Shannon D.

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EDCI 512 Inquiry Based Project (I Search)

Mr. Alan Christensen

29 November 2017

Who Am I?

Learning about who you are is an important part of ones personal history. Finding

out as much information about ones family can shed light on family dynamics.

Interviewing grandparents while they are alive is an important skill for children to learn.

They can learn many things that may solve some of the mysteries of their family.

What do I know about my family lineages?

I know very little about my fathers family beyond his immediate siblings. My father

was born in the Wyandotte, Michigan area and my grandfather claimed that we have some

Wyandotte Indian blood in us as well as French, English, and Scottish. I know that my

grandmother and grandfather divorced when my father was in high school and my father

refused to talk about his mother. I do know that my grandmother was of Irish decent. My

father has three brothers, one sister that my grandfather gave up for adoption, and at least

one half-brother.

I know very little about my mothers biological family beyond her immediate

siblings. My grandmother and grandfather divorced before my mother turned two and my

grandmother destroyed everything related to my grandfather. I know that my grandmother

was born in Puerto Rico, but her aunt raised her in New York City. From conversations I

had with my grandmother years ago, she said she was Puerto Rican and English. My

biological grandfather was supposedly from Puerto Rico or Spain. My step-grandfather was
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Jewish. He is whom my mother considers her father. My mother had one brother and has

two half-sisters.

What do I want to learn?

I want to learn more about my family tree, on both sides. I would like create a Direct

Family Tree so my son can see from where my side of the family comes.

I plan to use the Internet to find resources that may have information about my

ancestors. The Internet has many useful resources that could enlighten me about my family

history. Search sites such as Ancestry.com, HouseOfNames.com, Geneaology.com, and other

similar web sites offer resources such as birth certificates, death certificates, military

service records, immigration rosters, and more. I know my aunts and uncles on both sides

of the family have done some research on their respective family branches. All of my

grandparents are dead, so I plan to talk to my parents to see if they can add anything I do

not already know about my family tree.

Gathering Info for My Direct Family Tree

Family trees can get rather unwieldy very quickly, so I decided to focus on my direct

family tree. Both my mother and father have siblings and half-siblings, and at least one

sibling was put up for adoption, so my family tree becomes an unwieldy mess faster than

usual. Some of my relatives I have never met and still others have already passed away.

Because of the craziness of my family tree, I decided it would be better to make it a short

tree, one that would give the direct line of my ancestors. This will also be a helpful example

for future students, whose family may be as messy as mine may, when we do this project.

Gathering information was as difficult as I thought it would be. What little I knew

before researching my family is pretty much everything that my parents know, as well. I

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used the death file indexes from Maryland, Michigan, and New York that I found on the

Internet. Finding information without having to pay for it or without having to fill out and

send in paperwork to the proper authorities was rare, so I used search sites that were free

to at least garner dates of death. Many sites such as ancestry.com, familsearch.com,

Archives.com, and many others, require payment for their information.

I began with what I knew, names of my parents and grandparents. I then looked for

death records in Maryland, Michigan, and Montana because I knew that was where they

died. I did find the specific dates of death for my maternal grandmother and paternal

grandfather, but the sites I used were stingy with any more information, unless I paid them

for it. At one point, I did find information about a Gilberto DeLeon in the Bronx, New York

who was born in Puerto Rico. Could this be my mothers biological father? The birth date

was close to that of my grandmothers. However, when I talked to my mom, she told me

that her father was not as old as the record I found showed, so again, we came up empty

with her family. I knew my maternal grandmother was born in Puerto Rico; however, her

aunt brought her to New York when she was an infant and raised her, so I came to another

dead end.

On my fathers side, I found little else either. My father was born and raised in

Michigan, but his father and mother divorced when he was in high school and my father

refused to talk about his mother. My grandfather had a stroke in the early 1970s and

developed dementia. Whenever I talked to him, he told many stories, but according to my

father, only parts of the stories were true.

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Primary Sources

Below is a screen shot of the Maryland Deaths File 1996, the year both my maternal

grandmother and maternal step-grandfather died, Virginia Amalia Maurer and Harry J.

Maurer. They died 14 days apart. (Deaths File 1996, 1996)

Below is a screen shot of the Montana State Death Index. It shows the date my

paternal grandfather, Wilbert William Sauers, died in Billings, Montana

(Montana State Death Index: 1990-1999: Saam - Shelby, 1990-1999).

Summary

Creating a family tree takes a great deal of time, patience, searching, and money. If a

person wants to pay the fees to use secondary source information, he or she could probably

learn a great deal about ones family. Some states organize their vital records better than

others do. A researcher can find information quickly if they are willing to pay for it and they

know the correct terminology. It is important to use the correct terminology when

querying search engines. I did not know that some states consider a search for birth,

marriage, and death information an index. I tried using the words records and certificates,

but I kept coming back to the phrase index. One state refers to their records as files.

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When I set out to answer the question Who am I?, I thought it would be easy

because many historical societies are digitalizing resources such as birth records, marriage

licenses, and death certificates. With so many different genealogical organizations and the

myriads of records out there, sifting through the fluff and advertisements to get to the

answers is a daunting exercise. I also found it interesting that there were huge gaps during

certain decades. Another thing I found interesting, but not helpful, were the Baptism

Records from several churches. I did not realize states consider these records official

documents for vital statistics.

I still have several questions about my family tree, especially questions about my

missing grandparents and their histories. Unfortunately, many questions will never be

answered due to the deaths of those who would have the memories of each circumstances.

I would like to continue searching for family records. I think it would be enlightening to

find and take pictures of family headstones and get copies of birth, marriage, and death

certificates. It would be interesting to learn about my missing grandparents and my

adopted aunt. Do I have other aunts and uncles or cousins through them?

Research for family trees can be stressful. I know that when I talked to my mother

about her biological father, she becomes thoughtful. Finding new leads and having them

discounted can become stressful and depressing for some. Curiosity can be a powerful

motivator, but in the end will dredging up some of these memories change anything?

Family trees can connect people with his or her past. They can enlighten a persons

background and give knowledge about their family history. And sometimes, things will

surface that might have been better left hidden.

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Here is the link to the short Prezi I made using the information I gathered,

http://prezi.com/7f_mqbyyayap/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share.

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Works Cited

Ancestry. (1997-2017). Sauers Family History. Retrieved from

https://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=sauers

Deaths File 1996. (1996). Retrieved from Maryland State Archives, Guide to Government

Records:

http://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/stagsere/se100/se151/000000/000024/pdf/md

sa_se151_24.pdf

Montana State Death Index: 1990-1999: Saam - Shelby. (1990-1999). Retrieved from Montana

State Genealogical Society: http://montanamsgs.org/deathindex/1990s1.html

Swyrich Corporation. (2000-2017). Sauers Surname, Family Crest & Coat of Arms. House of

Names. Retrieved from https://www.houseofnames.com/sauers-family-crest/English

Web Services Detailed Data Results. (n.d.). Retrieved from John J. Gleason Genesee County

Clerk/Register: http://www.co.genesee.mi.us/vitalrec/SimpleQuery.asp