MY Turn – MY Goosebumps!

December 26, 2016 Leave a comment

Franz Wilhelm SCHUBERTI tend to spend a lot of my time researching for others – strangers, friends and family.  Back in February this year I wrote a blog titled Why I like My Heritage Family Tree.  I can’t call this one by the same name but it could be except this is even more exceptional.  And it’s still the same branch of my paternal family – my German line(s).

Recently I received a message from My Heritage about some new matches to people on my tree.  I knew the surname but not the given names so I flagged the email for further follow-up.

I’m not one to accept what other people find but am more than happy to take a clue from those findings and follow up further.

For my German line I have had a lot of success with church records for my SCHUBART line.  That’s my ggg-grandfather (3 x great) in the photo above – Franz Wilhelm SCHUBART.  He was born on 14 June 1825 in Epfenbach, Baden, Germany.  Using Family Search films as well as the online Baden-Württemberg Archives for Epfenbach records (amongst others) which are amazing.

I had managed to get back to my 5 x great grandparents which is where I first picked up the surname SEEL.  My 5 x great grandmother was Eva Margretha SEEL.  That was as much as I had except for an estimated year of birth for both Peter EHRHARD and Eva Margretha SEEL based on the birth of my 4 x great grandmother.

Following on from the message from My Heritage I now have back to my 7 x great grandparents including the Baptism date for Johann Adam SEEL, my 7 x great grandfather – his baptism was in the Evangelical church in Epfenbach, Baden, Germany – the birthplace of Franz Wilhelm SCHUBART above.  In fact all generations in between were born, baptised or married in Epfenbach.

Oh – the excitement – as I said, MY Turn!

And the goosebumps?  They are there a-plenty!  I might have to revise my comments on how I was named – Susanne Marie – I found a bundle of these in my maternal line and did a blog on these tracing “my” name back to c.1728.  Another entry – married 1759 so potentially born 1720s-1730s – Susanna Margretha Barbara KROEGER – my 6 x great grandmother.

And if that wasn’t enough … Eva Margretha SEEL, my 5 x great grandmother, was born 8th June 1763 and baptised in Epfenbach on 10 June 1763.  Would you believe my birthday is 10 June 1763.  Absolutely heaps of goosebumps.

Sadly I have to take a break to eat lunch otherwise I may not eat for a couple of days – LOTS of leads to follow.

And the moral of this story?  Follow up those leads and in particular make more use of Family Search – it’s free and as I’ve just discovered they have indexed a heap more German films than they had indexed a year ago.  I wonder what stage they’re at with indexing films for my Italian, Swiss and French branches?  Oh the mind boggles.

Yep – MY turn AND MY goosebumps – I just love it!

Filed under Family History, German Research, Online Family Trees Tagged with , , ,

Why I like My Heritage Family Tree

February 21, 2016 1 Comment

Franz Wilhelm SCHUBERTLike many family historians I use more than one genealogy program and web site – of course I have my “main” program but dabble with others depending on the need.  I have two different family trees on my own web site:

  • From Legacy Family Tree – what I call my vanilla version – works fine in MS Internet Explorer, Firefox & Chrome.
  • From RootsMagic – works fine in Firefox & Chrome but not in my version MS Internet Explorer.

Then I have a limited number of entries from my main program – Legacy Family Tree – in Heritage Family Tree Builder on my desktop but also on My Heritage web site.  I had been to a MyHeritage presentation some years ago and was quite impressed – especially at the number of Aussies on the web site!  I decided to update records in one branch of my family, concentrate on getting them accurate and properly sourced, and upload to MyHeritage web site.

I confess to not checking the Smart Matches for a while – concentrating on my Library Diploma last year – but I got back to it late last week.  In the past I have contacted other tree owners showing my family but nothing to write home about – either they had just copied heaps of people who were extremely distantly related, or they didn’t reply.

Last week I focused on one tree that seemed to have definitive information on my German SCHUBART branch [the photo above is of my ggg-grandfather Franz Wilhelm SCHUBART].  I had successfully found a couple of generations in Germany complete with copies of original church records and documents so I was a little excited to find more than what I had found in the past.

I contacted the owner of the tree and I am VERY excited:

  • First – they replied very quickly
  • Second – the wife of the tree’s owner is a DIRECT descendant of my German SCHUBART’s!

Not only have I had one reply – we’re now up to a couple and I’m confident of more to come.

Franz Wilhelm SCHUBART, known as Wilhelm, is one of my “ancestors’ arrivals” having arrived in New South Wales from Hamburg in 1852.

I’ve only been researching since 1965 but concentrating on my German branch in the last few years.  I’ve made some great progress and with my newfound cousins – however distant – it looks like there will be more.

Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Filed under German Research, Online Family Trees Tagged with , , , , ,