14:26
I'm not much of a brick-wall breaker, but I'll share a success a relative had this summer.
Our Bessarabian ancestors were only traced back to 1800 with one Christoph listed as one of the founding members of a German colony. We knew his wife and one brother, but all attempts to find them as they moved through Poland to Bess were unsuccessful. Until this summer :)
Christoph had listed a town called Greulitz as his place of birth and his childrens' as Kaminsky, but these places did not seem to exist. We could not find them. Even though there were many many of us attacking the problem.
Finally, this summer, a relative had been perusing Polish church books for months and was looking in a region called Piotrków Trybunalski with a parish named Kamiensk. Beside this parish was a colony named Szpinalew. *Here is where the gold-star detective work came in. My relative remembered seeing an entry in Bessarabian immigration records where a "Christoph Reimann, farmer from Peterkau/Spinelaw and his family wished to be placed in the rank of colonist," and in his words 'on was the search!'
Shortly, he started seeing a string of entries for the correct family name :) He found brothers of Christoph, sisters-in-law, birth records, even the parents' names on one of the marriage certificates.
The spelling was quite different, but made sense for many of the names. Christoph Reimann = Krysztof Rayman, his wife Rosina Marschall = Roszyna Marszala, their son Jan = Johann. And the repetition of family names were amazing as they connected on so many points.
This is very clear as you look at other leads of the same family name... where the naming pattern does not match at all. The names that children are given seem to come out of thin air... they are names that you have never seen in your research before. This should be a red flag, not a full stop, but a flag in your mind that you may have strayed.
In our case, the sons were named after uncles and grand uncles, the daughters were named after mothers and grandmothers. It was a miraculous find that has led to many more finds. I am holding off on following the research of other relatives, though, I am going to try to find what I can on my own first and then see if it jives with what others have found. For now, I'm avoiding looking at their trees ;)
I'm off to make breakfast now, but will check back momentarily :) My three year old is clamouring for pancakes.
