[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] PASZOTTA / BAER surnames

[Gary Warner]

Kathy,

You will not likely have any success in jumping across the ocean with the 
little information that you presently have.  I suggest that you hone your 
sleuthing skills some on the data that most likely exists on this side of 
the ocean.  For instance, have you looked at the following:

1.  The 1910 and the 1920 US Censuses, assuming that they were in the US in 
those years, which I assume you must know since you indicate that they were 
in Philadelphia in the early 1900s?  There is a wealth of information that 
can be found on the census records.  For instance, the census taker will 
have recorded where each of your ancestors that he talked to were born, and 
also where their parents were born.  Likely he will only have noted the 
country, but he may have indicated the town.  The census will also tell you 
if your ancestors were US citizens or Aliens, and the year of their 
immigration.  In the 1910 US Census, if a person had filed for US 
citizenship, there will be a notation "Pa" which indicates that papers were 
filed for naturalization.  You are doing yourself a great injustice if you 
do not look at every census for every individual that you are seeking, and 
also for their brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins and parents.  When 
you find one relative in the census, do not stop looking in that 
enumeration district, as there are likely relatives living nearby, and they 
will also be shown near your ancestors if they lived nearby.

2.  Do you have any death certificates for the individuals you 
seek?  Again, there may be a wealth of information here.  Also take a look 
for obituaries, as there may be some good information there.

3.  With the information you get from the censuses, unless you already know 
where to look, you need to look at ship's records, and immigration records 
for the people who arrived in the US or Canada.

4.  Have you looked for naturalization records?  Depending on the year, 
there can again be a lot of information that will be of use to you.

5.  What about old family bibles?  Some of our ancestors kept bible entries 
that are much better than the official entries.

6.  Compare your family lore to that of other branches of your ancestry 
that you know.  You will be amazed that some branches know a lot, and 
others know very little.  Likewise, some branches brought their records 
with them, and kept them, while others did not bring their birth and 
marriage records, and did not even keep their passports.  You may be very 
surprised who does and does not have the records you seek.  For instance, 
my grandfather, who could neither read or write acquired his father's 
Russian passport from his older brother did not want it, and was about to 
burn it when my grandfather grabbed it and preserved it for us.

The key is always to work backward from what you know to what you do not 
know, but only take one small step at a time.  Do not make big jumps in 
places or in time, because if you do, you will get lost.

Gary Warner

At 01:43 PM 12/8/2001 , kathy hamby wrote:
>hello, i am trying to find out where my gr,gr,grandparents came from so
>i can hopefully obtain records. their names were
>ADAM BAER born 1860
>FRANCES PASZOTTA born 1875
>now on their son's FRANCIS J BAER 1890 birth record it says their birth
>place was Germany but family lore says Poland
>son was born in the US, Wilmington Delaware. they moved to Philadelphia
>Pennsylvania in the early 1900's. so if anyone could please help me in
>any way i would be very grateful. one more thing in my puzzle was the
>name BAER was changed from something long and difficult to pronounce.
>thank you all very much
>Kathryn Gordon Hamby
>
>Researching; DOUGHERTY, BRENNAN, MACDONALD,  MCLAUGHLIN, GORDON,
>SHEPHARD, in Ireland, Pennsylvania
>RENZ (RENTZ), VOLLMER (FULLMER), SCHUMACHER (SHOEMAKER), HUTHER, MULLER
>(MUELLER), in Germany, Ohio or Indiana
>BAER, PASZOTA, SHUTT (SCHUTT) in Germany, Delaware, Indiana or
>Philadelphia
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>my home page:
>http://community.webtv.net/kathy556/DoughertyGordonBaer
>_______________________________________________
>Ger-Poland-Volhynia mailing list
>Ger-Poland-Volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org
>http://eclipse.sggee.org/mailman/listinfo/ger-poland-volhynia