What's in a Name?

So much to do, so little time!

My fellow family historian.

My Aunt Dori is not famous for her cooking. What she is know for is HELPING everyone. She will do things for others that they won't do for themselves. Who goes to someone else's house and helps them clean their garage -- for free??? Aunt Dori is also into family history. This past summer and fall I helped her put together a book on her Smith family ... no small task!! She did the research and I did the typing and layout. It was a big project they ended up with a nice book that is on the shelves at the Allen County Genealogy Library! A published author!!! If you are interested, you can go to their online catalogue and search for "Mordecai and Phebe Smith, The Story of a Family" by Doris Grashoff. There are tons of pictures and interesting stories.

Kuchen

This recipe is from our German background. My Grandma use to make huge batches of this tasty treat. I remember there being multiple pans, bowls, so on, sitting all over the house "rising".
We always ate this with lots of butter and hot coffee. My Grandma was born in rural Buena Vista County and lived in rural Cherokee county when she died. Never having moved any further away that that. She was a loving, energetic woman. She kept a huge garden and canned and preserved foods. I remember my grandmother with a lot of love and happy memories!

More on my ancestor, Anne Elisabeth Masemann Grashoff, Streff. This is a picture of her tombstone in St. John's Cemetery In Buckley, Iroquis, Illinois, USA. She is buried beside her second husband, Mathias Streff. Her first husband, Harm Heinrich Grashoff was buried back in Germany. Elisabeth lived to be 79 years old and spent the last part of her life in Aurelia, Iowa, with her children.

More on Anne Elisabeth Masemann

Maggie and John Grashoff, Beth, Florence, and Francis Chandler, Elisabeth Masemann Grashoff Streff, Anna and William Streff.

Elisabeth arrived in America in 1881. We first find her in Illinois with her children: Lizzie, Johann, and Anna. Elisabeth married Mathias Streff April 8, 1884, in Gilman Illinois. He died in 1902. Elisabeth did come to Iowa and live with her children. After she passed away, she was sent back to Illinois and buried with Mathias, her second husband.

My begining in genealogy!

This lady began my interest in genealogy.  Anne Elisabeth Masemann was born April 2, 1836, in Schwarme, Diepholz, Lower Saxony, Germany to Heinrich Wilhelm Massemann and Rebecke Meyer. She was married to Harm Heinrich Grashoff on April 23, 1860. She had four children that I know of: Margethe Elisabeth "Lizzie", Rebekka, Johann, and Anna. Rebekka died while still in Germany at age eight. Elisabeth's husband died on March 10, 1877, in Germany. Elisabeth came to America with her three children in 1881 for reasons yet unknown. As a young person, I was fascinated with this woman's journey to a new world as a widow with three children and that began a lifelong obsession!

Lost Too Soon

My Grandparents, Albert and Alma Grashoff, second child was stillborn. Grandma related that she felt the baby died while she was in labor. Grandma said of her seven children, Romona was be far the most difficult. Romona was born dead on December 3, 1928, on her older sister's fifth birthday.

New Family Twig

My cousin's daughter, Ashley, and her husband added the latest twig on the family tree. Jaycee Marie Bernu was born on her mother's birthday on August 5, 2012. Congratulations on the new bundle of joy!!

Update

I have been updating my database and binders this summer.  I am sourcing and documenting the matzdorfs now!

Celebration!

This is not exactly a genealogy post, however, it is a very important event in our family history! My daughter, Nicole Karol Chaffin Morgan completed her chemotherapy last week! We are anticipating a long health life for her!

creative life designs: Friday Five {and a freebie}

creative life designs: Friday Five {and a freebie}

It has been a LONG time!

I have actually been doing some family history research ... but it has been a long time since I have been here! In December my oldest daughter was diagnosed with lymphoma and that has been keeping me busy since that time. We have actually made some pretty good headway in her research on her husband's family.

I am back!

I am listening to the geneabloggers radio show and thought I would post a little update. I have been working on updating my genealogy database and binders at the same time. In the last month, I have added several family members following births to Brian's cousins which were listed on Facebook. Social media is very useful to the family historian!

Grandma Minnie Schluntz Matzdorff Bible finds!

Mom's Pedigree chart

Kansas City Expos

Brian, Niki, and I are in Kansas City, Missouri! Niki and I have spent the last two days at the Family History Expo Genealogy Convention! We are in Laura Best's class regarding online research! We have had so much fun learning about German research, citing your sources, researching past 1850, using Roots Magic and so much more! I have seen so many people here that I have listened to being interviewed by Lisa Louisa Cooke! This is great!!!

Skill honing!

I am trying to arrange a trip to Kansas City for a genealogy expo that will be held there in July. I am so excited as normally they don't have expos in the midwest! Hopefully I will learn a lot!

We had our second Grashoff Family Reunion at our home yesterday. Forty-five family members attended and we had wonderful conversation, food, and rides for the kids on four-wheelers and a side-by-side. Thanks to everyone who could attend.

Swamped!

I currently have no time for working on my family history or blogging about! I hope to be back soon!

Squeezing in some research!

On my lunch hour, I am trying to at least do a little research on my lunch hour on Ancestry! I can at least print out some documents and attach them to my Ancestry Family Tree!