German documents transcribed

About two years ago, I ordered German church microfilms from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. The only way to save the images was to snap a photo with my cell phone. The images weren't great, but using Photoshop Elements, I was able to piece two or three images together into one document. 

I could make out a few words like legitimate, baptism, family surnames but that was about all. Using a German dictionary, German word lists from Family Search Wiki, and Google translate - German to English, I still couldn't make out what the documents said. 

Earlier this month, I attended the FGS Regional/Wisconsin State Genealogical Society's conference at Wisconsin Dells, WI

On the second day, I attended a session by speaker Antje Petty. Her lecture was: “Max Kade Institute: Resources to help with your German-American Family Research”. My ears perked up, this was just what I needed. Part of my road trip this month was to research my mother's German paternal line. I spoke briefly with Ms Petty after her session and she said to email her with my German document questions. Ms Petty's office was on the University of Michigan-Madison campus near the Wisconsin Historical Society.

I made an appointment to meet with her the following Monday afternoon and sent my scanned documents in advance. Since I had planned on going to the historical society for research anyway, this was perfect. Over the weekend, Ms. Petty emailed me she wasn't feeling well, and would have to cancel our appointment. She said she looked over my scans and thought the documents might be in Latin, which she doesn't read, not German like I thought. That's why Google translate, the word lists and German dictionary couldn't decipher the documents. Wow, didn't see that coming! I would have to look into the documents after I got home.

I was disappointed we couldn't meet but thanked her for the valuable translation tip. A week later Ms Petty email me and said again how sorry she was we couldn't meet, she had actually come down with the flu but taken a second look at my documents and they were definitely in Latin. Thank you, thank you and thank you again! I won't be wasting time trying to decipher German. I'll be looking into Google translation - Latin to English. 

That invaluable tip was well worth the trip. You just don't know what you're going to learn when you attend conferences.

Copyright 2017, Gayle Ficarra Wolcott

FGS Regional/WSGS 2017 Gene-A-Rama Conference – 8 April 2017

Yesterday, I attended the first of a two-day conference of the FGS Regional/WSGS 2017 Gene-A-Rama held at the Chula Vista Resort in Wisconsin Dells, WI.

The syllabus was sent via email a week ahead of the conference. I printed the pages I thought I’d need from home for the various sessions I planned to attend. The night before the conference I set up my conference bag, clothes I would wear, and other items I’d need. I either read the schedule wrong or was so excited for the conference to begin, I went down to registration about two and a half hours early. I was excited!

Before the sessions began, there was society business matters and announcements. Two of the sessions I’d planned to attend, their speakers were absent because of family emergencies. The WSGS president announced that the sessions would be filled with FGS speakers so there was no delay.

My first session was substituted from “100 Years Later: Finding Your World War I Ancestor” to “Pinterest.” I’m not an avid Pinterest user but sat in on the session and figured I could learn something new. The speaker didn’t disappoint. Good talk and PowerPoint slides.

My second session was after lunch. Again, the session was filled in with a different speaker, Curt B. Witcher. I’ve heard Mr. Witcher many times on different subjects. Several years ago, he was the seminar speaker at my local genealogy society. He’s a highly qualified and sought after speaker. His lecture was very much like the programed lecture; “Search for your Data in their Repository.” He gave many excellent points for narrowing down keywords in searches. He suggested using the “place” where your ancestors lived instead of their surname exclusively. His examples were five key components: place, ethnic, surname, religion, and occupation. I will be changing the way I do my searches based on the above.

My third session was again with Mr. Witcher, “Minding the Mother Load: Using Periodical Literature for Genealogical Research.” This was actually a session I had originally chose. Curt B. Witcher is the senior manager of the Genealogy Center in the Allen County Public Library in Ft Wayne, IN. I haven’t had much luck in finding anything in PERSI, that’s just me. I know it’s because I’m searching wrong. Mr. Witcher went into great detail showing and explaining the ins and outs of the search capabilities. Unfortunately, PERSI is now housed with FindMyPast.com a subscription site that is mostly used for international searching. I’ll have to use it in my local Family History Center.

The fourth and final session I chose was “Software: Genealogy Apps on Mobile Devices.” Substitute speaker was Rorey Cathcart. Ms. Cathcart is a professional genealogist. She did a great job pitch-hitting this subject. She used the handout from the syllabus and added many more ideas of mobile apps she herself uses. I’ll be checking out some of them and look forward to incorporating them with my research.

I met some very nice ladies from various parts of Wisconsin at my table for dinner. They gave me great tips for researching in Sheboygan County, which I will follow-up.

The evening dinner speaker was once again my favorite, Curt B. Witcher! His talk was “The Great American Tapestry—Voices of Our Ancestors.” No PowerPoint slides this time. His talk about our ancestors’ and the letters or journals they left behind gave us a glimpse of our ancestor’s thoughts and feelings. He wove a beautiful story by just reading the letters or journal entries.  A very enjoyable evening.

Copyright 2017, Gayle Ficarra Wolcott

Ramminger Research

I’m on the trail to tie up some “loose ends” of one of my maternal lines. I have quite a few documents and sources, but I’m missing some key elements.

1852 Passenger list

My direct line immigrant ancestor was Andreas Ramminger. He was from a village in Germany, Hesse-Darmstadt. In 1852, Andreas, his wife Gertrudis (Gertrude) and their six boys boarded a ship in Rotterdam, Netherlands to come to America. The sons were, Conradus (Conrad), Joannes (John), Henricus (Henry), Jacobus (Jacob), Philippus (Philip), and Adamus (Adam).

They made their home in Sheboygan County Wisconsin by farming. In 1854, Gertrude died. 

1854 marriage record

Andreas married Wihelmine Bergner. In December 1854, he bought 40 acres of land from John M. Watson, who received the Bounty Land as a solider in War of 1812.

I’d like to research the land deed.

Learn exactly when Gertrude died and where she’s buried.

Name all of Andreas and Wihelmine’s children. The list I have is: Frederick, Maria, Herman, William Mary, and George.

George is my great-grandfather. He was born in 1866 in Rhine, Sheboygan County, Wisconsin.

Married Susanna Steinhauser in 1894. Their homestead was in Clark County, Wisconsin.

I’m going to the Wisconsin Historical Society to research all of the above, and hopefully, more!

Copyright 2017, Gayle Ficarra Wolcott

SCGS 2015 Jamboree – Day 2

Since I’m staying at a hotel close to the convention center, I didn’t have to hop out of bed as early as I did yesterday from home. Last night I updated My Schedule on the SCGS Conference App and chose some interesting classes. Here’s what my line up looks like, subject to change.

I have a conflict with some morning classes. I’ve hear all three excellent speakers in the past so it’s going to be tough to choose.

9:45 am to 10:45 am - Thomas MacEntee – Creating a Community Indexing Project

Or
10:00 am to 12:00 pm - Jean Wilcox Hibben – Society Support & Share Open Forum
Or
11:00 am to 12:00 pm - Drew Smith – Crowdsourcing Your Brick Walls

EXHIBIT HALL opens yay!

1:00 pm to 2:00 pm – Michael Brophy – Paddy on the Net: Irish Genealogy Databases

     I don’t have Irish ancestry but I’m helping a friend of mine with her maternal line. Since I haven’t done any Irish research before I’m going to start at the beginning.

2:30 to 3:30 pm – Michael D. Locapo – Methods for Identifying the German Origins of American Immigrants

     German is my mother’s paternal line.

4:00 pm to 5:00 pm – Cindi Ingle - Time lines: The Straight Line Between You and Your Ancestor

Another conflict:

5:30 pm to 6:30 pm – Michael D. Lacopo – Finding and Utilizing German Church Records
Or
Thomas MacEntee – Genealogy Do-Over – A Year of Learning from Research Mistakes
      I’ve been following the Do-Over on Facebook and plan on jumping into the next round when it starts over on July 3.

Well that's it for today. Going to be a long day, but looking forward to it!

©2015, copyright, Gayle Ficarra Wolcott

Preparing for FGS/RootsTech 2015 Conference

13 days until I board a jet plane and head to Salt Lake City, UT, to attend the 2015 FGS/RootsTech Conference. I've been busy. I'm finally updating my RootsMagic database with all the copied and downloaded files I've had for my German immigrant great-great-grandfather, Andreas Ramminger.

I took a German genealogy course through the Genealogical Studies program. So glad I did. Of course I wish I hadn't signed up during December/January, made things really hectic. Working through my assignments I found the Andreas with his first wife and six children in the New York Passenger List on Ancestry.com. I now have the port of departure, Rotterdam, and the date they arrived in United States, 6 July 1852.

I have such a feeling of accomplishment. I've been dutifully citing all my sources. I can then file all those pieces of paper in my permanent file folders.

 After I've updated the database I want to generate reports, save them as PDFs and import them to my tablet computer. This way I won't have to carry all the papers on the trip.

 I've been checking the weather for Salt Lake and making notes on my trip check list. This time next week I'll break-out my suitcase and start throwing in the items I'll need.

© 2015, Gayle Ficarra Wolcott

2013 Jamboree - Day 3

I had another great day here at Jamboree. Morning classes started with:

8:30 a.m.
D. Joshua Taylor, "Preserving Digital Files: A Step-by-Step Guide"
Wonderful presentation. Joshua went into detail of how and when to start preserving our digital files. He shared some stories of what NOT to do and how to avoid disaster. So glad I went to this class.

10:00 a.m.
Rhonda R. McClure, Was My Ancestor Naturalized?"
Since I'm starting on researching naturalization records, this was a class I didn't want to miss. Rhonda stated when laws took effect and the naturalization process.

11:30 a.m.
John P. Colletta, "Your Immigrant Ancestors How to Discover Their True Stories"
He described the original records and published materials available along with three immigrant stories.

After lunch I perused the exhibit hall, asked a lot of questions, picked up brochures; even won one of the raffles.

2:00 p.m.
Leland Meitzler, "Researching Your Germanic Ancestors Using Online Resources"
My maternal line is German. Haven't done much German research but after Leland's class, I won't be short on websites and links. Good talk.

3:30 p.m.
Cyndi Ingle Howells, "Advanced Googling for Grandma"
This is the first time I've seen Cyndi. I've been using her website since I first started by family research. This advanced Google search left me in awe. She is just amazing. Excellent presentation!

I was able to get a ticket for the Saturday night banquet. The guest speaker was, D. Joshua Taylor, "Games, Stories, and Adventures: The Future of Family History." Enjoyable table conversations; met some great people from around California. I don't always go to the banquets, glad I did tonight.

2013 Jamboree - Day 2

 Had a great day. Got to sleep in, then went down and had a quick cereal breakfast on the "green" between the hotel and the convention center. I attended the JamboFREE Italian Research Roundtable session. Met wonderful people. The moderator was so helpful. She brought several of her own books on Italian records from home. She let us browse through them. She is at the immigration table in the exhibit hall. I have Italian brick wall; I'll be stopping by her booth throughtout the weekend. She'll also be able to help me with my German ancestor questions.

I signed up for the three day conference and was also able to get a ticket for Saturday night banquet. I bought the syllabus (as big and heavy as a phone book). Looked through the book over lunch to help me pick which classes to attend this afternoon. Here's the classes I took:

1:30 p.m. - Lisa Louise Cooke, "Pimp Your iPad: How to Turn Your iPad and Other Tablets Into an Ultimate Genealogy Cruisin' Machine."
EXCELLENT!! I bought her book, but this was what I needed to fully understand some of the Apps.

3:00 p.m. - D. Joshua Taylor, "ArchiveFinder and ArchiveGrid: Treasures in Archival Records."
Lots of great information. Kind of felt over-my-head, but was able to keep up when he got into the ArchiveGrid information.

4:30 p.m. - Daniel Poffenberger, "The Parish Chest: Beyond the Christening, Marriage and Burial Registers."
His talk was on Church of England parish records. I don't have any English ancestors but his talk was very informative and funny.

I'll be checking out the vendors in the exhibit hall; hike down the High-Tech Hallway in the hotel to take a Test Drive in the Tech Zone. Maybe signup for a one-on-one consultation with a Research Assistance from the Southern California Chapter of APG.

There's a wide variety of classes to choose from. Looking forward to tomorrow's sessions.