Genealogy Jottings

I am closing out another research year. For the last twelve months I have researched the life of my blacksmith great-great grandfather, Thomas Sherman. I have learned about his life and written up my findings for distribution to my family. For wider dissemination of the information I have gathered, I have put all the names, dates, and places into the family tree on Family Search (www.familysearch.org).

During the year I learned that Thomas, like many in the nineteenth century, moved around a bit, as evidenced by these life events:

• Born 23 November 1841 in Ohio,
• Grew to manhood in Kentucky, and learned the blacksmith trade from his father, Daniel Sherman,
• Married his first wife, fathered his first child, and registered for the Civil War draft in Johnson County, Indiana,
• Married twice more and fathered five more children in eastern Illinois,
• Died 3 February 1912 at Charleston, Illinois.

A big mystery still not answered from my research this year is the identity of his first wife. Next year I plan to continue with the Sherman research in an effort to discover who she may have been. I do have a name and place to go on—Katherine Stillenbaugh/Stanabaugh of Indianapolis, Indiana. Family lore says she immigrated from Germany.

I would just love to place this woman, my great-great grandmother, into her birth family. I plan a trip to Germany in 2017, and it would be wonderful to know more about her by then.