More people added – with details this time

I’ve added the timeline files for Sam and Sprinze Rothman. I’ve also typed up some off-the-cuff notes on both of them, and added similar notes to both Henry and Mary Milgrom, who had their timelines put up a little while ago.

While I did double-check the dates and some of the specifics on my tree via mobile phone app, I was under a bit of a time constraint so there may be a few errors that I will correct once I get a chance to review what I wrote up in more detail. If the entries for Sam and Sprinze look a bit copy/paste – that’s because they were. I started writing up Sam’s information, and his was so entwined with Sprinze that I found it more efficient to copy his notes over and edit to reflect her own information and changes. There ARE some differences, so don’t skip over one in favor of the other. I do make a bit of an assumption that anyone interested in these two may be similarly interested in Henry and Mary Milgrom (for the same reasons), so there are a few references to that couple as well. See their sections for more information about them.

Happy time traveling, and enjoy “meeting” your ancestors. 🙂

Content updates – two people added, pages under development

Lest anyone think I have forgotten about this endeavor – which I haven’t, it’s just a lot to learn amidst a lot of other world events and the like going on right now (looking at you, COVID-19) – I’ve put some information up regarding Henry and Mary Milgrom. These are the parents of Beatrice (Milgrom) Rothman, mother to the four kids of interest.

I’m being deliberately vague here, as I’ve not yet fully established all privacy measures. My plan is to have Beatrice and her husband, Morris Rothman be the starting point at least for now. I intend to go back and try to figure out how to embed the document that I had to simply upload here, but don’t have the time to do so at this moment. However, if you navigate to “People” on the menu, you’ll find Henry and Mary as separate pages in the drop down menu. Each of them has a downloadable file on their page (and that’s it at the moment). That file is a single page Excel timeline of key life events, with birth, marriage, birth of children, immigration and naturalization information, and death information, to include dates and locations where possible. In many cases I have additional details such as document numbers and images or certified copies of documents, but I have left those out of the timeline so it didn’t grow too cluttered. I plan to add more details to their pages, writing out the information and adding photos or images of things like headstones and pictures (where I can find any) over time. In the meantime, you can download that single page file if you’re comfortable doing so, or contact me and I’ll get you the file if you don’t want to download it (or I’ll make a point to try and get the file visible here instead of being a download-only matter).

Samuel and Sprintze (Morris’ parents) are in the works, with each having a draft timeline in progress, but not yet ready to be uploaded here. I will get to Morris and Beatrice after that.

Also in the works is a reference shelf bibliography that shows the multitude of resources I have been consulting. This is quite extensive. I have about thirteen pages so far and that’s only the printed books, and they’re not all in final formal citation format (which is my goal for multiple reasons). I also have a plethora of e-books and publications, online databases and digitized images, audiobooks, and a wide variety of other resources that will be added to that reference shelf. I am trying to complete the citations for the books on the list so far, and then I will be publishing those with the caution that the list is going to be growing pretty much continuously as I source new resources while researching our family history.

Once I have these items done in a baseline and satisfactory form, I will begin to fill in the equivalent information on my maternal side. I plan to go back as far as I can in all lines, though, so stay tuned! 🙂

Welcome to Blue Box Genealogy!

Just doing some development work here, this being my first website since back in the early FrontPage days. There’s a much steeper learning curve now, but I’m gradually figuring it out. I hope you’ll be patient as the growing pains continue. Meanwhile, here’s a not-so-brief overview of what prompted the launch of this site.

Why the “blue box”? The inspiration originally came from one of my favorite television shows, “Doctor Who,” in which the Doctor’s ship is a blue police call box (it’s a British show) much like a phone booth, only it transports the Doctor through space and time and is, as the running joke goes, “bigger on the inside.” MUCH bigger on the inside, actually. But then I realized too, that my family tree is comprised entirely of more or less relatively recent immigrants, who not only traveled through space and time, but were leaving much of their old lives behind and often never saw their stay-behind families again. For them, writing letters were the only real method of communication they had with their past lives. For many years now, the United States Post Office has had blue mailboxes out on the streets for dropping off letters. Another blue box that connects us to our history. Lastly, I happen to like the color blue, and when I realized the above and that most of the storage containers I have used at present to hold my genealogy research materials are blue or have blue on them, it made my choice of name very simple. So while it might be a box, it’s bigger on the inside (as is all history once it begins to unfold the more closely you look at it) – and it doesn’t hurt to consider thinking outside the box in fresh, creative ways. This is where my pervasive personal philosophy of “practical whimsy” comes into play. I am a firm believer in having fun while learning, and this is most definitely a great deal of fun!

This website is intended to be a single-source repository of information for information I’m uncovering as I research my family heritage. It will include text articles as well as images including photos, maps, and even some documents at some point. I am not limiting myself to my direct lineage, although that is my main focus. For those who have more than a passing knowledge of genealogy, it is widely-recognized that sometimes the biggest discoveries are made not through direct ancestor searches, but rather through FANs of the focus person. “FAN” stands for “Friends, Associates, and Neighbors.” Many times where you see these FAN names show up, your focus person may also be mentioned or referenced. In earlier times, these are also often the pool of people from whom spouses were selected, journeys undertaken, land purchased, and much more. Community then was extremely important, and to a lesser degree, remains so today.

What’s next?

With that said, I hope you will find the information provided here interesting and/or useful. There are no current plans to post on anything resembling a set schedule, but only when I have something of significance to share. At the beginning, this might mean more posts as I try to populate the site with quality content, but after a while it should taper off a bit. I have set up a contact form accessible at the bottom of the page (I think) where you can send me any additional information you may have, its of family history I might be missing, specific questions about individuals you would like to have looked into, and the like. I created the form this morning, but have not yet tested it out. For those of you who are linked with me on Ancestry or other means, you can contact me that way in the meantime.

Surnames being researched

The list of surnames from myself back to my great-grandparents that are my current focal points include:

  • Rothman/Rotman
  • Husmann
  • Milgrom/Milgrim
  • Busch
  • Hoff
  • Hanson
  • Ross
  • Hofteig
  • Gudmundson

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FYI

All site content is original to the work and interpretation of the author. Outside sources, where known and identified, are cited and used with permission. Any omissions, errors, or missing attributions will gratefully be corrected if the author is notified with the accurate information. Any reader identification of unknown persons shown in photos will be added with appropriate verification of identity.

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