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Premium Member of the Week: Sandy Johnson

Hi Sandy. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us today! Can you tell us how long you’ve been doing German genealogy and what got you started?

I have been doing genealogy for over 30 years, and pretty quickly got into the German part of it because my maternal side knew where in Germany we came from. Of course the location name had been “Americanized” so it was a bit of a challenge.

I started genealogy for a few reasons – my Grandmother showed me her old family pictures and I was very curious about those ancestors of mine. Plus my Dad was a great story-teller.

The story-telling makes it so fun! What’s your favorite genealogy story related to your family?

The most current one is when my cousins and I found our Great-Great-Grandmother’s birth location in Germany. We had spent ten years trying to locate where she came from. It was like she just appeared here in Minnesota when she married our Great-Great-Grandfather! We could not locate anything about her or her family. With the help and advice of Baerbel Johnson, FHL’s German Specialist, we were able to find it. It really helps to know German Kurrentschrift when going through all that microfilm!

That’s great that you were able to find her after ten years – congratulations! For people still on that elusive search, do you have any favorite websites you would share?

When needing help with words, I use WordMine.Info (I learned about “Hangman” from one of Katherine’s webinars).

I also use www.abkuerzungen.de for those pesky abbreviation issues. I also like to use https://www.font-generator.com/fonts/18thCenturyKurrent/ to see if I’m actually reading the letters correctly on the word I’m trying to translate.

For research I frequently use ancestry.com and familysearch.org, among many others.

Those are all great sites – thanks for sharing! Speaking of tips, what would be your #1 genealogy tip you’d share with others?

Keep digging (researching)! New items and resources keep popping up.

So true! Finally, what is one way in which the Premium membership has helped your research?

I have so many!

A big help was the Premium article on abbreviations because i had come across some abbreviation problems in one of my document. I was really delighted when our Premium Facebook Group discussed some abbreviation issues awhile back and I could add those to my abbreviation collection.

I print many of the SK Translations articles and include those in my translation help binder. I also copy many of the words and translations of those words from our Premium Facebook group for that same binder.

I’m so glad to hear that everything has been helpful for you. Thanks for sharing your story with us, Sandy!

Check out our other Premium Member Highlights and their fascinating genealogy stories. And be sure to give them a comment if what they have to share has helped you, or if you like their family stories!

- Michele Dambach (A special trip to Germany with her German-born father…_
- Janis Keough (A missing count in the family…)
Alex Tolksdorf (Russian soldier, some cherries, and a toilet…)
Nina Gafni (Uncovering the past, even when it is painful…)
Debra Hoffman(The unbelievable story of a found postcard…)
James Beidler (Planning a family reunion in only three days…)
Maria Mueller (Meeting a new cousin and not realizing it…)

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Premium Member of the Week: Sandy Johnson

I’m so glad to hear that everything has been helpful for you. Thanks for sharing your story with us, Sandy!

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