Absolutely one of my biggest "finds" in genealogy, causing me to dance, shout, sing out at the top of my lungs, scream for joy, and act like a complete fool in front of my children was discovering my ggg grandparents Johann Gottlieb Sommer and Maria Elizabeth Rusch. Actually, I knew my gg grandmother Katharine Sommer and through a friend Cynthia at Chicago Genealogy I also found her sister Julia Sommer.
I posted a query on a Rootsweb message board about Katharine and Julia and their home town Neckargemund, Germany. I was hoping to find out if anyone else was searching for relatives and ancestors. It was another amateur genealogist "Goggling" the town of Neckargemund who found me! We discovered that we were indeed cousins and better still lived only fifteen miles apart. It was fate, it was destiny, it was meant to be that we found each other. Our meetings have been terrific! Thanks to my cousin for sharing some of our history. She has provided me with the names of Katharine and Julia's parents and their sibling Johann Daniel Sommer.
So there it is, as I previously posted in November the story of one of my favorite Happy Dances in genealogy!
3 comments:
I know how you feel! My father researched our family tree (until he passed away) and couldn't find his youngest Aunt. Dad's Grandma passed away two weeks after giving birth to Harriet,who was then fostered out (no-one knew where).With the release of the 1911 census over here in the Uk, I set out to find her. To my amazement, it didn't take long at all! She was 'taken in' by the Doctor (that oversaw her birth) and his family!
The joy that I felt was unbelievable! I only wish Dad had been here to share it.
Colin
One of my Happiest Dances was also the result of a Message Board. I posted on the Genforum Theriault Board and the New Brunswick researcher Fidele Theriault answered. Not only did he have my lineage but he actually had a published book that tied my family in with all the others of Caraquet, New Brunswick. It was through studying his book and his sources that I learned ho to "do" genealogy.
Evelyn in Montreal
That is so cool to have found someone on a message board! That was my dream...and it finally came true after 10 years of dreaming. :-) I met a distant cousin who could fill out some lateral lines, but nothing too dramatic other than the fact that two people searching for someone they didn't know, finally found each other!
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