- Bertha Krüger’s Lost Pension Check: Learning Opportunities for Genealogists, Dr Kenneth W. Heger, Ph.D.
Researching your family’s history might start with finding names to put on the family tree, but for most genealogists, it does not end there; instead, family historians seek out information about who their ancestors were with the goal of writing mini-biographies of as many people as possible. Compiling those individual biographies and weaving them into a larger narrative is essential to telling the story of our families; however, finding the documents holding key pieces of information can be challenging. The saga of Bertha Krüger’s lost pension check provides family historians with an exceptional opportunity to develop a strategy to create a work plan focused on finding new sources to expand their research into new records. This article provides an overview of the problem Krüger faced receiving her pension, points out the key sources of records, identifies visuals to illustrate where things occurred, and shows you how you might be able to use original records you discover to improve your German just by researching your ancestors.
- Joseph Eschenlohr—Civil War Veteran in Alsace, Bob Greiner
Greiner introduced Joseph Eschenlohr to those who attended the recent Mid-Atlantic Germanic Society (MAGS) workshop on French civil records. Eschenlohr was an interesting person in several respects: first, because he emigrated from Alsace-Lorraine to the United States and fought in the Civil War; and second, because he appears in several of the databases that are available on the MAGS website. Greiner examine what information we can discover about Joseph.
- Happy Birthday America! The Centennial Exposition, 1876, Dr. Kenneth W. Heger, Ph.D.
To commemorate its first century in existence, the United States threw a big birthday party and invited the world. Set in Philadelphia’s Fairmont Park, the Centennial Exposition hosted exhibits from virtually every American state and from 37 countries. The Expo featured displays of porcelain, fabrics, agricultural products, and of the latest technological and industrial products. It was a huge hit with the public. Almost ten million people attended to see exhibits that featured new products, ones that are household names to us now, such as Heinz ketchup, Hires root beer, Singer sewing machines, and the Remington typewriter. With so many people attending and the high number of German Americans in the mid-Atlantic and adjacent areas, you may have had an ancestor who visited the Expo. If so, the records the Centennial Exposition Commission created are an ideal source of information on your ancestor’s life. For the rest of us, those records contain eye-popping images to awe us and give us a taste of what life in the nineteenth century was like for millions of people. This article provides you with illustrations of what attendees saw giving you a glimpse into their experiences, provides you with examples of awards exhibitors received, and points you to sources of information to continue your research.
- Who Is Percy??? Research Help from Indiana, Carol Carman
PERSI stands for the Periodical Source Index. PERSI is the largest subject index to genealogical, historical, and ethnic periodical publications that are published largely in North America and the British Isles. Currently, there are over three million searchable subject entries, a number that grows yearly. The Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana, started PERSI in 1985 and published it for many years before turning that function over to commercial companies, first ProQuest and then Findmypast. When these organizations were unable to keep up with the data input, the library resumed control of the database; it now resides on the library’s server and the indexing is much timelier. As you may already know, Der Kurier is one of the publications PERSI indexes.
Synopsis of articles in recent issues
