MennoNet.com

So for the past 6-8 months I have been on this genealogy kick.

I can tell it is an interest that I won't exhaust right away.

Last summer I joined a genealogy website called Geni. Through it I've created an extensive family tree that is fascinating. I have also created one for my husband's family, but I am hitting a dead end on two significant family lines.

One is my great grandfather, a Friedrich Bieler or Beyeler who came over from Switzerland in 1884, I believe. He first came with his widowed father when he was 13 years old and they bought a 20 acre plot in the New Switzerland colony in Tennessee. They only stayed for about 6 months before becoming disillusioned and returning to Switzerland. He came again around the age of 17-18 as a stowaway on a ship to avoid mandatory military conscription by the Swiss government even though he was Lutheran. He eventually met my great grandmother, an orphaned Amish teenager named Susan Gingerich. They married and my grandfather was their youngest child.
Unfortunately, I don't have access to records from Switzerland to get more information about Fritz's genealogy.

The other dead end is the Swiss genealogy of my husband's Nisly/Nisley history. His ancestor a Christian Nisley came to America as a 17 year old as well in 1804 I believe. I think he was Amish. But again, I don't have access to to his ancestry in Switzerland. Christian eventually moved to Walnut Creek, Holmes County, Ohio. One of his sons, Abraham, moved from there to Lagrange Co.Indiana, to Shanesville, Illinois, then as a pioneer to Reno County, Kansas. He moved with his large family only a few months after his second wife died along with one other family. The youngest child was only 5-6 years old. Two years later Abraham died. he is the first grave in the Center Amish Cemetery. The rest of the family was left in the care of his oldest daughter from his first marriage. She was the only one over 21 years old. These families were the first Amish families in this area of Reno County. There is another older Amish community 10 miles SW of here near Yoder, Kansas.

One of his sons, Daniel or D.A. Nisly is my husband's great grand father. my husband's grandfather was Edward D Nisly, and his father is William Edward Nisly.

I am wanting to find out more information about both of these immigrant ancestors.

Are their other genealogy enthusiasts on MN?

Yeah just a little bit.

If I had to make a guess you could be more successful if you find the right sources in finding more info on the first family you mentioned than on the second. The reason being that if he was Lutheran than there is a good chance you will be able to find old state or church records that go way back. Might mean a trip to Europe though. Although I am sure there is someone out there that would do the research for you. The second could be much harder. Especially if they had been Anabaptist for many generations. Official records become almost impossible to find for obvious reasons. Sometimes if you are lucky a particular family will have kept info for themselves but the chances of it having been preserved or finding it are rather slim. But good luck.

Almost all of my family lines are lost within a generation of going back to Europe. Fortunately for me that still goes back 10 generations on almost all my lines.

Appleman, are you on any genealogy websites?

I have the free accounts for Geni and Ancestry. Both had reduced access to their features without buying a subscription.
I think Ancestry is worse than Geni.

I did most of my work in creating the family trees on the Geni account when I had the 14 day free trial.

If I was willing to pay the money I could get the world access on Ancestry which would allow me to research outside of the USA. But it's ridiculously expensive.

There are actually small bits of history on both of these ancestors in the Unser Leit, but it's basically what I shared here.

Interestingly, I found a book about the history of the New Switzerland Colony that was formed in Tennessee. It has the name of the settlers that came but I didn't find my ancestor's surname listed. So it would probably mean going to Tennessee and searching for records of deeds, etc.

As far as the Nisley ancestor, I wish I could find some information, without going to Europe, although I would LOVE to do that, but not really feasible, besides not knowing where to even start. The Unser Leit does have the location where Christian Nisley came from and that he left a brother. He had also written in a journal detailing some of his experiences in coming to America. But I don't know who has that source.

I have been long interested in the country of origin of my Chesley ancestor. It is well documented when and where he arrived in America, but it is not known where he came from" Gloucestershire, England (where there were no Chelseys in the census records in 1633!) or southern Scotland (where he Chesley name was extant at the time).

My family has hit dead ends looking for relatives still living... It can be frustrating!

Not sure where to put this ..
i was reading a bit about Poland, came across this site, which is full-of-links to Mennonite, Anabaptist, some Quaker histories .. maybe others are familiar with it?

Many Roads
http://www.many-roads.com/2014/11/28/mi ... ennonites/

Anabaptist Ancestry at 23andMe
http://mennodna.remotewebaccess.com/23andme/index.html

The Mennonite DNA Project
http://www.mennonitedna.com/

Wayne in Maine wrote:I have been long interested in the country of origin of my Chesley ancestor. It is well documented when and where he arrived in America, but it is not known where he came from" Gloucestershire, England (where there were no Chelseys in the census records in 1633!) or southern Scotland (where he Chesley name was extant at the time).

if i understand you, this is something i've wondered about, i.e., when folks "set sail" for (America) they would gather at certain locations to board ships. i've wondered if it was common for people to become known as coming from these points of departure, rather than their true prior residence? .. they may have been at the point of departure for days-weeks-months (?) ..

in some of my family records, i see ancestors from the Isle of Wight. were they really from there, or did they just depart for America from there? i suspect the latter, not sure. similar for Stuttgart, Germany.

it would have been easy to answer, "where are you from?" .. with the departure point, which would have been more readily recognized, than trying to explain every little village or farm. communication shorthand.

occasionally, when i talk with someone about where i live, i might use "Chicago," to help them get a general sense, but, in my mind, i'm far from Chicago! 'have been there very few times in my life.

temporal1 wrote:Not sure where to put this ..
i was reading a bit about Poland, came across this site, which is full-of-links to Mennonite, Anabaptist, some Quaker histories .. maybe others are familiar with it?

Many Roads
http://www.many-roads.com/2014/11/28/mi ... ennonites/

Anabaptist Ancestry at 23andMe
http://mennodna.remotewebaccess.com/23andme/index.html

The Mennonite DNA Project
http://www.mennonitedna.com/

Some years ago I applied to participate in a (free) genealogy project for "Prussian Mennonites", but they already had enough data for my ancestral lines (as I recall the reason for not being included). In an early "census report" prepared by a Mennonite church elder (on orders of the ruling prince in that Prussian 'State') my surname, and my mom's maiden name are the two most common in the list (per a reference in a family book my dad put together years ago).

My maiden name is "Scott" which doesn't make it difficult to know your heritage (mom's family name is Rose, again makes it easy) however I cannot go any further back in research then my grandparents on my dad's side who came from Canada. Grandma left Grandpa after relocating to California, when my dad was 3- and Grandma didn't share much about her family history, having been estranged from them. Ancestry.com was beneficial to at least find 'their' records, but not further back than them-

One thing I noticed on the census I found them on, was that "Religion" was one of the headings- and every single person on the census had some Christian denomination down as their religion- in that part of Canada, if I can remember- there was Anglican, Presbyterian, Lutheran- Catholic- I cannot remember any others, will have to check again. Interesting. That one passage that discourages us from getting caught up in genealogies comes to mind but I am not sure why or why not- is God not wanting us to spend so much time on it, or is He discouraging us from being categorized as Christians this way? Just wondering-

Neto wrote: Some years ago I applied to participate in a (free) genealogy project for "Prussian Mennonites", but they already had enough data for my ancestral lines (as I recall the reason for not being included).
In an early "census report" prepared by a Mennonite church elder (on orders of the ruling prince in that Prussian 'State') my surname, and my mom's maiden name are the two most common in the list (per a reference in a family book my dad put together years ago).

from the little i know .. DNA research has advanced a lot since its beginning, not long ago. to begin, DNA was limited to the male "markers," so one half of any DNA search info was missing. (i think) present DNA results show both paternal and maternal lines (?) .. i wonder if a new search might be an entirely different experience for you now (?) .. the cost holds me back. occasionally, i see "special prices" offered, but, have not even taken advantage of those.

- hmm. i guess, when i see another sale, i'll try to remember to post here.
My Heritage just had one.

Valerie:
My maiden name is "Scott" which doesn't make it difficult to know your heritage (mom's family name is Rose, again makes it easy) however I cannot go any further back in research then my grandparents on my dad's side who came from Canada. Grandma left Grandpa after relocating to California, when my dad was 3- and Grandma didn't share much about her family history, having been estranged from them.
Ancestry.com was beneficial to at least find 'their' records, but not further back than them-

When i asked at our county seat about my father's father's birth certificate, they found his name written on a slip of paper, but, nothing near what we would think of as a birth certificate!
the clerk explained that death certificates are often far more helpful in providing helpful information for researching family lines!

in former times, babies couldn't be counted on to survive, like we want to believe today. babies might be 2 years old before being named. (i think we had a president that had that history?) families tended to be larger. evenso, some families buried every child they had.
today, people with one child expect to see that child live to be an adult. that was not always the case.

Today, Page 30, i wrote:
i was at the county recorder's office a few years ago, i asked about a birth certificate for my father's father, who passed before i was born. he was born in a small town, about 15 miles from the county seat. he was born in June. the clerk said, "great, 'cause, lots of rural winter-born babies' names might not be recorded, or recorded accurately." dirt roads were not always passable with horses. they would save notes over winter, then take them in for recording in spring. she found a hand-written note for him, not a full birth certificate!

Valerie:
One thing I noticed on the census I found them on, was that "Religion" was one of the headings- and every single person on the census had some Christian denomination down as their religion- in that part of Canada, if I can remember- there was Anglican, Presbyterian, Lutheran- Catholic- I cannot remember any others, will have to check again. Interesting.

many records are kept by churches, so, this can be a good clue for connecting the dots.

Valerie:
That one passage that discourages us from getting caught up in genealogies comes to mind but I am not sure why or why not- is God not wanting us to spend so much time on it, or is He discouraging us from being categorized as Christians this way? Just wondering-

when viewing the link above, "Many Roads," i thought of the genealogy passage. clearly, some folks devote a lot of time+effort to genealogies!

i'm not sure my understanding is correct, but, i believe part of the spirit of God's will on this is to warn not to "weaponize" genealogies, which has happened in the past, and continues. misusing bloodlines to eliminate some folks, while honoring others, for earthly ends. (think of royal bloodlines, etc.)

Jesus does not request birth certificates or genealogies.

i appreciate the work some do, far beyond my ability, different people have different abilities and callings. i can't see them as wrong or wasteful.

the passage i think of when considering any endeavor or excess is:

Romans 14:14
http://biblehub.com/romans/14-14.htm
(I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. Still, to someone who considers a thing to be unclean, to that one it is unclean.)

this seems to speak against legalism in any matter (?)