At the end
of 2017, I thought, “I’ve done a lot of research. Would there be big
break-thrus in my research?” At the time, I’d been pretty much spinning my
wheels, finding a little something here or there for months. Nothing big. But
I’ll never be doubtful again. Here are my 2018 genealogy highlights.
Smarsty Branch – Went Back 4 and 5 Generations
In 1971, my
aunt typed a Smarsty family descendant chart, starting with my gr-grandfather,
Anton Smarsty, born 1859, Katowice, Poland. She tentatively identified his
father as Stephan Smarsty and the mother as Franciska Krzizanowsky. Since then,
we’ve not been able to find any other ancestry information including facts on
his sister, Valeska, and brother Paul. One Sunday, I was grazing GOOGLE and
found the website of the Katowice Catholic Archive. (http://archiwum.archidiecezja.katowice.pl/en/index/content/14/) Simply fill out a form
and request information! In English! I received an email back within days, and after
about six weeks, the archivist found several generations of Zmarzly family for
a small fee. He also gave me the name of the small town they came from, Kotorz Wielki,
Opole, Poland. Those Catholic church records were online at familysearch.org.
Unindexed, and locked - they could only be seen at an affiliate, but I found a
total of 5 generations to Jacob Zmarzlik and wife Ursala born ca. 1715.
Yippee!!
First Rootstech
I attended
my first Rootstech, saw many genealogists, and learned so much. I wrote about
it here: http://seedstotree.blogspot.com/2018/03/first-time-at-rootstech-blissful.html
I was thrilled that one of my favorites, Henry Louis Gates, spoke. I will
probably return in 2020. This was a genea-bucket list item for me.
YDNA – Locates 400 Page Genealogy Book
While I was
at Rootstech, I took advantage of the DNA bargains, and had my husband’s YDNA
tested. A few weeks later the results pointed me to a Schattner genealogist
living in Germany who wrote a 400 page book on the Schattners. His grandfather
and my husband’s grandfather, both named Gustave Schattner were born just a couple
of years and a few miles from each other. They were first cousins. He emailed
his detailed research to me.
Springville, New York Newspapers on
newspapers.com
I anticipated
that if the Springville newspapers were scanned and OCR indexed, I would find
many more clues and stories on my husband’s family who lived there for years. Boy
was I correct! I found three key stories:
1) My
husband’s 2nd gr-grandfather, Franklin Thurber (1832) was shot in
the leg with a musket as a young man and his leg was surgically removed. The
newspaper article praised the fact that he lived through the surgery. (In fact,
he lived until he was 75!)
2) Solving a
20 year brickwall, for many years we knew that Catherine Birchard (1799), my
husband’s 3rd gr-grandmother, mother of Franklin) was either the
daughter of Amos Birchard or of his father Joseph Birchard. (These are large
families with multiple wives.) In an obit for her uncle, I found she was the
daughter of Amos, granddaughter of Joseph.
3) While
Ella Harvey (1861, an orphan) is not a direct relative, she is the wife of my
husband’s 2nd gr-uncle, Manly Pettit. We knew she had received money as a result
of her brother’s Civil War death. Who was her brother? Would he lead us to her
parents? In a newly found article, she had a sister named Mrs. Ford from East
Otto, NY who also received money. There were only two Mrs. Fords in East Otto. One
husband’s obit was very detailed, giving her maiden name as Rosetta Harvey. In
the 1860 census, I found Rosetta living with her parents, and older brother
Bethuel, who later died in the Civil War. Her father Nelson Harvey died before
1865, so Ella was never listed as a Harvey in the censuses. Having this information,
I was able to find Bethuel’s pension request filed by Ella Harvey et al. Mystery
solved!
Organization of Genealogy Files
I spent a
great deal of time, organizing my many file drawers of genealogy papers. I
threw out duplicates and papers I could find online such as census. I found
information I thought long lost. I write about it in detail here: http://seedstotree.blogspot.com/2018/09/organizing-feels-soooo-good.html
Presentations
I made 28
presentations, of which only 7 were volunteer. My most requested class is a
beginners’ class, the one I mostly volunteer to give. But the classes on
Emigration/Immigration and another on Overseas research are also very popular.
There’s a fun one about Top 10 Genea-Tips and Tricks that everyone enjoys too.
My new US Church records class is well received.
All these
are wonderful. But at Christmas dinner, I had a real sense of accomplishment when
my niece and nephews asked me to tell them the story about a Belgian cousin who
had escaped a Nazi prisoner camp and lived in hiding the rest of the war. I had
a twinkle in my eye as I told this story when I realized that they will have
some sense of the history of our family.
Mission accomplished!
