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Saturday, December 12, 2015
To Do-Over or not to Do-Over?
With the breaking of the link between Family Tree Maker, my Gen- softwear, and Ancestry.Com, my main web site, I am at a loss. I am so used to changes in my tree, after some research, copying directly to the other, that I am in a bit of a panic. I have about a year to figure this out, but where to start.
However, along comes Genealogy Do-Over. Maybe that is my answer. Start all over. I am afraid I have some broken links on Ancestry and, thus, on my Family Tree Maker (2014) tree. I can't get the book until after the end of December. I hope it comes before we leave MI for FL.
Perhaps I am not related to William Howard Taft. Perhaps I don't have as many Mayflower links as I think. Maybe I have more. Maybe only one absolutely, for-sure ancestor fought in the Revolution. Maybe more.
Maybe I can finally have a CLEAN tree with proper sources.
However, along comes Genealogy Do-Over. Maybe that is my answer. Start all over. I am afraid I have some broken links on Ancestry and, thus, on my Family Tree Maker (2014) tree. I can't get the book until after the end of December. I hope it comes before we leave MI for FL.
Perhaps I am not related to William Howard Taft. Perhaps I don't have as many Mayflower links as I think. Maybe I have more. Maybe only one absolutely, for-sure ancestor fought in the Revolution. Maybe more.
Maybe I can finally have a CLEAN tree with proper sources.
Thursday, December 10, 2015
Lost and Found
Lost Cousins – A Genealogy Story
Johanna and Reinhold Oehring had seven children. By 1880, only two were living. Those two were Louis and Theresa, known as Tracy. Louis and Tracy formed a strong bond, having
watched their parents bury 3 of their siblings.
In 1883 and 1885, two more sons were born who lived.
Louis (my maternal grandfather) married first in 1873.
Five years later, Tracy
married a Lutheran minister and had 3 children by him, Hilmar, Doris and
Naomi. Louis had two boys and 11 and 12 years
later two girls. Those seven cousins
were very close with many visits between Louis’ family in Detroit
and Tracy’s family in Kalamazoo, where her husband was pastor of a
large Lutheran church. There are even
studio photographs of the cousins together from the early years.
Tracy's Wedding picture.
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| Emanuel, Tracey, Hilmar and Doris Mayer |
 | |
| 3) Hilmar |
 |
| 2) Sidney and Lyman Oehring with Hilmar and Doris Mayer |
However, that is where the trail seemed to end. The youngest of Louis’ children, Eunice, my
mother, remembered her cousins and their good times but had no idea how or when
the families became estranged.
I kept checking for information
about the family while doing other genealogical tasks. Then, one day, an obituary showed up, for
Theresa. She had died at age 39. The Reverend had been left with three young
children.
In a year he remarried Mary Zink who had a son of her
own. That was also about the time Mother
says they stopped seeing their cousins.
It appears that the new wife felt that it was better for the children to
sever ties with their late mother’s family in order to build a stronger blended
family.
This was where the trail ended again for many years. Then one day, Laura Lou, a granddaughter of
Louis, received a message from one Jennifer stating that they seemed to have
common ancestors; Johanna and Reinhold Oehring.
The messages started flying.
Jennifer was the great-granddaughter of Theresa, granddaughter of
Hilmar. Since both women wintered in
Florida there were meetings and exchange of copies of some precious photos
including one picture of the Oehring family home in which Louis and Tracy were raised.
Another link has been discovered, a great-great-grandchild of
Theresa’s, through Doris. Slowly but surely pieces are being
reassembled linking Louis and his beloved sister, Tracy, once again through the
descendants’ searching.
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