Search result for " freyhofer "
Hanning Freyhofer Story
One cannot tell the story of the Hannings without the Freyhofers. With scenes that could be straight out of a movie or an episode of Little House on the Prairie, our ancestors came looking for the American Dream and they found it in Indiana and Kansas, along with a few…
Henry Freyhofer, Civil War Soldier
The family history about Henry has always been brief – the record merely states he enlisted in the Union Army, went to Calhoun, Kentucky, contracted Typhoid Fever and died. But we had this wonderful and rare photo of him in uniform. It was assumed he never saw action, but thanks…
23 and Me DNA results
I just got my DNA results from 23 and Me. I already took the test, which is usually what I use to connect to cousins since that's where my tree is. But the 23 and Me test looks at the MtDNA which is the direct Maternal line. The test just…
Santa Claus, Indiana founded by John and Dora Hanning
My 3rd great grandparents John and Dora Hanning helped found the town of Santa Claus, Indiana in 1854. Half a century later my great great grandfather Rev. Weiler returned to Santa Claus having married John and Dora's grandaughter Addie Hanning to preach in the church there between 1912 and 1917.…
Did the Vespers and the Fryhofers know each other?
Recently I connected with Susan Vesper, a 5th cousin. She alerted me to an error in my Ancestry tree and we've been trading data and photos ever since. When I added Susan to my tree, I did a little more research on her lineage. She descends from Johann Wilhelm Vesper,…
Lightroom and genealogy
I use Adobe Lightroom extensively in my genealogy. Primarily, I use it to catalog, edit and organize my photos. I have thousands. Then I use plugins to quickly upload the photos to two online locations: Zenfolio, a photo hosting site for photographers, and a Wordpress blog I created for articles…
Snippets, Anecdotes and Shorts
As I enter data into the family tree, I discover interesting snippets that I extract that would otherwise be buried in the thousands of records. Stories and anecdotes handed down in the family or written up in the local newspaper: One day William Giegerich's father Nick came in his grocery…
Quirky coincidences
Interesting but meaningless (or not???) coincidences discovered in the records on both sides of my family. Do you know of any interesting stories or coincidences? Please email me so I can add them here. The Vespers (on my mother's side) came to America on a ship called the Diana. The…
Santa Claus, Indiana connections and events
Santa Claus, Indiana was the site of the Hannings and Freyhofers, along with a church assignment for Rev. Weiler and his wife Addie Hanning, all on my mother's side. 1816-1830 Abraham Lincoln lived about four miles away as a boy on Pigeon Creek Farm. 1818 Rev. David Elkins came to…
Coming to America – Weilers and Wagners
The Weiler/Wagner ancestors came to America from Germany and Switzerland between 1834 and 1891 during the mass immigration of Europeans. Some came as eager young teenagers leaving their parents and homeland behind, others were older with spouses and children seeking a better life for their family. They came without knowing…