Hittin' the Bricks with Kathleen
A "brick-wall" DIY genealogy podcast that features your questions and Kathleen Brandt's answers. She wants your stories, questions, and “brick walls”. But be ready to add to your "to-do" list. As Kathleen always says, this is a Do it yourself (DIY) genealogy podcast. “I'll show you where the shovel is, but I'm not digging up your family.”
Maybe, you have no idea where to start searching for an ancestor. Or, perhaps you want to know more about your family folklore. Host Kathleen has 20 years in the industry and is the founder of a3genealogy. She's able to dispense genealogy research advice and encouragement in understandable terms that won't get you lost in genealogy jargon. Along with her husband and co-host, John, she helps you accomplish "do-it-yourself" research goals, learn some history, and have a bit of fun along the way. Light-hearted and full of detailed info, Hittin' the Bricks is your solution for your brick-wall research problems.
Hittin' the Bricks with Kathleen
Pursuing Your German Past: A Chat With Sue Schlichting
Ever wondered what secrets your German ancestors might be hiding? You're not alone. 44 million Americans claim German heritage, making Germans the largest immigrant group in United States history.
Join us with expert Sue Schlichting, founder of Pursuing Your Past, for tips and resources to uncover your German ancestors.
#germangenealogy #midwest #Lindsborg #Volhynian #Germans #kansas
Be sure to bookmark linktr.ee/hittinthebricks for your one stop access to Kathleen Brandt, the host of Hittin' the Bricks with Kathleen. And, visit us on YouTube: Off the Wall with Kathleen John and Chewey video recorded specials.
Hittin' the Bricks is produced through the not-for-profit, 501c3 TracingAncestors.org.
Ladies and gentlemen from the depths of flyover country in the heartland of America, the Kansas City on the other side of the mighty Moe, welcome to Hittin' the Bricks with Kathleen, the do-it-yourself genealogy podcast, with your questions and her answers. I am John, your humble hubby host, and today we'll be talking to Schlichting from from Pursuing your Past. So mock schnell los gets hittin' der bricks. There should be smoke coming from the speakers. Now to Sue from pursuing your past.
John:So mark schnell also gets hit in dirt bricks there should be smoke coming from the speakers now and, of course, the first thing I do is bump my mic congratulations, um, it's. It's the first thing I do. The second thing I do is typically lean into the mic and go hey, baby, um. So so we're here with Kathleen, of course, and Sue Schlichting, and we're going to talk about, I think, some German records.
Kathleen:That is correct, john. It's German Record Day, and Sue actually has a wealth of information and knowledge, and so I'm looking forward to learning from her, and I'm sure our listeners will be excited to hear what she has to say, especially since her specialty is really Germans in the Midwest. Is that correct, and Quakers?
Sue Schlichting:Oh, those are definitely two of the things I focus on. Absolutely A lot of folks settled in Kansas and Nebraska from Germany and South Dakota and Iowa, so yes, my family actually was in Omaha, nebraska, when they came over from.
John:Oh, germany, john Germany, yeah, I know Germany, rendsburg, north Germany.
Kathleen:That's a great place to start. Why don't we let Sue tell us what she does and give us a little bit about her background?
Sue Schlichting:Okay, I started a genealogy business a couple of years ago pursuing your past, and I do focus on German genealogy and German records for folks that settled in the Midwest primarily and have done some teaching and presenting, as well as doing research for people and some coaching, also helping folks that want to do their own research work through the process and help them to understand how the records work and how you might put those records together to have some success at what you're doing.
Kathleen:And how did you get started, Sue?
Sue Schlichting:Way back when, I guess I grew up on the farm next to the homestead farm, and so I grew up hearing the stories from the old country and all of that intrigued me and I took a 4-H project back in the eighth grade and my dad carved the Schlichting family crest into the cover of a book and he said I'll do this if you will fill the pages in the book. And I worked on that and worked hard at it, and from there we went forward and I've been doing genealogy ever since. After college I had the opportunity to spend some time in Germany on a 4-H exchange trip and so I got to live in north, south, east and west parts of Germany and experience the culture, experience day-to-day life, farm living and learn the language, and so that's kind of where I got my background to get started in all of this. And I retired from my regular work a couple of years ago and started working on this full-time at that point and have had a great time digging into the records and helping others learn their roots in Germany.
Kathleen:So I do want you to explain for us the 4-H concept for those not especially in the Midwest.
John:What a valuable experience that was.
Sue Schlichting:It was, and 4-H is something that's nationwide and it's still there. It's still growing. I think there's something like 6 million youth involved across the nation in the. 4-h is something that's nationwide and it's still there. It's still growing. I think there's something like 6 million youth involved across the nation in the 4-H program. It's a youth program similar to the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts for 7 to 18-year-old youth wanting to learn a variety of skills. I think I especially found valuable the speaking skills that you learn at an early age. You learn to stand up in front of people and give demonstrations of what you were learning and the leadership that came from that, and also the service that you provide to your community through your 4-H experience. It's a club or a group that comes together monthly and works together to learn new skills and teach others.
Kathleen:In the Midwest, john, we really get exposed to 4-H, even if you're not into the 4-H program itself. At our county fairs and our state fairs the 4-H groups are very active there. So John Sue owns the Pursuing your Family's Past website and on there she has a lot of fun stuff that she does and that brought me to her asking her to be a guest, because I know that our listeners will be happy to find out what some of this means. Ok, the Family History Detective Road Trip. What is that?
Sue Schlichting:That was a class that we put together for teenagers.
Sue Schlichting:They would come together for a state 4-H conference each year.
Sue Schlichting:One of the classes that was offered was the Family History Detective Road Trip and we would take a group of teens to a genealogical library and the volunteers there would come and show them how to use a card catalog and how to use a library, and then the kids would take time to look around and see what they could learn about their families and the genealogy library Riley County in Manhattan, kansas, had a fabulous library of resources for not just that county or that area of Kansas but across the nation.
Sue Schlichting:They had a whole wealth of materials. And then we would go to the cemetery that was nearby and the kids would learn from the sexton what his job is and what things they could do, maybe to help take care of a cemetery. And then we did a cemetery scavenger hunt where they got to go out and see if they could find the youngest person buried or the most historic stone they could find, or maybe military service on a stone, and they were going out in teams and trying to find those different items and make note of them, and then from there we went to a computer laboratory and gave them a little instruction on how to search for records, and then they were allowed to spend a couple of hours working on their own family history and trying to identify some new things that they didn't know about their families. A lot of fun, and is that still going on.
Sue Schlichting:It's not to my knowledge. It was something that I led while I was still working in Kansas 4-H, but it went for a dozen years and every year was full. The kids were very engaged and my favorite part of the whole thing was them picking up the phone and calling their aunt or their grandma or whoever the genealogist in the family was, and starting to have those conversations and getting excited about family history, because that's definitely one of the things we need to be doing is cultivating that next generation of genealogists.
Kathleen:That's wonderful. I didn't know about that program. And, john, did you have a question on her newsletter you mentioned to me?
John:I was going to say that fostering those conversations earlier rather than later, I think, is really important.
Sue Schlichting:Well, and I think if you start getting them interested at that younger age, they then will come back to it later if they you know, life gets in the way for a while, but they will come back to it if they have curiosity at young ages.
Kathleen:So and I think that's actually what john has done, isn't it, john?
John:um, yeah, I've, well I'm, I'm dabbling I see there's.
Sue Schlichting:there's always new things coming online, and so that's one of those key things you want to think about is you've searched a site, but then go back a year later and see what else has been added there, because you may find new things that you would have otherwise overlooked.
Kathleen:Yes, and so. Another thing I saw on your site, though, was that you also design visits to the land of your ancestors. I believe that's the way you worded it. So do you do like a little travel plan for them overseas or just in the States?
Sue Schlichting:I am comfortable doing both. I have traveled extensively across Europe and Northern Europe Sweden, Denmark, that area so I'm willing to work with folks on both of those kinds of things. I also do a presentation, helping people if they want to do their own work and charting those things to give them some resources and things to guide them as they get started.
Kathleen:That's a lot of fun.
John:How much German do I need to know to effectively research whether I'm just accessing German records or if I'm actually traveling there?
Sue Schlichting:You know, I think you know a little bit of German. It's helpful. Most people speak some English in Germany and so you can get by, but it always is, I think, a goodwill gesture when they see that you're trying to understand and trying to speak what their language is. And as far as doing records work, there are a lot of great translation tools and lots of great guides that help you to navigate, figuring out how the writing is and how the language is, and you can navigate a lot of that through translation tools and it shouldn't be as daunting as it once was.
Kathleen:One of the things that you mentioned is that you do a newsletter. Now I don't know what the Chanel family newsletter is. Is that correct, yep, and tell us a little bit about that.
Sue Schlichting:Well, Chanel in German means fast, and by no means is this project a fast project. It usually takes about nine months of the year to gather all the information from the clan and publish it into. It's usually about not so schnell. Not so schnell. No, but it's the Schlichtings and the Nelsons. Three Schlichtings married three Nelsons.
Sue Schlichting:And so one of the cousins came up with that. I did not come up with that, but I am the editor in chief since my since my great-aunt passed away and that became my job after she had developed this project and I write about an 80-page newsletter every year based on things that family members submit and gather what people have been doing all year New babies have come and weddings and all those things special celebrations and then I get to plug in my research that I've been doing for the family for the year and that's my way of getting that to those people who are really not tuned into being genealogists. But it gets it out there and it also shares it wider. So I'm not holding the only bit of information about the family.
John:What a fantastic resource that is and what will be. I'm thinking about. Long after we're out of the picture, you still have that newsletter as a resource that I think we call those books 80 pages.
Kathleen:Yes, that's 80.
Sue Schlichting:90 pages is a book is, it is, and I've done it for 20 years so is it also in the library or just on your distribution list? It's just to our family distribution list, but I've been thinking about, since I have 20 years of it, maybe binding it and donating it to our local genealogical society so that it is somewhere other than just in my house. Sure, definitely.
Kathleen:Excellent, excellent idea. Tell us about your Midwest German research experience.
Sue Schlichting:Okay, all right. Well, I really got deep into this. During COVID I lived in Ellis Kansas, so out in Western Kansas, in a small town that was primarily Bukovina. German. Bukovina are Austrian Germans who were settled in kind of what's modern day Ukraine Romanian border area. These cousins all lived in this community for a number of years and I'd see them and I'd say, well, how are you related to this cousin or that cousin? And they'd say, well, we're just cousins. They didn't really know.
Sue Schlichting:And so we took a deep dive into German church records and local church records to try and sort out how all these family members were related to each other and working with the Bukovina Society, which is a small museum slash records area for all of the United States I guess is based in Ellis Kansas, also utilized Forsyth Library at Fort Hayes State University.
Sue Schlichting:They have a nice special collections department that gets into some of the German records for both the Bukovina and the Russian Germans that are living in that area of Kansas. The Volga, the Volga Germans yep, those families were all coming in the 1700s down into that area. Some were based through religious persecutions and some were coming because of the population overgrowth and needing to have a prosperous place and they were being offered farmland to farm for free and some good incentives to come and try this, and things got different with the politics and the opportunities, and so at that point there were wars happening and they wanted to leave the places so that their sons didn't have to serve in wars, and they came to America. Another place that I've done quite a bit of research is the Omaha Public Library. They have a fabulous genealogy room that does quite a bit of research with German materials as well, and so that's another place I've spent quite a bit of time.
Kathleen:So what about your online sources? Another place I've spent quite a bit of time, so what about your online sources? What if a listener is ready to go to some other German records that wouldn't be in the Midwest?
Sue Schlichting:Oh, there are a lot of great genealogy sites online and there are also a lot of books about records that are both here in the States and overseas. As far as places, I start with Family Search because it's a free site. I like to use it and see what records are out there. I also appreciate FamilySearch for its research wiki, and that's a tip I would give anyone If you're starting to research in a new area that you've never researched or a new subject matter that you've never researched. Their research wiki is fabulous and it gives you links to lots of other resources.
Sue Schlichting:If you're looking for maps, it will give you links to maps. If you're looking for translations and word lists, they're there. If you want to know more about the history of that area, it will give you a general history of timeframes of, like Prussia. You know Prussia was a large area of Germany. Over time changed boundaries and so getting an idea of what that history looked like and where the records might be found because of what you're looking for and where you're looking, there's just a lot of invaluable information there. That's my starting place. Whether it's in Germany or any other research, it's looking at that FamilySearch wiki to see what's out there. What should I be tuning into?
Kathleen:And John, we'll add the FamilySearch Wiki website to this podcast, because it is something we haven't talked enough about on the podcast.
John:Oh, ok, well, I know it's someplace that I'm going to be headed to. It sounds like it would be a good start for me. It might even help me with some of the translations or understanding what's being written in those books or where to go next translations or understanding what's being written in those books or where to go next.
Sue Schlichting:Right, right, you know, probably with any German research you have to know the village in Germany, and so that's really where you start is you need to start with local records in the United States, whether it's looking at obituaries or death certificates or other kinds of records, to figure out what place exactly did they come from in Germany. Before you can ever cross the pond, you've got to know that, and so that's where you really start with German research.
Kathleen:Those are great tips.
Sue Schlichting:Actually my family was very good about repeating those names. You know our people came from Knockel and Exine. I heard that over and over and over and I heard that they came from Grosau and I heard that they came from Frosley and so my dad was very good and my grandparents and great grandparents of using those names so those were ingrained in me. I didn't have to go and really wonder where those places were or look for those villages. So many people that I talked to come with no idea they know they came from Germany.
John:Yeah, that was very much. Our circumstance too is that we came from Des Moines. From what I heard, my dad said that my older brothers came from Kmart. So different stories. That might be a German city. I don't know what he was referring to.
Kathleen:One of the things I don't know if most listeners know either is that 44 million Americans claim German ancestry. 44 million Americans claim German ancestry and that was as of 2022. And they are the largest group of immigrants into the United States. We know we have a huge group in Missouri. Have you worked with the, the Rhineland area in Missouri? I have not gotten into Missouri at all. Tell me what has been the hardest job or the biggest brick wall that you have faced? Oh, wow.
Sue Schlichting:I wouldn't say I've had any challenge big challenges with my German. I've been very fortunate to be able to work through any issues I've had and it's come out okay. I do have to tell you what probably one of my most exciting moments as a professional was. I was volunteering at the Omaha Public Library has a week of genealogy week each year and a year ago I had gone in to volunteer for a day and to share my German expertise. And this one lady knew I was coming and so she said, oh, I've got a problem.
Sue Schlichting:She had been looking for her family since the 60s and had not been able to identify them. And we sat down and we looked at what we knew about this family. We worked with the Map Guide to German Parishes books that Kevin Hansen has published. We put that together with Myers Gazetteer with what she knew, and we put those things together and were able to then go to FamilySearch and look for records and we were able to find her family and she broke into tears because she'd been looking for 40 plus years for this family and we were able to break through that by just putting the different resources together and overlapping them and it worked to help her to identify what she was looking for.
Sue Schlichting:So that was a wow moment as a genealogist to be able to help someone sort that out after that many years of trying and trying things.
John:That is fantastic.
Kathleen:Sue, you mentioned that you do speak German. Do you translate documents for people? I?
Sue Schlichting:do I do. I sometimes take some time, especially if the handwriting is extremely difficult, but yes, I do some translation work. I was just going to say I know that right now they're promoting AI and saying that AI can help with translations and some of that, and I've played around with that a little bit as well, but I wouldn't rely on it?
Kathleen:How did it do Marginal? And even FamilySearch says that. Familysearch tells you that we'll put up what we consider our first draft of a transcript, but we need eyes on it before it's actually transcribed.
Sue Schlichting:And I love that little phrase that they have on their AI documents with their new beta tests, but it may help you to overcome a challenge with a word that you didn't understand, couldn't make out the handwriting, and maybe it comes up with something that's an accurate thing, so you use it as a tool to help you to work through the process.
John:I think we've landed on AI as a tool, not a solution.
Sue Schlichting:Absolutely. I have to tell you how I got started with my translations. I was living in a little town up in South Dakota and a little lady came into my office one day and she had this shoebox full of old letters from the old country. Can you help me translate these? I can try so. In rural South Dakota in the winter there's not a lot to do for a young person. So I would go to her house and we would spend our evenings going, letter by letter, word by word, through those letters to translate them, using the translation cheat sheets and working through those letters to help her to understand what was being said. But that's how I trained myself was by working through that in a practical situation, and it gets easier with time.
Kathleen:The genealogy community has wonderful classes on German translations and older handwriting styles.
Sue Schlichting:And they've got some good tutorial links as well. There are some sites out there where you can type in the word you're looking for and it will type it out into that script style and there are multiple different script styles that it will translate to and you can look at that and print that out and then use that as a comparison when you're working through the list of all of the names in a book. This is what it should look like. You know there are those kind of tools that you can use.
John:Interesting is it. Is there a site, uh, that you know off the top of your head that offers that?
Sue Schlichting:um, yeah, let's see, this is scriptbyuedu German handwriting.
Kathleen:Oh, it's out of BYU. Yes, yes, it's a tutorial out of there. That'd be perfect. So, you covered with us the migrations, how to do translations, that you do speak German, and some of your favorite repositories. One of the things I would love to know about are your presentations, and where are you doing those?
Sue Schlichting:My German ones. I've done several for the Old Mill Museum in Lindsborg, kansas.
Kathleen:They've had me come and visit. That's near my home, my family's hometown.
Sue Schlichting:Yes, I kind of laugh because they're a Swedish capital, you know, and so for them to host a German research session was kind of interesting. But we've done one on just basic introduction to German and talking about how do you find those places to look for your family if you don't know the hometowns in Europe. And then we've also done one on German church records and diving into you know, what should you expect and how is it different from parts of the country, from one to the other. You know my people coming from three different regions, from clear up on the German Danish border to Posen, prussia, to down in what's now modern day Romania, transylvania. My people come from very different places and have a little bit different twists on how you look at the records and the kinds of things that are available. So that's been good help too to know that there are some variations in things.
Kathleen:So now, Sue, this is just a question I want to know Are you going to be doing any presentations soon?
Sue Schlichting:What's next? Actually, the topic that's been the hot topic lately is inspiring the next generation of genealogists. That's been the topic I've presented. I just presented it yesterday. I'm presenting it tomorrow or Saturday in Lindsborg and across the country. I've been down in Florida with it and up to Connecticut and a variety of places, so that's been the one that has intrigued people the most.
Sue Schlichting:But I do a little of everything from are you the family archivist and how do you care for all those things that come into your possession if you are that person? To the German. We've done some Swedish, basic Swedish research projects as well, Just getting people getting started, how you share your genealogy with non-genealogists. You know so. For example, my newsletter. You know my cousins don't care about the research process, but they are intrigued by the stories and so getting those kinds of things right in their hands maybe connects the dots for that next generation too. But there's there's lots of things we've done creative ideas of ways to share your research that aren't just a tree chart or a book. We've done quilts and all sorts of things to help people share their history.
Kathleen:Is there anything you want to tell us for the people who are interested?
Sue Schlichting:in German research. I'd say just be persistent and determined. You know it will take some work. Don't let the language be a barrier, because you can get over it with all the translator tools and other tools that are out there. Don't let that stop you from learning and exploring your family's history, because there is a ton of fabulous things out there to learn and explore.
Kathleen:That's great. I told Sue it was really a chat for me, no, it really was a chat for me. I don't really care about anybody else.
John:I feel a little bit inspired to start digging through some of my stuff now.
Sue Schlichting:Well, john, if there's something I can do to help you through this process, holler Well.
John:I got a friend in the business now. Yes, you do. Thank you, sue. I greatly appreciate that Kathleen anything else. No, that was it, sue. I greatly appreciate that Kathleen anything else.
Kathleen:No, that was it John. Thanks, sue, for joining us. This has been great.
Sue Schlichting:Thank you for having me Kathleen, this has been fun.
John:Well, congratulations, you made it to the end of another episode. Thanks so much for staying. Thanks to Sue Schlichting for chatting with us. Thanks to Chewy Chewbacca Brandt for his unwavering lack of interest in anything we're doing. The theme song for Hittin' the Bricks was written and performed by Tony Fistknuckle and the Marstons Watch for the next appearance in Caliga Hall. Do you have a genealogical question for Kathleen? Drop us a line at hittinthebricks at gmailcom and let us know.
