An Interview With A Family Tree

For my family tree information, I interviewed my grandfather Elmer Hellermann on May 29th to gather information about my father’s side of the family. I also interviewed my grandmother RoseMary Schmiesing on May 30th to gather information about my mother’s side of the family. After gathering the information from my grandparents, I constructed a family tree that extended to my relatives that came from Germany, because I am completely German. On both my mother and father’s side of the family, I discovered that my ancestors came to America throughout the 1800’s. Surprisingly, I found out that many of my grandparents came from the same areas in Germany. Four of my ancestors can be traced back to Holdford, Germany and the rest are from areas of Arnsberg, Westfalen, and Dinklage. I knew that all my ancestors had come from Germany at some point in history, but I was unsure of

They came to America in hopes of finding work. Back in Germany times, were tough and money was slim. My grandfather informed me that many of the German Catholics, did not move to America until after the war of 1812. After discovering this, I asked both of my grandparents about my ancestor’s religion and found out that they were all Catholics. This tied everything together, allowing me to understand why my ancestors came to America in the 1800’s. All my ancestors that came to America traveled here by boat. When they first came to America, there primary goal was to find work and somewhere to live. Some of my relatives struggled to find work. None of my relatives knew English before moving to America. Despite many Germans arriving to America before my ancestors, they still struggled to find a job because it was hard to communicate with someone who did not know English. This resulted in many of my ancestors settling down and becoming farmers. Throughout history family farms have been passed down in my