I was born and still live in the Cleveland, Ohio area and am lucky to have unusual enough family surnames to make it easy to look up most of my relatives. I have been researching my genealogy for over 40 years. I recently retired from the communications industry, and am now doing as much as I can with European investigations prior to 1800. My main surnames are: Oltmanns, Driesel, Schnadt, Krieger, Neff, Vanderweel, Van Der Heide, Walker, Cooper, McKenzie, Seifker, and Kenemeyer. Most all are German, with a few Dutch and Scotch-English in origin. I have been able to trace back Schnadt to 1620, Vanderweel to 1640, and McKenzie to 1550. Many thanks to those genealogists who have preceded me, in providing invaluable prior European family lineages; and contact from distant cousins who have found me, or I them, sharing information through Find A Grave.

I was born and still live in the Cleveland, Ohio area and am lucky to have unusual enough family surnames to make it easy to look up most of my relatives. I have been researching my genealogy for over 40 years. I recently retired from the communications industry, and am now doing as much as I can with European investigations prior to 1800. My main surnames are: Oltmanns, Driesel, Schnadt, Krieger, Neff, Vanderweel, Van Der Heide, Walker, Cooper, McKenzie, Seifker, and Kenemeyer. Most all are German, with a few Dutch and Scotch-English in origin. I have been able to trace back Schnadt to 1620, Vanderweel to 1640, and McKenzie to 1550. Many thanks to those genealogists who have preceded me, in providing invaluable prior European family lineages; and contact from distant cousins who have found me, or I them, sharing information through Find A Grave.