Tracing Your Roots

  *Create Profiles of Your Ancestors
   
     * Focus on Location
    
      * Research Related Families
  
       *Identify Someone in the Family With a Unique First Name

       *Create Charts to Track Information About Your Ancestors 

        *Search Land Records

        *Map the Entire Family in a Particular Area


~Trish~

FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS!!!!

Looking through the Genealogy Do-Over for week 9, I stumbled on the link below. I love this idea so am going to use the idea under "the goals I set last year": {THESE ARE HER IDEAS AND I HAVE REVAMPED THEM FOR MY EXCEL SHEETS}
               
 Organize Your Family History by Janine Adams (http://organizeyourfamilyhistory.com/)

I’ve decided that my new schedule will be as follows:

• 1st quarter: Funderburg (my father’s father’s line)
• 2nd quarter: Hudson  (my mother’s father’s line)
• 3rd quarter: Smith  (my father’s mother’s line)
• 4th quarter: Willis (my mother’s mother’s line) 

 I’ll use a progress tracker to see what census, vital and military records I’ve already located by making progress-tracking spreadsheets using Excel. Hoping this will keep me more focused and help me feel less overwhelmed.

• Fill in the gaps on my progress tracker
• Make sure my surname files for that line are organized
• Ensure that everything in my paper files for that line are also organized
• Fill in collateral relatives on my family tree in Legacy
• Go up at least one generation in verified information

Making these Excel Sheets for my tracking goal:  {this is a work in progress}

     
Sheet 1: BMD Vitals

1. Birth records
2. Marriage records
3. Death records
4. Burial records
5. Grave photos
6. Obituary
7. City Directory
8. Will
9. Divorce

Sheet 2: Censuses
On the first table, a column for each U.S. Census. I fill in the square (using the traffic signal colors) in green if that record was found, green for it's a "go". An amber square indicates the ancestor wasn’t alive for that census. A red (stop, look) square indicates I still need to find this record. I also have a table of state censuses, so I can note those.

Sheet 3: Military
Here I track what military records I’ve found for each ancestor, by war or conflict and track Draft Cards..

~Trish~

Genealogy Do-Over – Week 4, Cycle 2: 24-30 April 2015

  Trying to catch up on my Do-Over Blog posts. I am learning from Thomas MacEntee's resources on the Genealogy Do-Over & Ed Thompson how to fill in the gaps from his You Tube video's. Evidentia and Family Search" series is a great learning series to follow for newbies of Evidentia and I highly recommend it. In my week 4,  Tracking Searches, it helps to track the  websites where the search was used. I can enter my  thoughts and make an analysis about the search in the notes. I continue tracking my searches as time permits. Week 5 is Building a Research Toolbox and I think that Evidenta will work fine for me to do this. This quote is from Ed's website "Evidentia not only solves the problems facing the genealogy community, but also simplifies the process of analyzing evidence and creating proof arguments while still following the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS)".  So this is my focus, to learn and analyze and make proof. I need to "really listen" to my sources as they have SO much to say.


~Trish~

Genealogy Do-Over – Week 3: 16-22 January 2015

  Spring is here and trying to keep up with the "do-over" is tough when the garden and flowers are calling me wink emoticon and Thomas keeps giving us new items that are discounted, ie.. Evidentia!!!!......lol,  There is so much to learn and absorb that it is almost impossible to do in 13 week. I have just added this new product to my genealogy finds so I can better collect information, analyze evidence, highlight missed connections and feel confident with my conclusions. On this never-ending quest for one person, one picture, and one place at a time, these are some great benefits to help stay on your path and keep focused.
Benefits of Evidentia:

• Attach each claim to as many people and events as needed
• Classify your sources (original, derivative…) and information (primary, secondary…)
• Easily extract multiple claims from one source
• Copy similar sources for fast entry
• Analyze evidence based on reliability in relation to other evidence
• Resolve conflicts and even reveal possible new directions for your research
• Easily generate coherent proof reports to show how you reached your conclusion
• Over 150 built-in citation templates based on Evidence Explained
• Create additional custom citation templates for quick entry
• Supports the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS) by:
  • Requiring all claims to have a source
  • Fully analyze evidence before reaching a conclusion
  • Finally feel confident about your conclusions and know for sure when you’ve
    done a reasonably exhaustive search

Genealogy Do-Over – Week 2: 9-15 January 2015

    For the second week of Genealogy Do-Over, my goal is to make family group sheets on myself, siblings and father, mother. I want to take time and look at all documents I have gathered for my parents and get the information transcribed onto the group sheets and source sheets. I have found some on-line sheets in PDF-format that can be filled out and just saved to my files, that will save a lot of hand writing and I can go to them anytime and print out what or when I need. As I said in my last weeks post, I am making "Do -Over Trees 2015" in my genealogy software program, so I've  decided that a best practice for me will be ONLY to enter anything into my software as it was analyzed and a proof statement was written. I did this yesterday in my Week One for my dad. While doing my dad, I have discovered that all documentation I have gathered has his middle name spelled "Coady or Codey" and he has spelled it Cody over the years. I believe that he himself has made the error of spelling it Cody. I could be wrong, just a guess. Baby steps...... 
   Although, there is no one I can actually interview in person, both parents are gone and all my siblings live far away. But I do have a great aunt who is alive and 94 years old, living near me. I have met with her about 4 times now and she has shared her father's Bible and let me photograph it. She has told me stories. I may make another "lunch date" with her in the near future.

    I will try to follow these three  goals. 

~Trish~


  

• What I Plan to Do: I will be doing both a written narrative in the “first person” voice as well as completing a family group sheet.

• “All-In” Participant Options: Select an interview format that works for you and enables you to extract the necessary information to launch your initial research next week.

• Modified Participant Options: Review any copies of family group sheets in your files and check them for accuracy.

Genealogy Do-Over – Week 1 Cycle 2: 3-9 April 2015

       
       My Genealogy Do-Over. Only I think I will do more of a Go-Over.
  
  This is where I start over with myself and work backwards, adding nothing but facts, and sources. I will label my paternal side "Do-Over Funderburg Tree 2015" and my maternal side "Do-Over Hudson Tree 2015". I have decide to TRY to find at least two sources for each individual. I won't be doing everything on the do-over list; but more of a go-over so I can step back and look at all the documentation I do have and make sure I have completed all of my sources.
   I have Family Tree Maker 2010, which I have downloaded my trees from my Ancestry.com  which I have always used as my Master, but also recently have downloaded Legacy 8 in which I am going to start my brand new Do-Over 2015 Trees. I will also be using the Color-Coding-Organizing Your Paper Files from Mary Hill . They compliment the color-coded organizational system. My Ancestry Tree currently has close to 6000 people in it and I plan on documenting this in my new way, entered thoroughly, sourced and cited. This means square one with ancestor one! Starting with my direct line and work on one ancestor at a time within each generation, finishing one grandparent before moving on to great grandparents, etc.....
   Here is the link for the Color Coding System:  www.genrootsorganizer.com
  

   Following Cycle-1: I will start by 


                    *setting aside my previous research work and making the "hold" folder for the digital records I have. This will be hard for me as I have obtained a vast amount of birth and death certificates from Fold 3 on my Texas ancestors, although, I realize not all info on them are correct. But my plan is to make sure I can cross reference it with other documentation. This is why I am really going to do  more of a ""go-over". The goal I want to use with the new system is to make research logs as I work on each person, listing what I do know against what I don't yet know.

~Trish~

Digging for Poof of this von der Burg Royalty.......

Peter.......
Birth: 1704 Abt
    Palantinate,Pfalz,Germany?
    Peter & Walter (Valentine) names are spelled Fonderburgh on the ship list of "The Thistle". Page 122 in the book. John Wilson, Commander, from Rotterdam, last from Plymouth, England.

SOURCE: STRASSBURGER, RALPH BEAVER.     U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s
Arrival:
    1738 Age: 34
    Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
    1738, 19 September, Peter and Walther (Valantin) land in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on the ship "The Thistle". Their names appear as Peter & Valentin FONDERBURH in the book called "A Collection of Thirty Thousand Names of German, Swiss, Dutch, French, etc....Listed as Peter Von der Borg/Founderburgh-* From name written by clerk.

 Death: 1793 Abt ? Age: 89
    Baltimore, Maryland?
    **This has not been proven**

Additional Information: I volunteer on a website called "Gen Gathering". It's a global gathering of researchers and genealogists who are willing to assist with finding a record for you. But I have also added my resources so I can in turn do searches at my local courthouse, library, cemetery, etc, for others searching families in my area.
 I have been in touch with someone in Germany, through this website,  who is trying to help me locate something that will link Peter and Walther to a father and a birthplace for these two men. I have become a bit skeptical of this "royalty" link with the von der Burg's and I am in search of some tangible documentation for our research. There are just too many gaps in the Adolph theory. This being told that there is at least 8 or 9 generations of Adolph's does not jive with me. So, I cannot honestly put this information out there for the public to believe. Below is information this person is sending me.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Let me start by giving you some background info.

Meanings:
Burg - fortress, castle (pron. Boorg)
Berg - hill, mountain (pron. Bayrg)
Schloss - castle, palace (pron. Shlohss)
von - of (pron. like phone)
der/den/dem - the

The use of "von" generally denoted nobility and was used with place names. Based on what you've told me so far, it sounds like your ancestors' names were originally "von der Burg," as opposed to "von den/dem Berg." As you can see, BURG and BERG are pronounced very differently in German, though the anglicized pronunciation would not differentiate. The V in "von" is pronounced like an American F, so it make sense that it was transcribed as such. Similarly, in different German dialects, the following letters are interchangeable in pronunciation: B/P; U/O; K/G; V/F; V/W, to name a few.

Keeping that in mind, there are many, many place names in Germany that contain BURG or BERG, not counting variations in spelling. There are fewer places that are just BURG or BERG, but also quite a few. Most likely, your name reflects a family that was either from the BURG (fortress, castle) or worked there.

Being Lutherans from the Palatinate would generally match the historical immigration patterns of the time. As for the claims to nobility, that is difficult to discern. Yes, their name did contain the tell-tale "von," however, there are examples of names that contain the "von" merely as a grammatical additive (ie. to denote someone who worked in a castle), which is most likely the case here. It sounds like the author of your book got a little bit carried away without taking into consideration the widespread use of the words BURG and BERG in the German language, nor the strong difference in pronunciations.

You mentioned "Hessecastle." I'm assuming you're referring to a castle in the German region of Hesse(n)? There are many castles in Hessen, and even some outside of Hessen named "Hessen Castle."

Engelbert II (based on German sources I could find online) was born in a castle named "Schloss Burg" (yes, the name is slightly redundant in German), near Solingen. He held the title of "Count of Berg" (German: Graf von Berg). Upon his death, the country passed to a cousin and was then ruled by the Limburg family (as opposed to the Berg family previously). Engelbert II was murdered on his way to consecrate a church as Archbishop of Cologne. He does not appear to have any recorded children, which is supported by the fact that, upon his death, the small principality passed on to his brother-in-law. Thus, you may be related, but not likely descended from him.

My personal opinion is that the VON DER BURG family is not related to the VON BERG family mentioned above. It sounds like an uneducated attempt to link two orthographically related names. That being said, genealogy can dig up some very wild things and sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction.

Either way, it's just speculation unless you can find the birth place of one of the von der Burg brothers. Can you resend me the personal data on both brothers, please?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
In which I sent back this:
Adolf is suppose to be the father of Peter & Walther. But I question
that as not one person down the lines had EVER named a son Adolf.
Walther had named his first son Lazarus and his second son Daniel.
This info is from his book. Walther was born abt 1715 probably
Prussia, Hesse-Cassel, or the Palatinate. Walther apparently went back
to Germany and married Catherina Stoll of Brandenburg in 1743.

Another passage in the book I have: Henry born 1723 was born probably Hesse
or the Paltinate, and was brought to America by his father, Peter.
(Henry was a brother to my Anthony, both sons of Peter. Anthony is my
line). Anthony was born 1727  probably Hesse and taken to Holland and
later to Ireland. So I am led to believe that they left Germany
between 1723 and 1727 if his dates are correct.

From what I can tell, my Peter born 1704 in Rheinland-Pfalz,
Germany . So I don't know if this birthplace for Peter is correct and
anywhere near where Walther was born.

Also take note that Peter named his first two sons Henry and Anthony.
A while back I found this record and while it is a christening date it
is so close to Peter's son, Anthony. The father's name, John Michael,
has been carried on in families.
        Name:   Joannes Antonius Von Der Burg
        Gender:         Male
        Baptism Date:   30 Jan 1726
        Baptism Place:  Cöln, Rheinland, Preußen, Germany
        Father:         Joannes Michael Von Der Burg
        Mother:         Maria Adelheidis Steinbuchel
        FHL Film Number:        187126

The Family History Writing Challenge

  I have decided to take part in the Writing Challenge for the month of February.

A 28-Day Commitment to Writing Your Family History
Feb 1st – Feb 28th

  I find this is interesting. On the one hand, I am not a writer, nor have I ever written anything. But, I thought, I do timelines in my genealogy and I have gathered many documents since starting this journey. What better place than to start putting it into a format that may or may not be interesting to some.  I have been thinking about putting my information into some kind of form but procrastinated because I just never really knew where to start or exactly how to do it. My goal, I am going to start with my dad and write in my Word Program every day. Just write what I have and know, not look back. Most of my work has been about my dad's ancestors on the Funderburg(h) line so that is what I will write about in this challenge.

~Trish~

Descendants of the Dutch Bend Pioneers

Orangeburgh Migrations - Alabama

 Not long after the Creek War ended and the defeated Indians were neutralized, a number of families - Spigeners, Whetstones, Zeiglers and Stoudenmires followed the Federal Road into the Alabama Territory. According to the Descendants of the Dutch Bend Pioneers, the early settlers of Dutch Bend (Autauga County) Alabama came around 1819-1820. The families who departed Orangeburgh District, SC traveled on a wagon train with an army escort. They came through Georgia near what is now Augusta, then on to Macon, then west to the area that is south of Autaugaville, AL and is known as Dutch Bend.

There were 69 wagons in the wagon train. In a letter written by Lewis HOUSER (b. 1788) in the 1820's, he mentions the proximity of many of these Orangeburgh families.

           (I believe that my Funderburg's and other family members were in this group)

From the The Alabama Historical Quartely SPRING ISSUE 1941 pg. 107

 DUTCH BEND...Is the bend in the Alabama river immediately below Vernon, and took its name from the families which in1820, removed to it,from Orangeburg District,S.C. They were of German descent,and a few of the older had only been taught to read that language, and pronunciation of the English, by a majority of them, was very imperfect.
  A large portion of them when they settled here were by no means wealthy and were limited in education.
  By economy without avarice they have accumulated ample fortunes, and byattention and proper appreciation of mental culture manyof them have qualified themselves to fill high stations.
  For honesty of purpose, integrity of character andindustrial habits, they are unsurpassed in theState. They are conscientious in all their transactions, and their social relations are of the strongest character, particularly among themselves.
  They possess a peculiar fondness for intermarrying, for of forty or fifty families in the Bend, there are but a few that are not related by the ties of consanguinity. With practical intellects, they become professional farmers and rarely ever seek any other avocation. Being devotional in feeling, they, to a man, belong to some branch of the Christian Church.
  A strong attachment to home prevent them from mingling, to a great extent in society; and to remove west is never thought of, except by those whose improved fortunes have rendered more land absolutely necessary.

***It was here that Isaac Funderburg, my 4th great grandfather,  served on the first Jury, summoned and empannelled at Washington, 12th of April, 1820. Also listed are Joshua Oden, Edmund Foreman and Aaron Moore, all of which married into the Funderburg lines.

~Trish~

How to prioritize your 2015 research. From FamilyTree Magazine

I haven't been able to post for a while due to some medical issues with my husband but I wanted to share this:
From FamilyTree magazine promoting their upcoming class.
1. Keeping track of everything in your head.
    There's a story about Albert Einstein not being able to remember his own phone number. When asked about it, he said there was no point in remembering something you could look up in a book.
Although Einstein wasn't talking about time management, he was talking about cluttering up the mind. Keeping track of everything in your head produces stress and anxiety. And it reduces your effective use of time because invariably you'll forget something you're supposed to do, an appointment, a call you should have made, or a high-priority action item.
Using a day planner, online calendar or phone app to help you keep track of all the things in your life isn't cheating-it's good time management.
2. Poor planning.
    Have you ever gone to the grocery store, come home and unloaded the groceries, only to then remember you were supposed to pick up dry cleaning at the shop right next to the grocers?
Or do you get overwhelmed because you don't have a clear plan (or any plan at all) for organizing your genealogy photos, documents and research? Maybe you switch from plan to plan in small fits and starts, never really getting anything done.
Poor planning (or no planning) results in missed deadlines, ineffective use of time and perpetually running late.
3. Always saying "yes."
    Many genealogists are people-pleasers by nature, making it difficult for us to say "no"-this applies to everything from chauffeuring the soccer team to volunteering at the hospital.
Being a good friend is laudable-no one will argue that. But when you say "yes" to everyone all the time, you end up saying "no" to yourself.
4. Perfectionism.
    Perfectionism is a plague in our culture.
When I was in junior high school, we had to take a sewing class, which I truly detested because I had no interest in sewing. Our semester project was to sew an apron and embroider our names on the waistband. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get the apron to be perfect, so I kept ripping it apart and starting from scratch-again and again. In the end I finished the project, but it was a mess.
In looking back, I have to ask myself why being perfect was so important. I hated the class! In the long run, was sewing an area I needed to spend so much effort on? The answer was "no."
I'm not saying you should do a shoddy job to get through a task faster, but I am saying that every single task you have on your plate doesn't have to be perfect. Prioritize.
5. Attempting to do too much.
    This is the bane of our modern lives, isn't it? If your schedule is so crammed full of activities that you don't have any time to breathe, it's safe to say you're taking on too much.
The question to ask is this: Are all of those activities a priority or are you being derailed by things that don't really matter? Or worse, are your priorities put aside because your time is spent on crisis management-putting out every one else's fires?
Do you see some of yourself in any of these descriptions? When you're in a state of constant stress and anxiety, the things you truly enjoy-genealogy, scrapbooking, collecting or any other pleasurable pastime-get the a back seat.
But it doesn't have to be that way. Before you can start changing your habits, take a few minutes to think about where you are with time management today.

~Trish~