The information on the site will continue to grow and evolve as I make further discoveries about the various lines of ancestry. I am going to include my story of the events that led me to begin my genealogy research. It began when I was 50 years old and found out for the first time that the person I had grown up believing to be my father was not. It's a long story but I will include the steps in my journey to find my roots. I also plan to include some reference sections to help others interested in some of the same genealogy lines I have been following. I plan to include a section of my site on each line of my family and publish on this site everything that I learn as my research continues. The lines of my research include ancestry for each Great Grandparent:
This section will include information on my mother, Alvina Mickels, including: her father, Joseph George Mickels, and mother, Bertha Marie Goeser, and their family lines from the Rhineland region of Germany, to Fond du Lac County Wisconsin, and then to Shelby County Iowa including both Westphalia and Panama, Iowa. I hope to include information which shows the various interconnections between the groups of families who followed that same migration including the Mickels, Michels, Goeser, Sonntag, Langenfeld, and Blum families.
This section will include information on my birth father, Lloyd Smith, including: his father, Vernon Max Smith, and the Smith and Ethel lines from Washington County Pennsylvania and Virginia and mother, Mary Barbara Froeliger, and the Froeligers from France and Millers from Ohio.
This section will include information on my step father, Ferdinand Otto Borkowski, including: his father, Carl Borkowski, who immigrated from Germany in 1887, and mother, Elizabeth Ketelsen, whose parents immigrated from Germany to Clinton, Iowa in 1866. I hope to include information on Ferd's relationship with other Borkowski families from the area near Manning and Audubon, Iowa. I hope to include descendent information for Wilhelm Borkowski & Auguste Frankenstein and Ketel Ketelsen & Christina Jurgensen.
This section will include information on my wife's grandparents on her fathers side including: Joseph Conrad Schuver who immigrated from the Moselle are of what is now France to Granville, in Sioux County, Iowa in 1908, and Eleanore Christina Oberbroeckling whose family immigrated from Germany to Northeast Iowa a generation earlier. I hope to include a complete information on the Schuver descendents beginning with Joseph's parents Johann Schuver and Magdalena Mueller.
This section will include information on my wife's grandfather, Harold Wessel going back to his grandfather Bernard Henry Wessel who immigrated with his mother Anna Hartbecken and brother Heinrich Wessel around 1858 from the Hanover area of Germany to Delaware County Iowa. I hope to include descendent information for the two Wessel brothers.
This section will include information on my wife's grandmother, Helen Underhill, including: Harry Arnold Underhill and the Underhill line back from Sanborn in O'Brien County, Iowa, to Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, to New York and Vermont, and leading to the mid 1600's and Captain John Underhill, who had a role in early American history during King Phillip's war. Elizabeth Austin Biggs including the Biggs line back to Berea Ohio and Ireland and the Griffiths from Virginia, Tennessee, Indiana, and Ohio.
