What you can expect from researching your family tree.

Last July, curious to know something about my ancestors, I opened an account and began my family tree.  Though I had signed up for a family tree search maybe fifteen years ago, I was not prepared for how much content had already been done on my family tree.  You see, you get to look at and reap information from other family trees, related to yours.  Thus, there is a wealth of family facts for which to discover when you do a family tree.

At the same time, I registered for "world" information and, though I found little in that one month subscription, I did uncover an official wedding document in which the bride (my great-great-grandmother having yet lived in England signed her wedding document with an "X."  Jane and William later came to America to my present home town in which their memorial is located in a local cemetery

Soon I realized that I might be able to piece the family members together were I to subscribe to Newspapers.com.
What a surprise to not only discover facts I never knew, but also the little nasty reports about my grandfather.  I knew Moses was a rebellious sort, but I hadn't known he was a rascal.  In the search, I recalled his anger when I was a pre-schooler and whirled a ball of clay at him, hitting him in the neck.  (I was as much a rascal!)  Nevertheless, I was stunned to discover he met with the local police more than a few times and had spent at least one night in the local downtown lock-up.  It seems my grandfather, after his wife died, had a tryst with a town gal which ended in his having been shot in the shoulder.  No problem.  He survived and lived until I was eleven years old.  

Aside from all this, I uncovered much information from this two month newspaper subscription.  In my grandfather's favor was the loss of his wife at mid-life, the illness and death of a one year old daughter, and the death of my natural mother (his only daughter) at age 21 to the tragic incident for which I have already blogged in an earlier post.  

Other discoveries involved my husband's family tree which uncovered some rather notable people in the Berk's County area of Pennsylvania, at least one town Lobachsville, named for its founder, a Lobach relative of my husband.  

My paternal family tree took me to Berks County as well, the Beyer family having arrived in Pennsylvania in 1731 on the ship, Philadelphia Merchant.  Ironically, the passenger list revealed that the Lobach's were on this same voyage!  

The Lobach family, as well as the Beyer family was traced all the way to the 1500's, or 1400's.  This spring I plan a trip to Berks County to visit gravesites for which family members are buried, some memorials engraved in German.

It is honorable, above all other information I uncovered, that many male ancestors fought in four wars, including the Revolutionary War and the Civil War.  My great-grandfather Earp, in fact, was wounded in the Battle of Antietam.  Sadly our American heritage has been degraded to a level that most Americans no longer place their hands over their hearts during the National Anthem (a flag rule by the way).  My grandfather Earp came to America shortly before the Civil War.  He came here from England to pledge his allegiance to America and soon offered up his very life for his newly adopted country.  

If you haven't done your own family tree, you might be in for some real surprises!   I'll never regret having spent the time and small investment in doing my family tree.  Evidence of some family members have indicated they knew Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior.  I rejoice in that one day I will meet some of my ancestors in heaven.  One thing for sure, I will already know a few facts about their earthly life in the United States.