~ MY FAMILY HISTORY ~
I am fascinated by the life and times surrounding our forebears. I have hunted through copious British, German, French and American archives.
There are many stories to tell of farmers and aristocrats, sorrow and heroism, intrigue, coincidences, Knighthoods, celebrities, even languages to decipher… it’s a fantastic way to learn about our ancestors and one's history!
I’ve taken my own family back to Germany and the 1600s, our surname Stuehmeyer derives from the German Knights of the 1100 and 1200's; to a 1517 marriage in Lyon France - that’s 14 generations back - which include a Baron and a soldier in the Napoleonic war (1793 Battle of Sambre et Meuse)… there’s even an unhappy Priest; then over into America during the mid 1800’s; and of course all over the UK with a couple of Knighthoods and some celebrities too.
Working in the realms of genealogy uncovers many a tale, remembering too that a lot of these families lived ‘way before’ the age of electricity, lighting, central heating, steam engines, and so relied on manual labour, water and wind power, horse and carts, growing their own food, with wood and coal for a source of heating - if they were lucky!
