Saturday, February 20, 2010

Surname Saturday - The Fritzley Family of Germany and Pennsylvania

This Surname Saturday, I'm reaching out for some help with my family line. I've had a great deal of trouble finding information on the origin on the surname Fritzley. This is my maternal grandfather's last name. His father's last name was Fritzler, on the ship manifest from Germany, as well as some census records, but I'm not sure if this was his last name in Germany, or if it was shortened when he immigrated (a common situation among immigrants to the United States at the time). According to Ancestry.com's surname search, Fritzler is “patronymic from a pet form of Fritz,” which in turn is a pet form of the name Friedrich. I have not yet found any other sources to verify that this is the origin of Fritzley. Ancestry.com indicates that Friedrich comes from Germanic words for “peace” and “power” - a very interesting combination indeed. I haven't met a lot of other Fritzleys. My line of the Fritzley family has lived in Pennsylvania since they immigrated from Germany, as far as I can tell. If you have any other information about this surname that you would be willing to share, I would be very appreciative.

Here is my line of the Fritzley family:

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Surname Saturday - The Boehm Family of Western Pennsylvania

I hope to keep up with this blogging theme every Saturday, because I have quite a few pieces missing from my family tree, and I'd love to see if anyone out there has any clues. I’ve used Blogger’s awesome new Pages feature to list the most common surnames in my family tree, as well as my boyfriend’s.
Ironically enough, one of the families which I know the least about is the one whose name I carry: Boehm. The history of my own last name is easy enough to trace, because it comes from a geographical area. According to Ancestry.com's surname entry for Boehm, the name originally meant that a person was from Bohemia, a land which is now 2/3 of the Czech Republic. The spelling is close enough that Microsoft Word tries to correct my name to Bohemia every time I type it, lol. Ancestry also indicates that the greatest concentrations of people with that name were located in New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Ohio as of the 1920 census. Their surname search provides an interesting profile of your family name.
Here is my line of the Boehm family:

Friday, February 12, 2010

Course Review - Methodology Part 1

I have finally finished my review of the first course I took at the National Institute for Genealogical Studies (NIGS). In this post, I share my experience with using the NIGS website as a learning platform, as well as my personal reflection on what I learned from the class.