Boy, I do have trouble keeping current!

As I write this, it has somehow become 2011 while I wasn't looking. It just seems that I have too little time to write down what is going on in my life. It has been a very busy year with Barbara having a very serious auto accident at the end of 2009, the day before Thanksgiving, as a matter of fact. She was driving our 2003 Audi TT on her way to work, and encountered a Dodge Ram pickup truck in the middle of the road. Fortunately, all the safety systems worked to perfection and both air bags deployed, likely saving her life. She did suffer a broken sternum and contusions to both lungs. It turned out that it was not a simple, nor rapid recovery situation. She was plagued with a prolonged and difficult recovery, involving a diagnosis of COPD (which fortunately turned out NOT to be true), but she did struggle with asthma and recurrent lung infections for nearly a year. During this period, we have decided it is time for us to leave Maine and find a more moderate climate to call home. To explore areas that were candidates, we travelled to North Carolina last summer and explored the state. In two weeks, we covered most of the different locales, from the Raleigh/Durham area to the mountains west of Asheville. Of the areas we visited, we both fell in love with Hendersonville. Our decision was that we would

both like an area with four seasons, little snow, relatively low humidity, and a small town environment that was friendlier and more intimate than a large city.

Our decision was not based simply on her accident, but on my slowly changing health and my desire to do some other things beside spend my time maintaining a house that is bigger than we need during the summer and plowing and shovelling all winter. I still want to have time for my genealogy work, some teaching of research methods, and still lots of reading to do! My experience last winter with sciatica was a big wake up call that this was no longer a good place for us to be in the winter! If you can't plow and shovel in Maine in the winter, you don't belong here.

As I write thisw we have listed our home for sale and have at least one interested buyer. It is our hope that we can conclude a satisfactory sale this summer and make a move to North Carolina this fall. I will write more much sooner than last time!

Can it be a New Year already?

It is hard to believe it is 2010 already. I have been happy to reconnect with James and Judy LAUX during 2009. It has resulted in some significant expansion of the MICHEL/LAUX family tree as they added their spouses, their children and their children's spouses to the tree. In fact they have added enough data that my master file is now out of date and requires work early in 2010. 2009 got away without significant progress being made on my MICHEL line except for improved organization and storage of documents.

Henry (also known as Heinrich) MICHEL (also called MICHAEL during a period from about 1895 until about 1917) continues to prove very elusive so far as his birthplace and his immigration to the United States. My best data suggests he was born in Reichenau, Germany in 1852. This data comes from a passport application filed in March of 1913 for Henry to return to Germany for a visit of up to three months. In that application he attests he was born on August 11, 1855 in Reichenau, Germany. So far, attempts to confirm this data have not been successful. He also claims in this document to have emigrated to the United States on board the "Werra" sailing from Bremen in January of 1883 and residing in Whitesboro, NY from 1883 continuously until 1913. I have been unable to verify any of these facts to date. The good news is that this gives me lots of leads to follow up on during 2010! The data is pretty consitent with other information that I have indicating that he married Anna Barbara YOPS in Ft. Plain, NY on December 31, 1884. This information comes from the Archives and Historical Department of Montgomery County, NY.

One other significant contribution comes from Sandra HOYT, who is the grandaughter of Francis LAUX, my mother's sister. Sandy and her brother (Robert, often called Bobby in the family) and her sister, Diane have all become interested in the family history project and started a HOYT family web site as well. This should provide yet more data for the database I am building as material they have on their site will connect to my data for at least two or three generations back. Progress, although frustratingly slow is being made.

How Time Flies

It is hard to believe that it is 2010 already! I can't say where 2009 went as far as my genealogy work is concerned, but a lot of it went to organizing and storing material properly. It was very good to reconnect with James and Judy as a result of James asking for a family reunion photo. We are using GENI and MyHeritage to stay in touch with each other and expand our family tree data, which has grown notably as they have added their children and the spouses to the tree. In fact, that has caused the tree to grow so rapidly that I have not yet added all of the new data to my master database, a pressing job for 2010!

I have not really made any progress of note on my grandfather, Henry (sometimes called Heinrich) MICHEL (also known for a brief period as MICHAEL during his life) . My best bet for his place of birth remains Reichenau (on the shores of Lake Constance) in germany, near the Swiss border. This is somewhat consistent with family lore which is "near Strasbourg". I am not quite sure that 120 miles was "close" in the 1850's, but maybe in Europe the roads were good enough by then to make it considered close

New progress

Since my Mom was one of thirteen children and my Dad was one of five, I have lots of cousins and have lost track of many of them over the years. My Mom only had one sibling that was younger than she and that was her brother, Edward. He had three children, Richard, Judy and James. As luck would have it I have lost track of Judy and James over the years, but recently I received an email from James asking about a family reunion picture that was taken about 1945. I was lucky to still have a copy, so my sister and I identified all of the people in it, and sent it along to him. I asked if he was in touch with his older sister, Jusy and he was. In fact, she was at his house attending his daughter's wedding.
The result is that I have established contact with both of them and they have contributed substantial information to the family history data. It includes all of their children and their spouses, as well as some others. Occasionally, after many years, a contact is made that adds significantly to the history of the family.

An Update

Well, it has been sometime since I wrote here and I do have some more to report on my family research project. I have discovered that my grandfather, Henry, returned to Europe for a visit, apparently to his family in March, 1913. In his application for a passport, he states that he was born on August 11, 1855 in Reichenau, Germany. He further states that he emigrated to the United States on the ship "Werra" arriving from Bremmen in January of 1883. He also says he has lived in Whitesboro, NY from 1883 until 1913 and was naturalized at The County Court of Oneida on October 18, 1888. This information has not yet been further verified. It appears that there are actually four places in Germany that at that time may have been known as Reichenau.

I have also reconnected with two of my cousins that I have not seen for several years and that has added considerably to my family history. But more of that later!

My first post

For many years now, I have been slowly working on reconstucting the history of my family, the descendants of John Peter LAUX and Luella O'BRIEN of Stamford, NY and Henry MICHEL and Anna Barbara YOPS, of Whitesboro, NY. The LAUX side of the family has been somewhat easier as they were both a large and close family with many surviving members still living in the area surrounding Stamford. The MICHEL line has proven much more difficult for a number of reasons. My MICHEL line is much smaller (my Dad was one of five children, while my Mom was one of thirteen) and did not stay as close together as they aged, both geographically and in association. Then there was the circumstances and timing of my grandfather MICHEL's passing.

He was a patient at the NYS Hospital at Utica for several years before his death, an institution associated with mental illness, which was not talked about in those days. As my research has progressed however, I have found that he was 94 years old and his medical records showed various circulatory impairments in his later years. It seems likely that he had some senile dimentia resulting from circulatory insufficiency and they had no treatments, or diagnosis for this in the 1940's.

I am continuing my work on my family history and have eessentially hit a brick wall with any attempts to find more about Henry's origins. I do know that he died in Utica, NY on Janauary 4, 1947. I have his death certificate which says he was born in Germany, but gives no additional data. The admission papers to the NYS Hospital at Utica states his son comments he was born in Strasburg in Alsace in 1852. I also know he was married to Anna Barbara YOPS at the Fort Plain, NY Lutheran Church on December 31, 1884. None of the records of the wedding are available as they are in German Script and no one who can read them are available at the church.

If anyone is researching this line, I would be pleased to exchange such information as may be useful. I may be reached at don1936@gmail.com