31 Days to Better Genealogy – Day 12: Research the Siblings

Amy Johnson Crow has been sharing on her Generations Cafe Facebook Group a prompt each day for May. They are based off of her book 31 Days to Better Genealogy that you can buy on Amazon (shown below).

Day 12 of 31 Days to Better Genealogy is: Research the Siblings. I have personally found value in researching siblings in my family tree. My 3rd great-grandparents Michael Gollwitzer and Margaretha (Margaret) Gleisner Gollwitzer had 11 children – Barbara Gollwitzer Hetzel being my direct ancestor.

It took awhile, but I found the baptisms for 10 of the 11 children born to Michael and Margaret. The only child that did not have a baptism was the youngest child, Magdalena, as she only lived a half an hour.

Only in 1 (ONE) of the 10 baptisms did the priest name the home villages in Bavaria of Michael and Margaret and it wasn’t on my direct ancestor Barbara’s baptism, but of her brother Joseph.

The priest entered the information in the incorrect columns, but Michael was from Frankenried, Bavaria and Margaret was from Altenstadt, Bavaria. Thank goodness I checked all of the sibling’s baptism records!!