Contagious Genealogy: A Pandemic

I've been trying to play some serious catch-up recently in my genealogy research, so one of my tasks has been to finally incorporate details from a specific page of the 1860 US federal census into my online family tree for my 2nd great grandfather, Christian, and his Eggenberger branch. While information on censuses is usually fairly straightforward and easy to extrapolate, this particular one has given me some extra grief, and I'll explain why. The census page I'm interested in is for sheet number 57 of Chippewa Township, Wayne County, Ohio, USA. Take a look at how it's displayed across the two most accessible genealogy sites: Ancestry.com FamilySearch.org On MyHeritage.com, you can't even find the record via search, as they do not allow page-by-page browsing and they were unable to index any of the residents on this page due to the poor digitized microfilm image.  Oddly, I had an inkling that the original microfilmed image by NARA must have been of better quality,...

  MAY 23, 2021 I’ve been having a lot of new correspondence with distant cousins ever since this year’s RootsTech conference, because I made sure to make good use of the Family Connect feature. Week 20: Cousin Bait My 2nd great grandfather, Christian Eggenberger, was born 29 April 1838 in Switzerland, but the first written record I have recording his existence is the 1860 U.S. federal census, when he was already 22 years old and living in Chippewa, Wayne County, Ohio. 1860 United States Federal Census , population schedule, Chippewa, Wayne, Ohio, Christian Eckenberger household, p. 386, line 3, online database, Ancestry ( https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 May 2021), Provo, UT, USA; NARA microfilm publication M653, 1,438 rolls. 1860 United States Federal Census , index, population schedule, Chippewa, Wayne, Ohio, Christian Eckenberger household, p. 386, line 3, online database, Ancestry ( https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 May 2021), Provo, UT, USA. This census is not onl...

  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...