People: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R Sa-Sl Sm-Ss St-Sz T U V W XYZ
Marriages and Families: A-C D E-L M-R Sa-Sl Sm-Ss St-Sz T-Z
This genealogy has two main sections:
This website also contains a lot of other material that is part of the family record, such as photographs, source documents, and research notes. The site map is a good place to get an idea of everything that is available.
There are several ways to find a person:
Using the People Pages - The "people pages" contain the records about individual people. The pages are arranged alphabetically by surname. At the top of this page is an index to the people pages. It looks like this:
People: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R Sa-Sl Sm-Ss St-Sz T U V W XYZ
This same index appears at the top of many pages on this website. Click the word "People" to find out more about the people pages. Click a letter to open the page for people whose surnames begin with that letter. For example, if you are looking for Bianca Mesker, click the letter M. This opens you to the page with people whose surnames begin with M: Maute, Mesker, Mesmer, etc. The names are arranged alphabetically -- by last name, then by surname. So scroll down to the Meskers, then to Bianca within the Meskers.
Using the family tree diagrams - Each family tree diagram shows many people and their relationships to their ancestors and descendants. There are a number of family tree diagrams on this site. Refer to the "Family Tree Diagrams" page for a list. Within a family tree diagram, most of the names are links to person records, and most of the lines connecting a family are links to family records. Click a name or a connecting line, and it will probably open a person or family record.
Not everyone who appears in this genealogy has a record in the people pages. If I have little other information about a person other than his or her name, you will probably not find a record for them. However, you will find them referenced in other places. This is often true of the children of a married couple, such as Madelaine Voegele, the daughter of Joseph Voegele and Catherine Miller.
In almost all cases, people are listed by their birth name. Therefore, to find a married woman, look for her birth name (Voegele, Josephine), not for her married name (Staebell, Josephine). Some people legally changed their names. In these cases you should also look for the birth name (Mesker, Francis) not the new legal name (Snider, Francis).
If you have found the record for a person, following the instructions above, it is easy to find the record for that person's marriage, or for the marriage of that person's parents. In this genealogy, each person's individual record is stored separately from their marriage record. The marriage record has a link to each spouse, and a list of the children resulting from the marriage.
In the person's record, there may be a line beginning with the words "Husband of" or "Wife of." Click this line to go to the person's marriage record. If there is a line beginning with the words "Son of" or "Daughter of," it may be a link to the marriage record of the person's parents. If the line does not appear, or if it is not a link (not underlined), then the information is not available.
There is an alternative way to find a married couple and their children, but it's not as useful as starting from a person's record. The marriage and family records are contained alphabetically in a series of pages. At the top of this page, and of many pages on this website, is an index to the marriage and family pages. It looks like this:
Marriages and Families: A-C D E-L M-R Sa-Sl Sm-Ss St-Sz T-Z
Click a letter or letter group to open a page of marriage and family records beginning with that/those letter(s). Click the words "Marriages and Families" for more information about these pages.
In almost all cases, the family and marriage record appears under the name of the husband.
Starting with a person, to navigate up the tree, from child to parent to grandparent, do this: In the person's entry, click the line that says "Son of..." or "Daughter of..." That will jump you to the family entry for the person's parents. In the title of the family entry, click the name of the father or mother. That will jump to to the person entry for the parent (the mother or the father). Repeat this process to step from parent to grandparent, etc., one generation at a time. If you don't see a "Son of..." or "Daughter of..." line for a person, or if you reach a name that isn't a jump-link, you have reached the end of the line, as far as this family history goes. (Or maybe you've found an error in my work -- please contact me and let me know.)
Starting with a person, to navigate down the tree, from parent to child to grandchild, do this: In the person's entry, click the line that says "Husband of..." or "Wife of..." That will jump you to the family entry for the person and his or her spouse. In that section, you will see a list of their children. Any underlined name in the list is a jump-link. Click a child's name to jump to that child's person entry. Repeat this process to step from child to grandchild, etc., one generation at a time. If you don't see a "Husband of..." or "Wife of..." line for a person, or if you reach a name that isn't a jump-link, you have reached the end of the line, as far as this family history goes. (Or maybe you've found an error in my work -- please contact me and let me know.)
In many cases a person record or a marriage record contains links to photographs, source documents, stories, or other information about the person or family. But if you want to see all the photographs or documents, or stories, there is a faster way than to hunt through the people pages looking for links. Go to the Site Map instead. On the site map page, you will find a list of every photograph on this site, of every document on this site, and of other interesting stuff.
If you are a family member, please read the page entitled "Notes to Family Members." It explains several important things about this family history and about your place within it.
There are many reasons why something might go wrong, and you might have trouble viewing a page on this website. Maybe the web server has gone down, or maybe I'm in the process of updating pages on the site, or maybe I have made an error in linking pages.
If something goes wrong, please wait an hour or two and try again. That should be long enough to wait for most server problems and problems caused by page updates. If the problem persists, please contact me by clicking the link at the bottom of this page.
Comments? Suggestions? Send a letter to Brian...