4. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 11. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 13. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
My Story
When I asked my grandmother, Minnie where our family came from, she replied: Germany - period. I didn't think much about it, until one Sunday after church, when she asked if I wanted to go for a ride. We drove out in the country, past a golf course, across winding roads, beautiful old trees everywhere and farms. I thought we were lost, until we came to this old church, with a cemetery on the left side of it. She told me this was where her family was buried. It was a small cemetery, crooked rows of very old headstones with names in a language I couldn't read. Grandma showed me her mother's headstone, and told me the language was German. We walked through the cemetery, and stopped at her brother's and sister's headstones and then I saw what could have been the oldest headstone in the entire cemetery. The carving was so faded it was hard to read, and we stood there a few seconds before Grandma told me it was her grandma's. I remember getting choked up and thinking, four generations of women were all within feet of each other, and I didn't know two of their names until that day. I had to know more. That was when I started my genealogy journey..
↑ Cheryl J Hess, United States Public Records, "United States Public Records, 1970-2009", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QJWF-RHL3 : 22 April 2020), Cheryl J Hess, 1998.
↑ Cheryl J Smith, United States Public Records, "United States Public Records, 1970-2009", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KBLJ-RKV : 29 January 2020), C Hess, 2000.
My DNA
49% England, Northwestern Europe
Cheryl (Smith) Hess has English ancestors.
27% Germanic Europe
9% Scotland
Cheryl (Smith) Hess has Scottish Ancestors.
6% Wales
5% Sweden & Denmark
4% Ireland
Cheryl (Smith) Hess has Irish ancestors.
2% Norway
Cheryl (Smith) Hess has Norwegian ancestors
Cheryl Hess. participated with The Virginia Connectors during the 2022 Connect-a-Thon, and has added 57 connections.
Cheryl (Smith) Hess participated with Team Virginia during the 2019 Source-a-Thon, adding some sources to profiles.
Cheryl (Smith) Hess participated with The Great Lakes Region team during the 2018 Source-a-Thon, adding 365 sources to profiles.
Cheryl (Smith) Hess participated with The Great Lakes Region team during the 2019 Source-a-Thon, adding 391 sources to profiles.
Cheryl (Smith) Hess is participating with Team Tennessee Volunteers during the 2019 Connect-a-Thon, and has added 216 connections.
WHEN I'M RESTING
The time will inevitably come for my rest and relief from life's hectic cycle. It may be, though I do hope not, that I will one day merely be unable through physical or mental illness to continue my research and recording into my family and other profiles of interest.
At that time, I place the profiles that I manage into the caring hands of the Mindy Silva. If any member/s of my family (Cassidy Cornwell) have the desire to continue what has been started, I ask that they be allowed to manage those profiles whether or not they are currently on the Trusted Lists for those profiles and be shown the guidance to continue in the proper manner.
I also manage many profiles of people unrelated to me. Those profiles that are locked for privacy reasons I would desire to see transferred to someone with an interest in those projects or sub-projects.
For access to Cheryl Hess's full information you must be on Cheryl's Trusted List. Please login.
See the Contact section of the Tree & Tools page.
Sponsored Search
DNA Connections
It may be possible to confirm family relationships by comparing test results with Cheryl or other carriers of her ancestors' mitochondrial DNA.
It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with Cheryl:
100.00% 100.00%
Cheryl (Smith) Hess:
AncestryDNA, Ancestry member oldsoul1968
Thank you for your participation on Team Virginia in the April 2022 Connect-A-Thon. You helped bring Team Virginia to an amazing 1st place finish. We could not have done it without you! This year's Thon members added over 84,000k new Profiles to the Global Shared Tree!!
Cheryl (Smith) Hess participated with The Virginia Connectors during the 2022 Connect-a-Thon, and has added 72 connections.
It’s Germany Project check-in time again! Please respond within the next 2 weeks and let me know if you’re still interested in participating with the Project. Remember, the only requirements for membership in the Germany Project are (1) that you work on at least one German profile every 6 months and (2) that you respond to this check-in.
Please respond to this message by posting a reply below or sending me a private message on WikiTree. In your response, we welcome any feedback you may want to give on the project (what you like about it, what you’d like to see us do, what we could change, etc.)
If you ever have any questions, please ask. I look forward to hearing from you soon!
Thank y you for helping me. I finally succeeded in getting all Barnes people with the surname Barnes instead of Potts. I still have one problem. I added a second child with the name Barnes and I don't know how to delete him. How is that done?
Thank you for your participation with Team Virginia in the January 2022 Connect-A-Thon. You helped bring Team Virginia to an amazing 2nd place finish. We could not have done it without you! This year's Thon members added over 85,000k new Profiles to the Global Shared Tree!!
Cheryl (Smith) Hess participated with The Virginia Connectors during the 2022 Connect-a-Thon, and has added 57 connections.
On behalf of the G2G Integrators Project Leaders, we are doing a first of the year check-in with members. Please let us know if you are still active.
If you are active, please let us know in which ways you most enjoy contributing to the project. All of us would like to thank you for your contributions and hope that you are enjoying exploring your roots.
Please reply as we look forward to hearing from you soon.
David, Pip and Dorothy ~ G2G Integrators Project Leaders and PC
Heartfelt thanks for a great job working on my ancestors during the Week 49 challenge! It's been exciting to see the breakthroughs and so many improved profiles.
Hi Cheryl. I just wanted to say a big thank you for the huge amount of work you did on my profile this week during the WikiTree Challenge. I'm very grateful!
Hi Cheryl, I just found this comment section so I am answering your post to me. I have been on Wikitree for about 6 months and still get lost and make mistakes. Thanks to others I am correcting some of my mistakes and figuring out the site.
Thank you for your participation on Team Virginia in the July 2021 Connect-A-Thon. You helped bring Team Virginia to an amazing 2nd place finish. We could not have done it without you! This year's Thon members added over 74,000k new Profiles to the Global Shared Tree!! It is always great having you work on Team Virginia. :)
Cheryl (Smith) Hess participated with The Virginia Connectors during the 2021 Connect-a-Thon, and has added 10 connections.
You asked me a question, How do you like WikiTree so far? Well I have 4 months worth and I like it very much, where I can share my tree with many others. Plus it will expands my tree as well. Sorry it took so long to answer your question but I like to Thank you once again.
I would like to thank you for all your contributions towards the goals of the England Project during the past six months. We've achieved a huge amount during this period and we couldn't have done it without you and our other project members.
As the England Project Leaders, we are completing our six monthly check-in with all project members.
How are you going with the Orphan Trail? Which other team/s are you interested in becoming active in once you finish the Trail? Also, do you have any feedback on what the project is doing well and anything we could do better in the future?
Please respond to this message by posting a reply below or sending me a private message. I look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks for reaching out. I am loving WikiTree! There's so much information and so many "helps" here. I'm discovering new things each day. Actually, I have a large tree on Ancestry which I'm planning to work on moving to WikiTree but it will take me a long time. I'll be sure to contact you when I have questions. And, I know there will be many! Thanks again, Jan (Breault) Cartmill (Breault-188).
Thank You for your work on Week 11 of the WikiTree Challenge, especially for the work you did on our profile of the week Eleanor Martha (Hobbs) Welty (1836-1918). Here is a special sticker that you can add to your profile.
Cheryl worked on the best profile of the week during week 11 of The WikiTree Challenge
Thank you Cheryl. I'm not new to this but due to extensive travel in the mid 90' i gave it up. now it appears one of my son in laws wants to at least, view it with intentions of extending it to his family.
The majority of my work was with the LDS library locally. So much easier now.
Thank you, Cheryl, for your very thoughtful note of encouragement and appreciation. I am not new to family history, but I am not much of an expert. I just learned about this project about two weeks ago but instantly recognized its quality, value and importance. I first learned the excitement of family history from my Dad's Uncle Charlie (He passed away in 1962 at 82 when I was still in college). It is so apropos that his life's profession was U.S. letter carrier. He shared with me the thrill of holding the buckskin shirtsleeve of our ancestor who had been captured at about age 14 in 1796 by Native Americans and was with them for 12 years, but went back often afterward to visit his "Indian Mother" who had treated him with so much love. I created a Tribal Pages family tree 10 years ago for our family reunion crowd where they can update their own family circle. It only has about 2500 names in it.
I used the RootsSearch function a bit last week. The other help features have been a great reference. I blew it in the 1st 10 minutes by putting in my Grandfather and Grandmother and not seeing the duplicate warning pop up. I learned quickly how to look for that. It was not exactly where I expected it. The owner has not seen the merge request yet. It should only take me two or three months to enter the info I have already. And in the process just the last couple weeks I have discovered probably 40 bits of detail, like extra wives! that I had not known about.
Thank you again, I will stop being so windy. Mel
Thank you so very much for taking the time (all day) to update my family tree information and helping me see what a profile should look like with sources etc. And also helping direct me with a DNA question. It is so appreciated! I look forward to learning more about Wikitree and encouraging others to participate.
Thank you so much for asking how I was doing as a new member. There is a lot to learn on this site. I have been entering some of my relatives and seeing if anyone else may have the same relatives.
Hi Cheryl, Thank you for the comment. I have a lot of documented sources, just not sure how to add them to each of the family. I also have a lot of pictures. Haven't seen any on other families. Most of my stuff is on Family Search. My Justice family goes back to 1609 but the Sanchez and Hawkins family not so far. Will add more family members after the weekend. Have a great and safe New Year.
Just looked over your page and realized we are very similar in age and have both been researching our family tree for 30 years or more. You are so lucky to have been able to find out so much about your family. I, too, know a lot about my mother's line (Herrings and Horn(e)s) but my Dad's grandfather is my brick wall with steel and concrete reinforcements! Can't get beyond his marriage to my great grandmother on October 31, 1889, in Fort Smith, AR. Her family are Freeds and, again, I know a lot about them and have corresponded with a number of cousins, but that Davidson wall is really thick!
Hope to learn a lot from you that will help me chisel through to information on William Bell Davidson, 1849/54 Scotland and died in Indian Territory in July 1906.
Hope you have a wonderful Christmas and that we all have a happy and healthy New Year!
Cheryl: I want to post an answer to the question of the week: Do you or have you any diaries of your ancestors. No matter which section I hit it doesn't let have a space to answer the question. I really feel like I'm still a novice in trying to use Wiki Tree for answering questions or asking a question. Is there some basic things (bad word) but don't know what other word to use, I can follow to answer and ask questions. Help please.
I am new here. I am wondering how to source myself. For example, I am not going to upload my own personally identifying documents such as birth certificate, etc. Also, the only sources I have were downloaded from Ancestry.com. Do those sources travel with a GEDCOM file?
Thank you<
LE
Thanks for your message Cheryl. I am pleased to know what to do about any problem members. I received a real shock a day or two into starting on Wikitree and received a very aggressive message. Also for the tip re Sources. I am slowly getting to get used to Wikitree!!
It's that time of the year again: check-in time! As England Project Leaders, we like to check in with you every six months or so to see how things are progressing. Back in May, we didn't ask for a response due to the rapid emergence of Covid-19 because we understood that people's lives were changing rapidly. While we are still living in a Covid world, we do need to hear back from you this time around.
First of all, how are you doing? What are you currently working on?
Secondly, we're looking for some feedback on the Google Group and our Discord server. Do you use either or both of these? If you don't use either, why not? Do you have any suggestions on how we can improve participation and collaboration, either generally or for you personally?
I have been busy, thank you for asking. I live in Illinois, and we have just been moved back to Stage 2. It seems like I am on WikiTree 24/7 since Covid started and I am jumping around everywhere, since I was promoted to PC, and it takes a lot of time. I have my computer set to open discord as soon as it turns on, so yes, I love keeping up with everything on the Discord server, and I also have notifications on, so if I am working on something else, the notification pops out the side. I love it.
I don't have any suggestions to improve participation, but know that once I started to actively participate, I can't imagine not having it on. Such interesting facts and useful information pop out, and I will glance at it , and then have to pop into the server to see what everyone is talking about. It is unbelievable to describe the amount of new information I have gained by just being on the server, and talking to everyone daily almost seems to make Covid disappear for awhile.
Thanks for checking in with me, and please stay safe.
It's good to hear that you're staying safe in Illinois! I have a friend of mine who works in an emergency service who also lives there, so it's good to hear that you're keeping well amongst it all. Here in New Zealand we haven't had it as bad, thankfully, but I do come from an immunocompromised household so constant vigilance (to quote Harry Potter) has been a must.
I'm glad to hear that you're enjoying using Discord! I completely understand where you're coming from, haha.
Stay safe, and let me know if there's anything I can do for you in the future!
Thank You so much Cheryl for you suggestions and info. It is a bit overwhelming, but moving house doesn't help! Will follow up on your suggestion, it's great to have you 'guys' in the background keeping us 'newbies' on track, Cheers Christy (Christine Ann Conway)
Thank you for your participation in October 2020’s Source-a-thon. Your contributions helped us to clear over 57,000 profiles that needed sourcing. This makes our Shared Tree all that much better.
Cheryl, you and the other welcomers do a great job of greeting those that are joining this wonderful project. It can be a little daunting at first glance, and you are making less threatening for all of us.
Thankyou for the welcome . I joined and filled some of my family in but I haven't got round to doing anything that will take up a lot of time because I haven't the spare time at the moment . Thankyou best wishes Alison
Thank you so much for the message and welcoming me to the site. Slowly but surely I am becoming more familiar with how the site works, and I'm looking forward to learning even more about my ancestors. There are a few ancestors where I feel like I'm stuck so hopefully I'll have some success here! I'm enjoying it very much so far. Thank you again!
Thank you Cheryl for checking in on me. I've not been able to get on the site much since I joined, but when the kids are all back at university, I should have a bit more time to myself. Many thanks for your warm welcome, much appreciate and it makes me feel a part of the site already.
Hi! I am just beginning to try to figure this out. I have a question- I just created a new account and (I think) attached my dna data. But it looks like I may have already started an account at some point, and entered information there. I think that's what's going on. If 2 people entered information for my Dad, Larry Walker who died July 17, 1984 in Kingsland Texas, that is the case. How can I tell if I have a previous account which I do not remember how to log into? And also, is it possible to merge the 2? Thank you!
Cheryl, Thank you for reaching out and checking on me...I do have a couple of questions uploading DNA results...I have three files and uploaded one...should I or can I upload the remainder...I just feel that the complete story can't be told without all the information...Thanks for your support and wishing you a wonderful day
Thank You Cheryl for your message. I enjoy the site although difficult for me. I learn by trial and error. I do use the instructions but get eye trouble and fatique and have to stop too soon. Not a problem though as long as I can keep trying when I have time. I will contact you if I get stuck or have a question.
Thank you for your message about my DNA relationship confirmations. I'm quite new to this field, so will hasten slowly and hope to do more in the near future.
Thanks again, Barbara
Thank you for your participation on Team Virginia in the April 2022 Connect-A-Thon. You helped bring Team Virginia to an amazing 1st place finish. We could not have done it without you! This year's Thon members added over 84,000k new Profiles to the Global Shared Tree!!
Mindy and & Sandy ~ Team Virginia
Next Thon: Connect-A-Thon in July (tbd)
It’s Germany Project check-in time again! Please respond within the next 2 weeks and let me know if you’re still interested in participating with the Project. Remember, the only requirements for membership in the Germany Project are (1) that you work on at least one German profile every 6 months and (2) that you respond to this check-in.
Please respond to this message by posting a reply below or sending me a private message on WikiTree. In your response, we welcome any feedback you may want to give on the project (what you like about it, what you’d like to see us do, what we could change, etc.)
If you ever have any questions, please ask. I look forward to hearing from you soon!
I look forward to hearing from you soon!
Traci ~ Germany Project co-leader
Sue Tharp Guerra
Thank you for your participation with Team Virginia in the January 2022 Connect-A-Thon. You helped bring Team Virginia to an amazing 2nd place finish. We could not have done it without you! This year's Thon members added over 85,000k new Profiles to the Global Shared Tree!!
Mindy and & Sandy ~ Team Virginia
Your help in learning to use wikitree is very much appreciated. Your help contributed directly to adding a new member.
On behalf of the G2G Integrators Project Leaders, we are doing a first of the year check-in with members. Please let us know if you are still active.
If you are active, please let us know in which ways you most enjoy contributing to the project. All of us would like to thank you for your contributions and hope that you are enjoying exploring your roots.
Please reply as we look forward to hearing from you soon.
David, Pip and Dorothy ~ G2G Integrators Project Leaders and PC
Terry Keller
We couldn't do it without you & look forward to you joining us on the 2022 Clean-A-Thon!
Mindy & Sandy - Team Virginia Co Captains
Just 'thanked you" for a sweet comment you posted in g2g many moons ago that I only, just now, saw.
Again, thank you!
Kindest regards, Mary
Thank you for your participation on Team Virginia in the July 2021 Connect-A-Thon. You helped bring Team Virginia to an amazing 2nd place finish. We could not have done it without you! This year's Thon members added over 74,000k new Profiles to the Global Shared Tree!! It is always great having you work on Team Virginia. :)
Mindy and & Sandy ~ Team Virginia
Save the Date: October 1st through 4th, Source-A-Thon (with amazing prizes!)
You asked me a question, How do you like WikiTree so far? Well I have 4 months worth and I like it very much, where I can share my tree with many others. Plus it will expands my tree as well. Sorry it took so long to answer your question but I like to Thank you once again.
Sem
Thank you for your contributions to my tree during the WikiTree Challenge this week! Yvette Hoitink
I would like to thank you for all your contributions towards the goals of the England Project during the past six months. We've achieved a huge amount during this period and we couldn't have done it without you and our other project members.
As the England Project Leaders, we are completing our six monthly check-in with all project members.
How are you going with the Orphan Trail? Which other team/s are you interested in becoming active in once you finish the Trail? Also, do you have any feedback on what the project is doing well and anything we could do better in the future?
Please respond to this message by posting a reply below or sending me a private message. I look forward to hearing from you.
Many thanks!
Ian, England Project Leader
Thanks for reaching out. I am loving WikiTree! There's so much information and so many "helps" here. I'm discovering new things each day. Actually, I have a large tree on Ancestry which I'm planning to work on moving to WikiTree but it will take me a long time. I'll be sure to contact you when I have questions. And, I know there will be many! Thanks again, Jan (Breault) Cartmill (Breault-188).
————————————————————————► YOU ALWAYS SHINE !!
Thank You for your work on Week 11 of the WikiTree Challenge, especially for the work you did on our profile of the week Eleanor Martha (Hobbs) Welty (1836-1918). Here is a special sticker that you can add to your profile.
Janet and Joan.
The majority of my work was with the LDS library locally. So much easier now.
Wiki Tree helps a lot.
Thanks again Tom
I used the RootsSearch function a bit last week. The other help features have been a great reference. I blew it in the 1st 10 minutes by putting in my Grandfather and Grandmother and not seeing the duplicate warning pop up. I learned quickly how to look for that. It was not exactly where I expected it. The owner has not seen the merge request yet. It should only take me two or three months to enter the info I have already. And in the process just the last couple weeks I have discovered probably 40 bits of detail, like extra wives! that I had not known about. Thank you again, I will stop being so windy. Mel
Thank you very much.
Don
Just looked over your page and realized we are very similar in age and have both been researching our family tree for 30 years or more. You are so lucky to have been able to find out so much about your family. I, too, know a lot about my mother's line (Herrings and Horn(e)s) but my Dad's grandfather is my brick wall with steel and concrete reinforcements! Can't get beyond his marriage to my great grandmother on October 31, 1889, in Fort Smith, AR. Her family are Freeds and, again, I know a lot about them and have corresponded with a number of cousins, but that Davidson wall is really thick!
Hope to learn a lot from you that will help me chisel through to information on William Bell Davidson, 1849/54 Scotland and died in Indian Territory in July 1906.
Hope you have a wonderful Christmas and that we all have a happy and healthy New Year!
Barbara Davidson Norkus
I am new here. I am wondering how to source myself. For example, I am not going to upload my own personally identifying documents such as birth certificate, etc. Also, the only sources I have were downloaded from Ancestry.com. Do those sources travel with a GEDCOM file? Thank you< LE
It's that time of the year again: check-in time! As England Project Leaders, we like to check in with you every six months or so to see how things are progressing. Back in May, we didn't ask for a response due to the rapid emergence of Covid-19 because we understood that people's lives were changing rapidly. While we are still living in a Covid world, we do need to hear back from you this time around.
First of all, how are you doing? What are you currently working on?
Secondly, we're looking for some feedback on the Google Group and our Discord server. Do you use either or both of these? If you don't use either, why not? Do you have any suggestions on how we can improve participation and collaboration, either generally or for you personally?
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Amy, Joan & Lizzie.
I have been busy, thank you for asking. I live in Illinois, and we have just been moved back to Stage 2. It seems like I am on WikiTree 24/7 since Covid started and I am jumping around everywhere, since I was promoted to PC, and it takes a lot of time. I have my computer set to open discord as soon as it turns on, so yes, I love keeping up with everything on the Discord server, and I also have notifications on, so if I am working on something else, the notification pops out the side. I love it.
I don't have any suggestions to improve participation, but know that once I started to actively participate, I can't imagine not having it on. Such interesting facts and useful information pop out, and I will glance at it , and then have to pop into the server to see what everyone is talking about. It is unbelievable to describe the amount of new information I have gained by just being on the server, and talking to everyone daily almost seems to make Covid disappear for awhile.
Thanks for checking in with me, and please stay safe.
Cheryl
It's good to hear that you're staying safe in Illinois! I have a friend of mine who works in an emergency service who also lives there, so it's good to hear that you're keeping well amongst it all. Here in New Zealand we haven't had it as bad, thankfully, but I do come from an immunocompromised household so constant vigilance (to quote Harry Potter) has been a must.
I'm glad to hear that you're enjoying using Discord! I completely understand where you're coming from, haha.
Stay safe, and let me know if there's anything I can do for you in the future!
Regards, Amy
Thank you for the welcome. It's all new to me so I will contact you again if I need some help.
Kind regards, Steve.
Edwin
Thank you for your participation in October 2020’s Source-a-thon. Your contributions helped us to clear over 57,000 profiles that needed sourcing. This makes our Shared Tree all that much better.
Keep up the great work!
Pippin Sheppard WikiTree’s Appreciation Team
Sarah
Thank you for your message about my DNA relationship confirmations. I'm quite new to this field, so will hasten slowly and hope to do more in the near future. Thanks again, Barbara