In my Vienop family line, there appears to be more women than men. This would probably explain why I don't see the Vienop name a whole lot. I do see surnames like Borchers, Reidenbach, Ruffino, Stark, Mueller, Flanagan, and a few others. With each passing generation, the females out count the males. I have noticed that the Borchers name is disappearing too.
I can completely see the challenge that arises in searching your female family line, especially if you don't know where to look. I actually do know where to look to find my Vinup origins.
Germany is slightly smaller in size than the state of Montana. You'd think that would make it easier get a handle on the geography of the country. I am going to attempt to do that. A possible "roadblock" for me would be the language barrier. I took Spanish in school and no German. The names of the towns and cities, especially in rural locations, are sometimes found in the German language but also translated into an "English" version. That can cause some confusion when you have documentation from the 19th Century about where your German Family lived.
Speaking of English.....There are a whole lot of Americans living in Germany. I personally have known families in my past and present who have lived there or live there because of a U.S. Federal Government job or Military assignment in Germany. Most American's that I know have loved it there aside from being a little homesick. I know that I'd love to visit someday.
Trying to pinpoint Boeringhausen, Germany on a map does present some challenges online. It takes a few Google Map searches and tweaks on the spelling to pinpoint this location. It's definitely a German language "roadblock" for me on this one.
In one instance, I have "Borninghausen Nr 58, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany" and in another, I have "Boerninghausen, Germany" for my Vinup's (and actually Koch's) location. I almost think that the first address is a specific location address. It could be completely different these days. I suppose a geography lesson in German might help. I will call it "German Geography for Dummies". When I work through it, I'll have to post it under one of my "language lessons".
In the meantime, know that my aunt has stepped foot in Boringhausen and found the cemetery with family graves. Also, I know that the family occupation in Germany was as cigarmakers. It sounds like from the youngest to the oldest, the family rolled cigars for a living. It seems apparent to me that my German roots were not Roman Catholic but, in fact, Lutheran. In addition to knowing the location of your relatives, occupation and religion can also lead you to success in finding one's ancestors.
For now, I have rather exhausted the knowledge of my Vienop's/Vinup's off the top of my head. My next venture will be to really find them. Let me do my geography lesson first!
No comments:
Post a Comment