Tomorrow Teaching – Beginner Genealogy Class

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Below is the advertisement for my presentation tomorrow afternoon at the Stoughton Area Senior Center

How to Start or Revisit Your Family History
Bob Rettammel, Professional Genealogist, will lead a discussion on research methods for tracing your family’s history in America. You will learn about genealogical relationships and traditional family trees and charts. Learn a step-by-step procedure for finding genealogical information at home via public sources, databases and other source information to gather evidence to confirm connections among family members. This discussion will also include a brief introduction to DNA use in Genealogy.

Tomorrow Teaching – Beginner Genealogy Class

Remembrance of Great-Uncles’ Service in WWI: Battle of Chateau-Thierry and Aftermath

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Great Uncles’ Service WWI
A Recent Article I wrote

World War I: Discovering Facts About My Wisconsin Ancestor Soldiers

As I was growing up I had heard stories of an ancestor who served in World War I and was an uncle to my father. However, my own father never knew this uncle since he died before my father was born. My Great-Uncle Theodore Rettammel died in March 1919, while in the military. On November 11, 1918, that ended World War I. The information I originally had about him was limited. As well as many from his generation were also deceased before I took an interest in genealogy, in the late 1970s. Theodore’s tombstone was always something I saw every Memorial Day when my Dad would put flowers on his grave. I also knew something about his dates of birth and death since they are listed on the tombstone in the family cemetery in Wisconsin.

Remembrance of Great-Uncles’ Service in WWI: Battle of Chateau-Thierry and Aftermath

German-American History: Early Key figures in Abolitionist Movement in Chicago

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Many of my Ancestors (both paternal and maternal) first came to America and settled in Chicago in the mid to late 19th century. Most had left Germanic areas of central or northeastern Europe, at the time. Some were Pomeranian, West Prussian, others Bohemian.

Of course that is at the time of about 1850s and 1860s.

As part of American Black History Month, I wanted to see what German-American figures at that same time supported or were active in the African-American effort to end black slavery in the U.S.

Here are two figures of note, I am sure there are others. I hope to learn of more German-American individuals who supported the black community to end slavery, maybe others can share that knowledge with me.

In meantime, Notable German-American abolitionists in “Chicago” included.

Wilhelm Rapp:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Rapp

and Hermann Raster:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Raster

German-American History: Early Key figures in Abolitionist Movement in Chicago

Remember Black History Month: Some Early American Key Figures

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Ida Wells:

https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/ida-b-wells-barnett

Frederick Douglas:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Douglass

George Washington Carver:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_Carver

W.E.B. Du Bois:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._E._B._Du_Bois

Booker T. Washington:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booker_T._Washington

Harriet Tubman:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Tubman

Sojourner Truth:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sojourner_Truth

Remember Black History Month: Some Early American Key Figures