Josiah Schmidt, Professional Genealogist

12/17/2022

This is quite disturbing, on multiple levels, Microsoft. Moving a historic Black cemetery should only happen with the careful consultation and participation of the decedents’ descendants and historians. A lot more work and respect should have gone into this relocation.

The cemetery’s disappearance cleared the way for the expansion of a Microsoft data center, despite layers of federal and state regulations nominally intended to protect culturally significant sites.

12/14/2022

Everyone should test their DNA, and also upload their results to GEDmatch. Thousands of families are waiting to be reunited with their loved one’s remains and forensic genealogy makes this possible when other methods fail.

Robert A. Mullins was 21 years old when he was reported missing between November 1988 and April 1989. His remains were found in November 1991.

01/31/2015

In doing genealogy, I've found that the "January Oops" has been a problem for people for a loooong time.

01/12/2015

Chances are good that--if you have Western European ancestry--you are somewhere in the line of succession to the British throne (assuming you were willing to convert to the Church of England). You might be 543,197th in line, but you could be somewhere in there.

A chef at an Italian restaurant. A gardener with three illegitimate children. And a divorcee called Tracy. Just three of the very unlikely people in line for the British throne

11/27/2014

Happy ! Enjoy your time with your family today, and remember: if you are joined by an older member, take the opportunity to ask them about their life and their memories.

11/02/2014

Barnes and Noble is now carrying my new book, "2000 Questions for Grandparents: Unlocking Your Family's Hidden History"! In celebration, I've asked my distributor, Lulu Press, to lower the price of the book by 20%, to $11.99, for a day. If you haven't gotten a Christmas present for your mom or dad, this would make a meaningful gift.

Buy 2000 Questions for Grandparents: Unlocking Your Family's Hidden History by Josiah Schmidt (Paperback) online at Lulu. Visit the Lulu Marketplace for product details, ratings, and reviews.

11/01/2014

In German villages, if a man and woman from different towns married, they would almost always live in the husband's hometown. Click below to find out all the reasons why.

In pre-20th century Germany, individuals usually married others who lived nearby, but every so often, a man and a wife from different towns were united in marriage. When this happened, the woman usually went to live with the man’s family, and rarely the other way around.

10/31/2014

Perspective: Germany is half the size of Texas, but has three times the population of Texas.

See how the physical size of Germany compares to the United States, California, Texas, United Kingdom and Japan with maps and numbers.

10/31/2014

Did you know that FamilySearch.org has tons of free genealogical records from Germany? Even if you did, you might not know that there is much more hiding in their collections than merely what you can access through the search function.

If you’d like to see and use actual, physical images of genealogical records from Germany, many of them are available for completely free on FamilySearch.org. There are far more records on FamilySearch than the handful of transcribed/indexed records you get through regular the “search” function. To…

10/28/2014

German Genealogy Tip: Can't find where in Germany your ancestors were from? Use the German phone book to find concentrations of surnames.

Do you have a German immigrant ancestor whom you have absolutely no idea where in Germany they came from? Most of us do. One great method for finding clues on where they might have come from is to use the modern-day German phone book, which is available online at: http://www.dastelefonbuch.de/

10/28/2014

The new episode of The German-American Genealogist Podcast, from last night! We discussed how to analyze German language and words in order to locate and better understand your German ancestors. Guest is Ernest Thode, author of the German-English Genealogical Dictionary who shares some genealogist tricks of the trade.

What’s in a word? When doing German genealogy, it pays to recognize that the way German words are used can have profound meaning for locating and understanding your German ancestors. In this episode, find out how and why German towns changed their names over the centuries, and how you can use this t…

10/27/2014

German Genealogy Tip: "evangelisch" or "evangelische" refers to the Lutheran/Reformed church in Germany.

When researching German records, you will often see an individual’s religion listed as “evangelisch” or “evangelische”. This is an umbrella term that describes most of the Protestant denominations after the Reformation. In Germany, this term was more likely to describe a church with Lutheran beliefs…