The idea of researching my ancestral line came when I received a copy of a book privately published by an uncle of mine who was writing about his professional life as an attorney and his political life as a "king maker". His story itself was not the motivating force, but the genealogical charts he placed in an appendix was -- on one he showed my daughter as having the same name as wife (and she doesn't), and I therefore could not trust the other data on those charts,, but that no longer matters -- this Web site sets that part of the story straight.
The first data received from relatives gave me a host of names -- and the records at the LDS Church library in Salt Lake City gave a lot more. However, in my inexperience and desire to get names, names and more names, which I dutifully kept all this imformation on Family Group sheets and Pedigree Charts, but. I failed to document the sources.
Later, when I attended a Genealogy Seminar I found that all my effort would be looked at with suspicion. I was informed that I had to try to recover all my data from independent sources and document those sources. In that process I learned that some of the names I had been given were nicknames, or were the second given name rather than the first, because that is the way the family involved thought of the individual. Current research is dedicated to correct these problems, and I hope all who visit this site and have information which differs from mine, or who have additional information, will contact me. I am now asking more questions about where new data comes from to ensure that it has some chance of being at least reasonably correct. Where there is some doubt I try to indicate that fact.
This fall (2002) I plan to visit the National Archives in Washington, DC, to search the 1930 census reccords. I also plan to visit the appropriate offices in Wisconsin, where a great number of our ancestors lived.
This site is a work in progress, so please contact me if you have any information that might help round out the picture. I will also furnish you with data to help you round out your family.
Thank you for your help.
