The Tree of Me

For many years I had put research on my husband's twenty-five percent German ancestry into the too hard basket. His great grandfather's name Jacob Scheef wasn't on the shipping list indexes. It wasn't until I found the name of the ship on his naturalisation papers and then went directly to the shipping list that I found Jacob Scheef. He arrived on the Grasbrook on 26 September 1865 aged 20. I couldn't read the name of the town where he was born on the shipping list so I was still lost. It wasn't until many years later I happened to be in Sydney at a SAG event and I went to the German stand and someone said with only a quick glance that it was Untertürkheim. Armed with that information, a quick search of Scheef and Untertürkheim revealed many treasures. Someone had already transcribed many Church records and I could now progress a few generations further back than my husband's great grandfather. I was soon in contact with a few people over the world. This...

Last night I ordered a copy of Our Daily Bread: German Village Life, 1500 - 1850 by Teva J Scheer . I'm hoping this book will fill a definite gap in my knowledge of German social history. I know a lot about Irish history but my knowledge of German history is minimal. The book is set not too far from where my husband's ancestors lived so I'm hoping the picture painted by Scheer will be very similar to that of the Scheefs and Glocks. You can read the first chapter  here  online. Will post again after the book arrives.

Amanuensis Monday  was started by John Newmark in his blog  Translyvanian Dutch  and encourages family historians to transcribe family letters, journals, audiotapes and other historical artifacts. An amanuensis is a person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another. My husband's family are very fortunate. They have a series of letters written from Germany to Jacob Frederick Scheef who lived at Rocky River, near Armidale and later at Tilbuster and Puddledock. These letters date from 1859 until 1894. It's a shame we can't read German! There is also a diary Jacob kept and the letters he wrote home when he returned for a holiday to Germany in 1885. At least these are in English! Currently these documents are housed at the University of New England and Regional Archives , in Armidale, New South Wales. Letter sent from Stuttgart to the Rocky River diggings. It went around the world! Appears to have been writte...