Try These Out

Here are a couple of sites that might be helpful in your research:

https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Portal:Russia (It has a German link which lists resources at the LDS library.)

http://feefhs.org (An umbrella organization that has some good links. It provides a forum focused on a single country or group of people to exchange information.)

And, did you know that AHSGR is on Facebook? Check it out. Who knows, maybe you can connect with someone there that might help you in your research.

Thanksgiving Greetings

I want to take this chance to tell all of my genealogy friends just how thankful I am for you! It is such a blessing to have others of the same heart and mind to help and encourage me in the research that is so important to me. I am thankful for the heritage my ancestors gave me and hope to repay them by finding them and their story.

I found this quote and thought you might enjoy it as much as I do:
"In all of us there is a huger, bone-marrow deep, to know our heritage- to know who we are and where we have come from. Without this enriching knowledge, there is a hollow yearning. No matter what our attainments in life, there is still a vacuum, an emptiness, and the most disquieting loneliness."
Alex Haley
Author of Roots

November Meeting

The next meeting for the Intermountain Chapter AHSGR will be held Saturday, November 20, at the home of Shawnette Malan and Carol Harless, 10001 Hook Drive, South Jordan. This planning meeting will start at 1:00 P.M.

Pat and Shirley Ansley will provide the raffle drawing basket.

Food assignment: everyone is to bring appetizers. We will eat the appetizers during the meeting to try to not have it last so long.

Bring the surnames of your ancestors and the villages they came from.

Hope to see you there!

From Generation to Generation

 

 

I really wish that the top picture came out clearer so you could make a better comparison, but I was amazed when I saw them together. The smaller picture is my grandmother, and the larger is my daughter. I don't know all the factors that determine what is passed on genetically, but the genes were strong in this case. At nearly the same age, the resemblance is incredible. Since this is my grandmother's birthday month, I thought I'd share this personal connection. Maybe you have had the same experience. If not, pull out those old pictures. You might be surprised!

Wonders of the Web

 

It's sad but true that families are not always connected. I loved the idea of having a big brother, but had no real memories of him. When I was in high school I had been told he might serving in Vietnam, but that was about it. My first real encounter with him came shortly after this. He came for a short visit and bought each of us older girls a record album. I thought he was all that. This is my one and only interaction with him. He went back to his life in the northwest, and I went on with mine. Years later he died, and I have always felt sad that we had no real history together. In fact, I didn't even have a picture of him. Then one day while fiddling on the internet, my younger brother came across a high school web page that had this picture of him. Wow! Imagine how thrilled I was to finally have a picture. He had already changed a lot from this picture when I was in high school, being much stouter and very tough looking. But, I treasure this gift from the web that allows me to finally have his picture. Keep looking for whatever it is... maybe you'll find it too.

Intermountain Chapter Attends Oktoberfest

 

 

 

 

Saturday, September 25,the Intermountain Chapter of AHSGR attended the Oktoberfest held at Snowbird. We had a terrific time listening to polka music and eating German food. The highlight of the day for us was riding the tram to the top of Hidden Peak to hear the Alphorns echo through the peaks. Some of us took the opportunity to hike and ride the Peruvian Chair lift as well. We had a wonderful time celebrating together as a chapter and appreciating our German heritage. The weather was perfect, and we all went home with great memories.

Members of the Intermountain Chapter of AHSGR are invited to Suzanne H. Dodge's house on Sept 18, at 1:00 to silk-screen print your tee shirt(s). All you will need to bring is a white tee shirt (or shirts), and we will silk-screen print them with the AHSGR logo, to wear to the Oktober Fest on the 25th. If you are unable to come on the 18th, you may mail your shirt(s) to her. They will be done for you, and be at the Sept 25th meeting, where you can get them.

Her mailing address:
Suzanne H. Dodge
3029 Constitution Dr.
West Valley City, UT 84119-3009

Put This on Your Calendar

Mark your calendar for the next chapter meeting. It will be September 25th.

Bill Dellos, 2011 SLC convention chairman, got some updates from Patti Sellenrick that he wants to share with everyone. We will have a convention meeting at 12:00 noon. Instead of having a regular chapter meeting, we are planning to go to the Oktoberfest at Snowbird. We will check out the vendors and eat German food there. We will leave after the convention meeting at 1:00 P. M. and carpool or caravan there. The entry to the Oktoberfest is free, but the tram cost is $12. The Alpenhorn players will be performing in the afternoon and you need to take the tram to hear them.

The meeting will be at the home of Sharon White, 3285 E. Ruskin Court, Sandy.

Report for August

 

 

The August meeting for the Intermountain Chapter of AHSGR was well attended. We would love to have even more, so please come. As you can see, we always have a great spread of food! We are busy and gearing up for the 2011 AHSGR Convention to be held in Salt Lake City. We had a report from those who just attended this year's convention in Lincoln, Nebraska. The theme for 2011 is 'Footsteps From the Past To the Future', and will be held July 31st to August 7th. We will be having lots of fun for our meeting next month, so be sure and watch for information on what is coming up.

August Meeting

The next Intermountain Chapter AHSGR meeting will be August 21st at the home of Shawnette Malan and Carol Harless, 10001 Hook Drive, South Jordan. The board will meet at 12:00 noon, and the general meeting will start at 1:00 P.M.

Food assignments:
Salad: S-Z
Entree: A-Ha
Dessert: He-R

We will have the "Favorite Intermountain Chapter Recipes" that Shawnette Malan typed and printed that we sold in Lincoln. They are $7.00 each. Sharon can also mail these. (Postage and mailer will cost extra.) Come ready to buy some--we need to make more for the 2011 SLC convention.

Another View From Pfeifer

 

This window is in the Burghardt home that stands across the street from the church.

 

This is the garden spot of the Burghardt home.

 

This is a little further out, but can also be seen from the area of the Burghardt home.

Forging Ahead to 2011 Convention

The 2010 AHSGR Convention is being held in Lincoln, Nebraska, the first week in August. That means that we are really focusing on preparations for next year's convention to be held in Salt Lake City. What a great place to do genealogy! During our July meeting, members put together items to announce and encourage attendance at the Salt Lake City convention next year. We are small in numbers, but enthusiastic about the challenge. If anyone out there is interested in giving us a hand, we'd love to have your help. Please watch this blog for information concerning our August meeting.

DNA Surname Study

I don't claim to be an expert on DNA studies; I'm just learning. I have no personal experience with this, but have been considering its use. Maybe you'll decide that you've come to a dead end (no pun intended) and need to try something different. If so, this might be just the thing for you.

Here is a very simplified version of how it works. A long piece of DNA in males is passed down virtually unchanged from father to son. Surnames are generally passed down in the same fashion. So, a male should have the same Y chromosome as his father, grand-father, great-grandfather, and on and on... Amazing, isn't it! This means that two males with the same surname and same or similar Y chromosomes are often related through their paternal line.

That Y-DNA occasionally accumulates a harmless mutation before it is passed down to a son. These rare changes occur at a known rate, acting as a clock that can measure time. When testing reveals a relationship through the paternal line, this clock can be used to estimate the amount of time since their most recent common paternal ancestor. In this way, the men may be able to determine who that most recent common ancestor was and how their family branches diverged.

Surname studies can take advantage of this information and connect you with other members who might be closely or distantly related. These connections can also be important to adoptees. Because of nonexistent or missing paper records or confusing oral traditions, DNA testing can help fill in some gaps.

For more complete information on this, read Making Matches in the September 2010 family tree magazine. Also, check out the website for Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation at: www.smgf.org

July Meeting

The next Intermountain AHSGR Chapter meeting is July 17th. It will be at the home of Shawnette Malan and Carol Harless: 10001 Hook Drive, South Jordan. The board will meet at 12:00 noon and the work meeting will start at 1:00 P. M. We are going to get ready for the Lincoln convention so we will not have our usual meeting. We will have the luncheon after the work session.
Food assignments are:
Salad: A-Ha
Entree: He-R
Dessert: S-Z

Getting Started on That Missing Line

A while back I talked to a woman with German-Russian roots. She knew that was her heritage from family tradition, but hadn't yet linked into any ancestors. If you are in the same spot, here are some tips from my own experience. I realize that many of you are way past that point, but hopefully this will be of benefit to someone who is just getting started.

When I began looking for ancestors in my late teenage years, no one even knew my grandmother's given name. I did know my grandfather's name and my grandmother's maiden name. That was my starting place. Luckily, she died in the states so I was able to locate my grandmother's death certificate with the information I had. That's when I realized that a death certificate can give you a great bit of information to get a good start on your research. To make it easy, I'll list some of the things you can learn from a death certificate. (Keep in mind that only the death information will be a primary source, but the secondary sources can give great clues.)

1. A place of residence is listed. This can help in locating obituaries, probate records, etc. When I found my great-grandfather's probate record it helped fill in his story a little, since I knew virtually nothing about him.

2. The person's parents are often listed. In my case, that meant I had another family name to start checking out. Before that time I didn't know my great-grandmother's given or maiden name.

3.If the person served in the military, it is sometimes listed. In the case of an uncle, also a stranger to me, I began to find many service related records that amazed me. He really excelled, and I would never have known that unless I had found out about his military service.

4. You can find out names of other people who are related to the deceased because someone, usually a family member, provides information for the death certificate. In my experience, I knew so little about my uncle that it was great to get his wife's name.

5. If you get the spouse's name from the death certificate, then you have a clue to begin looking for marriage records.

6. You gain information on the person's employment. I loved finding out that my great-grandfather was a carpenter.

7. Birthplace is important. Even though the death certificate is not a primary source for birth information, it sure helps to know where to start looking for it.

8. You can gain valuable medical information for your family's health history.

I know that this list is not complete, but it's some of the information that has been valuable to me in my family research. Even though my dad's generation was the first in my family born in America, I could get a start from his parents' death certificates, which eventually got me back into Russia. If you comb over a death certificate carefully, you will find many clues to get a good start on your search.