ROOTS & BRANCHES

 After I wrote a “Roots & Branches” column last month on my distant cousin Cindy Cruz’s plans as a first-time visitor to the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City, I gave her a mission to place on top of her genealogy quests for the trip: Bring back a summary of how she made out.

Well, not only did she make out very well indeed, but she also sent along some great details of her trip that are worth sharing with all of you “Roots & Branches” readers—especially because it underlines how important visiting this repository remains.

A crucial part of Cruz’s success started with preparation before her trip. “I went through my pedigree chart looking for dead ends and undocumented ‘facts,’” Cruz wrote. “I then searched for resources I could access from home or my local Family Search affiliate library and marked them off my list.”

 She then used the library’s online catalog to locate books and microfilms that were only available on location at the FamilySearch Library. “I also searched the PERSI Index and then checked to see if the FSL had copies of articles I wanted to see. I used several types of searches (surnames, locations, books, church names, keywords, title, author, etc.) to be as thorough as possible.”

Cruz also created Word documents for the materials found on each floor of the library, including the call numbers and links to the online catalog. She also made a plan for a meeting with a research specialist at the library.

This degree of organization probably allowed Cruz to get done what would have taken two weeks in just a week of time.

Just a few of her finds:

• A German Ortsfamilienbuch from the village of Michelfeld in Württemberg, in which she traced her paternal Sauer line back four generations to a set of eleventh great-grandparents and located several of their German church records. The men were coopers and her ninth-great-grandfather, Johann Jakob Sauer, was a master cooper.
• Construction plans and payment records for the building of St. Daniels “Corner Church” and school in the 1750s in Berks County mentioned Johann Michael Schauer, a seventh-great-grandfather.  
• She also found a Quaker family in Connecticut and New Jersey back to 1643, and other English families as far back as the 1500s.
• A fabulous 76-page PDF analysis of the early Kershner families of Berks County written in 2007 by Robert B. Angstadt of Wernersville, PA. He included land documents, maps and modern photographs of her Kershner ancestors’ properties.

•            Cruz also met with a Hispanic research specialist (free consultation at your computer!) who helped her formulate a plan to do further research on her husband’s Catholic ancestors in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. “He was extremely knowledgeable and explained the kinds of church and civil records that would be helpful and how to find them.,” Cruz wrote.

One of Cruz’s biggest finds was an article from a German genealogy periodical on a family that we have in common, which cited records in Germany that could push the lineage into the 1400s!

More on that in next week’s “Roots & Branches” along with some great logistical hints from Cruz.