The Fun Of Genealogy: Learning New Information

Part of the fun of genealogy is all the information you learn along the way. I never really knew anything about my dad's side of my ancestry but was helped greatly by my aunt. There's also the inevitable rumors you hear while growing. One rumor I remember as a kid is that on my mom's side, my grandmother's 2nd great grandfather's ancestry traced back to Alsace-Lorraine, France. Through some digging around online and through lots of copies of documents, letters, and a family tree someone made awhile back I found out that my Kolp ancestors actually came from Luxembourg. While I was never told I had Native American ancestry I did find a couple unverified sources claiming a French Canadian ancestor married an Ottawa woman. Most sources claim it was a French woman, which is what I believe. One of the hardest parts about tracing your ancestry other than breaking through the walls is verifying the information you come across.

Back to the fun of learning new information about new ancestors and ones you already knew about. I never knew much about any of my ancestors so this has been an amazing experience. I learned my 3rd great uncle, Peter Sonntag, fought and died in the Civil War. My grandmother has many copies and original photos and letters. It was from those documents that I found this letter below(translated from German) from Peter to his brother, my 3rd great grandfather, Franz Sonntag, just before the Siege of Corinth in Mississippi. Reading the letter was almost heartbreaking because he talks about the battle coming up and saying he believes he'll die. It was dated in April. The siege started the end of April and lasted until the end of May. He died in September but I have found no cause. He is buried in the National Historical Landmark District there.

I've also found that I have a couple direct relations in the Civil War as well but no idea where they may have actually served. Multiple relatives fought in the American Revolutionary War. Peter Sonntag's brother, my 3rd great grandfather was in the Prussian Army in the late 1840's. As mentioned in my 1st post I have many French Canadian ancestors, many who were trappers and traders. 

Finally, my last fun story of this post is about John Dean and Susan Kirke from Scotland. John was the head gardener for John Kirke. While there he and Susan got married. Her parents disowned her. As things were heating up between the French and English, John decided to immigrate to New York where his brothers were living. They sailed on an American ship flying the English flag to avoid trouble. Unfortunately the ship was captured by the English and was sailed to Halifax, Nova Scotia. They overwintered there and decided to make that there home.

There are lots more interesting stories about my ancestors to come. Sit back and enjoy!