Many Projects - Upcoming Posts

I have many irons in the genealogical fire at the moment. These will end up being posts over the next several weeks. They'll take some time to get the results or just for me to get the information organized. Here's what you can expect:

1. I purchased a yDNA-37 test. I expect this test to help me identify which of the many many Miller families in Germany my great-grandfather was a member of so I can begin the genealogical work on his family. I expect the first result about March 22. I'll be posting as soon as I learn more.

2013 - Most Popular Posts of the Blog's First Year

I'm trying to come up with a good subject for my next blog post but nothing is inspiring me, so... I'll give you the most popular posts on my blog this year.

The most popular post this year, narrowly beating the second place entry is "What Constitutes Proof?" This post is a rundown of everything I know about Elizabeth "Lizzie" Juliana Dunzinger, my great-grandmother. I've found quite a bit of circumstantial evidence pointing to Andreas/Andrew and Fanny Dunzinger of New York and Wemding Bavaria to make me believe they are her parents. I'm hoping to find concrete proof of this. It got quite a few of the visits due to it being mentioned in the Genealogy Guys and the Genealogy Gems podcasts.

Coming in second is my post titled "Who Finds Who?" It tells the story of the discovery of my great-great-great-grandfather's grave and it's near discovery by my cousin's son, who had literally tripped over it but still didn't find it. As another one of my cousins described it, "unbelievable, awesome, spooky and hilarious all rolled in to one!"

Coming in at a solid third was the report of my initial discovery of Elizabeth Dunzinger, "Elizabeth Dunzinger Possibly Found", describing how I found her and what I found, along with follow-ups on some research in Wemding.

Have a subject you think will make a good blog post? Do you have a research question you'd like an answer to? A research technique to let people know about? A branch of our shared family tree you'd like posted? Drop me a message!

--Matt

Trip to Southeast Iowa

I drove my mother to southeast Iowa last weekend so she could visit her sisters and old friends. While she was busy, I got busy with genealogy research.

I took photos at St. James cemetery in St. Paul, Lee County, Iowa. I took a list of graves from Find-A-Grave that didn't have photos posted. I started near the back of the cemetery, going grave by grave, checking the list to see if a photo was needed. If so, I took the picture and moved to the next. Once I got home, I added those I needed (most of them - I'm related to 40% of the people in this cemetery) to my database and posted them all to Find-A-Grave. The percent photographed showed 24% when I started. It now shows 42% photographed.

While taking the photos, I set up my GoPro Hero3 camera to take time-lapse photos of the clouds and sunset. I think the video is pretty stunning:



The thing I was most excited about on this trip was my visit to Sts. John and Paul Church in Burlington. They allowed me to page through the old books.