CLUSTER RECORDS SEARCHED

 

 

Cluster genealogy method differs from the collateral genealogy method.  Instead of focusing on relatives, the search now broadens to neighbors, church members, passengers on the same ship, soldiers in the same military regiment, co-workers, people buried in the same cemetery with graves in the same section or nearby.  I searched the passenger list that Grandma came on and made note of the passengers on the same page, then all passengers from Prussia.  I searched the church records for sponsors at baptism, and any name that matched from the passenger list.  I looked at the earliest census (1900) to see who was listed on the same page and the pages before and after.  I compared these names with names on the passenger list.  No one in the family served in the military.  I have yet to check out the cemetery for people buried near my great grandparents graves.

GRANDMA FOUND ON PASSENGER LIST

 Recently I found Grandma on a passenger list.  She arrived in 1882 at the age of two with her mother and her brother and sister.  Her father was not on the list, and I presume he came earlier and then sent for the rest of his family.  The family’s place of origin was only listed as “Germany” – not much help.  But now I had Grandma’s year of birth – 1880.  Now it's time to use the Cluster Genealogy method of research......To be continued.