How to Spot the Dot
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Stefan Israel
- Jan 28, 2021
- 4 min
Why Couldn’t My Ancestor Spell Their Name the Same?
You’re tracing your family back, and the spellings sometimes just go crazy.
513 views3 comments
Stefan Israel
- Jun 24, 2020
- 2 min
Kaffeeklatsch
Kaffeeklatsch, a very gemütlich, cozy gathering. It translates as ‘coffee chit-chat’
344 views0 comments
Stefan Israel
- Apr 13, 2020
- 3 min
DUTCH, not DEUTSCH: English, Dutch and German
English, Dutch and German are all related languages - the languages diverged - you can see it in how the same original words now differ.-
1,145 views0 comments
Stefan Israel
- Mar 2, 2020
- 4 min
Understanding -Sen and -Son in a Name: Johnson, Janson and Jansen
Why do some family names end in -son and some in -sen?
6,357 views0 comments
Stefan Israel
- Feb 10, 2020
- 2 min
Dutch and Deutsch: so similar, so dissimilar
We’d talked about how much the German dialects vary, looking at dialect forms of the Lord’s Prayer. Let’s compare High German and Dutch.
552 views0 comments
Stefan Israel
- Jan 29, 2020
- 2 min
AUGH! From German to English
AUGH! It’s not just a cry of distress, it’s an anglicization. Why do we see lots of names ending in -augh? Baugh, Grumbaugh, Brumbaugh?
499 views0 comments
Pamela Israel
- Dec 13, 2019
- 3 min
1960 Christmas Card Mystery
Why were there piles of Christmas cards from 1960 sent from around the world to a young girl in Virginia?
155 views0 comments
Pamela Israel
- Sep 19, 2019
- 3 min
Washing & Sewing: A Diary & Tins
Sewing, in addition to laundry, used to be a responsibility that almost every woman had. And yet it can be tough to get insights into this p
68 views0 comments
Stefan Israel
- Aug 5, 2019
- 3 min
Dutchland? Germany?
The tribes that coalesced into Germans spoke 'the people’s/ popular language’ as opposed to Latin
4,566 views0 comments
Stefan Israel
- May 8, 2019
- 3 min
H- huh? Making Sense of German
German and English both mostly use h the same, as that puff of air at the start of a word:
hello/hallo, here/hier, horn
But what’s that h do
406 views0 comments
Pamela Israel
- May 1, 2019
- 2 min
Tips for Finding the Day of the Week
Just a head's up for those looking up dates further back (generally prior or 1752) or from some other countries cultures: People used di
124 views0 comments
Pamela Israel
- Apr 18, 2019
- 2 min
Postcard Clues 100 Years On - Clues to Olof !
It's amazing how curious you can get about people in no way related to you. I've written before about Olof Harrison, a Swede who mov
55 views0 comments
Pamela Israel
- Apr 5, 2019
- 2 min
German Wedding Invitation Details
Our family has a photo of the framed wedding invitation of my 2nd great aunt and uncle. It's a charmingly simple one. When I first came
200 views0 comments
Stefan Israel
- Mar 14, 2019
- 4 min
We're from Germany but Where?
When you’re tracing an ancestor to Central Europe from a century or more ago, you need to find out which state they were from. Here are some
677 views0 comments
Pamela Israel
- Mar 1, 2019
- 2 min
Postcard Pals - Old Swedish Cards in Translation
A series of correspondence to and from the same people opens up a whole new understanding about them. Old Swedish postcards from greater
95 views0 comments
Pamela Israel
- Feb 11, 2019
- 2 min
From Genf to Geneva and other Translations
When learning about ancestors who immigrated to the US decades or centuries ago, you get a double challenge. Not only is there the translati
519 views0 comments
Pamela Israel
- Jan 22, 2019
- 1 min
Joyous German Visit Home: 1925
Eliese Trede, my mother's grandmother, immigrated in 1908, leaving her loving parents on a journey across the Atlantic. This is her 1925
31 views0 comments
Pamela Israel
- Jan 21, 2019
- 2 min
Beloved Son, Hurry! 1843 Letter
This is an 1843 letter from my 3rd great grandfather, to his son telling him to hurry home from the army before his mother dies. We have a l
64 views0 comments
Pamela Israel
- Jan 18, 2019
- 1 min
Handwritten Letters & a Postcard
Day 2 to highlight the Art of Handwriting and your Family through January 23rd, National Handwriting Day. Share a favorite family hand-writt
56 views0 comments