Sunday, June 5, 2011

This Is The Face of Genealogy

For the inspiration for this post, read “The Face of Genealogy” by Thomas MacEntee.



The above photo is my great-grandmother Emma Pauline Vogelsang Schlegel of Kolmar-im-Posen, Prussia, with her 2 youngest children, mailed to my grandfather who'd earlier immigrated to Manhattan. 

And two years ago when my genealogy researching turned up a living USA descendent of another sibling who'd immigrated to Manhattan a few years apart, this descendent had the same photo!


The above photo is my great-grandfather John Decker, who passed away when my father was 8 years old, so Dad was able to tell us a few things about him, such as he was very proud of his job on a street-car, and indeed, all the photos we have of him are in uniform. 

My father knew nothing about John's parents; I was able to discover through genealogy research, that they immigrated from Bavaria to Manhattan sometime before 1843, where US Census shows 3 sons born, youngest being my great-grandfather.