Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Z-Clan History

I've been helping some cousins with the Z-Clan family tree. I've been piecing together different peoples to make a big family tree. The goal is to get back to where they came from... Germany. I also have a goal that I always like to do.. try to piece together as many peoples with the last name to the family tree.. I like trying to connect the dots.

Luckily most of the family lived in or around West Virginia for many generations. West Virginia is one of the states that has gone thru all their old documents and scanned them. They are posted up for free. So I can find birth, marriage, and death records (scanned copies of the actual documents) for people who lived in 1800's to the early 1900's.

Right now I'm going thru the Births... so far there are 127 with the one spelling. Though like most long germanic names there are many different ways to spell it. Change out an A here for a E there... it makes for a very long and confuzzling search sometimes. I've found ways to help though.   :)

Once I'm done I'll work on the Deaths as they usually have family listed on them. Lastly I'll connect the dots with the Marriages...

It's been fun looking at the different stuff I've been able to find. It's also kewl to make connections with other people who are distant cousins also researching the family because I can help them.

My latest connection is the sister-in-law of Pappal's Niece. She's helping her SIL research her Z-Clan family. I was able to show her some pictures and a letter her father wrote to the family farm that a cousin scanned and shared with me. They were excited to see the pieces of history that connects to the father.

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