As mentioned earlier, my German researcher has taken full time employment and is no longer able to continue working on various members of my Trautvetter-Derle families from Thuringen. Now that I’ve decided who will be continuing the research, I decided it’s a good time to take another look at what I’ve had done and where I want to go with the research. It’s never a bad idea to take a second look.
When hiring a researcher it’s good to know what the general goals are. It is also good to remember that there is the possibility that no information will be found. In my case some records have already been found and there probably are entries in the church records for other members of the family.
So I reviewed my goals.
- Continue to document the children and grandchildren of Erasmus and Mary (Gross) Trautvetter of Wohlmuthausen. Erasmus and Mary did not immigrate to the United States, but most of their children immigrated in the 1840-1855 era. Obtaining names and date of birth for these family members will hopefully facilitate their location in US records. Many of their children have already been documented in US records, but the records in Wohlmuthausen suggest there were more children for Erasmus and Mary than originally suggested in US records. The documentation of the migration of the complete family of Erasmus has been a long term goal and this research is a part of that.
- Continue to document the parents and siblings of Sophia Elizabeth (Derle) Trautvetter, born in Helmershausen in 1807. Initial research located her baptismal entry and the names of her parents. At this point documenting their descendants for several successive generations is not a part of the immediate research goals.
- Extend the lineage of both families as far back as possible via church records and obtain birth, death, and marriage information on ancestral siblings. Tracking their descendants is not a part of the research plan at this point. One simply has to drawn limits.
While I understand researching the “entire extended family” is generally sound research advice, I don’t have unlimited funds and do not want the project to become too large. My interest in the children and grandchildren of Erasmus and Mary (Gross) Trautvetter stems from the fact that many of them settled in Hancock County, Illinois, (where I’m from) as part of a chain of migration and I’d like to complete a study of these migrants.
Sophia (Derle) Trautvetter’s family of origin did not appear to have migrated to Illinois with her–at least from what I can tell. Her family has been little researched so I’d like to document it as well. I just don’t have quite the immediate interest in the extended family at this point and need to keep some focus.
We will have updates when I’ve heard back from my researcher.
It’s always good to have a plan when hiring someone.
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