I am glad to welcome you to my homepage. Hope you will sit down and put your feet up, have a cup of coffee (or tea) while you visit with me. Leaf through all the various pages of "my book" and see if you find anything interesting or can possibly connect to any of my ancestral families. I do hope that you will find something different and interesting. Please be sure and let me know if you connect to one of my families.
ONE MORE TIME - I HAVE TO TELL YOU ABOUT QUERIES! My husband, John, as you read below is Hungarian and Estonian. We found the Topp Estonian family a couple of years ago. I kept thinking that if I really put my mind to it, I could find the Hungarian family named Bozoki - his mother's family! AND I DID! Or they did - not quite sure which. But I put on several queries on the Hungarian Rootsweb list as well as some message boards looking for this family. Her older brother, Laszlo Bozoki, was the only one who did not come to American. His mother came with her parents and three brothers in April 1921 into New York on the ship Ryndam.
I put on the queries at least a year ago and also several months ago. This week, I hit the jackpot. I heard from John's 1st cousin and 2nd cousins once removed. They also sent pictures of themselves as well as pictures of our family that had been sent to them many years ago.. Of course, now they live in what is Romania. Remember after the world wars Europe was divided up and Hungary lost about 2/3rd of her territory and half of their populations. I thought they had always lived in Hungary. That was wrong to a point! But now we have new cousins and hear from Maria, Patricia, AnnaMaria plus more of the family. What a feeling of continuity!
When I found the Bozoki family on the ship manifest, it said they were ethnic Hungarians and their last residence had been in Romania, so that set me off on a different course. It has all paid off and we am delighted to have more family in our lives now. Once again, we are learning about a new country (I think that is one of the best things we gain) and the family as well as culture and traditions. It is such a rewarding experience, I cannot tell you how great it is and encourage you to take the chance and use more queries. I now have made three huge discoveries in my research by using queries. TRUST ME - IT WORKS!!!! USE QUERIES!
NEW INFORMATION FROM ME TO
YOU! I have always said that
queries are the most important tool in our family research.
To prove this, I want to tell you what happened, when I followed my own
advice last year. My husband, John. is first generation American.
His mother was born in Hungary and his father was born in Estonia. What
did we know about this small, medieval, Baltic country, that had been occupied
by so many other countries? Not very much.
We knew that his father, John
(Johann) Topp, had left home at 14 years of age, joining the Norweigian
Merchant Marines, then the English Merchant Maries, eventually landing
in New York City.
HOWEVER - I put a query looking for a John Topp family in Talinn or Pernu, Estonia - on a Baltic - Estonian message board, (Thank you, Cyndi's List) thinking that I would NEVER find anyone that was connected to this family. Within one week, I heard from a couple who not only knew John Topp and his parents, but she, Milvi, was the daughter of John Sr. grandfather's brother. A direct connection to the Topp family and we then learned the name has ALWAYS been TOPP, and the family had lived in a small village, Soomra, Estonia, outside of Parnu for about 300 years. Was that amazing? We were thrilled. We then were contacted by another cousin, Tamara, who is the daughter of Ossie, niece of John Sr. Now John hasnew 2nd and 3rd cousins still in the home country. Milvi and her husband, Enuu, then sent me the complete genealogy of the Topp family back to 1803. Ennu is also a family researcher, using the same genealogy program (FTM) and because he is fluent in Estonian, Russian, English, Finnish, etc, he helped tremendously. We have exchanged pictures, genealogy reports, and lots of information on how they live, cultur and history of their country. Tamara speaks 7 languages (seems as if most Europeans are bi-lingual) and is a professor at the University of Tartu, as well as being an Immunoligist, who researches and lectures, not only there but in other European countries also. They even sent us pictures of John as a baby, that his father had shared with his family.
I cannot tell you how much it
has meant to all of us and to think that I actually hestitated in placing
that query. We are in contact all the time and have learned so much
about another lineage of our family. I hope you will take my advice and
place those queries any where you can. Go
to Cyndi's List and 'let your fingers do the walking', so to speak. There
is something there for everyone!
===========================================================================================================================================
A
cousin just sent me this new site - it is
http://www.linkpendium.com and it is terrific. It starts out with all
the states and tells you what each state has available and the links. Quite
a good site and one that would definitely keep you busy for a long time.
Thanks, Mikee!
Have a wonderful site
for you to use! Off the subject, but try "Backgrounds by Marie" Greeting
Cards. She does a tremendous job and the music is fabulous. Try it: http://www.artistic-designers.com/bkgds/gcards/postcard.html
Revisiting High School Days:.
In
May 2005, I again went to my class reunion in southern California - and
it is wonderful being with all our classmates. It is, always, as
if time stood still and we just pick up when we left off.Our class only
had 78 in it, a county high school, and we were all very close.
As I heard some telling stories of how their fathers and familieshad
been friends for over 3/4 of a century, it struck me how families everywhere
are intertwined. Several also wanted to know how to start researching and
I took them forms with hints on how to get started. I would imagine
if a class like that would all do their family history, we would find that
many
of us were related. I know I have one distant/removed cousin in the
class. I always say - there is no time
like the present to get started on your own lineages. It certainly
keeps your brain working.****
Back to school days again - we now have a web page for the San Dieguito Class of 1950 in Encinitas, {north San Diego county}, California. I will be adding pictures as I get them scanned. Stay tuned!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Kiddoo/Kildoe/Caldoe/Caddo Family
.
Our
cousin, Don Kiddoo at donkiddoo@aol.com
has
finished his historical part of the continuing publications on this family
- "Early History of the Scotch-Irish Families - Caldow, Caddow, Caddoo,
Kildoo, Kildew and Kiddoo" - a Compendium of Research Findings on the Surnames,
Families and Local Histories." If you might have an interest in this, please
do email him.
"My Ancestors"(on chart below) shows all of my ahnentafel chart with Kiddoo listed.
I
just was given a new site that I really like. It is the Automated
Atlas and you not only see the U.S. in its expansion by years but get a
great history lesson, and can also do the same with the Revolutionary War
and Overview of WW I. It is U.S. History at it's best and hope you will
all check it out. http://www.animatedatlas.com/index.html
It is truly wonderful. I
got it from the list of the Hacker's Creek Pioneer Descendants (central
WV).
ONE
of the purposes of this web site is to find new cousins. I
will try to make these pages interesting and I certainly welcome any comments.
Hopefully you will come by often and I sure hope you will find a connection
to some of the ancestors on my ahnentafel chart!! When you do - email
me. toppline@comcast.net
Click
on the name to see that particular page .......
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I
have put on my own two lineages of Bush families. Hopefully that will help
other family researchers and also attract others who are working on these
same families. Maybe we can pool our information or thoughts and make some
progress in our research....... I just wish all genealogists would do the
same thing. Let me hear your comments on the Bush family.
Have you read "Evidence - Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian" by Elizabeth Shown Mills. EXCELLENT! It definitely helps the researcher. I reviewed it in some of my surname booklets. I think every researcher needs to have it. It needs to be read and read again - and then followed! Elizabeth has put down in black & white just how we need to document our families all the time. Another new one that you need to check out IF you are planning to write a family history! "Carmack's Guide to Copyright & Contracts: A Premier For Genealogists, Writers a & Researchers" by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack. It is also publised by the Genealogical Publishing Company in Baltimore, MD. It is well worth the time to read it. (119 pgs)
A friend wonders
why it is called a "Home Page" so she prefers to think of it as a "Home
Book", and I am inclined to agree with her. Seems like
I just keep on adding pages. Is there ever an end to this? Doubt it!
Ahnentafel
Charts!
Do you know what they are? The word means "German Tables" but
you can click here
for
a good definition.
You can tell at a glance on my
ahnentafel chart, which of my ancestors were settlers in western Virginia.
They will appear with a **
in front of them. There are so many of them, wanted
to make it easy for others to find them and I'm hoping you will find a
common ancestor.....
Of
interest to CARPENTER Researchers:
A Y-DNA project was started
in September 2002 after a Carpenter discussion group had been held in Clearwater,
Florida. One item of discussion was how Y-DNA research could help Carpenter
genealogy. Some of the most important questions where Y-DNA testing could
help were:
For more information about the study contact our project administrator/coordinator: John R. Carpenter. http://members.cox.net/johnrcarpenter/
Do you have ancestors who lived in Virginia or West Virginia? If so, this is a page that might be of interest to you. You can click on the birds to go to that page. I am happy to include queries from researchers who have interests in this particular area. I can't promise you that having queries published online will provide you with some answers, but I can certainly guarantee that if people don't know where you NEED help, then you sure won't find any answers. I have found many answers to my "research brick walls" just by making good usage of queries. It is one of our most important tools to use!
The following are some of the more interesting bookmarks I have found and believe they are of help to all researchers. When I find new ones, I will list them also.. Hope you will visit these links!
Family
History Library - from Salt Lake City, Utah, now have their files on
line. It is pretty busy, but just have patience. It is going to be
soooo useful to all of us. This means we will be using their I.G.I.
(International Genealogical Index), Family Ancestry files, and etc. on
line. Eventually (in our lifetime), we will be able to
do more searches - Like their complete card catalog. So you can do all
that from home eventually. Go try it now!
http://www.familysearch.org/
Some
new (and old) sites that are beneficial for all researchers!
Rootsweb - The Internet's oldest
and largest genealogy site - you name it, it's got it.
http://www.rootsweb.com
U.S. Genweb -Archives - Table of Contents:
http://www.usgenweb.com
Social Security Death Index
- hosted by Ancestry.com - to search this index is free.
http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/vital/ssdi/main.htm
Cyndi's List - probably the
most helpful site for all-around research on the web.
http://www.cyndislist.com
The Soundex Machine - The Soundex is a coded surname
index that is the way a name sounds rather than being spelled.
http://www.nara.gov/genealogy/soundex/soundex.html
The Olive Tree - has lots of
genealogical information, including ship passenger lists.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~ote/index.html
Catalog of the Library of Congress
http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/genealogy
The National Archives has a new URL -
http://www.naragov/genealogy
Hacker's Creek Pioneer Descendants
- Families who originated in Hacker's Creek area of W.Va.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~hcpd/
Eastman Online Newsletter:
http://www.rootscomputing.com
Genealogy Forum's Home Page:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/roots
U.S. Genweb -Archives - Table of Contents:
http://www.usgenweb.com
Virginia Genealogy:
http://rootsweb.com/~vagenweb
Ancestry - genealogical search site.
http://www.ancestry.com
Library of Virginia Home Page
http://leo.vsla.edu
Deciphering Old Handwriting:
http://www.firstct.com/fv/oldhand.html
Bible Records On-Line:
http://www.mindspring.com/~jha/idxbible.htm
Newpapers on the Web:
http://sunsite.unc.edu/slanews/internet/archives.html
Webster's Dictionary On Line:
http://www.m-w.com/netdict.htm
Genealogy Dictionary:
http://www.electriciti.com/~dotts/diction.html
List of Occupations:
http://www.usa-people-search.com/content-the-strangest-names-for-occupations.aspx
CHECK
OUT THESE SITES -There are many
publishing houses who have been very generous to researchers in trying
to find materials to print that would be of great benefit. Some of
the following are wonderful to use in your quest:
The Family Album:
http://www.netrax.net/~rarebook
Family Line Publications:
http://pages.prodigy.com/Strawn/family.htm
Willow Bend Books - (which includes the Family Line
Publications
http://www.willowbend.net/
Heritage Books -
http://www.heritagebooks.com/
Family Tree Maker -
http://www.familytreemaker.com
Genealogical Publishing Company -
http://www.genealogical.com/
Ancestry
http://www.ancestry.com/
Boyd's Publishing Company - e-mail for catalog:
tignall@accucomm.net
Frontier Books
http://www.frontierpress.com/frontier.cgi
Morningside Books (Civil War)
http://www.morningsidebooks.com/
