Madness Monday

It is driving me nuts that I can not find anything about Nathan or Lena/Leah!!! Uhhh I have looked every where. I can not even find the ship that they came over on! I know they came from Russia so when did they get here? How did they get here?!

This is really annoying me today. They are relatively simple questions to have answered yet it feels impossible. I learned where their graves are so I am hoping a visit to their grave sites might give me some more clues..although even with more clues I am not sure what I am going to be able to find out.

Head meet Desk



Nikki

Thoughts from this weekend

This weekend was semi exciting. Since I found out my local library subscribes to Ancestry I was dying to get there. Bright and early Saturday morning I made my way there. It was so neat to be able to actually look at the documents, but honestly I was so overwhelmed by it all. I had no idea what I actually wanted to look for or what I wanted to do. I wish I had just taken a breather to figure out exactly what I wanted to look for. That time spent at the library was a waste. You have a 2 hour time limit to use the computers (which is awesome and reasonable) but there is a timer on the top of the computer counting down your time. It was very intimidating. Don't ask me why, cuz it was just a stupid timer, but it was very intimidating to me. So after looking at a few things I got the heck out of there. Not much was a accomplished and this coming Saturday I am going to put my 2 hours to good use and not have a mini freak out.

After the library I went to my grandparents house. I wanted to pick their brains for any information I had not heard yet. I actually did learn a lot. Like the fact that my grandfather had another brother?! I had no idea. But apparently my grandfather had 2 brothers and 1 sister. Albert, Paul, Marion, and Kenny. Who would have known.

I shared what I had learned and then we called my Great Aunt Beverly to see if she knew of her grandfather (George McCormick) moving to Arizona at some point. From what she knew that did not happen, but I did learn that my 2nd cousin Steve is into this as well. I guess he has been calling around for information too. How funny, so I sent him a text asking if he would please share all that he has learned with me, and he said he would. I am excited to get that email to see if maybe he was able to get further on that side than I was.

Cuz in all honestly it is like that side is just non existent before they came to America in 1913. I have looked high and low, searched all records of new arrivals in America in 1913 and they are just no where to be found. The trial just goes dead, it annoys me to no end too.

Patience. I guess in good time it will all reveal itself I mean I have only been at this for 3ish weeks now.



Nikki

National Tell A Story Day

Did ya know that? I didn't but it is in fact National Tell A Story Day today! So I am going to share a family story with you today and I had not heard until coming in contact with my 2nd cousin 1 time removed. It is not a nice family story and I am working on uncovering the true nature and details of the story, but here is a piece of my family history that I had no idea about.

My Grandpa Joe had a sister named Florence. Florence married John B Buending on January 1st, 1959 I am sure expecting him to be the man of her dreams. But John was a nightmare, nothing but a horrible demon.

He murdered Florence and then killed himself. Coward. To top it off not only did he murder Florence, but she was 8 months along carrying their unborn child! 
The story goes that my Great Grandmother Louise found Florence and her husband in the basement of their home. She was trying to reach Florence so she went over to see why she was not answering any of her phone calls.

I know it is a terrible story, but it is still a part of me.



------------

UPDATE:
I found the newspaper article from this. It is so sad that, it is all true.

Buending Murder-Sucide

I was then able to find this article about how John came back positive for gun powder. I know it is horrible quality and terrible to read but it was the best I could do!

Nikki

"Organization Papers"

One of the readers requested I share my "organization papers" that I found, and gladly I will because honestly this is what my desk used to look like when doing research...

And now I was able to find these great free sheets and my desk now looks like this!

I don't know about you guys but I am LOVING the difference! Any road, while exploring GeneaBloggers I came across this young ladys blog, she has not written in a long while which upsets me, but she did have some wonderful resources for people to use and those sheets were among the stuff that I was able to find.

I am using Ancestry.com's Ancestral Chart to keep track of up to five generations. It is awesome, and what I am really loving is the Family Group Sheet from FamilyTreeMaganzine.com


Hope this helps guys, cuz it has seriously helped me! I am not an organized person so I have to work at it. And work, and work, and freaken do more work at it. So these sheets will help me so much.



Nikki

Breaking News!!!

I can not wipe this smile off my face!!!

Click Here! You know you wanna!! Any road scroll alll the way down to the J's...okay scroll just a little more..okay STOP!

Do you see it? A little ole link to my little ole blog!! I am so proud. Now to vamp up this biscuit while new readers trickle on over.

Welcome, please become a follower!



Ill be back tomorrow, with juicy details and links to my organizational tools.


Nikki

Pleased to announce

I am very pleased to announce that I was able to thoroughly get through majority of my family onto paper in a organized way. It has taken a lot of my shoulders because, seriously the amount of random papers with tips and leads about my ancestors was way out.of.control.

I also happy to announce that I discovered my local public library subscribes to Ancestry so I thrilled to be able to go and access what I am not able to with my free membership! Literally brightened my day so much, so call your local library and see if they subscribe too! It is such a wonderful resource!

Have not got much back in email. I have received 2 emails so far (when I maybe did 5-8 emails) but nothing overly exciting to report, plus it was just repeat information that I had already come across. I am hopeful I will hear something back in the next couple of days. Of course sooner than later is better but I will take what I can get for now.



Nikki

Quiet on this front

I found some great organizational papers for genealogy, and since I have noticed over the past week I am literally drowning in papers I think for tomorrow and the next day I am going to take sometime and get this stuff all organized. If I don't in about a weeks time I will die from too many random papers with random notes. And too many times during this journey have I wondered where a certain paper is, only to have to shuffle through a million other papers first.

Not fun. Any road I am waiting back on several emails from several different sources, so I will return with joyous news I hope. High hopes for that anyway..

Feel free to roam around while I am in organizational hell.


Nikki

Damn

Ahhhhh! How stupid could I have been to NOT save or even bookmark somewhere the link I had to that George McCormick's death certificate? Pretty freaken stupid. I am so mad at myself right. I have been searching for it for DAYS. And do you know what I found? Absolutely NOTHING. I can not even for the life of me remember what website I was on when I found it. I am really annoyed with myself now. Uhhh..well onto the bigger and better things I guess, and just keep looking.

Generally I don't do much research at home for the reason that I leave all the paper work and what not at work. Great worker I am right? But in all honestly I am a receptionist, during the time that I am not answering phones or greeting the clients there is a LOT of down time. As you have been able to tell! Any road, somehow last night I just got hooked into looking. I usually don't but I was drawn to it.

I was able to locate where Albert L Wurzer, Luella Wurzer, Ablert Wurzer, and Hazel Maeder (Luella's sister) are buried. Not too far from where I live. They are buried in the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, a hugee cemetery. At some point I will get to these cemetery's and find my way to their graves to pay respect.

I was also able to find Luella Maeder on the 1905 and 1910 census. Not living with her parents, but her Grandfather? Luella at that point was under 10 years old. What happened to her parents? What were their names? I know so little about Luella, and now I am more confused than ever!

Back to the facts: Luella is on the 1905 census living with her Grandfather James Dunn born in Ireland in 1842 living in Rochester, NY in 1905 and widowed. Maggie Maeder is listed as James's daughter born in 1877. I am wondering if she truly was James daughter or was in fact truly his granddaughter? Questions, I wonder if I will ever have answered. Daisy Dunn is listed as daughter born in 1885, Cecilia E Dunn is daughter born in 1887, John D Dunn listed as son born in 1889, and August Dunn born in 1891 listed as son. Then Mildred Maeder listed as granddaughter born in 1898, Luella Maeder born in 1901 listed as daughter, and last but not least Hazel M Maeder listed as granddaughter born in 1903. Are you as confused as I am now? Maybe you're not maybe you have answers.

This is what is on the 1910 census: Head of Household, James Dunn widowed born in 1843 in Ireland immigrated in 1851. James Dunn (son) listed as 28 years old, John Dunn (son) listed as 20 years old and that his mothers birth place was NY, Augustus Dunn (son) listed as 18 years old, Margaret Maeder (daughter) listed  as 33 years old, Mildred Maeder (granddaughter) listed as 12 years old also says that her parents birth places were in NY, Luella Maeder (granddaughter) listed as 9 years old, Hazel Maeder (granddaughter) listed as 7 years old, and last but not least another James Dunn (grandson?!?!) listed as 6 years old.

I was able to find James Dunn in the 1900 census but Luella and her sisters (and possible brother?) are not listed as living with him. This is the 1900 census: James Dumm born in August of 1842 in Ireland widowed, James Dunn (son) born in August of 1881 in NY, Leana Dunn (daughter) born in January 1883 in NY, Daisy Dunn (daughter) born in October 1885 in NY, Celia Dunn (daughter) born in October 1887 in NY, John F Dunn (son) born in December 1889, and Augustus W Dunn (son) born in January 1892 in NY.


My mind is just flying with information. I think I need to take a break. I know there is much more for me to add her, I'm just too burnt from it all.



Nikki

ps
Note To Self: BOOK MARK ALL SITES YOU FIND THAT HAVE USEFUL INFORMATION. NO EXCEPTIONS!

I know, I know

Just shut up already, correct? Well I can not. If I do then I shall forget and that, well that is just not an option.

I discovered another website with family members of mine on it, this one is most definitely a family tree too. Merkel Genealogy was the link I was pulled to..of course this was through another Google search. Ancestry really has not helped very much, and that rather shocks me. Anyway so it is very clear that Michael Wurzer is on their family tree. Michael has no relation to the family that owns the website. I am not sure how or why he was placed on their family tree, maybe somehow along the way through marriage? I did send an email so I am hoping to hear back. I would love to help him finish my side of the family tree. We will just have to wait and see what he says.

Then yet again I was back with my bestfriend Google and I was pulled to Wurzer Family Genealogy I have since concluded somehow our surnames are the same but I don't think we have any relation to each other. I sent him as well an email. And will most definitely be adding his blog to my list of blogs I frequent.

It is interesting to see others at the same task as me. I loved going through the Wurzer Family Genealogy blog pouring over the details of his 2 year long quest so far! So awesome.


Nikki
ps
You think I would pay attention to my Note To Self, nope not at all.

pps
Did this 2x in one time on this post!

Continuation of yesterdays post

Yesterday I felt you with tons of information, have you been able to process it all yet? Good because I have even more to shovel down your throat today. Of course only in the nicest of ways!

:)

Michael Wurzer (my Great Great Grandfather) had 7 siblings and so here they are in their correct birth order from what I know:

*Michael Wurzer born in 1871 married Anna Strigl ..blah blah blah..

*Joannes (possibly Nicholas?) born 26th of June in 1873 and passed at some point after 1930 in Rochester. He married Amelia Kreuzer together they had children: Reverend Joseph C, Anna A, Michael W, John Gerard, Amelia, and Margaret.

*Barbara born Match 1875 and passed the 6th of Janurary in 1924. She married Wenzel Eckert. Wenzel and Barbara had children: Barbara and Joseph. At some point Barbara remarried Nicholas Spitz they had 2 more children: Margaret and Norbert.

*Anna born in 1878 and passed before 1910. Anna married Ludwig Koch. Unknown if they had any children together.

*George Vincent born the 21st of December 1880 and passed 1930. He married Emma C Weiser. Together they had children: Edward, Leona, Viola, Vincent, Lavinia, Arline, and Lucille.

*Johannes Baptist (known as John) born the 23rd of November 1885 and passed at some point after 1920. He marredi Mary MacDonald and together they had children: Loretta, John, Marie Cecilia, Anna, Barbara, Emma, Edward, and Rose.

*Margaretha born in 1887 and passed sadly before 1900.

*Emma M born January 1890 and passed in May 1986 in Florida. She married James Francis Cromey and together they had children: Francis J, Joseph T, and Bernard.


Man oh man do I need to set up a family tree that I can link back here. Seriously anyone have any idea how to accomplish that? I have a family tree set up through Ancestry but it is not public. Hmm, I see more Google searches in my very near future.



Nikki

Time to sort through it all

**WARNING** This is going to be one longggg post! Grab some popcorn, a drink, sit back and please relax!

During a normal Google search I came upon an interesting link. The das Projekt - the Project

At first glance I assumed it to be another family tree that my family had turned up on. I gathered all the genealogical information from it that I could then sent out a simple email questioning the ties to their family and mine. Of course I didn't leave the site even after all that! I searched around and soon came to find that it was not in fact a family tree but "..a genealogical project committed to documenting all genealogical relationships in the Southern Palatinate (Districts of the Südwestpfalz and the Südliche Weinstraße) and the French district of Bas-Rhin. We also document the emigrants from this area and their descendants in the country of immigration."

So it looks as though the Wurzer family is from the Southern Palatinate in Germany. More specifically either the district of Südwestpfalz or Südliche Weinstraße. I could jump for joy, literally because of this information. Basically trying to find anything out about immigrates in their home country is next to impossible, unless you know the area or even better the town they lived in. I am only steps from finding out the town!!

I got an email back this morning from the owner of the Birkenhördt das Projekt explaining what I knew that it was not a family tree but a genealogical project. I returned an email thanking them and wondering if they could give me anymore information about the area that the Wurzer's lived in.

Recs who is the owner of the website did say this about the Wurzers "..Your family is in the database because of their Rochester roots and a connection to our area of research which have unfortunately not yet been able to pin down."

I hope that they will soon be able to pin it down and I have hopes they will keep in mind that I would love to hear all the information they come across!

What I did find on their website was about my Great Grandfather. Albert Leonard Wurzer was my Grandfather Paul Wurzer's father. Albert married Luella Meader and together they had 3 children. Albert Wurzer, Paul Wurzer, and Marie Wurzer (I have found nothing about Marie, I know her name through oral history only). I had found nothing about Albert L but yesterday that changed.

(God I wish I could figure out how to start a family tree on this site...anyone have any idea it would make visualize so much better for ya'll!)

Albert's mother was named Anna Strigl, she was born in August of 1877 in Deutschland. I have yet to understand if Deutschland means Germany or if it is an area in Germany? It is unknown when she passed away in Rochester, New York.

Albert's father was Michael Wurzer, he was born in March of 1871 in Deutschland as well. Michael passed away in Rochester, New York on the 13th of February 1911.

Together Anna and Michael had 7 children! Here are the 7 children in their birth order:

*Joseph Matthias who sadly did not live very long 27 of October 1894 to 16 December 1894

*Joseph Leonard born the 14th of December 1895 and passed the 4th of December 1970. He at some point moved to Florida because that is where his death certificate is from. He married Edna Helen Walling and together they had 1 child, Willard C Wurzer.

*Leo Leonard born the 2nd of January 1898 passed the 13th of January 1986. He at some point moved to California because his death certificate is from there. He married Helen Anna Eresman together they had 3 children. Leonard, Lois, and an unknown child.

*William Leonard born the 27th of October 1899 and passed in December 1950. He married Roslia Mayer.

*Leonard was born the 24th of August in 1901 but sadly was not alive in 1910. I believe he was a twin to my Great Grandfather.

*Albert Leonard was born the 24th of August in 1901 he passed away in May of 1975. He married Luella Meader. You know the children they had so I won't bore you with retyping that.

and last but not least *Marcella Regina was born in 1906 in Rochester, New York. She did marry Frank N DiGrazia.

Michael and Anna brought their family to America between 1887-1888. I would love to find their immigration records..


Phewwww..I know mucho more as well. Michael's parents were Joseph Wurzer (September 1851-May 1902 born in Deutschland passed away in Rochester, New York) and Anna Giehl (born about June 1846 and it is unknown when she passed. She too was born in Deutschland and passed in Rochester, New York). Anna's parents were Leonard Strigl (born about 1850 in Deutschland and is unknown when or where he passed) and Josepha Raedl (born about 1850 and it is unknown when she passed. She too was born in Deutschland and is unknown when or where she passed).

I could get into even more information about Michael's brothers and sisters..but honestly I think you might have had enough information thrown at you..am I right? That is exactly how I felt yesterday.

So this is where I will leave you, until tomorrow :)



Nikki


ps
Note To Self: Never leave the computer unless you have finished your train of thought with the sentence!!

Oh snap!

Another hugee break in the family tree.. I will post all about it tomorrow I am busy pouring over this family tree! And hopefully I will hear back from the owner as well.

It is so amazing to me when I find these trees, I wish I could do research like they are able to. In due time I suppose.


Nikki

ps and of course Ancestry is having some meg issues. I'm really annoyed!

Getting in touch

Just before the weekend Tim Ryeland let me know that he was in touch with a relative of my Grandfathers and wanted to know if I would like to her email address to talk with her. Of course I jumped at the chance.

So friday night I started emailing back and forth with Moiya who is my 2nd cousin 1 time removed! Which is just fancy terms that she was my Grandfathers 1st cousin. Moiya was kind enough to share photos with me that she had of my Grandfather as well as family stories that I never imagined I would hear.

Invaluable pieces to the puzzel which I loved hearing.

(from left to right) Bernadette and David Keenan with my Grandpa Joe in the early 1980s

The adults pictured are my Grandpa Joe and Grandma Lucille with 8 of the oldest children

Louise in the 1940s with her daughter Florence

Louise in the 1950s with her granddaughter

Time to get back to my research..

Nikki

Annoyed

I am very frustrated and annoyed with Ancestry this morning. I turned my research to the Wurzer side of the family today and I'm just stuck stuck stuck. Ancestry has many records about Albert Wurzer and Luella Wurzer (my Great Grandparents) but of course you have to have a membership to view those records. The only record I can view is the 1930 census. Of course that doesn't give me many clues it tells me what I know. Albert and Luella were my Grandfathers parents his other sibling is Albert Wurzer. The only thing it tells me that I didn't know was that Albert and Luella's parents were born in New York..well what were their names?!?! Where did they come from? Uhhh.

Stuck. Stuck. Stuck.



Nikki

More from Tim

Tim was kind enough to share another picture with me. He had a picture of Marie Louise mother!

Marie Anne Belzamire Huard

My Great Great Grandmother

More to come later, I am sure of that..


Nikki

Processing it all

I was determined to find out more about my Grandfathers father Joseph Gross and his wife Louise Gross, and I did just that.

If you recall in my last post I talked about how I have a copy of Marie Douchette's baptism record but I was not sure if Marie was Louise or her sister or even her mother. I now know that, that baptism record belongs to my Great Grandmother Louise. Her first name was Marie with the middle name Louise. Douchette, is the incorrect spelling it is actually Doucet. We are indeed from Canada, but we come from France originally.

Russian and French. Not something I was expecting. Honestly the entire family has always felt that we were mainly German with a touch of Irish, but now I am really starting to wonder how much German we actually have in us!

I was able to do a simple Google search on "Joseph Gross married Louise", the very first link was to Ryeland Family Tree through another very simple search on their site I was able to find Joseph Gross married to Louise Doucet. I was then able to track Marie Louise parentage as far back as the 1500s! So you can understand why my brain was just so fried on family history overload yesterday. But of course in the most amazing way. Tim Ryeland has done an amazing job on his website and one day I hope to be able to start my own and for it to look half as great and complete as Tim's!

From looking through his family tree it became very apparent to me that we are related! I decided to send a quick email to Tim and let him know that I would be more than happy to help fill some more information in on my Grandpa Joe as he did not have much.

I got a response back from Tim just this morning jumping at the chance. It turns out that Tim's connection with my family is much closer than I ever would have guessed. Marie Louise Doucet was also the mother of Tim's wife's grandmother.

To have a connection to that side of family that 3 days ago I would have never thought I would be able to make is just amazing. I feel like the past couple days that word is the only one I have been using, but honestly it is the only way that I am able to describe it all. And even the word amazing I feel does not do justice to what I am actually feeling.

Tim was so kind to share 2 pictures he had of Louise with me. I had never seen her before these pictures so to put a face to my Great Grandmother, just so amazing. And I definitely see my Grandpa Joe in her face!

Although I was not able to find much more about Joseph Gross I know in due time that I will. I have found so much out about my ancestors this past week it is just so crazy to me. It just makes me even more excited to find more out. I can not wait til my daughter is older and to be able to tell her all of this. Once I am satisfied with what I have learned of my family I will start on her fathers side of the family so not only will I be able to tell her where she comes from on my side, but his side as well.

Louise with her 2 brothers

Louise with her granddaughter Karen

Nikki
hello to my German readers :) leave a comment, please!

Mother Load

Yes folks, you read that right boy oh boy did I hit the mother load of family history today. Tomorrow folks, my brain is still on family over load.

I still have to process a lot, and really go through it all, cuz right now literally I am burnt out! God, was it fun though. I have been at it for 2 solid hours and although I want to keep going to get it all down while its fresh, I just want a break. Like a 24 hour break!

Phewww!



Nikki

Untitled

Well I think I have reached my end with Nathan and Leah. It is my goal to find out their parents names, but until I have an actual paid membership at Ancestry.com I don't think I am going to get any further. So I have moved onto the other side of my family.

Helen/Anna married Roy McCormick in 1928 I know his father was George McCormick, George married Minnie Pease. I was able to find a death record for a George McCormick with a spouse named Minnie, but that is from Arizona. I just have to find sometime to talk with my Great Aunt Beverley (Roy's daughter) to see if she knows anything about George possibly moving to Arizona. From all that I see on the record, it leads to me to believe that, that is the George I was looking for, but only time will tell at this moment.

So today I am turning my research to my maternal side of the family. The Gross side. My Grandfather was Joseph Gross he married Lucille F Voellinger. I know all about the Voellinger side..but I know nothing about the Gross side.

What I know is that they were from Canada? My mom remembers visiting family many times in Canada and them coming down to see her. I also know that my Grandfather was born in Michigan and while visiting Rochester he met his wife Lucille. I also know that my Grandfathers father was Joseph Gross and his mother was Louise Douchette (Douchet?).

We have a copy of a Marie Douchette's baptism but at this point I am not sure if Marie is Louise or if Marie was Louise's sister or mother. Oh the possibilities!

Nikki

Dead end?

Although I have only started my search days earlier, and have found many family facts I feel that I have basically hit a dead end in all that I am able to find. It is has been very discouraging. So I reached out, through message boards on Acestry.com I asked for help in my search. I definitely received that help too! Although I was looking for help in finding Nathan and Leah's parents, I found new information about Nathan and Leah that not even my Grandmother knew!

A very kind stranger assisted me with my search and was able to find Roy and Helen (Anna) marriage license! I was not even aware that Helen was my Great Grandmother's real name. Growing it was always Anna, so to see Helen on the marriage certificate definitely surprised me. I was also shocked to learn that my Great Grandfather (Roy) was a fireman!

In the county of Livingston, town of Caledonia Roy McCormick married Helen Sadick on July 10, 1928. Helen was only 18 years old and Roy was 21 years old at the time of their marriage. They planned to live at 6 Payne Street in Rochester, New York. Roy was born in Rochester, New York his fathers name was George McCormick and George was born in the USA, now where in the US it does not list, but another myster solved. Roy's mothers name was Minnie Pease, she was born in Rochester, New York.

Helen was born in Syracuse, New York and was a clerk at the time of their marriage.

The bigest shock came when reading about Nathing and Leah/Lena's birth places. Russia! No one in the family knew we were from Russia. I knew I was only the 4th generation living in America, but I had no idea that we were from Russia! It now makes sense why I can not find anything about Nathan and Leah/Lena before 1913! They clearly immigrated to the US in1913!

                                                           Roy and Helen's marriage license


Nikki

And the excitement swells yet again

I have made my family well aware of my quest. Boy am I glad I did too. When I arrived at my mothers for a normal visit I was shocked to find that she had gone through her family records and found not only my Grandfather's death certificate, but my Grandmothers death certificate, AND my Grandmothers father's death certificate! On top of that she also had my Grandfathers Honorable Discharge from the Military papers, his baptism certificate and a very detail family tree from my Grandmother's side of the family.

And so the excitement swelled once again as I poured over these records. We discovered many things, some of which none in the family had any idea about!

Our first discovery was a simple middle name. My Grandfather (Joe) always told how he did not have a middle name, on his baptism record it clearly states that his full name to be Joseph William. My Grandfathers side of the family is still a mystery to all of us, but I plan to change that.

The family tree is such an amazing find. It goes all the way back to my Great Great Great Great Great Grandfather and Great Great Great Great Great Grandmother! I love looking at it and finding out new information I had never known. Many family members have been named after each other and I am proud in my decision of giving my daughter my Grandmothers name as her middle name (Lucille).

Through oral history it was always told on my mothers side that there are twins that "skip generations", from the family tree it was very apparent that this is the case. As long as the twins listed are fraternal twins, of course I am not sure we will ever find that information, but at least 1 set of the twins are fraternal that much is very clear (girl, boy twins).

                                                             Rath Family Tree



Nikki

Finding out more

After discovering the names of my Great Great Aunts and Uncles I was even more determined to find even more about them. Through another simple Google search I was able find more information about Gerard, Herman, and Albert!

Herman was born in 1902 and passed away in 1970, he married a woman named Sarah who was born in 1900 and passed away in 1984. They had 2 children together Phylis and Rosalyn.

Albert was born in 1906 and passed away in 1989 he married Rhea who was born in 1914. Together they had 1 child, who I have yet to find any information about that child.

Gerard I have found the most information about. I even know where he is buried which is only a few blocks from where I am at this exact moment. I plan to visit his grave at some point. Gerard I Sadick was born August 14, 1914 and passed away October 14, 2006. He married Dorothy who has passed away. Together they had 4 children Neil who married Gail, Lynda who married Ronald Axelrod, Russel who married Dorothy, and Jan who married Nancy. I even know the names of their grandchildren and great grandchildren!

                                                            Gerard and wife Dorothy

           I can see a family resemblance, or maybe that is just my mind playing tricks on me.



Back to my search...
Nikki

Time to start

I started my journey by starting an account with Ancestry not much I can do with just a free membership but for now I am just going to have to make due with what I have access to. With the free membership I am able to start a family tree. It is barren right now, but as I do research and get further into genealogy I am confident that it will soon be filled up.

I called my dad to see if he knew anymore than what I thought, he didn't but he had a card from my Great Grandmother's (Anna)  funeral. From pure luck it happened to have Anna's maiden name as well as her parents name. It even listed Anna's mothers maiden name! Anna's father was Nathan Sadick (from oral history the Sadick side of the family were the practicing Jews) and her mothers name was Leah Sadick (Blacker).

You can not even begin to imagine how excited I was to hear those names. Names I thought I would possibly never know, right under my nose this whole time. And so began my search. I quickly jumped online to begin my search.

I started with Ancestry.com to see where that would get me, not very far in fact. I did find Nathan and Lina/Linna in the 1930 and 1920 census living in Monroe County of New York. Where I expected them to be. But that was it, and I was even more confused because I was left thinking her name was Leah. I'm not sure what to make of that, but I have hopes that I will soon know.

I hopped over to Google next, my bestfriend when it comes to all forms of research. From my Google search I was brought to MyTrees another ancestry wealth of knowledge. From there I learned that Nathan was born in 1886 and passed away in 1941, he in fact was married to Leah Blacker who was born in 1891 and passed away in 1974. I also learned that they had 5 children! That same swell of excitement swam through my body. Nathan and Leah had Herman in 1902, Albert in 1906, Gerard in 1914, Anna (my Great Grandmother!), and Samuel!

Through the links provided I found that Nathan was linked to an Abraham&Unknown. Now whether Abraham was Nathan's father, uncle, or brother that information for now is unknown to me. However I know I will find that information.

I am off to a great start though, and very pleased already with the information I have found!

Nikki

Where to start..

I guess right at the beginning of it all.

On my mom's side of family I have lots and lots of Aunts and Uncles (12 to be exact, 22 through marriage), my grandparents passed away when I was younger and my grandmother I sadly never even got to meet her. On my dad's side I have 1 Aunt and an Uncle through marriage. My grandparents are both still alive, but I have never met anyone of my Grandfathers side. In fact no one has ever really even talked of them.
All through out high school I would constantly (and I mean CONSTANTLY) asked if I was related to a Colleen Wurzer. Each and every time I would have to explain that yes most likely I was, just that I knew nothing about her and had never met her. Colleen is most likely my Grandfather sister's daughter!
So from my Paternal Grandmother and Grandfather's family I only know my Grandmothers. And even then I only know the immediate family. You know Grandma's Mom and sisters. That's it. Where did we come from, when did my ancestors come to America. How did we get here? What were they like, what did they go through? Have always been questions I have wondered, but no one knows the answers.

On my Maternal Grandmother and Grandfather's side of the family I know even LESS. If that is truly possible. By the time I was a teenager my Grandfather and Grandmother has passed away. My mother never really talked about her mother or father so the information I know about them is slim to none. And of course I wondered all the same questions.

What I do know or at least what is oral history..
I am very much German. Both sides very very German. I am also Irish and Hebrew. My Paternal Grandmother's family at one time were practicing Jews.

Now do you understand why I would wonder all these questions, and have a yearning to learn about where I am from.



So here I am on the cusp of my journey to find out where I am from, and I am so excited. I want to learn it all good and bad. And you my friends are going to learn it all with me!

Nikki