Journeys through the Past

J ohan Daniel Schlappich, my 6G-Grandfather Today I took a look at some of my grandmother Alma's matches on MyHeritage. I feel fortunate that she allowed me to swab her cheeks for a DNA test last year, as her matches are essentially two generations closer than my own would be to the same people. Alma was born a Lingle, and I've followed the Lingle line backwards, but I haven't spent as much time on her other lines, including her Schlappich/Schlabbig line,  3G-grandmother Elizabeth Schlabbig Seaman, born in Upper Bern Township, Berks County, in 1754.  A small match of  25.8 cM in a cluster with a known Seaman descendant caught my eye as I reviewed matches. This match had a medium size tree with 80 people on MyHeritage, and I immediately saw the name Schlappich, a variation of the same spelling, and a hard name to forget. This match clearly didn't match further down their tree, so the shared ancestor had to be further up- earlier in time. Here is where that two ge...

This past week, we celebrated the life of my Grandmother, Alma Lingle Paul, who lived an extraordinary 99 1/2 years. While there is sadness at saying good bye to one family member, funerals are also a time to reminisce and reconnect with far-flung relatives, and to share good memories of our loved ones in common. My dad's cousin, Sylvia Fisher, brought along some amazing family pictures to share. This one is a keeper. My Dad,  Gary Paul , along with his sister Tommie, his mother Alma, his Grandmother Mary Care Lingle, and his Great-grandmother Sadie Strohm Care. Sadie was born in 1871, just a few years after the end of the Civil War, so this one photo, represents 150 years of family history. Farewell, Nana, you will be missed.