Five years ago, on the 245th birthday of our country, I wrote this article about the German Lutherans who began settling in Perry County and how important it was the them to become citizens of a new country. It looks as if it did not take them long to appreciate the newfound freedoms they found … More Assimilating American Ancestors
My wife likes to do jigsaw puzzles. On a few occasions she has told me that a certain piece is just not there. She even searches the floor and under furniture for the missing piece. Eventually, she discovers that the piece is not missing. She has just placed it in the wrong location on the … More Love Boat (1868)
A young man named Ernst Rudert arrived in America as the Civil War was coming to an end in 1864. He was just a teenager and made the voyage by himself aboard the ship, America. The passenger list displayed here for that ship says Ernst was from Gefell. I find it interesting that the person … More Ernst and Ernestine – The Rudert’s
I will present you with a name that has not appeared on this blog before today. It is not a German name. It is an English name…Miles. On a very detailed Ancestry.com family history, this Miles name can be tracked all the way back to an arrival in Maryland back in the 1600’s. That is … More A Miles-Sandler Family
Americans consider this day to be special. It is our country’s birthday, the Fourth of July. Today I would like to share some thoughts about our ancestors’ arrival so many years ago. A large group of Germans not only left their homeland, but left their German states to become Americans. Germany was not even a … More Becoming Americans
There are 15 pages in our German Family Tree that come from today’s birthday boy. His name was Gottlieb Boxdorfer. Gottlieb was born on February 7, 1820 in Weidnitz, a small village in Bavaria, a region of Germany. This is a map showing the location of Weidnitz. It also indicates the city of Dresden, where … More Burgeoning Boxdorfers
