Category Archives: Sleuthing for Stories

New Ellis Island record for Caroline Richter

After I posted the Massachusetts death certificate for Caroline Richter last week, my friend Barbara emailed me an extraordinarily helpful suggestion: try searching for her on ellisisland.org, the online home for Ellis Island immigration records. I was dismissive at first … Continue reading

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Massachusetts Death Certificate for Caroline Richter

Well, I’m now 3 for 3 on successfully receiving copies of early 1900s death certificates that I’ve requested, with the most recent from Massachusetts. Unfortunately, this 1929 death certificate for Caroline Richter (view/download JPG) only has one piece of new … Continue reading

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1968 Detroit Science Fair Ribbons

You should have seen the look on my face a few years ago when I found these two award ribbons tucked in among my grandmother’s old photos! I fell in love with them as artifacts before I knew anything about … Continue reading

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Where in the German Empire did my Richter ancestors come from?

Earlier this week I mentioned requesting death certificates from Michigan’s vital records department to learn more details about my great-grandmother’s parents. I’m still waiting  for information, and probably will be for a couple more weeks. In the meantime, I decided … Continue reading

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Requesting death certificates to help with a brick wall

Three of my four grandparents immigrated to Detroit, Michgian as teens or young adults. Dad’s ancestors are all French-Canadian and can be traced back in some cases to the 1600s fairly easily (not that I’ve very much research of my … Continue reading

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