Your American Story

[Stan4dSteph]

My ancestors on my father's side came over from Germany in 1884. The male relative was the oldest son of 11 children. The primary industry in the area was growing grapes and making wine, but the harvest had been bad for a few years before that (as recorded in the town hall in Germany), so the hard economic times helped push my relative to seek his fame and fortune in the USA. He was pre-Ellis though, so no record of him through there. Strangely enough, the female relative was from a town nearby in Germany, but they didn't meet until they both settled in Indiana.