Genealogical Research

Genealogical Research

If you need help:

  • Getting Started
  • Census Research – especially if you think your ancestor was missed
  • Migration
  • Brainstorming and Consultation
  • Evaluating Conflicting Data
  • Four Generation Family History
  • Brick Walls
  • Organizing Your Research
  • Project Management

Ask for references and an estimate for your project.

In addition to numerous articles and books reviews, I have indexed several Berks Co., Pennsylvania sources, compiled a database of 60 years of Sullivan Co., Tennessee marriages, and published two books; A Bibliographic Checklist of African American Newspapers and The Breitenstein Family From Oberotterbach, Bavaria to Louisville, Kentucky.

My unpublished research:

  • Balthaser Henritze and Dorothea (Rapp) Henritze of Reading, Pa.
  • Descendants of Jacob and Maggie (Gerber) Breitenstein of Louisville, Ky., Volume 2.
  • The Descendants of Edward King and Elizabeth (Nichols) King.
  • The Coogle Families of Hardin Co., Kentucky.

I have been doing genealogical research more than 35 years or all my life, it depends on how you look at it. With my first personal computer in 1985, I set up genealogical charts of my ancestors in WordStar. I still have all those charts, four generations on a page without a lick of source information or proof. Things have changed, now I keep track of everything.

When I was four and five, I followed my grandparents around asking for stories when they were little. When I was eight or nine, one of my favorite books was Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott. I charted the family, the great aunts, brothers and cousins, and eagerly read, Rose in Bloom to see what happened and updated the chart. Several years later, I did the same thing with the Parrish and Jordan families in Janet Lambert’s series beginning with Star-Spangled Summer on through Here’s Marni. I liked the multiple connections. When I got my first quilt, I loved that it was made by my great grandmother, Flora Anna (Coogle) Armstrong and her mother Araminta (Sibert) Coogle. It was the impetus for baby quilts I made for the next generation in our family. My love for reading, quilts and research are intertwined.