Tag Archives: David Jegerlehner

The Book: Progress Report – July 27, 2014

I haven’t done a book update in a month, mostly because I haven’t done a thing on either book. I’ve been out of town with my children, exploring the northeastern part of the country. I was able to spend some time with my dad in New York, and then I traveled to New England to catch up with some old friends and see lots of historical venues. All in all, we were gone exactly three weeks. I spent last week catching up on everything else, including my ProGen homework for the month. I wrote an 18 page evidence analysis report for my Revolutionary War ancestor Nathaniel Hobart. Yesterday, I was finally able to sit down and start working on one of the books.

While I was out of town, some documents that I had ordered for my research on the David Jegerlehner descendant book arrived: the death certificate for George Yegerlehner and a stack of obituaries from the Allen County Public library. It appears that George died in Oak Park, Illinois while visiting (or living with) his daughter Hazel. Wilbur O. Igelman, Hazel’s husband, was the informant on the death certificate. The Igelmans were enumerated in Oak Park in 1940, and they were apparently still living there in 1949. So mystery solved as to why George died in Oak Park!

The first volume of Roscoe and Gladys’ letters now exceeds 200 pages. I am working on assembling Chapter 7, the letters from November 1942. Chapter 8 will contain December’s letters. Then the hard work of writing short biographies of select individuals shall begin. I began looking at some blog articles about type font last night. Since I am planning on self-publishing the letters, there is a lot to consider. I have been using Calibri font while assembling the letters, but most books use a serif font (vs. a sans serif font). This WordPress blog uses a sans serif font. The publishing industry has been debating font merits for readability and legibility for a very long time. Personally, I think it just depends on what your personal aesthetic is. Two of the standard recommended choices for self-publishing are Garamond and Palatino. Below are samples of these two types plus the Calibri I use for general word processing. What do you think works best?

Garamond (a serif font)

Palatino Linotype (a serif font)

Calibri (sans serif)

Link to article: Picking Fonts for Your Self Published Book

© Deborah Sweeney, 2014.
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2014/07/27/the-book-progress-report-july-24-2014/

The Book: Progress Report – June 21, 2014

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I know I haven’t written about my book progress for the last two weeks. Two major events precluded my writing a post about my progress.

During the first week, I was chaperoning my Girl Scout troop to Disneyland. The girls had saved their cookie money from several seasons, and were able to make the trip with minimal expense from the families. So even though you might think twice about buying cookies, they really do mean a lot for the girls. We were gone five days (2 for driving, 3 in the parks). The girls enjoyed two Youth Education programs – one on Animation and another on Leadership. Our presenters were both excellent educators. If you ever get the chance to participate in the Youth Education programs, it is worth it (plus you get to go in the Fast Track line for several rides while taking the class).

The second major event occurred this week, and was less fun than the previous week’s distraction – the DDoS attack of Ancestry and many of its subsidiary companies. After spending last weekend recovering from the excesses of Disneyland, I sat down ready to work on Monday morning but was unable to access my data file or any records. I worked on a couple other small projects but was feeling dejected. My father had recently shared one of my WWII letter blog posts on his Facebook page. One of his friends was excited about the future possibility of turning the letters into a book. This has been one of my long term goals, and I had already started cutting and pasting the letter transcriptions together. So instead of working on the David Jegerlehner book, I found myself working most of this week on preparing the letters for book publication. Perhaps they might even be ready this fall or early next year.

The first volume will only contain the letters from 1942. There are over 300 letters from that year alone. With the annotations and short biographies I plan to write about some of the individuals in the letters, I think this will make a good sized book (200-300 pages). Three more volumes will likely follow. There are over 600 letters for 1943, so this year will be split in half. The remaining letters from 1944-1945 will be the last volume. I already have a table of contents and a cover designed for this book. Currently I have organized 70 pages of letters (May-August) with the remaining months of the year still to go (September-December). Over the last two days, I have written first drafts of an Introduction and the first chapter explaining who Roscoe and Gladys were.

As for the Descendants of David Jegerlehner book, I received three awesome envelopes in the mail this week: two from the National Archives and one from the Indiana Department of Health. From the National Archives, I received the Civil War Pension files for David’s son John Yagerlehner and his son-in-law Thomas H. McCormick. The Indiana Department of Health envelope contained the death certificate for Rosina (Yegerlehner) Wolfe, one of my great grandfather’s sisters. They were unable to find a death record for Rosina’s brother Charles who supposedly died in Indianapolis in 1922.

The book progress updates will be going on hiatus for the next month. I have numerous other commitments that will take me away from my computer and my research, including a little vacation time. Because although Disneyland was fun, it wasn’t truly a vacation while chaperoning eleven 13-15 old teenage girls. That’s hard work!

A New Project

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I have to admit it; I haven’t been too focused on the blog lately. I am still committed to posting all my grandparents’ World War II letters though. I have transcribed and published around 500 which has taken me 18 months at this point. I am probably at the halfway point. So another 18 months to go at least. As much as I have enjoyed researching William B. Schwartz’s life, I am ready to move onto to other things. Who would have thought it would have taken from January to May to tell his story? I certainly didn’t when I started. I am not sure if I am going to continue the daily newspaper clipping post. I need to consider what research I will reserve for my Board of Certification portfolio. Anything submitted for the portfolio has to be previously unpublished and unedited (or reviewed).

My newest focus is going to be….to write my first real, fully researched and sourced family genealogy book. I have been researching my grandparents’ families for twenty years now and it is time to write down what I have learned. I don’t want my research to be lost or destroyed when I am gone. Small blog posts are a great way to share pieces of research but they do not form a cohesive whole.

For the last month, I have been working on the outline of my book. I am tracing the descendants of my Swiss ancestor, David Jegerlehner. David was Roscoe’s great grandfather. So far I have 200 descendants in my outline, and I still haven’t finished with the fifth generation. For this book, I am going to stop with the fifth generation. Most of this generation is gone, or nearly gone, so I have very few people to worry about contacting for privacy issues.

Today I decided to play around with a working cover for the book…what do you think?

©Deborah Sweeney, 2014.
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2014/05/17/a-new-project/

Book of Me – Prompt 14: Special People

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The Book of Me – Written by You is a weekly blog prompt created by Julie Goucher of the blog Angler’s Rest. This is a fifteen month writing project to highlight my life so that I will have something to leave behind for my descendants. Week fourteen’s prompt is also Special People and is a continuation of the last prompt.

If you had to hold a dinner party and could invite a maximum of 12 special people who would you invite?

You CAN include family this time. Perhaps they are ancestors you have never met or people that you know/knew.

What meals would you serve and why?

Perhaps include the recipe or a photo if you decided to actually cook the items.

_________________________________

My dinner party would include family members who have all passed on at this point. Most of them I have never known. I have lots of questions for them because they didn’t write anything down or leave much for me to discover about their lives.

The Guests

Alfred M. Dicks and his first wife Ruth Reynolds: They were Quakers. Their families were part of the Quaker migration to North Carolina in the mid 1700s. After staying in the south for several generations, the Quakers began migrating north again. Slavery was a huge issue in the early 1800s. Some remained in the south but many moved in the decades before the Civil War. Some of the North Carolina monthly meetings were decimated by migration. Ruth’s parents migrated a few years before she was born. Alfred traveled as a young man in the 1830s, sometime after the death of his father in 1833. Ruth died young after bearing six children in the 1850s. I know very little about her. Her name appears in very few documents. When she and Alfred married in 1840, their marriage was a civil one which got them disowned from the local Quaker Monthly Meeting. I suspect the meeting was too far away which made it difficult to attend regularly. Also there were lots of strong political feelings and divisions between the monthly meetings in eastern Illinois and western Indiana at that time. I have lots of questions for Alfred, too. He managed to avoid the census takers in 1860. I do not know exactly when Alfred or Ruth died or where they are buried.

John Alden and Priscilla Mullins: I have always known I was a Mayflower descendant. The lineage of John and Priscilla was the first that my grandmother proved. We “know” so much about their fabled courtship and little else. John’s parentage is unknown. We have very few dates for this couple, including when they married, the births of the children, and when Priscilla died. Hearing about their daily struggles to create a new life in this country would be fascinating.

George Rea and Sarah Ann Jewell: George Rea was an Irishman by birth. He journeyed to America and settled in Greene County, Indiana. So far I have uncovered little information about George’s life in Ireland. He was a presumably successful farmer who owned a sizeable acreage of land in Indiana. George was about 20 years older than his wife Sarah but she died first, perhaps in childbirth. I am currently trying to prove Sarah’s lineage. There was only one Jewell family in Greene County and I think I know how she fits but I have no direct evidence. Again, I have lots of questions for this couple.

David Yegerlehner and Magdalena Strahm: The patriarch of the Yegerlehner family in America and his wife left their homeland to settle in America in 1851. Why? Where & when did Magdalena die? David was a carpet weaver. I would have enjoyed watching him weave. Perhaps they could teach me Swiss or share stories of their life in the Alps.

Michael Schiele and Elizabeth Krieble: I think I have enough questions about Michael and his German ancestry to warrant an invitation to this dinner. Elizabeth’s daughter Nancy raises lots of interesting questions as well. Nancy’s descendents would certainly like some answers about her father.

Roscoe S. Yegerlehner and Gladys Foster: Now that I am old enough to ask the hard family questions, my grandparents have long been gone. Since starting this project, the number of questions that I would have liked to ask my grandparents has increased exponentially. Even sitting with my grandmother for a few hours and having her identify people in the sea of photographs would be a treat.

The dinner

I would like to have a potluck picnic like I remember from all the family reunions of my childhood. Every summer we traveled to Indiana to visit my grandparents. Generally, at some point, a family reunion would be held during our visit. A few times, the reunion was held at my aunt and uncle’s house. At that time, their house was on the outskirts of Centerville. The house was surrounded by corn fields on the two sides, the road to the front, and a wooded area to the back. All my mom’s cousins would come over and all the second cousins would run around for hours. Everyone brought some kind of dish to share.

Since my family does not have a tradition of family recipes being passed down, I would like each of my ancestral couples to bring a family dish that was special for their family and time period. One dish sticks out from my childhood. It appeared on the table for most picnics or special occasions. I am not sure which side of the family the recipe came from. Since my own children have an aversion to food with “sauces,” the tradition hasn’t been continued.

The recipe –

Five Cup Salad:
1 cup crushed pineapple
1 cup mandarin oranges
1 cup of shredded coconut
1 cup of mini marshmallows
1 cup of sour cream

Throw all the ingredients in a bowl and mix together.

©2013 copyright owned and written by Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found at: https://genealogylady.net/2013/12/06/book-of-me-pro…special-people/

Travel Tuesday – Voyage to America

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Yegerlehner, David and family - Ship manifest, 1851

Image via Ancestry (Click to enlarge)

About halfway down the above ship manifest from the Northumberland which sailed from London to New York is the name David Jacalander. He sailed to America with his wife and three children: Madga, Christian, Rosena, and John. The ship arrived in New York on 26 April 1851. David and his family were natives of Switzerland. He was a weaver by trade. The rest of the page is filled with the names of Swiss immigrants of various trades: wheelwright, cooper, dyer, tailor, joiner, and mason. Perhaps the group was traveling together to the new world, to begin a new community. The reason for the emigration of the Jacalander family is unknown. A family legend speaks of the fear of impressment into the Prussian army.

While Jacalander is not a Swiss surname, Jegerlehner is. The Swiss are very protective of their heritage. Even today surnames are registered and can be located on the official Registry. Since the family departed Europe from London, likely the lowly English clerk did not understand the thick German Swiss accent when he recorded the family on the manifest. In America, David Jacalander became David Yegerlehner, the ancestor of all who share the name.

©2013 copyright owned and written by Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found at: https://genealogylady.net/2013/11/25/travel-tuesday…age-to-america/

Tombstone Tuesday – David Yegerlehner

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Image courtesy of Tonya & Keith Tetidrick

David Yegerlehner (originally Jegerlehner) was the immigrant ancestor of Roscoe’s family in America. David arrived with his wife, Magdalena, and three children, Christian, John and Rosina, in 1851. They were natives of Bern, Switzerland. While each of the three children settled in different areas of Indiana, David stayed with his eldest son Christian. When Christian bought land in Clay County, Indiana, David set up his carpet weaving shop across the road from the farm house.

David’s grandchildren erected this modern stone at the cemetery in his honor.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=38084666

©2013 copyright owned and written by Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found at: https://genealogylady.net/2013/11/04/tombstone-tues…id-yegerlehner/

Sunday’s Obituary – Clarence Earl Yegerlehner (1897-2001)

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Clarence Yegerlehner was the oldest son of John H. and Lovina (Schiele) Yegerlehner. He lived until the ripe old age of 104. I find it curious that his youngest sibling Floyd, born 14 years after, only outlived him by 5 months. There isn’t much more that I can add to Clarence’s story that hasn’t already been written in his obituary or the biography from the Church booklet. I am also adding a piece that Clarence himself wrote about the Yegerlehner farm.

Transcription of Clarence’s History:

Yegerlehner Homestead History

Clarence Yegerlehner’s History of the Yegerlehner farm

Just recent information tells of David Yegerlehner and wife Magdaline Strahm Yegerlehner with their children Christian, John, and Rosina after leaving Switzerland in 1851, landed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Fayette County, Paint Township. Years from 1851-1860 are not known, but in June of 1860 census, they lived in Homes [Holmes] County, Ohio near Winesburg south of Mt. Easton Church. By trade David was a carpet weaver. Migrating west they came to Marion Mills near Patricksburg in Owen county, Indiana. Christian came over in Clay County and purchased 104 acres farm. (Forty acres direct from government and balance in 1860[sic] from those living near by.) David never owned the farm, only a building on the south side of the road for his shop. Christian made boots and shoes on northside of the road. The road then going direct from Clay City to Bowling Green between present house and barn. The other two of David’s children located in northern Indiana near Ft. Wayne. As only seven acres of homestead was cleared Christian had quite a task of clearing the land, John of second generation, purchased the farm. There was still some acreage to be cleared and he spent a summer draining the low lands with tile and changing of branches as low land was only swamps and crooked woods. None of the third generation, seven in number, owned the place, but only two born there and balance grew up and lived there until married and had homes of their own. Clarence, the writer of this history, was of this generation.

Kenneth, his son, was of the fourth generation, then purchased the place. No resemblance today as to previous. House has been replaced, the Swiss-type barn burned and replaced as a modern dairy barn, including silos, loading, sheds, etc. Alan, his son, lives on adjoining farm purchased from his grandfather, Clarence (originally owned by Clarence’s father, John). In all these years (122), it has been father and son working together on both farms. Now still a Swiss decendat [descendant] as of long ago, milk 50 to 60 cows, typical of the Swiss. So seven generations of Yegerlehners make up the 122 years of the old homestead history.

We hope that in future years it will be Luke, Alan’s son born October 1, XXXX, that will finally become the next owner. Then the Yegerlehners name has never been changed in ownership in all 122 years. Seven generations in all.

Written by: Clarence Yegerlehner, August 1982

: Biography of Clarence, p.1

: Biography of Clarence, p. 2

___________________________________________

: July 3, 1942 Envelope

: July 3, 1942, p. 1

: July 3, 1942, p. 2

Letter transcription

Fri.

Dear Mother,

Got lots of mail today a letter from you, Ruth M + Mom – a package from Boonie + wife and a package (carton of cig) from Dorothy. I wouldn’t pay any attention to Dorothy because you know how her stories are. Sometimes they stretch-Don’t let the boys get hold of this. Maybe you will have a brighter outlook after you get the letters this week. I forgot to write Free on the letter yesterday so don’t know if you’ll have to pay for it or not. I remembered it after it was mailed.

I’ll have to write Boonie thanking him for the candy-probably will do that Mon Sun. You can call Dorothy and thank her or go and tell her. You can’t afford to be mad at her now.

It’s been pretty hot and Humid here today no rain but just damp.

Someone called me yesterday Eve. just before I got home and Mrs. E told them to call back later but they never did. I suppose it was Jim-Said it was a man. He’s the only man I could think of. Might be several women? (O yea)

Just had to run down and answer the phone

(page 2) someone wanted to talk to the “nice man”.

Tomorrow I’ll be on duty and may not get a chance to write, but will on Sun again. I won’t be off until 9:30 or so on Sun. That being the night of the fourth I suppose we’ll have lots to do.

It’s about meal time and I’ll get the little slips you sent and mark the amounts to be paid.

That Warren Feed bill seems high. You won’t have to go far back because I paid him each mo. Never did run an account with him larger than one mo. and I didn’t remember buying that much from him the last time he was there. I may have mail ordered just before he came the last time and that would be on that bill. What did you send back.

Well, if I were there for a short time I could figure it out but it doesn’t look like I’ll get to come for a few days yet.

Love Daddy

Surname Saturday – Yegerlehner

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: Letter postmarked May 25, 1942 – Envelope: Roscoe & Gladys’ 13th wedding anniversary

: Letter postmarked May 25, 1942, p. 1

: Letter postmarked Mary 25, 1942, p. 2

Yegerlehner is a rather rare surname. You can generally bet that anyone in the United States with the surname Yegerlehner is related to me. Yegerlehner is Swiss in origin, and in fact, is correctly spelled Jegerlehner. When my ancestor David Jegerlehner arrived in America in 1851 with his wife and 3 children, they changed the spelling to reflect how the name should be pronounced. In the Germanic languages, the letter J is pronounced as an English Y. The second letter e in the name is also pronounced ā (long a). So the Je (in Jegerlehner) is pronounced Yay.

My grandmother always told me that the name Jegerlehner meant “hunter of the hills”. I always thought this was rather romantic considering there are some rather impressive hills in Switzerland that I would like to see some day. Jeger, the first part of the surname, is the German word for hunter. So that part of the translation seems to be correct. I haven’t really been able to come up with a satisfactory translation for lehner though. Lehner appears to be “a status name for a feudal tenant or vassal, from an agent derivative of Middle High German lēhen ‘to hold land as a feudal tenant’. (http://genealogy.familyeducation.com/surname-origin/lehner)

David Jegerlehner had two sons, Christian and Johannes (John). After first settling in a Swiss populated area of Berlin Township, Holmes County, Ohio for a few years, the family decided to move further west. Christian and his father moved to Owen County, Indiana for a few years and then permanently settled in neighboring Clay County. The other son John moved his family to northeastern Indiana around Ft. Wayne. The descendants of Christian traditionally spelled their name Yegerlehner. John’s descendants wrote the name Yagerlehner. Over the next few generations members of the family continued to alter the spelling of the name, mainly in an effort to aid pronunciation. I have seen variants as: Yager-Lehner, Yagerline, Yegerline, Yegerlener. John Henry Yegerlehner, the son of Christian and grandson of David, continued to spell the name Yegerlehner. John Henry is the only son of Christian’s that continued a male line into the 21^st century. So that is why if you find someone with the name Yegerlehner today, they are most likely related to me.

If you would like to learn more about the surname Jegerlehner, one of my distant Swiss cousins maintains this website: http://www.jegerlehner.ch/world/

Letter translation:

Mon Eve 1800

1026 Magnolia Ave

Dear Mother-

We are now in our new home and I think we are very lucky to get such a nice place for 5.00. We have twin beds and plenty of drawer space but the bath is upstairs. Ou

Our working hours have been changed from 4:00 to 4:30 but we still have to be there at 8:30 three mornings per week and 7:30 the other three.

I think in a week or so you should come down and stay a week. We can get rooms at the Chamberland Hotel for $2.50 per day but of course we would have to ride the street car unless you could bring the car but we can see about that in a few days.

We had our first air raid warning today – just practice. Everyone had to stand by for 30 min. The station Unit X had to be prepared – all windows closed lights & water shut off. It was day time. The

(page 2) warning is a weird sort of a noise – sounds like a big Jackass but at least every one can hear it. There hasn’t been any night block out since I’ve been here. I don’t know how much of this stuff I’m supposed to write or not write but I did anyway.

The two letters I got Sat. were the only ones I have received so far but the others will be forwarded when they get here. I don’t believe I’d ever get a letter thru the naval station. From the

Hope the collections are still coming in as we will need them. I’m not sure yet how the finances are coming out. The income tax probably will be the hardest to meet but next year it won’t be so much.

Well, I’ll try to do better tomorrow-

Love Daddy