Claire Gebben

Big Find 1: In my search for the good ship Helvetia, I was sailing on storm-tossed seas until I encountered TheShipsList. What a bountiful resource that turned out to be.

I’ve had a deepsea plunge through what’s offered there, and best of all, in the deepest water at the bottom of Resources Links page are “Email Discussion Lists.” (Thank you, Sarah.)

I subscribed to the one that offered discussion opportunities on immigrant vessels and put out my query. Others on the listserve were quick and generous in responding with what they knew: about the metalling of hulls, about life at sea, on ports where the Helvetia was registered, on the ship’s rigging and number of masts.

Big Find 2: Heritage Quest through my on-line King County Library System. In the 1860 Census, for some strange reason I could not find Michael Harm via name search. I knew he was in Cleveland at the time, and even his address.

So I took the slowpoke, painstaking approach. I compared Michael’s address with an old map to determine which “Ward” he lived in. (The 1860 Census was broken down by Ward.) I browsed page by page through the 1st Ward Census data, and sure enough, I found him. On the 1860 Census, my greatgreatgrandfather’s name is Michael Hiram. He was living at the time with Uncle John Rapparlie, scrawled out on the census as something like Raferlu, though I have yet to find the listing via name search. But there they all are. And the tenants and workers in Uncle John’s wagon building shop, too.

So let’s see, we’ve got Michael Harm listed in various places as: Michel Harne, Harm, Hann, and Hiram. And his bride as Elizabeth Crolly, Crolley and Crowley. But it’s par for the course. Don’t even get me started on how many ways there are to spell Gebben.

I started an MFA in Creative Writing to boost my novel writing skills, but as it turns out, the writing part of a novel is just one piece of the puzzle.

Since I’m writing about my greatgreatgrandfather (born in Germany and based on letters written in German), I’m trying to swallow the German language in one gulp. If only I could inherit the German language the way I inherited my fondness for sauerkraut. But alas, I’m stuck doing it the hard way, studying German on-line and in a local class. And during the Seattle Film Festival, I’m taking advantage of some movies in German. (I gave the movie Soul Kitchen, the highest rating, a 5.)

With historical fiction, there’s also the research steam train, with all of its tunnels through archival libraries and hairpin curves around landslides of historical data not relevant to my specific project.

But perhaps the most daunting has been the genealogy research. It’s like the corner background of the puzzle, a forest at twilight, say, all light and shadows melted together. It’s taken persistence and lots of sleuthing.

But thanks to my friend David Williams, I feel like I’m at the a firmer outline, along the edge of the trees and moving into blue sky. Dave has some experience with researching his own family history, with inspiring results. What’s more, he’s introduced me to Sarah Thorson Little, who teaches genealogy and family history. Here’s my hot tip of the day, about organizing my research, thanks to Sarah: Organizing Computer Genealogy Files.