Navigating Moldova Poll Tax Census Records

 Tips  Comments Off on Navigating Moldova Poll Tax Census Records
Apr 192023
 
Navigating Moldova Poll Tax Census Records

I’d heard the siren call of this unexplored group of records for many years. There was almost a fairy-tale-like quality to the promise of this collection—all riches could be mine (in the form of genealogical records) if I could just figure out how to find anything in the “Moldova Poll Tax Census (Revision List)” collection […Read more]

Stumpp Book Quirks Strike Again

 Ukraine  Comments Off on Stumpp Book Quirks Strike Again
Feb 052023
 
Stumpp Book Quirks Strike Again

You find the darndest things in the Stumpp book.[1] It’s a classic and almost beloved reference work for those researching their German ancestors who settled in the Russian Empire. It’s also infuriating for its gaps and sometimes just plain wrong information. And then other times, it’s…well…quirky. Lists of Odessa City Germans When Glueckstal researcher Tom […Read more]

Travel in COVID Times-Part 1

 Germany, Travel Attitude  Comments Off on Travel in COVID Times-Part 1
Aug 192021
 
Travel in COVID Times-Part 1

It took me at least a month of deliberation to decide to launch myself out into the world during a global pandemic. Decision made, I’m embracing it as a new type of travel adventure. I just hope it doesn’t turn out to be a broke-my-foot-in-Bosnia-type adventure or an abandoned-in-a-dingy-Slovakian-train-station-at-night-type adventure. Trying to figure out the […Read more]

Apr 182020
 
A Walk Through Childhood

What’s a globe-trotting, ancestral-town-seeking, genealogist to do when under COVID-19 lockdown? Find places of family significance closer to home to explore, of course. I’ve been walking in my neighborhood (permissible under lockdown guidelines) but all the closed coffee shops and stores mock me, making me think of the DBC (Days Before COVID). A couple of […Read more]

Pandemic Perspective

 Ukraine  Comments Off on Pandemic Perspective
Apr 012020
 
Pandemic Perspective

I’m an explorer. Whether it’s traveling to explore ancestral towns, traveling to explore new places with friends and family, checking out new hiking trails in the mountains, or simply trying a new restaurant in my neighborhood, my life is all about being out and about. So being in lockdown for weeks, with no known end […Read more]

Desperation Leads to Travel Souvenirs

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May 252019
 
Desperation Leads to Travel Souvenirs

Most people buy souvenirs when they travel. I seem to buy clothes. Not because I’m a fashionista (believe me, jeans and sweatshirt are my favorite outfit). Not because I intentionally set out to remember my travels through apparel. But something always seems to come up to make the clothes in my suitcase inadequate. There was […Read more]

House Sitter from Hell

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Apr 142019
 
House Sitter from Hell

The worst house sitter I ever had was the one I had to pay. For years, my long trips seemed to coincide with a friend or friend-of-friend’s need to escape difficult roommates, find somewhere to live during a breakup, or stay for the summer when home from working abroad. All of these were mutually beneficial […Read more]

Oct 312018
 
A Great Cloud of Witnesses

Genealogists and cemeteries go together like peanut butter and jelly. So exploring cemeteries is nothing new to me. I’ve tip-toed through broken stones and overgrown lilac bushes in the cemeteries of German villages in Ukraine, hoping to find a shard from an ancestor’s grave. I’ve bumped over gravel roads to find the country cemetery out […Read more]

Torn Between Two Homes

 ITF  Comments Off on Torn Between Two Homes
May 202018
 
Torn Between Two Homes

Guest blogger Alex Hamel is a graduate of the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. For several years, she has taught English and lived in the country of her birth—South Korea. I have two homes and every day I feel torn between the two. One is where I grew up in Minnesota, pictured myself getting […Read more]

The Elusive Wesley

 Ancestral towns  Comments Off on The Elusive Wesley
Apr 072018
 
The Elusive Wesley

I know he existed. But where did he go? One of our family mysteries is Wesley, an orphan boy that lived with my Schott grandparents sometime in the early 1900s. The family lore is that my Grandpa Peter “went to the train station” to pick him up, that he was a bit wild, and that […Read more]