Memory Tree Genealogy Journal

Welcome back!  Yes, that was self-directed.  The entire month of January - it seems - was a bit of a wash, due to our upcoming move, a kitty health "cat"-astrophe, and overall craziness after the Christmas holiday season.  Our home is packed and all belongings are on their way to Virginia from Sicily.  The day of the pack-out, the movers did a fantastic job...but I was sweating bullets over my large plastic tote of genealogical files.  Of course I have scanned copies of the critical documents - but the remainder of the files represent hours of digging, printing, browsing through old newspaper archives online.  Buried stories resurrected with care.  Please, oh please do not let anything happen to my box of treasures!  Yesterday, while the boys napped, I worked a bit on my #1 genealogical goal for 2015 - tracking down naturalization paperwork, passenger lists, and potential hometowns for my half-dozen "German" immigrant relatives.  For each f...

Following my mother's maternal side of the family, connected by marriage to the OSTHOLTHOFF branch, Lawrence Zeller and Rosine Schumacher (also spelled Schuhmacher and Shoemaker) lived in Reading, Hamilton County, Ohio in the mid-to-late 1800s. I am still working to locate the Zellers' immigration information and passenger lists.  However, I do know from census records that they arrived at some point before 1860 from Bavaria.  According to the 1860 census, youngest daughter Anna is 3 months old and listed to have been born in Bavaria.  SO - if that is correct, maybe they arrived just prior to the census in June 1860?  It's also possible that Anna was born in Ohio and the census taker didn't record correct information.  Here is a snippet from the 1860 US Federal Census in Hamilton County, OH: Lorenz Zeller - age 33, male, butcher (boocher!  the spelling!), value of real estate $1100, value of personal estate, $500, birthplace - Bavaria. Rosina,...

Have you ever heard of the WWII-era  "Old Man's Draft"?  While it may be surprising to find draft registration for relatives who seemed too "old" to serve, these cards were required by the Selective Service in their fourth of six registration periods in April 1942 [1] According to a FamilySearch.org article on the World War II Draft Registration process, the fourth registration – or “Old Man’s Draft” – was specifically for men with birthdays “ from April 28, 1877 to February 16, 1897” (FamilySearch Wiki).   Like finding a WWI draft registration card, the WWII documents provide very helpful genealogical information…birthdate, next of kin, physical description, place of employment, etc.  Here - I have included the registration for my mother's grandfather, Mr. George Henry Ostholthoff.  Resident of Wyoming, Hamilton County, OH, he is listed in 1942 as being married to Mrs. Elizabeth Cecelia (Luden) Ostholthoff.  Place of employment - American Agri...

Instead of jumping right into the multi-generational tradition of service in the US Navy among my husband's relatives (would have been too obvious?  No?)...I'll kick off the first of my "Maritime Monday" posts with a nod at one of my several German immigrant ancestors.  Ship travel?  Check!   On 18 Septemer 1868, my 3rd great-grandfather Anselmus Ostholthoff arrived in New York aboard the German steam ship "Smidt" after a trans-Atlantic journey from Andervenne, Germany.  His traveling companions - wife Maria Anna (Toepke) Ostholthoff, their eldest son Johan Gerhard (2 years), and daughter Anna Maria (9 months). The following snippet from their arrival documentation [1] indicates that Anselmus ("Selmus") was a farmer from Andervenne.  His stated destination after New York: Virgina.  This is curious to me, because I have record of Anselmus living in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1870 [2] .  At this point, Mr. Ostholthoff is no longer working as a ...