I have researched a large number of families. Some of the more extensive research I have done is described below.
For a broad overview of the history of the Buol family, see my "Buol History" post. Building upon what is available there, my ancestor Salomon's grandson Georg moved to the village of St. Antönien, where my branch lived since the early 1700s. My great-great grandfather, Peter Buol, moved from St. Antönien to Wabasha, Minnesota, in 1880. I have been actively researching and writing a complete history of the Buol family since 2001. See Projects and Publications for moire information.
My great-great grandfather Peter Buol's mother was Katharina Lötscher. She is a great-granddaughter of Peter Lötscher, who founded the Lötscher Töpferei (Pottery Workshop). From 1770 to 1783 Peter was in the service of Holland and attained the rank of Wachtmeister on his return home. In 1786 he founded the Pottery Workshop for which his family would be become well-known throughout Switzerland. The Lötscher Töpferei would last for over one hundred years. One branch of the Loetscher family emigrated to Dubuque, Iowa and founded the door and sash manufacturing company Farley & Loetscher (actually a double branch, because Christian Loetscher married his cousin Maria Loetscher). Another branch, upon immigration to America, changed its surname to Latscher. During the summer of 2008 I began researching the Lötscher family tree in St. Antönien and have continued work on it since coming back home. This has become and incredibly fun project for me and if you are connected to the St. Antönien Lötscher family I would gladly share information!
Thankfully, my Swiss heritage does not end with the Buol family. The Boeglis are also from Switzerland, although the canton they come from is Bern. Although I have not researched the Boeglis myself, through a relative I have obtained a family tree that traces back to Andreas Boegli, born January 1679 in Herzogenbuchsee, Bern, Switzerland. The Boeglis, at least my ancestors, eventually moved to the canton of Jura in the mid-1800s. Ernst Boegli moved to Monroe, Green County, Wisconsin and was married in the city of Monroe in 1904. His daughter, Helena Boegli, married my great-grandfather Lawrence Buol.
I have yet more Swiss ancestry through the Kunderts. The Kunderts originate from the canton of Glarus. As with the Boeglis, I have a relative who has done much research on the Kunderts, and through him I have a family tree that includes many branches of the Kundert family, as they and their allied families intermarried quite frequently. The oldest Kundert ancestor in my tree traces to Georg Kundert, likely born around 1530. His son, Abraham, was born in 1550. His son, Rudolf Kundert, was born in 1576 in Rüti, Glarus, Switzerland. The first Kundert of my line in America was Abraham Kundert, born in 1846. He married Katherine Hoesly in 1869 in Monroe, Green County, Wisconsin. Their daughter, Amanda Kundert, married Ernst Boegli, and is thus my great-great-grandmother.
The same research provided to me on the Boeglis and Kunderts has traced my Hoesly (Hoesli) ancestry back to Switzerland as well! Could things get any better? Perhaps not. The Hoeslis go back to Hans Hoesli, born about 1540 in Ennenda, Glarus, Switzerland. My Hoesli ancestors remained in Canton Glarus until Heinrich Hoesli moved to New Glarus, Green County, Wisconsin in 1845. His daughter, Katherine Hoesly, married Abraham Kundert, mentioned above, in Monroe.
The Ostrander family predates the actual name Ostrander, which was adopted around 1700. We begin with Pieter Carstensen, born about 1604 in Husum (or Nordstrand), Dutchy of Schleswig-Holstein, Kingdom of Denmark (Modern Germany). He was an innkeeper, but died in 1659 in the East Indies. The son of Pieter Carstensen and wife Geesje Jans (b. abt. 1632 in Norden, East Frisia, Holy Roman Empire), Pieter Pietersen, was born in 1657 in Amsterdam. He arrived in America on 06 Aug 1661 on the ship De St. Jan Baptist with his sister (Tryntje Pieters), mother, and step-father (Arent Teunissen). They initially settled in Coney Island, but by 1663 had relocated to Wildwyck (Kingston). My ancestor John Ostrander served in the Civil War for Wisconsin and seems to have been quite a decorated soldier. The Ostrander Family is very aware of their genealogy, and have published a 900 page book detailing most of the family tree (although they have little of my branch starting at the time of my grandmother, who was an Ostrander. The website of The Ostrander Family Association is definitely worth checking out!
I have also researched, to varying degrees, the families of the wives of all of my Ostrander ancestors. Some of the most interesting research in that regard has been on the other families of New Netherlands who I count among my ancestors: de Hooges, Bradt/Bratt, Poest, Buys, Oosteroom, de Duytser, van Valkenburg, and Schermerhorn, among others.
These three families are part of my paternal grandmother's ancestry. They seem to have been allied, as they married each other with some regularity. They lived in the vicinity of the Tennessee - Georgia - North Carolina borders, and frequently moved from place to place. I honestly find these families incredibly frustrating to research; although many other people have researched them and produced family trees, I have not seen much discussion of the sources used to establish the family trees. There are also several claims of Native American ancestry, and while this is definitely possible, I have heard many theories and can find little to prove anything at this point. I do know confidently that Center Burrell (1821-1901) married Sarah Denton (1825-1913), and they are both buried in Unaka, North Carolina. Center's son Jonathan married an Alice Denton, daughter of William M. Denton and Betsy Chastain. Hopefully I can substantiate their ancestry at some point, or find someone who already has. All of these families have been in America for a long time and I have pedigree charts going to some depth, but sadly these provide nothing more than names.
The Lowe family is my mother's father's family name. They seem to be a candidate for long residency in America, at least I'm assuming so because of their English name. At this point the farthest back I can trace the Lowes is to a William and Mary Lowe, born shortly after the year 1800. They were from the east coast of America, but moved gradually west. Some of their children were born in Ohio, some in Indiana, and by the mid 1840s, some in Wisconsin, where the family seems to have settled, more or less. However, their children appear to have scattered all over, but I have not yet been able to ascertain too many details of any line other than my own, through their son David Lowe, who married a Hannah Hutchins. Many Lowes are documented as coming from England initially, although I cannot trace my branch that far ultimately. David's son, George Washington Lowe, was my great-grandfather, and was born in Wisconsin in 1869 or so. I hope to one day discover the reason of his name, whether it was just due to popular convention at the time (which seems most likely) or if there was any greater purpose behind it. If you have any information about my branch of the Lowe family, please email me.
George Washington Lowe married Olga Berg in 1899 in Superior, Wisconsin. Family legend alleges that Olga was born in 1882 on a ship in the Atlantic, en route to America from Norway; however, Norwegian church records reveal that she was actually born in Leksvik, Norway, 6 months before her parents emigrated (one relative suggests that the story may have been developed so that she would be considered an American citizen). Her parents were named Bonsak Berg and Hilda Hansen. I have been able to trace the Berg line back further into the late 1700s, to Ole Andersson Madshaug, wife Malena, and 9 children. However I have been unable to find out anything about his father, Anders Johansen Prestegård. I wonder if Anders moved to Leksvik from some other region, which might explain why I can't find info on his father or siblings in Leksvik. If you have any information, please email me.
The Grays I am able to trace to Jacob Gray and his wife Eleanor Eaton, who had a son, Harlow Gray, in Meadville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania in 1816. Eleanor's ancestry is well-known. She was born in Tunbridge, Vermont, in 1798. However, I have found scant information on Jacob Gray. Supposedly he died in 1819 (presumably in Pennsylvania); however, he appears on the 1820 census in Meadville. I do know that Jacob was born in Vermont, and served in the War of 1812. Hopefully I will be able to find some war records to gain insight into his ancestry. Potentially I have a very old English-American family here, but for now the roots are obscure. Harlow and his family ended up in Iowa in the late 1800s. In 1850, he ventured to California with his father-in-law Francis Nixon to mine for gold. Sadly, Francis died in California. Harlow's son Albert died in 1899 in Palouse, Washington, which is perplexing because so far as I know, the rest of his family was in Iowa then.
Through Eleanor Eaton, wife of Jacob Gray, I trace to the early New England immigrant family of John Eaton and Elizabeth Kendall of Reading, Massachusetts. I have also traced the ancestry of the wives of all of my Eaton ancestors, which reveals a complex familial web in colonial Massachusetts.
The wife of Eugene Gray (great-grandson of the Jacob Gray noted above) was Gertrude Dellage. Gertrude's father, Louis Dellage, was an immigrant from Quebec, where his surname was Délâge dit LaFleur et Delasse. His family had lived in Quebec since the late 1600s. A relative provided me with a family tree of the Dellage family in Quebec, but I have not yet conducted the research myself.
Gertrude Dellage's maternal great-grandmother was Wealthy Spring of Hartford, New York. There are some difficulties in tracing her paternal ancestry, as thus far certain links to a paternal grandfather rest primarily on conjecture and family tradition and have yet to be verified with source documentation. However, her maternal grandparents were John Adams and Deidamia Crittenden of Sandisfield, Massachusetts, and through them she traces to the earliest settlers of New England, including Mayflower passengers James Chilton and his unknown wife.
I trace my Willing ancestry back 7 generations to August Willing, who married Wilhelminia Preuss. I am told that they were from Brandenburg, Germany, though as yet I have not been able to discern where exactly. Hopefully at some point I will be able to find actual church records of the family and take my lineage back further. Their son, Julius Willing, was born in 1854 in Brandenburg. Sometime in the late 1800s they moved to Footville, Wisconsin. I have fairly complete records for Julius' children, but lack details on his siblings, as well as information about August and Wilhelminia. I would be very interested to know about their life in Brandenburg. Were they peasants or nobles? Details on the immigration would also be interesting.
The information I have on the Puhle family is scant, unfortunately. Helena Puhle, born in Lake Mills, Wisconsin in 1883, is my 2nd-great-grandmother. She married a Willing ancestor of mine. Her parents were Carl William Puhle and Amelia Gottschalk. Carl and Amelia were both born in Germany, although the cities are unknown. They married, in America, in 1882. They had four children, Bertha, Agnes, Helena, and Verne. Carl and Amelia are both buried in Rock County, Wisconsin. Carl's parents are said to be Karl Puhle and Jolian Reisener.
My information on the Ronzheimers does not go back very far. They might be my most perplexing family branch, in fact. Two brothers, Frederick and Franz (Francis) Ronzheimer, both born in Germany (one document specifies Franz's birthplace as Magdeburg) around 1880. Their mother was Alvina Baumgartner, and their father's surname was Hoffmann, though his first name is unknown. Alvina remarried to Jost Ronzheimer and they had 4 children in Michigan before moving to St. Charles, Illinois. In the 1900 US Census, both Fred and Francis have the last name Hoffmann, but by the time they marry (1903 and 1906, respectively), they both are going by Ronzheimer. There is a three year time span between the birth of Franz and his half-sister Hannah; somewhere in that time Mr. Hoffmann died, the family came to America, and Alvina remarried (not necessarily in that order). In 1904, Frederick married Matilda Woith, who was born in 1882. They lived in St. Charles.