I’ve long since hit a dead end researching my family’s history in Germany — my namesake line no less. Family believed most records there were lost when a key town was pretty much destroyed by the Russian military in WWII. The family was forced to leave their home and most of their belongings behind, and … Read more
I just wanted to share a quick tip with any other family history buffs who have struggled to find their relatives in the 1940 U.S. census when searching on Ancestry.com. A couple of weeks ago, I searched for several ancestors (as soon as it became searchable there actually). And I had very little luck. On … Read more
I’ve talked about my issues proving my German citizenship. And I may have figured out a part of the problem. While we know the basic history of my family and their locations, the officials might be struggling to find documents on their end due to a potential name change (not covered in what they actually … Read more
Have you ever hit a wall in your genealogy research where the only option to move forward was to get your hands on some sort of government document? That’s what happened to me recently. I needed one ancestor’s parents’ names. And the only way to get them would be to get a copy of her … Read more
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Learn about my discovery in 2011 of being a dual US-German citizen, my 3-year journey into getting proof of German citizenship, and later getting my German passport. Then explore the 13 years of comments with readers sharing their own journeys through this process of dual German citizenship (in the US and elsewhere), and get their tips on figuring out if you’re eligible for a German passport and working with German consulates and missions to help you through the process.
I used to keep all of my genealogy records by hand. But when the tree grew out of control a few years ago, I ported things over to genealogy software. When that system became dated, I moved to a new software package tied to a site where I conduct a lot of my initial research … Read more
Of all the branches in my family tree, the most difficult to research has been my namesake’s. I hit a brick wall early on in that research, and to this day I can’t track that line beyond my great grandparents. In this case it’s a German line. My grandfather came here as a young man … Read more
One of the reasons I got into family history research as a teen was the sheer excitement of it. I’ve always enjoyed a challenge, and I love to learn new things. So why not learn new things about me and my family? Over the years I’ve learned about many interesting things. Here are five that … Read more
Climb Your Family Tree is one part personal blog about my family history and one part genealogy resource to help you find your ancestors too. But why might someone like you be interested in their ancestry? Does your family history really matter? If genealogy is new to you, here are a few reasons you might … Read more