Family History Experiences

These are memories of experiences from doing family history research.

In about 1975, my brother, Dave and I decided it was time to do some family history research. We were both living in Salt Lake City, Utah, and had access to the Family History Library there. It was located in downtown Salt Lake. We started meeting there for lunch.

Dave had served a mission in Austria, and I had taken a year of German at the University of Utah. So we thought we could possibly read the German names on the microfilms there. It was very difficult, as the names were all hand-written and the writing was different from what we were used to.

Mom had started the research by asking Dad's mother about her ancestors. We started with this information. It turned out that the spellings she had used for the names were very different from what was recorded.

Dave and I were both attracted to names that were only similar to the information we had. The Spirit was guiding us, and we were able to put together a large list of Polish and German ancestors. Our success was primarily in a section of Poland that had been divided off from Germany after World War I. It had changed hands between Germany and Poland several times throughout its history. That was Silesia (Schlesien in German).

There was some confusion because one ancestor, Juliana Rathusny, one of our great great grandmothers seemed to have had two husbands, each with the first name of Sebastian. Then we found where the first Sebastian had died in a fall from a roof.

Other problems that we had were caused by spelling uncertainties. One last name could be spelled one way at birth, another way at marriage and even a third way at death. We had to rely on the Spirit to help us sort that all out.

While we were thus researching, I had the opportunity to go to Germany with the Utah Air National Guard. We knew that Oma, our German grandmother had a younger sister living near Frankfort, Germany, where I would be staying. I managed to call her and make arrangements to visit with her on a Saturday.

With my limited ability to speak and understand German, I was concerned about this visit and its success. I need not have worried, because the Holy Ghost was with me and temporarily gave us the gift of tongues. For quite a while during the visit, I was able to understand everything my great-aunt Marta Gothardt was saying. And I was able to speak well enough that she was able to understand what I was saying. I was able to verify much of the information Dave and I had extracted from the records. The information we had from Oma included Juliana Rathusny's first husband Sebastian Wiechulla and their family. Aunt Marta was younger and did not know that family, but she knew the family of the second husband, Sebastian Gatzka. I knew when it was time to say goodby to Tante Marta, because the Gift of Tongues was withdrawn, and I could no longer understand all she was telling me. It was quite a testimony of the importance of this family history work.

Dave was able to prepare most of the names for Temple ordinance work, and perform much of the work at the Orlando Florida Temple while he was living in Tallahassee. I found through New Family Search that there were some that had been left out. I am currently working on those at the Palmyra New York Temple.