I once heard it said that you make your own genealogy luck. That could be very true in the case of one instance of genealogy luck. Many years ago I had traveled to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City so that was my part in making my genealogy luck.
For years I had tried to find my German ancestors on passenger arrival lists and in other resources. I had many things that led to a determination of a 1856 U.S. arrival date. But nothing was panning out.
On that trip to the FHL, I was waiting for someone to join me so we could go to dinner. I was tired and while waiting was antsy and picked up a volume of Germans to America. I simply opened it to a page and there were my Germans! The Schleichers, Fishers, and Rohrs were right there, arriving in 1853, not 1856. The names left a bit to be desired in the abstracting, but now I had them. They left via Bremen – the records for Bremen were largely destroyed.
© 2009, Paula Stuart-Warren. All rights reserved.
