I realized how little of it is actually based on known fact of their story when I read the bit near the end explaining how Mr. Haley had put together pieces of the family oral tradition with stories passed down in the family still in Africa.

My DNA Origins

I've been trying to figure out the racial makeup of the various lines of my family tree. To do this, we'll start with my yDNA haplogroup.

My yDNA haplo group is J-M172. The origins of this haplogroup are Middle Eastern and, in particular, from the Asia Minor region. This could potentially be Jewish but could also be Middle Eastern men who migrated into the Roman Empire.

Then, we move on to my autosomal DNA test results. According to my autosomal DNA test, I am 96% European. Of this 96 percent, 45% is of Scandinavian origins, 39% British Isles, and 12% southern Europe, including Greece, Italy and Spain. The remaining 4% is the Middle Eastern origins shown in my yDNA test.

My DNA Origins

Family Reunions - Panther Family Reunion 2016

Do you have a family reunion scheduled for this year? If you are related to the Panther family you do!

If not, you should organize one! Why? To get back in touch with your relatives, to share information about what you've been up to and to learn what your relatives have been up to. And, for genealogists, the most important reasons: To share family history information about your ancestors and to learn stories and obtain copies of photos and documentation that you don't already have. Just imagine, you have a family reunion and a distant cousin brings along the baptismal certificate for your grandmother! Or a photo of the old family home in the family's home country!

Stumbling Upon Historical Documents

While searching for your ancestors in historical records, occasionally, you'll come across records documenting something of historical significance. I wanted to post this because, while doing a little bit of research on the history of the area my Panther family is from, I noticed that the church record documenting the death of Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen is not posted anywhere on the web. Grimmelshausen fought in the Thirty Years War and is a noted German literary figure.

Confederate Cemetery Vandalized

The Oakwood cemetery in Raleigh, North Carolina, was vandalized. Headstones in this Confederate cemetery were toppled and defaced with spray painted "KKK", "white supremist", "slavery" and other graffiti.

Cemeteries are a place of rest for our ancestors. A place of peace and a place of remembrance. It's a place of history. Likely, most of those people buried in this cemetery are someone's ancestors. If someone disagrees with what the people in a cemetery lived for and died for, they should just stay away, not vandalize it. If everyone vandalized the headstones of those they disagreed with, every single headstone in the entire world would be damaged. No matter what their political orientation and no matter how they lived, how would you like it if your ancestors' headstones were damaged?