ROOTS & BRANCHES

There are times that I have “Roots & Branches” written weeks in advance—a couple of times I’ve put together a summerlong series around a particular topic—and then there are other times that I’m a little stumped about whether I still have something to say after more than a quarter century of writing this column.

But I’m convinced that there are not just new things to write about such as trending topics related to DNA and artificial intelligence but also a goodly number of new ways to look at old records, including some at which you may have studied time after time.

That’s because whether you’re starting out your genealogy journey or if you’ve been doing it for 40 years (yes, that’s your “Roots & Branches” columnist’s hand being thrust in the air!), there are always new insights or at least clues to be gained.

Take my Etchberger family. I opened up that file after visiting the graves (and cleansing them with the D/2 biological solution) recently.

Etchberger was the line of my paternal grandmother (Dora Annie Etchberger Beidler) and it’s a fairly rare ascent for which I have extant tombstones back to just short of the immigrant generation—seven generations at various cemeteries in western Berks County.

But the earliest generation, Revolutionary War soldier Jacob Etschberger has a wife whose maiden name has stymied me nearly the entirety of my four decades in the field.

Her name is Esther—a less common name for German women of the time—and there are records of the couple in both Christ Lutheran Church, Stouchsburg, and Trinity Tulpehocken United Church of Christ where they are buried.

Her date of birth is clearly shown on her tombstone as June 28, 1730. There are some interactions with people by the surname of Ferree and Lightner. 

And there are public family trees on FamilySearch, Ancestry, and MyHeritage by the bushelful saying her surname is Greiszinger (or Grieszinger—which is an entirely different name even adjusting for the lack of standardized spelling back then; the vowel positioning makes the pronunciation completely different).

But miracle of miracles, Esther must be the product of immaculate conception since in not one of those family trees lists parents. Or a source for this surname.

Sigh.

I’ll happily pursue this new “lead,” if that’s what you want to call it, but I’m reminded of a previous time I tried to track such a clue back to its source.

For a different maiden name–less lady in my family tree (full disclousure: I later found the surname!), I diligently traced a wrong surname through multiple people, finally being stopped at a man who said “I got it from [name redacted], who doesn’t use email but is usually right.”

Apparently she didn’t bother much with postal mail, since my letter to her (self-addressed stamped envelope enclosed per the protocol of the time!) was left unanswered.

Got to keep moving forward!