The Search For My Uncommon Last Name, part 2

In 2001 I signed up with Ancestry.com for the first time. I say "first time" because I have cancelled and rejoined countless times over the past 19 years as my budget allowed. At that time, I still couldn't find a damn thing about my Dad's family beyond what I already knew. All Ancestry had at the time was the info I put into my tree myself.

Since 2001, genealogy resources have grown in leaps and bounds. This is in part because more people are using sites like Ancestry.com. Other reasons, I'd say, are the digitalization and indexing of old records from around the world, as well as increased access via the internet to heritage groups and fellow researchers.

Around 2013 I learned about setting up Google Alerts (you choose keyword(s) and Google emails you when it gets new hits on that) I had set some up for the last names in my tree. Lo and behold, one day I got a notification that Google had a link for me to check out related to Tscherne. It didn't have much info for me to work with, but it did have one very important word with it: Gottschee. I had no idea what it was or even how to properly pronounce it, but I set up another Google Alert for that word.

It turns out that Gottschee is a place that doesn't exist anymore, as the Gottscheer residents were "resettled" by Hitler in 1942. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

(Next up, Part 3!)

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