Big Things Coming Up

Despite the fact that I've been teaching this semester, I've managed to come up with a few new things.  And now that school is almost over, I can get back to blogging and digging up the past.

I went to the Sacramento German Genealogy Society conference last weekend, and in early June I will go to the Genealogy Jamboree put on by the Southern California Genealogy Society.  This is four days of fun, fun, fun, including a whole day on DNA and genetic genealogy which I hope will get me over the hump to understanding the basics.

Stay Tuned!

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Looking for a German Surname? Try Geogen.

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This morning I was contributing to a thread in the German Genealogy facebook group; a researcher had asked for help in figuring out the German equivalent of the surname Workman. One of the most useful sites I've found for investigating German surnames is Christoph Stoepel's "Geogen" sites. "Geogen" stands for "genealogical geography," and his site will help you locate possible points of origin for your German ancestors. When you put in a name, a map will show you where your family name is found today; the information is current rather than historical but still very useful, since German families tend to be a lot less mobile over the years than are families in the United States. A caveat, though:  if your ancestor's name is Schmidt or Meyer, you'll have a much harder time getting a lead because those names are so common. The less common the name is, the more luck you're likely to have.  Also, the site is most helpful if your family came…
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