Welcome.
Discover your German origins.

In Silesia a couple of decades and centuries ago, our common history was in its infancy – as far as we know today. People are the actual center of all our pedigree research and with each individual life story we gain more insight into the time since our family's infancy. However, for all those of us born after 1950, Silesia appears as a part of a lost world.

Who gets involved with historic backgrounds and immerses oneself into a world before the unified Europe, does much better understand many old stories, personal fates and different ways of life.

» English Pages (automatic translation)

All relatives I've heard so far understand at least German or English, many of them both. And by far, this homepage and the online family tree is not only interesting for Germans but especially for our US family branches, too.

So I've been successfully looking for an easy way to offer you a bilingual page: With Google's instant translation tool you can always enjoy the latest German information and links without any waiting time. Of course, computer translation does not actually "understand" the context, so for instance my Name 'Rolli Vogel' is interpreted into 'Rolli bird' just like some cities are. Well, it's a basic translation with some funny bugs but it's a feasible first step. And, please, read the following three pages only in it's original version: those either already contain English information or the translation is nonsensical, e.g. of book titles.

For a complete bibliography of my family tree research please click on the books right. Do you know any other literature, encyclopedias, or archives?

For Silesian history, gazetteers, maps, and the Śląskie Voivodeship today please click on the Silesian emblem (English & German).

What do the meanings of our family names tell us about our ancestors' lives? Click on the note paper and learn more about our names' history.

So, now you know everything to start: just click on the US flag above and surf the regular family pages.

For more information on our past family reunion on April 14, 2007, click here.

» Family Tree Online

For privacy reasons our family tree is password protected but, certainly, freely accessible for all relatives. You are looking for the password? Just send me an e-mail. If you know all this click on the right picture.

Up to now, we gathered some 1250 people in kinship to the three main branches Gloge (from 1760), Jaeschke (from ~1725 resp. 1782), and Roth (from 1803). Our attention is still to dig deeper, to go back further. This means research in Silesian archives as well as contacts to our US relatives. And to say it again and again: Support, certificates, registers, notes and memories are always welcome!

Some tips for using the family tree online: All persons in my database are listed in alphabetical order on the left. By clicking on a name you are shown the details on the right, all blue characters and arrows are clickable. The blue arrow besides a person's name opens a context menu with graphic options.

A fabulous story about US Americans whose German ancestors emigrated via Hamburg port. It's a German article with many English quotations, read here.

Hamburg's Link to your Roots database, mentioned as a valuable source for family research, contains the waybills with millions of names leaving their German homeland. You will find that Internet database and more details here.