Uncovering Our Pasts Gets Easier as Time Goes By

With millions of professional and amateur genealogist accessing the Internet each year it's easy to conclude that the Internet has become a genealogist's best friend. Numbers don't lie, most of the time anyway.

The Internet has become an extremely valuable tool for the genealogist. Prior to online services and home computers, collecting family histories meant trips to public libraries, national archives and cemeteries, which most often were not just around the corner places to get to. Following leads was a frustrating experience especially when the paper trail went beyond country borders, as happened in my case. The Internet allows those on a meager budget, like myself, to follow leads and acquire information about our ancestors that can be passed along to our future generations.

My father's great-great-great grandfather, Gottlieb Kroll, came to America from Germany sometime during the mid to late 1800's. The name may not mean anything to others, but for me it is a source of pride. My great-great-great grandfather, a carriage maker from Stuttgart, Germany, built Abraham Lincoln's hearse, was awarded the Franklin Institute's Longstreth Merit Award in Engineering in 1896, invented the Convertible Carriage, which was patented in May 1895, and authored a trade catalogue entitled Revelations in Carriage Building (ASIN: B000868FS0) in 1898.

Gottlieb's brother Joseph, who remained in Germany, owned and operated Kroll's Winter Garten, also known as Kroll's Opera House, in Berlin, Germany. According to the book Bei Kroll 1844 BIS 1957 by Hans J Reichardt my great-great-great uncle had been personally selected to do so by the then Prussian King Frederic William IV. The Prussian King took a fancy to Joseph's Breslau restaurant while having breakfast there sometime in 1841. The following year on 19 August 1842 he announced plans for an identical establishment to be opened by restaurateur Joseph Kroll near the Brandenburg Gate. In the presence of the king, members of the royal family and noted citizens of Berlin society, Kroll's Winter Garten opened in Berlin 15 February 1844.

My mother's ancestor's, John Michener and Sarah Moore came from England with William Penn. Her family lineage is well documented as a result of years of research by the now deceased genealogist, Ann Shaddinger. It goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway, being related to the internationally known author James Michener is something anyone would be proud to boast about and I am. A less obvious, and extremely distant, family connection of mine would be the current President of the United States, George W. Bush.

In the early days of my research the place to go for information were genealogy forums offered by online services such as America Online, Compuserve and Genie. In fact, Compuserve's forum was where I had my first breakthrough. There I found a postal address for the Berlin Archives. Within an hour I had composed a letter requesting any and all information that may exist regarding my great-great-great uncle Joseph Kroll and the Kroll Opera House in Berlin and delivered it to my local post office. About a month later I received a small, albeit valuable, package containing a 191-page book entitled Bei Kroll 1844 BIS 1957 by Hans J Reichardt. The fact that the book was written in German did not deter my jubilant mood one bit for as I flipped through the pages I came face to face, so to speak, with a picture of my great-great-great uncle Joseph for the first time. The resemblance to my grandfather was uncanny, especially the receding hairline which seems to be a trademark amongst the male members of our family. Of course the language barrier did eventually sadden me but not for long. I hoped back on my computer and began looking for software programs that could translate German text to English text. There wasn't much happening with my search however I did come across an "essay contest" on Genie's genealogy forum, which had some potential. The contest required an essay be written describing why you wanted to win a German translation program, with the prize being a German Translation Program. I can't quite remember exactly what I wrote but I remember my closing lines, "I need this program so I can translate this German book I received from the Berlin Archives! How else am I to learn about my great-great-great uncle Joseph Kroll?" My prayers were answered and once again the Internet proved to be a valuable tool for me, I won the contest and was translating my copy of Bei Kroll in less than two weeks.

Searching passenger lists and ship manifolds from Ellis Island is another fairly new genealogy resource made available through an Internet connection. I have spent a few years off and on trying to confirm when, if ever, my great-great-great uncle Joseph's daughter, Auguste and her grandson, August arrived in New York as mentioned in Bei Kroll 1844-1957 by Hans J Reichardt. About a year ago I discovered the Ellis Island website. After pounding out my query I was richly rewarded with both the passenger list and the ships manifold matching my ancestors. According to the ship's records they set sail from Cuxhaven, Germany to New York with a mere $500 in their pocket on 11 February 1905 on the SS Bluecher. Their transatlantic voyage lasted ten days.

Another stumbling block I have encountered for as far back as I can remember is getting confirmation that my great-great-great grandfather, Gottlieb, did in fact file and receive a US patent. For the longest time I believed the patent was awarded to him as a result of his inventing the "roll-up" window in automobiles. With the assistance of iGoogle, which has a US Patent Search Box link accessible from the horizontal text menu located at the top of the page, I've discovered my great-great-great grandfather didn't invent the roll-up window after all but instead invented the convertible carriage, which I now have copies of the documents proving he did so.

Tracing family histories on the Internet has evolved significantly over the last 20 years and I expect will evolve even more over the next 20 years. What's unattainable today may very well become downloadable tomorrow.