Have you ever wondered if those passed down tales told each year around the Thanksgiving dinner table are true? You know, that story about your husband’s immigrant ancestors shortening and “Americanizing” their European surname when they arrived at Ellis Island. Or the one about your great-great grandfather being a wagon train scout who was shot in the leg by an indigenous tribesman’s bow and arrow. Did your Pennsylvania German third great-grandfather die from smallpox as a soldier in the Civil War, as your grandmother told you, or could he be the man of the same name you found on Fold3 who died at the battle of Gettysburg? These are just three questions that have come up in my own family over time and there are many, many, more I have yet to answer! Along the way, I’d be happy to help you try to solve a few of yours, too!
