matthewkmiller on Family Tree Circles

My great-grandmother, Elizabeth Julia Dunzinger is my mystery. I've found a few tidbits over the past couple of years but still haven't figured out where she was born or who her parents were. Elizabeth was born on 12 April, 1854, probably in New York, died on 24 December, 1929 in Dodgeville, Lee County, Iowa at age 75, and was buried on 26 December, 1929 in Franklin Township, Des Moines County, Iowa. An older family history book notes that she was born in "either Kingston or New York". Everyone assumed that Kingston was the town not too far from Burlington, Iowa. I have since found two Dunzingers in Kingston, New York but not of the correct age to be her parents. A written request to their local genealogical society has not yet been answered after 3 months.

Elizabeth was commonly known as Lizzie. Her middle name is listed as Juliana on their marriage license. Her last name has been seen spelled as Dunsinger, Duncenger, Duensing, Daninger or Donzinger in various documents. Family stories say she was born in New York and raised by her grandparents, who moved her to Burlington, Iowa after the death of her parents. These stories say she was employed by relatives in the Charles Wagner boarding house in Burlington. Charles Wagner was proprietor of the Valley Street Boarding House at 413 and 415 Valley Street in Burlington. She is found in the 1870 Census listed as Lizzie Dunsinger, 17, Servent in the Charles Wagner household with 22 other individuals listed as boarders, not counting the Wagner family. A news article was found in the papers of a grand-aunt with the notation ?These people were relatives of Grandma Panther? referring to Elizabeth Dunzinger. The article talks of Ziegelmuellers and Wagners who emigrated from Wemding, Germany, which is in the Donau-Ries district of Bavaria, Germany, arriving in America at New Orleans before traveling up the Mississippi by river boat. We?ve found Dunzinger, Wagner and Ziegelmueller families in Wemding, Bavaria. As of this writing, we have not yet found Elizabeth?s birth records or her parents in America.

I'm not sure if I want to try to keep up on a genealogy blog but thought I'd give it a try. Just my thoughts on what I've been doing lately and challenges I'm having.

My genealogy work load is through the roof right now. Granted, I don't do it for a living and I don't do anyone else's genealogy so it's just what I feel I need to work on for my own family tree. I just have so much in the works that I'm having difficulty keeping up. Here's a list off the top of my head:

1. Second edition of my Panther family history book. I put out the first edition almost exactly one year ago and I've gotten new information that really needs to be in there. The updates are: a) a CORRECT picture of the ship my great-grandfather came to America on. The one in the first edition is, not only wrong, but very wrong. This is the main reason I want the second edition put out. b) An old family photo from the village he was from that no one knew who was in it. My second-cousin sent me a letter she's had in her possession for a while that tells us exactly who it is. c) New information about the history of the ship my great-grandfather's brother came over on. I need to get this put out because the city manager of the village my ancestors are from is ordering 6 copies of the book and I want to be sure they have all the correct information. This is high-priority, like in the next week. The person who gave me information about the ships also appears to have a schedule/ad from the shipping company my great-grandfather use from the approximate timeframe. It actually advertises for the voyage my great-grandfather took to America. The problem is that I've had difficulty getting together with the person who has this. It's just that my work schedule is inflexible at the moment and she's only available during certain times. I can't decide how to arrange my priorities at the moment. I really want to include this schedule/ad but I really need to get the second edition published ASAP.

2. Republishing my father's family history books. Someone put out my father's paternal grandmother's genealogy about 12 years ago but there are no copies available any longer. It's a two-volume set of hardcover books of about 450 pages each. I got my hands on a set about 6 months ago and I scanned them in using a very quick handheld scanner, except I got good scans of the photos. The person that put out the original books stated in the introduction that she is not copywriting the books and anyone can use the information any way they choose, but should just include acknowledgement, so that is not a problem. Besides, I'm just doing an on-demand publication for my immediate family because I truly want a copy of the books for myself and some of my siblings might also. I've got about 300 pages done. I'm having to retype the text and insert the photos. Once I get 100 pages into it, with photos, Word starts responding quite slowly so I'm having to split the books into several sections. I hope to have volume one done this year. The second volume will likely have to wait until next year.

3. My wife's genealogy. The good news is that the research for her family history is complete. We borrowed a copy of one of the books from her brother. I'm working on entering this into a database on my computer. Once this is done, there is a book put out for her grand-uncle when he became a US Senator and her mother was born and grew up in Germany and has an extensive family history on her side. I just need to gather everything into a database so we can work with the information.

4. Original research. Recently found two new sets of great-great-grandparents. I'm hot on the trail to jump the pond to track their families back to Ireland. One of my great-grandmothers has always been a mystery. I MAY have figured out where she was born. I'm just waiting to hear back from their local genealogy society from the query I sent them a few weeks ago.