My Geneaological Research

As I’ve mentioned before one of my several hobbies is geneaological research. I’ve posted quite a number of posts on various branches of my family tree but I don’t recall whether I’ve posted an overview of my family history and I know that I haven’t posted on what I plan to do next or the areas in which I’ve hit a brick wall.

I can trace all branches of my family back to about 1880. You can click on the tree above for a larger image. Indeed, from then to now is so much a part of my identity I practically feel as though it’s all living memory although actual living memory only goes back about 80 years to my dad’s cousin, Joan, the last of her generation of my family still alive.

As you can see my dad’s family is a sort of German combination plate: Swiss, Rheinland-Pfalz, Rheinland-Westphalia, and (if my dad’s claims are to be believed) Swabia. I can trace my Schuler ancestry back at least six hundred years. I can trace the Wagners and Vogts back to around 1800 in Germany. My dad couldn’t trace them much farther back than that even using German records. The records just don’t exist any more. War.

I could flesh out some of the Schulers’, Wagners’, and Vogts’ information with a little travel, going back into the old tax rolls. They were landowners so they’re bound to show up. I doubt that there’s really that much more to be learned there. Where I’m stuck is with the Fischers and the Baders. My great-grandmother (father’s paternal grandmother) Mary Fischer may or may not have been born here. I really don’t know. I do know that her family lived in rural Missouri. I’ve got some pictures taken in the 1920s of a visit to his Fischer cousins by my dad’s Uncle Tony. A more surly-looking bunch of hillbillies you’ve never seen. I’ve been to the area in which they lived. I think it’s complete dead end. The records don’t seem to exist any more.

I know very little of the antecedents of my great-grandmother Emma Bader. I think she may have emigrated to this country as a very young woman (fifteen or sixteen years of age) all by herself. There’s some family folklore that her family was a prominent one—there have been claims that her father was the mayor of the town she was from. I really don’t know. I haven’t been able to locate much in the way of records of her prior to 1891. I’ve hit a brick wall here. Since my grandmother was born in March of 1891 the my great-grandparents must have gotten married no later than 1890 (these aren’t my Blanchard ancestors—the Wagners were very proper). Haven’t located a record.

I’ve traced my Blanchard ancestors back to the 1820s in Clinton County, New York but no farther. The relevant church records no longer exist—they were destroyed in a fire long ago. I’ve spoken with Clinton County county historian and the parish priest of the relevant parish. I’m at a dead end here. I think the Blanchards came from Canada which would imply that they were French but I don’t really know.

I’d like to know more about the Didiers. They were apparently well-to-do (property owners) and intermarried with one of the most prominent St. Louis families (making that connection is one of my contributions to documenting my family’s history). Maybe tax rolls but I doubt they’ll tell me much. I have no idea how my great-great-grandmother Celestine Didier ended up marrying my great-great-grandfather William Schneider. I know almost nothing about him other than that he died young. I suspect that his family was Alsatian but I have little more than suspicions.

I’d also like to know more about the McCoys. Based on the name they were Scots-Irish. I can almost trace them back to Ireland sometime between 1849 and 1856. They were clearly Famine Irish. I have no idea how or why they got from the environs of Pittsburgh to St. Louis, Missouri or how my great-grandmother Sarah McCoy ended up marrying my great-grandfather George Blanchard in Chicago (I’ve located the marriage record).

The Dunns, Rogans (or Grogans), Reillys, Rebstocks, and Freiczechs are a complete black box.

So that’s where my research stands. I might be able to trace the Schulers, Wagners, Vogts, and Baders by going to Switzerland and Germany. I’d need to know more about the Fischers to research them farther in Europe. I could go to Ireland and research the Flanagans (I know they were from Westmeath). Before I do that I’d like to know more about the McCoys.

Some of my previous geneaology posts:

My Family History
The Schulers
The Wagners
The McCoys
The Didiers
The Flanagans

Update

After writing this post I found my great-great-great-great-grandfather Francois Didier’s will online (Missouri has excellent digital legal records). It confirmed a number of things that I had inferred based on other information, e.g. that he was a person of some means, that my great-great-grandmother Celestine Didier was his granddaughter and that her father had died prior to 1876 (I haven’t been able to find a death record for him), and so on.

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