4 Lines After 30 Years

Year end is always a time to look back. Today instead of looking just at this past year, I'm looking back to when I started keeping track of my family history. In the beginning I kept it on paper. Then in 1995 I got my first home PC and family tree software, and in 1997 connected to the internet. What I wanted to know at that time was the country of origin for each of my family lines. 

As a hobby genealogist working full time, I do the best I can. Going to court houses and anywhere at a distance requires taking vacation days, so while I know things I need to do I just don't have many opportunities to get them done. 

So, I'll just briefly recap my four Grandparents' lines today.

MENKE - my Grandpa Kenneth was the son of Charles Albert, who was the son of Henry Menke. Those three generations are well documented with the basic four (birth, marriage, death and burial) and much more. Henry came from Germany about 1859 "with his parents" according to one biography of him, but I have not learned their names. I have seen online more specific locations of where Henry came from, but I don't see where they're getting the information. Finding Henry's parents would be the next great thing to find on this line.


MANN - my Grandma Doris was a daughter of Clarence, who was a son of William Mann. William came from England about 1851, but I've never found any reference to an exact location. I've also never seen any reference to siblings or parents. I have his birthdate, and if there was an online database where I could search by that it would help. There is one called FREEBMD, but the records there start in 1837. William was born in 1830. I'm stuck at William without knowing his parents' names or his birth place.


BELL - my Grandpa was Stan, his father was Cicero, Cicero's mother was Martha (father is something that "they never talked about"), Martha's father was John Silas and his father was David Bell.  This line is well documented back to David, his children were mentioned in land records. David's place of birth may have been Augusta County, Virginia or Buckingham County, Virginia. His father may have been Joseph Bell and his mother may have been Elizabeth Henderson. I need to work with online Virginia records to see if I can confirm something there. The Bell's in Virginia are believed to be Scots-Irish people, in the US before 1780. I have faith that the Bell line does come from Scotland or Ireland.


McGRATH - my Grandma Violet was a daughter of Arthur, Art was the only son of John McGrath. John was from Dublin, Ireland according to most records. He was in Illinois by 1858. I have his second marriage certificate which gives his parents as Arthur and "R. McCarty". I believe the R stands for Rebecca because that's the name of John's oldest daughter. John's birth year varies a lot in different records so I'd love to find an official birth record for John, But more than that I need to find his first marriage record to Rachel Jane Simmons. This is one of my goals for 2020. A family Bible would really help here, if only I knew of one.


This is only a small part of the work I've done in 30 years. I'm looking forward to retirement, but it seems so far off yet. Hoping 2020 will be a good year!