Education and Training
Genealogy is an emerging profession. There are currently no formal advanced degrees offered in genealogy studies or state licensing requirements (Brigham Young University does offer a BA in Family History-Genealogy). There are currently two certifying boards, the Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG) and the International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists (ICAPGen). However fewer than 400 active professional genealogists hold these certifications (C.G. or A.G. respectively). That being said, most professional genealogy organizations maintain a standard Code of Ethics that their members must sign off on and adhere to in order to be active members. This includes the Association of Professional Genealogists and the National Genealogical Society. That being said, there are opportunities for professional genealogists to demonstrate their education and experience in the field of genealogy.
The following is a brief description of my genealogy/educational background:
Formal Education
My formal education is in Wildlife Biology (BS, MS), Zoology (BS), and African Studies (MA). I also have an MBA in Public Administration.
Accredited Courses and Certifications
I am currently working toward acquiring Certified Genealogist status through the Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG). As part of this in the coming year I will be joining an 18 month long work group, known as ProGen, an intensive study of the text Professional Genealogy, by Elizabeth Shown Mills.
I completed the following National Genealogical Society's courses:
In January 2017, I participated in the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy 2017, taking Advanced Genealogical Methods with renowned genealogist, Thomas W. Jones.
Informal Education
You can check my Resources page for all of the books, online websites, and other resources that I have read and use actively in my genealogical research, as well as the Genetic Genealogy resources I have used.
Conferences and Symposia
Association of Professional Genealogists Professional Management Conference
Memberships
Travel and Document Research Experience
In September 2014 I spent a week in Toledo, Ohio researching documents at the Lucas County Public Library, looking up court (criminal and civil) documents and land transfer records at the Lucas County Courthouse, and seeking documents at the Toledo-Lucas County Department of Health.
In November 2016, I traveled to Poland to do on-site document research for Pomeranian ancestry for a number of surname projects I am currently working on at the Polish National Archives locations in Bydgoszcz and Gdansk, as well as the Pelplin Diocese.
The following is a brief description of my genealogy/educational background:
Formal Education
My formal education is in Wildlife Biology (BS, MS), Zoology (BS), and African Studies (MA). I also have an MBA in Public Administration.
Accredited Courses and Certifications
I am currently working toward acquiring Certified Genealogist status through the Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG). As part of this in the coming year I will be joining an 18 month long work group, known as ProGen, an intensive study of the text Professional Genealogy, by Elizabeth Shown Mills.
I completed the following National Genealogical Society's courses:
- American Genealogical Studies: The Basics
- American Genealogical Studies: Guide to Documentation and Source Citation
In January 2017, I participated in the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy 2017, taking Advanced Genealogical Methods with renowned genealogist, Thomas W. Jones.
Informal Education
You can check my Resources page for all of the books, online websites, and other resources that I have read and use actively in my genealogical research, as well as the Genetic Genealogy resources I have used.
Conferences and Symposia
Association of Professional Genealogists Professional Management Conference
- September 2016 in Fort Wayne, Indiana
- September 2017 in Washington, DC
Memberships
- Association of Professional Genealogists (and the APG New York Chapter) - www.apgen.org
- National Genealogical Society - www.ngsgenealogy.org
- New York Genealogical and Biographical Society - www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org
- various other local, regional, ethic or surname societies and organizations (see Resources)
Travel and Document Research Experience
In September 2014 I spent a week in Toledo, Ohio researching documents at the Lucas County Public Library, looking up court (criminal and civil) documents and land transfer records at the Lucas County Courthouse, and seeking documents at the Toledo-Lucas County Department of Health.
In November 2016, I traveled to Poland to do on-site document research for Pomeranian ancestry for a number of surname projects I am currently working on at the Polish National Archives locations in Bydgoszcz and Gdansk, as well as the Pelplin Diocese.
My Genealogy Research Experience
I have been actively working on my own family genealogy for the past 5 years, less actively for the 15 years before that. It has always been something that interested me since I was a child. I remember that a typical inquiry when meeting someone new was "What is your Nationality" which was a way of asking for one's ethnic background back in the early 1970s, apparently. During these past few years, I have also found great enjoyment helping others - friends and distant cousins - trace their own family histories as far back as reasonably feasible. I think at this point I am basically obsessed with the subject of genealogy and love all the challenges it presents, as well as all of the wonderful gifts it yields when a breakthrough is made.
My first major genealogy question was the identity of my father's paternal grandmother, as described below (pictured to the right). To answer that question involved incorporating the known family research conducted by other members of my family, and using that to conduct additional research online. When those resources failed to bring solid conclusions, I travelled to Toledo, the home town of those ancestors, for more intensive research of documents that are not available online. The details of this exploration are given below in the My Roots section.
My first major genealogy question was the identity of my father's paternal grandmother, as described below (pictured to the right). To answer that question involved incorporating the known family research conducted by other members of my family, and using that to conduct additional research online. When those resources failed to bring solid conclusions, I travelled to Toledo, the home town of those ancestors, for more intensive research of documents that are not available online. The details of this exploration are given below in the My Roots section.
While I have been able to solve many of my family's ancestry mysteries on my own, breaking down the "brick walls" sometimes involves the help of others. And frequently those "others" are distant cousins we don't even know about yet. DNA testing can link relatives who have never met, and lead to great sources of additional information. I received old photos from a 3rd cousin in Toledo, Ohio, of my 3x great grandmother, that I had never seen before (shown at left). Using those photos I was able to find the house she was living in at the time of her death in 1914 (and where she had raised most of her children by herself). (see at left/below)
A different distant cousin I met along the way was working on solving another family brick wall. Working in collaboration, we have achieved a fairly high level of confidence that we have found the parents of our shared 3x great grandfather, Ira Apger. I have to give her most of the credit on this one, but being able to connect with her and share thoughts and stories is what allowed me to obtain that information for my own family, and our family tree; information we might not have had otherwise. Gaining that bit of information about a new lineage of my family history has opened up whole new stories and ties to historical events I had never imagined as a child, admittedly, both good and bad.
Finding one's roots is only part of the story, and only part of what I enjoy about genealogy. The other side of it is the stories, both real and imagined, that explain why certain people are part of our histories - or why they are not! It is sometimes easy to think of our ancestors as little more than names on a tree, but in truth they were real people, struggling through their day-to-day lives just as we do. They faced hardships and triumphs. Sometimes they overcame their circumstances, and other times they succumbed to them. As I have begun to fill out my tree, I have shifted my focus to the lives of the people who fill it to know more about each of them as individuals and as members of a family and community. And in the meantime, honing my skills in genealogy research!
My Early Exploration
I learned as an elementary school student that I had Czech ancestry, and that fascinated me. Mostly, no doubt, because being able to spell Czechoslovakia was a feat in itself. I did a school report on the country in 4th grade. Over the years I recall hearing various stories about other parts of my family history, including tales about an unknown ancestor resulting from a rape by a German soldier.
For the most part there was only one grandparent in my life, my father's mother. In the few years before she passed away in 1997 I began asking her some questions and seeking more information about her history. She gave what information she could, or what she was comfortable with, perhaps. I remembered her Hungarian Goulash, which was one of my favorites when visiting. She wasn't Hungarian herself, per se, but descended from the Czech family line which had been part of the Hungarian Empire, so no doubt her family was influenced by that culture.
Beyond the goulash, though, my family was never particularly culturally oriented. I new I was a mix of German, Polish and Czech, with a bit of Irish and/or Scottish mixed in (as has been confirmed by DNA testing), but none of those cultures were celebrated in my family. I suspect part of my interest in genealogy now is to reconnect to cultures that have been lost after generations of being American.
For the most part there was only one grandparent in my life, my father's mother. In the few years before she passed away in 1997 I began asking her some questions and seeking more information about her history. She gave what information she could, or what she was comfortable with, perhaps. I remembered her Hungarian Goulash, which was one of my favorites when visiting. She wasn't Hungarian herself, per se, but descended from the Czech family line which had been part of the Hungarian Empire, so no doubt her family was influenced by that culture.
Beyond the goulash, though, my family was never particularly culturally oriented. I new I was a mix of German, Polish and Czech, with a bit of Irish and/or Scottish mixed in (as has been confirmed by DNA testing), but none of those cultures were celebrated in my family. I suspect part of my interest in genealogy now is to reconnect to cultures that have been lost after generations of being American.
My Roots
My ancestry is mixed European. For the most part my ancestors arrived in the early to mid 1800s.
Of my 16 Great Great Grandparents, nine were born in Germany, two in West Prussia (Pomeranian region of Poland) and two in present day Czech Republic. The other three were all born in the 1850s in the US (two in Michigan, one in Illinois).
Digging deeper on the three 2x Great Grandparents born in the US, one of them had parents born in Germany, another had parents born in Ireland. The last remaining one had both parents born in the US, and parts of that branch of my tree extends back to the 1620s Dutch Colony of New Amsterdam, or present day New York City. This ancestry includes a Pirate of Dutch/Moroccan/Spanish Moor ancestry, and his wife who is described as the first whore of Manhattan Island.
My American roots are primarily in Michigan, where the majority of my ancestors settled upon immigrating to the United States. Other significant branches settled in Ohio or Illinois. The older branch described above that extends back before the 1800s traces through Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York City, with a significant portion dating back to the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam. I like to think that the reason I have felt so at home living in Brooklyn, NY is that I have ancestry dating back to its earliest days in the 1630s.
Of my 16 Great Great Grandparents, nine were born in Germany, two in West Prussia (Pomeranian region of Poland) and two in present day Czech Republic. The other three were all born in the 1850s in the US (two in Michigan, one in Illinois).
Digging deeper on the three 2x Great Grandparents born in the US, one of them had parents born in Germany, another had parents born in Ireland. The last remaining one had both parents born in the US, and parts of that branch of my tree extends back to the 1620s Dutch Colony of New Amsterdam, or present day New York City. This ancestry includes a Pirate of Dutch/Moroccan/Spanish Moor ancestry, and his wife who is described as the first whore of Manhattan Island.
My American roots are primarily in Michigan, where the majority of my ancestors settled upon immigrating to the United States. Other significant branches settled in Ohio or Illinois. The older branch described above that extends back before the 1800s traces through Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York City, with a significant portion dating back to the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam. I like to think that the reason I have felt so at home living in Brooklyn, NY is that I have ancestry dating back to its earliest days in the 1630s.
As mentioned above, the first family mystery I tackled was a strange name that appeared on my grandfather's birth certificate. My Great grandmother (his mother) had been known to be a woman named Lena Baumann, but the name on the birth certificate was Emma Bonds. This was not discovered until after the death of my last surviving grandparent, so we had no one to ask about what was going on here. So, I took a week off from work and traveled to Toledo, Ohio in an attempt to figure out who this Emma Bonds person might be. After visiting the courthouse, the library, and the records office of the Department of Health, I concluded that in fact Lena was the mother, and that "Emma Bonds" was a mistake. This was based in part on divorce documents, in which she claimed John Donald Ahrens as one of her children born by her husband from whom she was seeking divorce. DNA matches with descendants of some of the ancestors of Lena Baumann helped confirm that Lena was in fact my biological great grandmother. I suspect that with her strong German accent, and the distress of pregnancy, the pronunciation of her name may have sounded more like Emma than Lena (or Leena). Add to that that this was described as a legitimate birth and that they were living together at the time, and they were living together in 1910 as well, it adds to this case. Further, the divorce took place 3 years after the birth of John Donald, and although there were allegations of Lena's husband cheating on her, it was with a woman by another name (whom he married the very day that his divorce with Lena was finalized).
While I have been successful in solving many of my family's mysteries, there is one that remains. My 2x Great Grandfather, Thomas Szlachcikowski, was born to an unwed mother in 1847, and took his mother's surname at birth. His father is unknown, but family legend suggests that his mother may have been a servant in the home of a presumably prominent German family living in Pomerania at the time, and was raped by one of the male members - possibly a son - and became pregnant as a result. I suspect I will need to travel to Poland if I hope to uncover the real story, though I am also hoping to find a male direct descendent of Thomas and conduct a Y-DNA test to possibly narrow the search. This photo is of Thomas and his wife, Mary Lepek. The children are some of their grand children.
Through all of my research of my own family history, one thing I have learned is to not leave any stone unturned. In one instance I found long-unknown parents of an ancestor by researching the two witnesses to her second marriage. It turned out one of those witnesses was her sister, and through that sister I was able to determine the names of their parents, and trace their ancestry back to Germany.