It’s estimated that 50 million Americans have German ancestry, around 17% of the population.

Celebrate by:

Visit a museum- Get some friends together and explore the history and discover the contributions that German-Americans gave to America.

Invite your friends and family over for a night of wine and dining. Taste the foods and customs of Germany.

Connect with your living relatives to learn about your Germanic ancestry.

Recently I was reviewing electronic Grantee and Grantor Deeds in Juneau County, Wisconsin at https://www.co.juneau.wi.gov/register-of-deeds1.html. The county register of deeds has scanned and made pdf file extensions available for the years 1880 – 1989 for researchers to look at Grantee/Grantor Index.

The files are in year increments of five years or so and ordered also by alphabetical by the surname. These files provide in columns the type of instrument and number, i.e., warranty deed, mortgage, etc., next if looking at the buyer (grantee) you will find the name and the seller (grantor), next the recorded volume and page in the deed book. With the instrument number and the deed booklet volume and page, you can ask the Register of Deeds office for help in the full description of the deed down at the time your ancestor either bought or sold land in the area.

Eventually I was provided the details of my great-grandfathers purchase of farm land in 1897. Once I learned the township number, range and section area, I could better pinpoint on an original plat map for the area and time to identify my great-grandfather’s name on the map. When I found his name on the map I was excited to see and wonder about many other items about his time on this land. I wanted to learn more about the landscape and area he owned. I was able to see on the plat map that a railroad went across part of his 130 acres of farm.

Some other resources I looked at to learn more about the land, was to locate the original survey maps and notes from when the state and area of interest was laid out by the government. To do this I consulted Wisconsin Public Land Survey Records: Original Field Notes and Plat Maps at https://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/SurveyNotes/SurveyNotesHome.html

One of the key items you will need is the actual legal section line to locate the land of interest. The quickest way is to look at your plat map and also the deed information you collected (like above). Once you have this information you be able to learn what the original surveys saw and described in notes about the land at the time the survey was conducted. For my area of interest that was in 1851. For some areas of southern and eastern Wisconsin those surveys can go back to the 1830s. One of the interesting items is to learn what the landscape looked like prior to the modern age and before most European immigrants came.

What the Tulsa Race Massacre Destroyed https://nyti.ms/2RJVWJ3

Wisconsin History

Next week is the 51st Anniversary of the Grateful Dead Sound Storm concert in Poynette, Wisconsin. The first Wisconsin outside rock festival. Thanks Irene York for placement on her farm.

See the following historical essay: https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS374#:~:text=Grateful%20Dead%20Performing%2C%201970&text=Sound%20Storm%2C%20Wisconsin’s%20first%20outdoor,of%20Poynette%20in%20Columbia%20County.

Good reminders

1. The Objective
   • Identify your question or questions.
   • What will your search strategies look like?
   • Break down the objectives into smaller, focused mini-goals.
2. Sources you want to Search
   • List Record Groups that may help answer your research question.
   • List specific sources to search within record groups.
   • Locate Repositories holding the sources, are they at the archive or library?
3. Search the Source
   • Have a research log – Note all results – positive and negative.
   • Copy raw information or obtain a copy (certified?) of the original document.
   • Record the source citation data (very important to due at time of research!).
4. Review and Analyze the Information
   • Evaluate the Information (you need to do this).
   • Record the findings in notes or a database or excel sheet.
   • Determine next Steps (there is always more we can do, plus new sources open up).
   • Oh the possibilities
5. Repeat the Steps above.
6. Don’t forget to also look at those experts in the field that have been able to answer research questions with thoughtful analysis and evidence. They are our guides to being successful.

The Milton House was supposedly a part of the Underground Railroad during the Civil War. The house was built in 1845 by Joseph Goodrich and turned into an Inn. The frame house and log cabin behind the Inn were also built by Goodrich, along with the Milton House Tavern. The Milton House was later taken over and turned into a museum.

Wisconsin Historical Society, Creator, Title, Image ID. Viewed online at https://wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM39828

Historical Essays: https://wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS566

Today is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau on January 27, 1945 by the 60th Army of the First Ukrainian Front. Visit http://auschwitz.org/en/

In 2014 I visited Berlin and went through the “Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe”, called Holocaust Memorial by most Berliners. Opened in May 2005, the memorial in Berlin-Mitte is located near the Brandenburg Gate. It took 17 years for the Memorial to be completed in Berlin. Its foundation stone was a Bundestag resolution passed on June 25, 1999 to erect a Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This was followed by years of discussion and deliberation, until the Monument was completed on May 8, 2005. US architect Peter Eisenman conceived the winning design consisting of 2711 rectangular blocks of concrete laid out in grid formation, recalling tombstones.

Here are pictures from my visit: