“Give me your…huddled masses yearning to break free”

I’ve always had a desire to find out “where I come from”.  My mom and I put together a rudimentary family tree years ago for a cub scout project (circa 1981) and piqued my curiosity ever since in varying degrees. 

I  never really committed to the project for years and years, I just talked about it alot.  I had these grandiose visions of making a connection with some relative hundreds of years in the past and somehow feeling like that was a part of my heritage.  But it was all talk.

With the onset of the internet however, things seemed to get a bit easier.  10 years ago or so I started to occassionally visit genealogical websites and search for myself.  Never did find anything, but it did rekindle that spirit to discover my past.

The spark really lit around 2004 when my mom passed away.  I felt the need to bridge that gap from me to my kids to the past, and now tell them about THEIR heritage.  So now, 4 years later after 2-3 hours a week devoted to the cause (hopefully more some day) I have 271 people on my family tree list.  I have traced my maternal grandfathers mother’s side back to 1600’s in Bavaria.  With the help of some others, I have traced my wife’s maternal grandmother’s side back to the 1500’s. 

Last week, while doing some routine researching of the New York City Ellis Island databases, I came across a name that I had seen before.  After some double and triple-checking of sources and names and spellings I was able to trace my great-great-grandmother’s arrival aboard the Switzerland in 1857.  Check out a pic of the boat:

Switzerland .. 1857

How cool is that?!?!  I continue to make new discoveries every couple of weeks.  If you want to be part of the research or you just want to review what I’ve done, check out this link  : http://trees.ancestry.com/fhs/home.aspx?tid=212746&pg=

Let me know if there are changes to be made or you have any connections to make.

~ by mszczep on July 19, 2008.