Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Also of note, Lindemann-wise...

My second great grandmother, Augusta Lindemann Stutzmann, had an older brother, Reinhold, so for fun, I plugged his name into Google (with an unusual name like that, your results are more likely to be related to the person you're looking for...not something I'm ever lucky to experience when I Google myself, and yes, sometimes I do Google myself)... anyway, I got a hit for Reinhold Lindemann along with a mention of his daughter, Elsie, and her two daughters, Ruth and Dorothy Koch. Bingo. Those are all people I already have in my tree. They turned up in an entry for the book "Rising from Rubble: Germany Revisited" by a Kenneth Weaver, about his experiences photographing post-WW II Europe for the US military. Reinhold, Elsie, and Ruth and Dorothy all show up because Kenneth Weaver befriended a Wilbur "Goldy" Goltermann while in the military and Goldy was married to Ruth. Goldy and Ruth introduced Weaver to Ruth's sister, Dorothy, who Weaver eventually ended up marrying. So I thought that was pretty interesting, finding relatives in a book, and being able to add information to my tree - not only Dorothy and Ruth's husbands but the fact that they grew up living with their mother and grandfather, Reinhold, after Reinhold rescued Elsie from her abusive marriage. It's all about rounding out the picture and making these names in my tree living, breathing three-dimensional people.

Anyway, Ruth and Dorothy are (were? I think Dorothy is still alive...) my second cousins twice removed...

An interesting Lindemann mystery to keep me busy...

...I mean, there are really all sorts of ways I manage to keep myself genealogically busy whenever I'm at a complete impasse on all roads, as I am right now. Today I was doing so by just randomly typing relatives' and ancestors' names into Google and seeing what turned up. It was while I was looking up my 3rd great-grandfather, Casper Lindemann, that I noticed Martin Luther kept turning up as well. So this is what I discovered today - Martin Luther's mother's maiden name was Lindemann and he had a first cousin by the name of Caspar Lindemann. Could there be a connection there? Martin Luther was born in Eisleben, Germany in 1483. My Casper Lindemann was born in Stedtlingen, Germany about 200 kilometers away and about 350 years later. Is it worth making note of? Absolutely. Is it a connection I'll ever be able to make? Who knows. I've only traced the Lindemanns back as far as Casper's parents, Casper Lindemann and Anna Marshal, which only brings me to, at best, the end of the 18th century. But it gives me a genealogical goal to focus on and work toward.