For many years now, I have been fascinated with and researching my family tree. I have family who immigrated from Sweden and from Germany. Either when they got on the boats, or came off, they changed their names. Talk about difficult to trace now!
My paternal great grandmother Anna's last name was recorded as Kringsberg, and were from Kringsberget, either a town, farm or parish in Sweden. With careful digging -- which really means scrolling through endless possibilities of comparing birth dates and siblng names, I have located some information.
On my maternal great grandparent's side, with the same attention to detail, I have located some of William's relatives as well.
And while all this information is good, I like the stories better. I found some articles written about my great grandfather William's sister Emma ....
"To the movie-minded, busting a steer may call for sombrero, spurs and chaps astride a nervous bronco, and a great show of swinging lariat. But when Mrs. Charles Beckman of Tolna helped her husband subdue a fractious steer on their homestead in 1884, she just walked out in her calico dress with an old sunbonnet flapping in the breeze, threw a rope over his horns and told him to keep walking right down the field beside the old ox hitched to a stone boat."
I don't know about you, but I find little tidbits of this kind totally enthralling to discover about my ancestors. It makes them seem more real to me. Sure, I can name birth and death dates, and who they married, but ... this little blurb tells me my great grandaunt was something!!
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