19 May 2010: I am a little nervous about using this Rootsweb-hosted site. I initiated this web site about 11 years ago in 1999. At that time, I was living in Floyd, VA, and I must have set up an account using [email protected]. However, I re-located in 2003 to North Carolina, and as a consequence, I changed my email address to bobbykramp(at)yahoo.com. I long ago forgot my old password. I still have my user name and password to upload pages to this site using a Transfer Protocol application, but it seems be working very slowly. Problem with Rootsweb is that it's hard to wade through their Help Desk. Realize that Rootsweb is mostly a volunteer organization although it is under the corporate umbrella of Ancestry.com.
So, if someday this site disappears, look for it elsewhere- probably using Google search if it is still functioning. You can also check my blog at travelstwo.blogspot.com. Best bet: I better start putting this data in a BOOK.
20 May 2008: Posted a page which lists our war veterans. Tried to make it in time for Memorial Day, but this is as far as I got today. Just a reminder: more recent adventures of my personal quest for family history can be found on my blog. Use the tags for Father's branch or Mother's branch.
4 Feb 2004: Posted an updated genealogy from my database which I keep in Ancecstral Quest (by Incline Software, LC). However, for security purposes, I filtered out all persons who are under the age of 20 (born after Jan 1984). Persons, for whose birth date is unknown, were also excluded since their age could not be determined. No vital statistics are given for living persons.
18 Jul 2002: Yikes, it's been over a year since I added anything to this site. However, I've have been busy collecting family history and genealogical data. Went to Germany and the Rhine River Valley in Fall of 2001 searching for my mother's Gailliot branch. Had a computer crash. Then, there was recovery and gettiing used to Windows XP, and a new version of Netscape composer. So, please be patient while I get "back into the water". I added an update page to the Journal of my great grandfather, Thomas Russell. Several people have contributed to its interpretation, including a few descendants whose ancestors were actually mentioned in the Journal. Many thanks to our contrubutors. They lend validity to Thomas Russell's journal.
26 Feb 2001: Today, I start a 6 week job in Berwick, PA. So, I will probably put this Web site on a back burner for a couple of months. I will have my email and snail mail forwarded. I'd love to hear from you. See you in April. Bye, Bob
20 Feb 2001: Added "Featured Family History Photo" of the month to encourage repeat visits. And to present our Family History a little tantalizing morsel at a time. Don't want to overwhelm you.
13 Feb 2001: Added web pages of My Pedigree (Ahnentafel) in Stone in which I present images of my ancestors tombstones. It was quite revealing for me to realize how many of my ancestors are buried without markers or in unknown graves. So, I also added a text only verison of my Ahnentafel Chart .
4 Dec 2000: Added more detailed map of Beckel village in Kreis Stolp. Added map of Pomerania (Pommern). Both maps can be accessed by linking from My Prussian Background page . I enjoy reading maps. Later on, I will probably add a list and views of pertinent maps to this web site. As a reminder, I have listed some off-site links to other sites with excellent map collections.
2 Aug 2000: I wish to acknowledge the aid of Mr Rudolf Kerbitz of Wesel, Germany, in the interpretation of a loose paper written in Sütterlin (an ancient German dialect) which commemorated the christening of Bertha Johanna Kramp in 1875.
2 Aug 2000: Added photos for the younger children of John Kramp and Johanna, nee. Marsh.
23 July 2000: Added obituaries for George Haas and his son, Nicholas . Also corrected the address and photograph of my father's former place of employment at the Alexandria Gazette (in Alexandria, Virginia).
10 July 2000: Added two images to "People and Places around Houtzdale": Aunt Alice Wagner's pupils, 1934 , from Whiteside school house, and Alice's high school graduation class, 1927 , from Woodward Twp at West Moshannon.
10 July 2000: Added three obituaries of the Hohnke Family which can be linked from the Index of Obituaries.
10 July 2000: Added more links to www (URL) links page
6 June 2000: I uploaded a GEDCOM file of 3 generations descending from Frederick and Augusta HOHNKE to the WorldConnect Project (Trademark) at RootsWeb.com. The WorldConnect is a database of GEDCOMs similar to that of Family Tree Maker's World Family Tree (TM) except that the former is freely accessible whereas the latter is commercially available on CDs- about 50 CDs at $40 each.
As an experiment, I searched the unique surname "Hohnke" (exact
spelling) on five different GEDCOM databases on the Internet with the following
interesting results:
| GEDCOM database1 | Total Names (individuals) currently2 in Database | Individuals with Hohnke surname ("hits") |
| World Family Tree by FTM (commercial) | 98 million | 105 with repeats3 |
| World Tree by Ancestry.com (free) | 45 million | 36 with repeats |
| WorldConnect by Rootsweb (free) | 32.7 million | 16 with repeats |
| Ancestral Archives by Kindred Konnection (by subscription) | 47.8 million | 0 |
| Pedigree Resource File by Family Search (free) | ? | 0 |
6 June 2000: Finally returned home after working 3 months in NC and MD. Incidentally, I have created a private family web site at MyFamily.com for me and my paternal ancestors. It is a password protected site, meaning that one needs a user name and password for access. If you are a family member or close acquaintance and would like an invitation (with temporary user name and password), send me your email address. MyFamily.com is or was a partner with Ancestry Inc.
12 Feb 2000: Unfortunately for my genealogy addiction, I will be working away from home (entering a "dark phase") for the months of Feb, Mar, and Apr. My snail mail is being forwarded and I hope to find access to the internet and my email from a temporary residence.
11 Feb 2000: Julius Strike (Streich) has been the missing link in our family for over a hundred years since he disappeared from Houtzdale, PA, around 1900. Reportedly, he abandoned a family. The ultimate fate of Julius Strike still remaines a mystery, but recently, with the aid of a query respondent, I located the tombstone of Julius' daughter, Martha Strike, and her obituary . Use your browser's back key to return here.
11 Feb 2000: Uploaded new genealogical database using GEDbrowser, a GEDCOM to HTML converter showing pedigrees/ family for every person in my current database. Surname and individual indexes are included. For some reason (yea, a glitch), children of the primary individual are not presented in order of birth, particularly for early generations. However, birth dates are provided, so one can calculate the children's birth order. Anybody got a fix for this GEDbrowser glitch? Get your own copy of GED Browser .
26 Jan 2000: Added map segment showing village of Beckel in Hinter Pomerania, Prussia (now in northern Poland). The Kramp family lived near here in 1875 when one of the children was christened- about 9 years before the family immigrated to Pennsylvania.
4 Jan 2000: Happy New Year and Good Luck in your ancestor hunting. WHERE have I been? I was working on the road in Sep, Oct, and Nov, 1999. When I came home in Dec, besides getting ready for Christmas, I was frustratingly trying to fix some glitches in my computer system. Now all is well, but unfortunately, I am sorely behind in responding to some of the great comments I received regarding this web site- particularly some enlightening comments on the 19th century journal of my great grandfather, Thomas W. Russell. In the coming days, I will incorporate much of the information from these comments. This was and is my hope for this site- that generous persons would contribute to the SEARCH. I thank all of you so much and thanks too for your patience.
August, 1999 News flash: See recent article and photo of my first cousin, Russell Vernon, owner of West End Market gourmet food store in Akron, OH, in August issue of Reader's Digest, page 90.
11 Aug 1999. I re-organized the photo album, added more images, and provided a Photo Album Index .
11 Aug 1999. Added more images to Background on my Prussian Ancestors . In particular, I added a map and images of the ghost town of Peale, in Clearfield Co, PA.
4 July 1999. Added a page which gives a Background on my Prussian Immigrant Ancestors - a sort of introductory chapter. I will be adding more images to this page in the near future. Let you know here when I do.
16 June 1999: Uploaded several pages regarding Obituaries and Death Notices- an alphabetized list and 2 pages containing 17 obituaries. Seeking more obituaries from family members.
13 June 1999: Uploaded several pages of html to my new website hosted by the Roots Genealogical Data Cooperative, better known as RootsWeb. Several months ago, I posted several of my surnames to the Roots Surname List (RSL) of RootsWeb. I am very impressed by the organization and the mission of the Cooperative. I have been fortunate to find some leads on the individual state and county pages at USRootsWeb. It seems RootsWeb is for serious family researchers. I am gradually moving all the files associated with my paternal branches (STREICH, HOHNKE, KRAMP, RUSSELL, and HARTLEY) from my webpage at geocities to this site.