"Geneology, I am doing it..."

Back in undergrad, I took a Family History class that I loved but never had too much time to look for stuff because of other classes. I learned basic steps though, and really gained a great love for my family history!

Well, the other week...I decided to take a free online class from BYU independant study on family history and get my PAF file back in order because I lost all my information when I computer crashed last year.

This time while searching for old information, I really wanted to learn more stories about my ancestors because I don't know very many. Looking back at last week, I am amazed at how much I learned from just typing stuff in rootsweb and looking at family websites done by other people!

I actually created a blog to document all the stuff I learned and so the rest of my family has some stories they can print out for themselves.

This is what I learned last week:

On my mom's side, we had some German ancestors immigrate from Norka, Russia to America through Ellis Island! He traveled with his nieces and was heading to Lincoln, Nebraska. (That is where my brother is living now!)

The ship, my ancestors came on to America!

On my dad's side we have Swiss ancestors that immigrated to America before there was any talk of a revolution and they came through the port of Philadelphia! Martin Sr. Judy/Tschidi, also served as a Private in the Revolutionary War in a German regiment led by Col. Ludwig Weltner. I remember learning about him when we went to visit Valley Forge. Which means….my 7th great grandfather could have camped there himself! (Makes me want to do another trip)

Also on my dad’s side, I found that we are related to a very important figure in Virginia state history! He was one of the first to settle in Virginia, and also played a great role in conversing with Indians and served under George Washington in the French and Indian War. He is so well known in Virginia history, that they have a museum on his family and are restoring a cabin that one of his son’s lived in. I got to see pictures of some of his descendants and am pretty sure we have inherited the Stalnaker ears! One cool story about him, was that he and his family were caught by Indians and held hostage. He was the only one to escape, but unfortunately…his wife and son were killed.


My grandpa Barrett, my dad, and my aunt! I know this is a random picture...but I love it. I never knew my grandpa. He died when my dad was 12.

I love hearing these kinds of stories! Especially since I feel like we are living in the midst of all my family history! We have a lot of ancestors that lived around Philadelphia, or in Pennsylvania…and Kevin and I plan on making a few trips around us…like Boston, NY, Maryland, North Carolina,and maybe even Virginia. Of course these will all be short trips…and we might have to camp every now and then to afford to go! But, we are excited!!! I really want to go find more documents on some of my ancestors while I am here now! I just don’t really know where to start. Maybe I’ll look into that this week!