And So It Began

Back in the days before the explosion of the Internet, my initial baby step into the world of genealogy consisted of trying to write down a few generations on a paper family tree.  After my maternal grandmother, Bertha Lora (Field) Merriam, passed away in January 1996, my mother passed Grandma's handwritten genealogy papers on to me.  Grandma Merriam had a little information about her family, the Field's and Olmstead's, but it was mostly about my paternal grandfather's line, the Merriam's and Van Meter's.   I wrote out what I could on the family tree and then set it aside until the next decade.  During this time, I only knew a little about my father's side of the family.

One day I was reading a book written by my great aunt, Eva Shoeman Kuehl.  Her book titled, Around a Country Garden, was written about her life as a rural Waukee Iowa farm wife. I came across a page that changed everything for me and began my quest into my family roots.  Near the back of the book, Aunt Eva had written an account of her Pennsylvania grandparents, my 2nd great grandparents, Henry Shoeman and Louisa (Smaltz) Shoeman, of Curryville, Pennsylvania.  There were the names of another generation unknown to me, where they had lived and were buried, and all their children's names.  It was a goldmine of information for me and propelled me to dig further into my roots.  My husband and I made trips to Pennsylvania in both 2004 and 2006 to try to gather family history.   I also joined ancestry.com during this time and began setting up my family tree on both my mother and father's side.

My mother's family were the Field's, Olmstead's, Merriam's, and Van Meter's.  Her maternal side was mostly English and her father's side were English and Dutch.  The maternal side of her family were some of the earliest settlers of Colonial New England.  I would learn in later years just how early Mom's family did arrive in America.  My deep roots in America go back to the Mayflower in 1620 and the Salem Witch Trials of 1692.  I am filled with pride at my heritage.  My father's side of the family were mostly German, Swiss, and Irish.   They were the Shoeman's, Hawbaker's, Cook's, and Mullins.  I had my DNA tested on ancestry.com several years ago and tested at 82% British, 13% German, and 5% Irish and Scottish.

Diehl's Crossroads Church of the Brethren Cemetery, Curryville, Pennsylvania

I am shown by the headstones of Henry and Louisa (Smaltz) Shoeman, my 2nd great grandparents on my father's side.   They are buried in the cemetery of a beautiful little church in the rolling hills of east central Pennsylvania.

I will begin my blog focusing on my father's family first and then move on to my mother's side later on.  I have a lot of family information 'stored upstairs' and am going to put my memories and the information I have learned down on paper.