SO MANY HOBERS

For the past 10 years, I have sorted my notebook collection of family history documents by first name.  Yes, I know that is a bit odd but it worked (or seemed to work) for me.  In December, I read a few blogs where the authors discussed re-visiting their family history information.  This got me thinking and I decided it was time to re-organize my 10 or so large notebooks and file the documents according to "family branch" instead of first name.  How much time could it take, right?

So, I started with the Chambers, and using my "Descendants of Thomas Chambers" document as a guide, I found that those documents fit into one large notebook.  Wow, this is easy, I thought! Next came the Sherlocks, and even though it took 2 notebooks for them, it was still rather easy.

Okay, so let's see what other small family branch I could work on next. I had completed (or at least was under the impression that I had) my "Descendants of Oster Hober" document, which was 27 pages so that should be relatively easy.  The problem, I found out quickly, was that I wasn't completed with a lot of the sub-branches in my research.  How can there be this many Hobers, Hoefers, Gebhards, Muehls, Koenigs and Yegges?  Every time I think I am almost done, a whole bunch more crop up!  Now that I have been working on this for the past two weeks, I am hoping it is now under control.

The good news is that I am finding some interesting stories.  Stay tuned for those in future blog posts!

WIDENING MY WORLD

For the past 10 years or so, when I have conducted my genealogical research I have focused on special states and countries.  I thought I was lucky since my ancestors seemed to live in just a few states -- Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and California.  Yeah, a few relative retired and died in Florida or Arizona but that was a small minority.  One of my grandmother's cousins did live for a time in Minnesota but I thought that was an aberration.  However, today I found out that I have relatives and their families who lived and died in other states -- South Carolina, Iowa and more families in Minnesota.

A few weeks ago I "found" my 8th great grandparents Oster and Afra Hober.  I was thrilled and so proud of myself until I read a few days later, that I have 1024 8th great grandparents.  Okay, well, I only have 1022 left to research!  I did for the first time "locate" 8th and 9th cousins.  I didn't think those actually existed!  My research "discoveries" are begetting more research "discoveries".  This is way too fun!

But not all "discoveries" are always happy ones.  I did find out that I was related to the Gebhard line (that is good news and we share the common ancestors of Oster and Afra Hober).  Upon further inspection, I noticed that the three little boys named William, Charles and Henry (aged 7, 5 and 2) all died on the same day.  The above photo is their tombstone. I have to imagine that there was some sort of tragic accident to take the lives of all three little ones on the same day. How very sad it must have been for their parents and siblings!

Back to research ... and this time looking at a few more states ...