Farmer's Daughter: How to Search Your Family Tree

Winter is a good time to work on your genealogy. Over the many years of searching for my family roots, I have learned many things that I would like to share. Some of the basic critical thinking skills for problem solving are acquiring and using all the information you can obtain from different resources. One thing I learned early in my research that information is not always knowledge. Example "Aunt Tillie" may recall that your Grandfather's name was August when in reality it was Carl August. Why is it important to know the real name when you are searching your family history? Many times the grandparents were name after other members of the family. Also if you are trying to find them on a ship coming to America, you need to his full name. This may lead to finding some missing links on your tree.

You always need to check the sources of information. Your primary sources will be church records, court records, etc. Some place that has actually recorded the actual event when it happen. Newspapers are not a real good source because they are only as good as the person that gives them the information no matter if it is for a wedding, birth announcement or an obituary.

Be flexible and open-minded when you are doing the family tree. Sometimes you think Grandma Elizabeth was the mother of the family when she was actually the stepmother and maybe came in the marriage with a child or two. So you want to check the census to make sure they were in that household in the different census if that is possible.

If you have alternatives you should research each background to get the correct one. Ther are often more then one Carl August Steinke. You need to check all dates, place of birth, etc. to see if they match the remainder of your information.

You should organize your thoughts via writing and mind mapping. This will help keep your dates in the proper order and names in the correct family. Keep records on where you found this information. An example Grandpa August was a shepherd in Germany and on the designation to America records it says he was coming to Indiana. This sort of information will tell you likely what area he lived, occupation, and amount of education, etc. This might tell you that you need to search county court house and/or church records for more personal information on Grandpa August. From the church records you might learn that Grandpa August was one of the first members of that church, that he donated x-number of hay to help feed the horses on Sunday's and the pastor's horse, etc.

Remember that Grandma Elizabeth when you checked the census that there where so many children and a number of hired hands. Does this mean that this family was of means. Not necessarily! The family could be poor but the extra help means a little extra income for the family. Also hired hands would work off a debt over here that someone in family made so that they could come to America. The earlier census only documented the male members of the household so then you will have to go to another source to learn about that family. Church records are often very good source of information as they record baptismal, marriage and death records.

Most of all one has to learn to be patient when searching your tree. You can spend several years just looking for one part of your family puzzle. I can tell you that took me several years to find my one Great Grandpa. But with some researching and leads from what family members could recall, I found him in the state of Washington buried at Zillah cemetery. I was very thankful to Washington State Genealogy Society for helping me find my great grandfather.

Now that you have had a touch of genealogy and before you go off to the local library, Porter Co Public Library in Valpo, Ft. Wayne Genealogy Library, church, courthouse, or on a program like Ancestry.com to dig up some of your family roots, you might want to try Susan Miller's Cabbage Rolls that you can often find at the Steinke reunion.

CABBAGE ROLLS

12 large cabbage leaves 1 lb lean ground beef

1/4 c milk 1-8oz can tomato sauce

1/4 c finely chopped onion 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 beaten egg 1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper 1 c cooked rice

1 T. brown sugar 1 T lemon juice

Immerse cabbage leaves in boiling water for 3 minutes or until limp. Combine egg, milk, onion,salt, pepper, beef and cooked rice. Place about 1/4 c meat mixture in each leaf and fold sides and roll ends over meat. Place in slow cooker. Combine tomato sauce, brown sugar, lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce. Pour over cabbage rolls. Cook 7-9 hours, or bake in oven 350 degrees 1-1-1/2 hours.