This book is arranged by family descendant lineages starting with the Bostwick line. The common ancestor for this line is William Westley Bostwick. We have found his death certificate and marriage certificate, however, neither one reveals who his parents are. On the marriage certificate is a place of birth, but, so far, the name of the town in Ohio cannot be found. This has been my most challenging line to trace. There was a book published by Henry Anthon Bostwick in 1901 and revised in 1928 on the Bostwick family in America. It is rich with lineages; however, I was not able to directly link my family to any of the lineages. For anyone doing Bostwick research, Henry Bostwick's book is well worth looking at. It was recently reprinted in 1987 in two volumes.
The next and most complete family line is my paternal grandmother's line, the Lamp family. The ancestor I start with in this line is Hinrich Lamp, grandfather to Johannes Lamp, who immigrated to America from Germany in 1750. My first link to Johannes origin came from a pedigree chart on the Dunn family donated the the Handley Library in Winchester, Virginia, in 1965, where I found it in 1990.
The next family line is the Birkhimer line. This is my paternal grandmother mother's line, which married into the Lamp family line. I found much information on this line in the West Virginia Census of 1880 and in Hardesty's West Virginia History. There is also a book on the Birkheimer family in the Library of Congress, which links the family line back to Germany; however, I have yet to link up to one of these lines.
The next two family lines are my mother's paternal and maternal lines, the Persello and Pellis families, respectively. It was on these two family lines that I first began to do genealogy. In May 1989, my mother and brother and his wife went to Italy to the home town my grandparents came from, Udine. There my mother was able to meet with the priest at the church which held the records of both my grandparents families. He heartily gave the information to my mother, and the information went back ten generations! This exciting find greatly increased our knowledge on the Persello and Pellis lines.
Perhaps, the most interesting aspect of tracing my roots is that I discovered many of my wife's family roots, also, primarily through the Lamp family line. It appears that Johannes Lamp's son Johann George is my ancestor, and Johannes' youngest son John is my wife's direct ancestor, making Johannes our common ancestor. One never knows what research will result in.
For each family line I have provided an outline of the earliest ancestor followed by a report on that person's descendants, which is divided into generations. This book is also indexed for ease of finding a person one is seeking. Hopefully, this will answer questions for those related to these families. If anyone has corrections or further information to the family lines, please let us know, so we can update our records. This book like our genealogy is an ongoing process and will be updated as more or corrected information becomes available. A heart felt thanks to all those who have contributed.
