Hi everyone.
It's time to meet another one of our Wonderful WikiTreers! Meet Terri Swift.
Terri became a Wiki Genealogist in January of 2019. She is active in our Magna Carta, Medieval and Germany projects.
What are some of the surnames you are researching?
Clawson, Coats, Heuser, Seipp, McMullen, Matthes, Bainbridge, Buswell, Wright.
What are some of the locations you are researching?
United States (Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina,) England (Yorkshire and Northamptonshire,) and Germany (Hessen-Darmstadt).
When and how did you get interested in genealogy?
In the late 80s my father bought a genealogy kit and started filling it out. I saw it, picked it up where he left off, and got hooked. I worked in downtown San Diego and would sneak off to the Family History Library on my lunch breaks. That was fun.
Tell us about a brick wall you were able to break down.
Anna Elise Seipp Matthes Keltz is one of my favorites. She emigrated with her husband, Phillip Matthes and her son, Georg from Ober Hörgern Germany to New York on the Cimbria in 1881. The couple ended up in Kentucky where they had relatives that arrived there before them. They had two more children, Anna and William in Louisville.
Phillip died in 1893 in July. Less than a month later their son Georg succumbed to typhoid fever. Anna and her daughter, Anna, survived. In 1894 Anna remarried, her new husband was Fred Keltz. Anna helped bring up Fred’s children, John, Lula and Harry. Unfortunately, in 1913 Fred died from typhoid fever too.
Anna lived until 1941, dying in Elyria, Ohio in her daughter, Anna’s, house. My mother was 3 years old and doesn’t remember her, although she heard a lot about her growing up. Anna had a hard life. In one census she told the census taker that she had 4 children and only two survived. Both her husbands died early, leaving her alone.
Anna is my favorite ancestor because for years she was my brick wall! But one day I was looking for her and I found her marriage certificate to Fred Keltz and the document told me that her maiden name was Seipp and that was it, I found her, her family in the United States and her family in Germany.
If you could pick one person in history to be related to, who would it be and why?
Frida Kahlo. She was one tough woman.
What are some of your interests outside of genealogy?
I like to sew, knit, crochet, cross stitch and make junk journals and cards from scratch. I like to read and I like to listen to audiobooks. I rotate my hobbies, depending on the season and my current interests.
[Interview continues in comments.]
