Contagious Genealogy: A Pandemic

When I learned that Donna Moughty was planning to retire from leading her annual family history research trips to Ireland, I instantly rearranged my schedule to ensure I could participate in that final excursion. She had one spot left on the Dublin leg in October 2023 due to a cancellation, and I made sure it was filled by me! I had never completed an official research trip before, let alone an international one, but of course I was determined to be prepared. Donna made logistics preparation so easy. She held monthly virtual meetings on Zoom, each focused on a different repository we were visiting, or the transportation modes we'd be relying on as a group, or even the recreational activities we could enjoy on our free time. She tried to cover everything and anything we'd encounter during our time in Ireland (or for the folks on the 2nd leg of the journey, Northern Ireland). She recorded each presentation and subsequent Q&A and posted it to an unlisted YouTube link for us to...

  APRIL 26, 2021 When you feel like you’re constantly chasing down different ancestors across the globe, it’s hard to choose just one location as your most treasured. But I’ll give it a shot here! Week 17: Favorite Place There’s a particular village which I like to refer to as “the motherland.” It’s the ancestral home of my paternal 2nd great grandmother, Ester (Sauvain) Eggenberger, and it’s half way around the world in Eschert, Bern, Switzerland. Ester (Sauvain) Eggenberger with granddaughters Vera, Louise, and Alta circa 1915. This little pocket of land near the border of France has likely been deemed my favorite, because Ester was my most recent immigrant ancestor to the United States. It was also one of the first international homelands of my ancestors that I was able to pinpoint the actual town name. Ester came over at the age of 13 in 1854 with her parents, Emmanuel and Sophia. The excerpt of the 1860 federal census below was the first enumeration of the family together in t...