New Findings

Continuing with Study Group for 'Tracing Immigrant Origins' with Dear Myrtle Your Friend in Genealogy DearMYRTLE's Genealogy Community
Homework  this week was Locate records in that foreign country that mention your ancestor. I have been working on studying and viewing how to narrow down what area to search for records. I went back to the LDS wiki and did videos for finding German ancestors.  Germany Beginning Research Series Lesson 1 -3: Learn about Historical Background by Baerbel Johnson accessed by SC 13 Nov 2015
http://broadcast.lds.org/elearning/FHD/Community/en/FamilySearch/Germany/germany_l1_getting%20started/player.html 
 Which brought me to learn more about the history in the area of study.http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/pdf/eng/1815-1866_English_edit.pdf

Well I have a conundrum because the person I am looking for records for happens to be in that area of what is now Germany that at the time was in the Grand Duchy of Baden, maybe Bavaria. I then learned more of the history and thinking of all that was happening during the lifetime of my ancestors to make a timeline of my ancestor.     http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/index.cfm
So I narrowed down I need to schedule a trip to the library, the one downtown Denver Public Library that has a whole floor for Western Genealogy with everything under the sun and to the local Family History Center in my neighborhood.  Unfortunately the weather has been icky and I don't like to drive my old rickety car further than absolutely needed. I need to look at Gazateers for the areas to pinpoint where I need to ask for any records like Family Records or any Church records that may contain what is needed. I depend on my online research mainly and have been known to make use of Inter -Library loans for particular books and other media I really need to further my research. The videos are showed you how to contact German researchers and websites that may be of help.  Turning out to be more than I can accomplish in a weeks time. 
 Another guide I am following to help with the German research
https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Baden,_Germany,_Church_Record_Family_Register_1500-1874_Guide
Meanwhile I sent out feelers for any family members that are still researching. I contacted someone out of the blue years ago that just so happened to live near where my Grandfather was born. She had turned into a gem of a friend and fellow family researcher.  After her husband passed so went back to school and ended up in the local library and as luck would have it was put in charge of answering any inquiries related to Genealogy. Turns out she is related to my GGGrandmother from the Alsace-Lorraine region of France and her family came to America shortly after my GGGrandfather arrived. Over the years she has related stories of the family that I will always treasure. Her name is Patricia Maubach Bohler


From Pat Bohler "As far as the Schomas records are concerned. Sister Martina and her niece Sister Fidais (not sure of the spelling) and Sister Fidais's brother a Pillon went to Germany/France in the mid sixties and found the records. That is what they used in the first tree they shared with us at a reunion. They have all died and I don't have a clue who would have the records." 

I started searching for fun years ago when I had gone back to school and was working as a work study in the Front Range Community College Library in Westminster, Colorado in my downtime for fun. In later years I treated myself to a subscription to Ancestry.com and ever since have been hooked doing genealogy.

In the beginning I found information in Family Search and that led me to discover Rootsweb where I found a man who opened up a while new world of the chain of people that dedicate themselves and inspire all of us where genealogy is concerned.His name is Jim Pool and happens to live here in Colorado, he lives in the southern part of the Denver area while I live in the Northeast section of Denver and traffic on the interstate is crowded no matter the time of day.(Ever growing as the years fly by). He was a computer whiz along with a large family and friends doing family research. He had files on how to do everything, how to load pictures, what are PAF's and PDF's. Instructions how to load and download software and files.  There were anecdotes and family stories, the family cookbook and recipes sharing. Puzzles and Brain Teasers along with Jokes and Cartoons. He had it set up using EarthLink which I am given to understand has gone to the wayside as technology keeps growing. I thank him for being a good teacher and source for providing such a service to us all.I enjoyed his website tremendously over the years.

  There is another person I should mention, he is Joe Chumley. It is not the name he was given but he's Joe to me. He called one day out of the blue after finding me in his search for long lost family members. He was connecting with numbers he had been given by others in co-operation for getting a family book together. Our branch of the family had moved out West from Illinois around 1900 and no one had any contact with one another or very little.  I had been looking but never gotten anywhere mainly because no one ever talked about other family members.  My husband's family knew nothing of the dads side of the family and after the divorce the chance to pick up clues from family get togethers were sparse. I knew what I knew from just asking questions and then piecing together what I did know. Well Joe had enough information to fill me in back to 1818.  They were a long lived family with lots of offspring. i had found other Chumleys in California that when I asked Joe he was clueless.  I also had learned about message boards and there was a message from a person looking for family that had married a Mayfield. 

I made contact finally because the person was not connected to the internet and barely online but happened to live in the Salt Lake City area and had been poking around for years. For her privacy I will not reveal her name, but she was a wealth for the little she could tell me. She had connected to a person who was connected to the Mayfield's, I at the time didn't know there were Mayfield's all over America and most could be traced back to the Mayflower. Well she had a website to a Glenn Mayfield that was been manned by  a son Jesse in North Carolina I think. He was into getting a yearly reunion together with the local church and also maintained a website similar the one mentioned earlier. I spent many a morning with my cup of coffee being entertained by all the material that could be found, be it photos, newspaper articles, the births of members in the associated families other news of the day and also of yesteryear. Family facebook before it came into being.

Well I certainly have veered away from the homework I started with- I am still hunting for material to share from the old country. Kind of funny because I remember reading a family history regarding the Schaulin's in the old country and one of the brothers alleged to have been part of some misdeed putting hardship on the family. The father having passed and no future outlooks for the remaining family members and it being a spur to move to America after reading about all the bright prospects like the building of the Erie Canal and other endeavors and advertising to recruit people.

I gathered some places mentioned in my research for the Schomas family like Sasbach, Baden, Germany where the father was from and died 1838 in Gerstheim, Alsace, France. But on hold with more information due to family obligations and the holidays. I found something interesting on one of the associated trees on Ancestry and need to post a message to see where it leads. Like DearMyrt says Happy Hunting.