Hello, Claire,
 
The cc on this message is my brother, Frank Gebhart, who lives in Long Beach, California.  I live in St. Louis, Missouri right about in the middle of the U. S.  Frank and I are trying to trace our family lines together. We are the youngest of five siblings, and our parents were Herbert Julius Gebhart and Cassie Eleanor Brown.
 
I am a subscriber to the Fermanagh-Gold list and have enjoyed your contributions and comments.  I am writing in response to your message of May 16 concerning a proposed family history project.  This history project sounds very interesting and should be helpful to most of us.  My experiences in trying to trace my own family have been varied and rewarding, but in Ireland, they have also been very frustrating!  I started my research during the days when one wrote and sent a letter with a stamped, addressed envelope and hoped for a reply.  During the time I've been searching, we've moved through all manner of changes into the computer/internet age.  This is a bit more complicated sometimes, but it surely does make research easier.  I should perhaps state that since I have been doing this for about thirty years, it is hard to make the story brief.
 
I began my research many years ago after one of my daughters was asked to make a family tree for her social science class.  I had the data for my parents, grandparents, and some of my great-grandparents and similar information for my husband's family.  This was as much information as my daughter's teacher expected, but once I started this project, I was hooked!!  (I'm sure that this is a very familiar happening.  Most of us who are interested in family history probably started about the same way!!)  Frank  was helpful from the beginning, but he joined me in research after he retired some years ago.
 
My husband's family was relatively easy since they were all found in a series of small towns in the province of Milano in Italy.  By a very fortunate chance a cousin of his, who was a priest, was asked to fill in for the pastor of the church in one of these towns while the pastor was recovering from serious surgery.  This cousin was born and brought up in the section of St. Louis that was settled by people from the northern part of Italy, and he spoke Italian as well as the dialect used in the towns of their ancestors.  While the cousin was stationed at the rectory in the town of Marcallo, he occupied his spare time by copying all of the records in the parish's birth/marriage/death registers which contained any names found in their family.  I used these notes to trace two lines of my husband's family for several generations.  These records went back to about 1700.  On subsequent trips to Italy before his death a few years ago, this cousin visited the other towns involved and found additional material.  By writing to the churches and/or civil authorities in the other towns and through personal visits on our trips to Italy, I was able to find a good amount of other data, and we have a pretty fair account of my husband's ancestors.  Of course, I'm always looking to go "just a little bit further".
 
My own family background is a bit more varied.  My maiden name of Gebhart is German.  We were stuck on this line, since we couldn't find our grandfather's home town.  I located the passenger list for the ship which brought my great-grandfather and his family to the U. S., but it didn't give his town of origin.  Finally, in a census record for this great-grandfather's brother, I found that he was listed as being born in Minden, Prussia.  This was just a stroke of luck, since our census records usually only give the country of origin.  I've been looking at census records for more than thirty years, and I've never seen another town of origin.  We located this town and found the christening and marriage records for my great-grandfather, his wife, and their children.  We also found our great-great-grandfather's marriage and death record, but we're stuck there.  On the marriage record it shows a town name for his birth place which we have not been able to trace.  We still try!!
 
My paternal grandmother was named Pauline Pauly, and she was also of German parentage.  In checking into Pauline's family, I found a reference to her father, John Pauly, in a history of early settlers in St. Louis.  The article stated that he had been born on 28 November 1835 in the town of Miesenheim, Rhein, Germany.  I wrote to the Catholic parish in this town, asking if they could confirm this data.  About a month later, I received a letter from a gentleman in Miesenheim.  He said that his hobby was genealogy and that the pastor had asked him to reply to my letter.  The writer confirmed my information and then said that he had taken it upon himself to go further back in the church records for several generations;  he included the data which he had found.  He further stated that he had discovered in doing this research that we shared a set of fourth-great-grandparents.  We have kept in touch through the years, and we visited his family on our trips to Germany.  Later while working at one of the LDS Family History Centers, I came upon a reference to a "Familienbuch Miesenheim", covering the years from 1700 to 1900.  This is a record of their baptism/marriage/death registers.  I wrote my relative in Miesenheim and he sent me a copy of the book, which allowed me to trace several other family lines, so that now we have a good amount of data on my grandmother's family.  I also wrote to the man who had compiled the book, and he very kindly gave me additional information which he had found in neighboring towns.  We carried on a cordial correspondence for several years before he died at the age of 85+.
 
Pauline's mother was Maria Margaretha Waldschmidt, and she was born in Wuerges, Hesse, Germany.  On one of the visits we made to Germany, the relative mentioned above drove us to this town which is about 25 miles away from his home and is east of the Rhine River.  We inquired at their town hall about records, and the people there were very helpful.  A couple of weeks after we returned home, I received a letter from a gentleman in Wuerges.  The people in their records office knew that he was agenealogy buff and had given him my name and address; he very kindly gave me some more information.  He referred me to a woman who was active in their local genealogy society.  I wrote to her, and she helped me with some more data.  She also said that they were compiling records on emigrants from Wuerges to other countries and asked if I'd send her data on my ancestors who had settled in St. Louis.  Of course, I was delighted to comply with her request.  When I started writing to Germany, I realized that it would be helpful if I could read and write the language.  With the help of grammar books and dictionaries I have taught myself enough German to correspond with people who do not speak English (although many people in Germany do).  In fact, when a gentleman from Wuerges wrote to me and asked if I would translate an article which he had written for a magazine in the state of Texas, I was able to do this.  The German expert at our local genealogy society said that it was a good translation.  (I am not singing my own praises.  I only mention this to show that I believe in giving other people any help that I can.)  A further stroke of luck on this line was when Frank found someone on the internet who was actively researching in that area.  This gentleman provided us with a lot of information on specific ancestors and even mailed us some articles written in German giving some particulars of life in that area during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.  These articles made our ancestors' lives seem more real.  In return, Frank did some research for this gentleman here in the States.  A final bit of good fortune came when I wrote to the woman in Wuerges whom I mention above to ask her if she'd set up an appointment for me with the Camberg archives on one of our visits to Germany.  I wanted to trace an ancestor whom we couldn't find.  She said, "Oh, you'll want to visit while you're here.  Give me your data and I'll see what I can find."  I did this, and she found this elusive lady in a neighboring town that I'd never heard of, thereby saving me a lot of time and puzzlement.
 
On our mother's side, we knew that three of her grandparents were born in Ireland and that one came from an early colonial ancestor.  I wrote to a professional genealogist in England to try to trace this man, John Lantthroppe, who came to this country as a bondsman in 1679.  I also told her that a family story was that he was from Yorkshire.  This woman declined to undertake the research because she was very busy, but she confirmed that the name was only found in Yorkshire, particularly in the town of Ingleby Greenhow.  Through the LDS records, I found the church for this town and obtained their records.  There I found the record of his birth and of his parents' marriage.  On a visit to England in 2001, we were able to visit the church where my 8-great-grandparents were married.  It was quite a thrill for me!  By going backwards in U. S. and colonial records, I was able to connect my great-grandmother with John Lantthroppe.
 
Now for the Irish records, which --  as I said above  --  have been a study in frustration.  One great-grandfather, James BROWN, was born in Ireland in 1821 (per U. S. census records) and came to theUnited States in about 1850.  On this side of the Atlantic he was a jeweler and a watch- and clockmaker, but since he was only 21 coming over, we doubt that he would have had his own business in Ireland.  We had the suggestion from a now-deceased relative that he left the country with a price on his head and that he changed his name!!  This sounds a bit too romantic to be true to my brother and me, and the prospect of trying to trace a James Brown, whose town of origin is unknown, who might have changed his name, and who might or might not have worked in a jeweler's shop is so remote that Frank and I have never really tried to trace him.  His wife was the descendant of the John Lantthroppe named above.  Another ancestor in the Brown line was one Mathieu Agee, a Huguenot from France, who came here between 1690 and 1700.  Here we are fortunate that he is considered an "original ancestor".  That is, the genealogists agree that anyone with this name who lived  in the United States before 1850 is descended from him.  We've been able to trace this line back to his birth in Nantes in 1670.  I received additional data on his family from the Centre du Protestantisme Francais in Paris, when I contacted them to see if they could help.  Again, we worked backwards in U. S. and colonial records to connect another great-grandmother to Mathieu's son.  The fourth child of James Brown and Martha LANDTROOP (as the name had evolved) was our grandfather, Francis Grover Brown.  My brother was born on his birthday and was named for him.
 
The ultimate in frustration for us is the remaining line, one represented by John James SLOWEY and Elizabeth DAVIDSON.  John was born in Ireland in 1841 (per U. S. census records).  He and his wife were married in ca 1863, and their first two children, John James, Jr. (born 1864) and Elizabeth (born 17 February 1866) were supposedly born in Glasgow, Scotland (also per U. S. census records).  The family came to this country in 1869 (per U. S. census records) and settled in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.  John is listed as a machinist in the Pittsburgh City Directories from 1870-1876.  The family story is that he worked for the mines driving the engines which brought the coal to the surface, but we're not sure of this.  We think that the  reference to "machinist" might suggest that he worked maintaining or repairing the engines.  Their youngest child, Mary Josephine, was born 5 February 1876; she was our grandmother. The family moved to Jefferson County, Arkansas in about 1877, and they are listed in the 1880 U. S. census of Bogy Township in that county.  John must have died shortly after the census, since Elizabeth is listed in the 1883 City Directory of Little Rock, Arkansas as his widow.  We have not been able to locate John's grave.  Elizabeth was born in Ireland on 22 June 1842 to John Davidson (born in England ca 1800-1810) and Elizabeth CLINE (born in Ireland ca 1820). The latter Elizabeth is said to be the daughter of John??? Cline and Elizabeth GALLAGHER.  There is a family story that the Clines owned some property, which was confiscated when they taught their daughter Gaelic.  Again, this sounds like a fairy tale to me, but I pass  it on for what it's worth.
 
The above paragraph represents all we know about John Slowey and Elizabeth Davidson.  While I was busy with our German ancestors, my brother was trying all known sources for this elusive pair.  He checked Griffith's, PRONI, and any variants thereof.  He hired professional researchers who were unsuccessful, and we've written to people with the Slowey name, asking for any information they might have. Usually, in spite of addressed and stamped return envelopes, these people do not respond.  After several years of fruitless searching on Frank's part, I stopped the German research and joined him in pursuing the Slowey-Davidson couple.  We did submit the Slowey name on the Fermanagh-Gold list, and received responses from several kind souls  --  Sean Rooney, Brian McDonald, and Olivia O'Dolan in particular.  The first two gave us good general information, and Olivia very kindly put me in touch with a couple of Slowey contacts.  Unfortunately, they didn't respond to my requests.  While I was working on this message (which has taken me several days), and I received a message from Olivia.  She asked if I had heard from any of the people she mentioned, and I had to reply in the negative.  I told her not to press them, since I don't want to affect her relationship with these contacts.  Another gentleman that she referred me to did reply, but he was unable to help.
 
This message represents our triumphs and failures in trying to construct our family history.  If you would prefer this data in a different format or if there is anything else which you would like to have, please let me know.  As you can see from this account, we've been assisted many times by the kindness of other researchers, and we've tried to reciprocate.  
 
Now, I would like to ask your indulgence in giving Frank and me any help you can on this last family line. Can you think of any other possible approaches to tracing this couple?  We would be very grateful for any suggestions.  Am I phrasing my information badly?  I should say that I don't usually write to the extent that I have in this message.  I'm telling you everything, because you requested it.  Normally, I would give just the facts listed in the paragraph on the Slowey-Davidson couple.  I give you full permission to quote anything in this message and to give my name and address to anyone who expresses any interest in this line  --  or anything else in this account.  I would be eternally grateful for any help from anyone and would be glad to give any assistance  that I can.
 
Anything you may be able to suggest to break down this brick wall would be received with our most profound gratitude.
 
Best wishes on your project, and I'll be hoping to see some sign that it is a work-in-progress on this very helpful list.

Carol Marlo