In the spring of 1849 29 year old Martin Völker left his family in Sailauf Bavaria and made his way to Rotterdam, Netherlands where he boarded the ship General Harrison and sailed towards a new life in America. After arriving in New York City on June 30, Martin made his way to Cincinnati, Ohio where he married another German immigrant named Bernadina Brockhuis and together they started a family in the German section of town that became known as Over the Rhine. More than 150 years and 7 generations later the family that Martin and Bernadina started continues to grow in the Cincinnati area and far beyond.
One of the joys of genealogy is that you occassionally stumble upon something that surprises you and I recently had one of those moments. I was using the new "Hints" feature of ancestry.com to scour for records that I might have overlooked when I, a bit by chance, found a connection to the woodsman/statesman/patriot Davy Crockett. As a young kid in Kentucky I grew up playing in the woods pretending to be Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone, now I find years later that while it is not a blood connection and it is several times removed through marriage etc..., I can claim a legitimate relationship to Davy Crockett!
October 10, 2009 marks the passing of a great one, Helen Margaret Arnold Voelker moved on from this life to her eternal reward.
Helen was born to Charles Arnold and Margaret Searp in 1911 and was preceded in death by her brother Charles (1976), her sister Nettie (2006) and her husband Ed Voelker (1976).
Helen and Ed had two sons Dale and Dane, 8 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren. She leaves a legacy of warm memories for all who knew her and her absence will leave a void for many.
On October 17, 1792 Georg Adam Völker was born in the German state of Bavaria. At the turn of the century there were several Germanic independent states including Bavaria which was caught in the middle of the Napoleonic Wars, the period of 1792 - 1815 was a period of nearly continuous warfare throughout much of Europe. French armies had overrun and occupied much of Bavaria in 1795 but subsequent battles with the Austrians had turned it back over to their control, Bavaria was now a contested battleground in the war between Austria and France. In the war of 1805 Bavarians fought along side the French against the Austrians.
Anyone who has used the internet to help with genealogy research, and it is by far the best way to approach this endeavor in my opinion, has bumped into advertisements for and has probably viewed the free content available on ancestry.com. Invariably, they are intrigued as nearly any surname imaginable returns many, often hundreds or thousands, of results. Ah, but here's the catch; you can view a small sample of data for free but if you really want to see what is behind curtain number 2 you have to fork over your credit card number. You can buy a one-month U.S.
In 2004 we moved my grandmother, who was 93 at the time, from her independent living apartment to an assisted living arrangement to insure that she had someone more closely watching out for her safety. As we were helping her move, and downsizing her belongings to fit her new living arrangements, we pulled several boxes of old photographs and related memorabilia out of her closet. As the resident computer geek in the family, and owner of some sophisticated scanning equipment, I volunteered to take the items and digitize them and redistribute them back to our family.
Performing genealogy research can be one of the most joyous and frustrating endeavors you can undertake. Anyone who has spent much time at all can empathize with the frustration of repeated dead-ends and the subsequent joy at finding a small piece of data that unlocks the door to a whole new room full of information. Most often, these puzzle pieces are bits of data that get unearthed but sometimes they take other forms. In my own research I was very fortunate to have discovered that a set of physical documents from my earliest known paternal ancestor that immigrated to the U.S.
Anyone who has used the internet to help with genealogy research, and it is by far the best way to approach this endeavor in my opinion, has bumped into advertisements for and has probably viewed the free content available on 
