“Family Archaeologist” explores a century of family letters, diaries, and artifacts, and how they illuminate history and our shared humanity. To get an overview of the blog, click: “Welcome to Family Archaeologist”
LATEST BLOG POSTS
Celebrating 100 Years in America 9/26/1911-9/26/2011
“This is my ship which brought me to America in the year 1911. Landing in NY- Disembarked 7:00 pm 26th September”; written on the back of this post card by Elisabetha Ebner A century ago this evening, at approximately 7:00 p.m., Elisabetha Ebner, aka Lisi or Eliess, my grandmother, disembarked from her ship, Kaiser [...]
Interview with Lynette Benton
Because of blogging, I’ve had a great time getting to know more people interested not only in genealogy and family history, but also in writing memoir and family stories, which is the ultimate goal of my research through my family archives. So I was so thrilled when one of the most active memoir bloggers, Lynette Benton, [...]
Free Sandwich with that Beer!
Josef Gartz (rear) working as Sandwich Man in Joe Nelson’s Saloon, Northeast corner of Crawford [now Pulaski] and Madison Street, Chicago Mr. Offelke put an ad in the Abendpost, a German language paper. The title literally means the “Evening Post.” Josef Gartz, along with several other men, applied. Mr. Offelke picked my grandfather out [...]
Unraveling the Michael Mystery
The first Görz to arrive in my grandparents’ homeland of Siebenbürgen/Transylvania made the 1,000 mile trek from Gerstheim in Alsace in May, 1770, but to Grosspold, not Neppendorf as the Lutheran church records there had stated. It was the baby on this journey that ended up being the first Görz, later Gärtz to populate Neppendorf, my grandfather’s home [...]
It Takes a Village
Cousin Maria Gärtz and Linda Gartz visiting Gerstheim (May, 2011) a German town and our ancestral home in Alsace. The original church no longer exists, but its records have been microfilmed. So who was the first bold soul who started the bloodline of “Görz/Gerz/Gärtz in Neppendorf (my grandfather, Josef’s home town) after trekking the [...]
A Matter of Faith
Evangelical Lutheran Church, Neppendorf, Romania; Josef Gärtz’s church It’s time for another Carnival of Genealogy Post – (CoG) where members of the genealogy blogging community share ancestor stories around a common theme. For September we’re writing about “Our Ancestor’s Place of Worship.” (The promised post on Josef Gärtz’s new job will show up in three weeks—on [...]
The half day honeymoon!
Friday, October 13, 1911. Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Josef Gartz. Downright Immoral! Unseemly! Wrong! In 1911 that would have been the reaction if Elisabetha Ebner lived by herself upon arriving in Chicago (only “bad” girls did that), and moving in with her future husband, Josef, in Chicago was out of the question! But she [...]
For Love and Money
Mrs. Jickeli, Lisi Ebner’s former employer, gave Lisi this business card This business card from my grandmother’s employer, Mrs. Jickeli, was among the documents I ignored for a while. I put off finding out what was written on the back (see below) because I was putting my time into deciphering and translating old letters, which [...]
Available Now
