10 August 2001: Went to the State Archives in Trenton today and found out a bit more about great-great grandfather's farm. In turns out that exactly one hundred and fifty-one (151) years ago today, an enumerator for the 1850 agricultural census asked some questions about the farm. The answers can be found on the "Family Deeds/Properties" page.

5 June 2001: I've made a new page for the information about great-great-great granddad's Newark farm. Check the link for "Family Deeds/Properties" on the homepage.

15 May 2001: I've added the links to the pictures of both the Guglielmo Peirce and the Duca d'Aosta on the Family Pictures page.

Now for the big news. I found myself in the Maps Division of the main branch of the New York Public Library last week. They had an 1858 map of Newark, NJ, and "lo and behold," I found the farm of my great-great-great grandfather Joseph Singerling clearly noted on the map. It was carved out of the so-called "Parsonage Tract," common land that had been set aside pretty much at the beginning of Newark history for the benefit of the church. The farm stood at the corner of Roseville Avenue and what is now Central Avenue. I'll get around to scanning the map and then putting it up on this site.

20 April 2001: I've spent all week trying to get into the new database housed at Ellis Island. There's too much traffic, but I expect things to even out in the near future. I did get in once -- although I was booted out pretty quickly -- and I discovered the following:

• My grandfather Oto Comanzo arrived at Ellis Island on 21 Nov 1923 on board the Guglielmo Peirce, which had departed from Naples.
• It appears that my great-grandfather Pasquale Miele arrived at Ellis Island on 13 Jun 1895 on board the Duca d'Aosta, which had departed from Naples. The record does not note his place of residence.
• I found a record that should be that of my great-grandmother Gelsomina Letteriello, i.e. right name, age, place of residence, but the year of arrival -- 1904 -- is about four years too late. As all good genealogists know, there has to be a mystery somewhere along the way...

17 December 2000: I finally managed to get my genealogy software to produce a family tree that I could display here. Note: I realize that there might be the occasional bit of conflict between bits of information on this site. I've tried to make changes throughout the website whenever I've made changes anywhere, but sometimes things slip. So, this new family tree should be the most accurate information I have, should you ever have to choose between two (or more) variations...

And I have started that booklet that I threatened to do. It was a bit more complicated to design than I first thought, simply because there would have to be different "versions," depending upon which relative wanted a copy. I mean, I can't really imagine anyone who is just on Dad's side wanting to know anything about Mom's side, and vice versa. So, I'm doing it in "chunks" based upon location (for the background and family history material) and upon grandparent (I started each chart with one of my four grandparents). Now all I have to do is to mix and match according to the recipient.

28 October 2000: I'm beginning to go through these webpages in order to improve the coding; other than some better formatting for your viewing pleasure, you probably won't notice a thing. But it's important to my "inner geek" that I do this, and I don't expect you to understand...

I'm also thinking that a nice Christmas present would be for me to gather my family history information into a booklet of some sort. The genealogy software I've mentioned will allow me to do something, I'm sure; now I just have to do it.

25 October 2000: It's been a good month, or so I think.

That lead on Bernard McDonald did indeed pan out; it was his baptismal record. I also found some siblings, although not his parents' marriage, and I found what I strongly suspect is a member of another branch of my family, the Woods.

Then there's further movement on my Zangerl, i.e. Singerline, research in the Tyrol. Because I have new software, I'm bringing all my bits and pieces of information together. It turns out that two of these bits add up into a possible extension of the direct Singerline - Singerling - Zengerling - Zengerly - Zangerl line a few more generations, which is to say, that with a gap or two, my earliest dated ancestor might very well be one Christian Zangerl, who, in 1363, was made feudal tenant on a farm outside of Ischgl, Austria.

4 September 2000: Thanks to the kindness of a fellow member on a genealogy list, I now have a possible lead on one of my Irish lines.

I knew that Bernard McDonald, my great grandfather, married in 1890 and died in 1898, but now I think I know about his birth and baptism. If this record is correct, then he was born on 12 Jan 1869 and was baptized on 17 Jan. More importantly, he was baptized at St. Patrick's Pro-Cathedral, where he was married 21 years later. Perhaps I can find his siblings and his parents; if I can find his parents' marriage record, I can hope it will include information about their Irish origins.

28 August 2000: From the "strange and unusual" department... I came across a newspaper article concerning a family member from the 1890s. I decided to put it in the "Family Biographies" section under the title of the article itself: "Chloroformed by a Tramp" (I warned you it was strange and unusual).

19 August 2000: This update consists of three pictures from Paisley, Scotland. A friend just visited her own relatives there and took some pictures of a location that figures in my family history from the years around 1861.

5 August 2000: Just a note to say I've done more work on the "Family Locations (Links)" section.

3 August 2000: It's been a while since I last worked on this website. Today's addition is minor -- there's a new biography in the "Family Biographies" section.

I did spend several weeks in New Jersey recently and I managed a trip to the archives in Trenton. I found some death records, although not of any direct ancestors, and then some deeds to property bought by Zengerling's in Newark and Orange in the 1800's. I'll eventually figure out what I'll do with this information.

In the broader research picture, I'm joining up with a family history society in Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland. I'm hoping that, as a member, I might enlist the help of the society in order to untangle a few questions concerning Gargan's and Carson's in the Gatehouse of Fleet area.

23 May 2000: A member of one of my genealogy mailing lists mentioned that there was temporarily free access to an electronic version of the 1890/91 city directory to Newark, NJ through one of the big commercial genealogy websites. So, I searched and found some of "my people." The results are on the "Family Census Snippets" page.

8 May 2000: I'm beginning to update the "Locations (Links)" section. So far, the most interesting link I've added is for a webpage on the Paznauntal, or the Paznaun Valley, the ancestral valley of the Singerline's up in the Tyrolean Alps. It offers a number of great aerial photographs of the valley.

29 April 2000: A source I've just gotten my hands on provides a list of citizens in Gehrden (Brakel) from the year 1427. The list includes one of the family names -- Pipers. See under "Family Census Snippets."

Other ongoing efforts: I've got a few letters out to places in Austria to see if I can find further information to go with the material I received from Carol Zangerl (visit her website by using the link under "Family Websites." I've also asked some of my Italian relatives to contact the appropriate authorities to see if I can get more information on other Italian ancestors (sometimes it's difficult to deal with the Italian bureaucracy, so I was hoping it would work out better Italian-to-Italian).

16 April 2000: I'm trying to find places for all the "stuff" I've gathered in the last few years, so I've created yet another page. This one is called "Family Biographies" and it will contain the information I have on "famous" family members. Of course, you'll want to read the introduction to see what I mean by "famous."

9 March 2000: I've added a new page entitled "Family Websites," which will consist of links to, well, family websites.

5 March 2000: A few things to note. First, I have removed from both family tree formats the information I added concerning Joannes Zengerly when I jumped to incorrect conclusions last month. The trees now show my current state of not knowing anything more.

I have added three pictures, one from New Jersey and two from Italy.

The last thing is that I have been contacted by an individual who is also researching the Zangerl (and various spellings) family. I'd love to hear more of what she has, since she seems to have information from the years before where I pick up, i.e. before the late 1600s. This could be fun...

18 Feb 2000: I have updated the "Locations (Family History)" section with the birth/baptismal information of the various candidates for the role of my ancestor, Joannes Zengerly. Unless he was not actually born and/or baptized in Kappl, or he is not recorded in the churchbook for some other reason, one of these is the right man. Now that I've narrowed it down, I have to figure out how to choose.

12 Feb 2000: Having discussed it with two others who do Tyrolean genealogy, I've been persuaded to reconsider the likelihood of the "Franciscus theory" noted in the 17 Jan update. So, I'm digging again in the baptismal records. As the only real indicator of a birth year that I have comes from counting backwards from Johann Zengerly's death record (it claims that he was 70 in 1757), I thought that fifteen years on either side of 1687 was generous, but I cut it off at 1695 so that he would be at least 15 when he married in 1710.

Working, therefore, with the period 1672-1695, I find ten (10) baptismal records for a Joannes Zangerl in Kappl. Two I can pretty much disregard as I assume they die as infants or young children. That leaves me:

1. 5 Nov 1673, son of Thomas Z. and Eva Jelin
2. 12 Jun 1675, son of Gallus Z. and Anna Tschiderin
3. 27 Dec 1675, son of Joannes Z. and Gertrudis Morizin
4. 12 Sep 1678, son of Christianus Z. and Ursula Percherin
5. 7 Aug 1679, son of Petrus Z. and Eva Kölppin
6. 16 Oct 1681, son of Ingenuinus Z. and Magdalena Starjacobin
7. 26 Sep 1683, son of Ingenuinus Z. and Maria Starchin
8. 19 Nov 1683, son of Jacobus Z. and Maria Lenzin

If the "70" from the death record meant that he was in his "seventies," then I can concentrate on #4-8. With no further clues, I'm liking #4 because the father's name would explain the name of Johann's older son in later years, and it also seems that this Johann had a younger half-brother by the name of Bartholomäus, which would explain the name of Johann's younger son.

17 Jan 2000: Thanks to the work sent to me by a newly-discovered seventh cousin (we share great great great great great great grandparents) I've been motivated to do more work on that family tree. I've got the direct Singerline line back eleven generations and it's posted. Do note the "probably" when it comes to the various people in Kappl. There is one male Zengerly (or Zängerl) noted in the Kappl churchbooks as being christened in 1687. The given name is Franciscus. If these given names in the baptismal registry are actually baptismal, saint's, or spiritual names, rather than the everyday calling name, then I don't think there's any problem considering this the right man. Franciscus, or Franz in the German, appears quite frequently as a name throughout the following generations of Zengerling, Singerling, and Singerline. This also has the added benefit of finding a Christian -- the father of this Franciscus -- since the Johann Zengerly who went to Gehrden had a son named Johann Christian. But I'm still working on the Kappl churchbooks, so stay tuned for possible changes of mind.

9 Jan 2000: Since I can't seem to get motivated enough to finish the first version of the family tree, I decided to start with a family pictures section. I've collected quite a few over the last few years, so it was time to start making them available to others. And since I'm concentrating the pictures on their own page, I'm going to remove the link I mentioned on 6 Jan (it was only buried in a place nobody could find anyway).

6 Jan 2000: Yesterday was quite the day, genealogically speaking. When I returned home I found a letter from England waiting for me. It was from a man who had first contacted me last year. It turns out that his wife and I are related, fourth cousins I believe as we share great great great grandparents. Anyway, his letter included a photograph of the brother of my great great grandfather, Thomas Gargan (1840-after 1910). I have made a link to the photo from James's name in the list of Thomas' siblings on his page under the "Family Tree" section of this website.

5 Jan 2000: My research efforts in recent months have been concentrated in tracing Johann Zengerly (1687-1757) back to his roots in Kappl, in the Tyrolean Alps. I finally decided to purchase some microfilmed copies of the Kappl churchbooks, as there seemed no other way to get at the information I wanted. I've been able to find in these books Johann Zengerly's baptismal record (he was baptized as a "Franciscus," a baptismal name that crops up rather frequently among Singerlines down through the ages, e.g. Franciscus Josephus Zengerling (1803-1888) and even my own grandfather Benjamin Joseph Singerling (1896-1969), who was baptized as Benjamin Francis. The churchbooks have also provided the names of his parents and his grandparents, so there are some new surnames on the surname page.

Dec 1999: Well, I've run into a bit of a disappointment. Some recent reading had me hoping that Johann Zengerly (1687-1757), who most likely had moved from the Tyrolean Alps up to the north of Germany for the purposes of finding work as a builder or a stonemason, was actually a well-known master builder who had made specific contributions to the Cathedral at Minden. I even made a page pointing out some of Master Zengerle's work (this page can be found as a link off of the "The Locations (Family History)" section of this website, embedded in the Austrian part. It seemed like the combination of the unusual name, the area, the origins, and the time period couldn't possibly be a coincidence. Well, an archivist in Germany finally sent me a letter, kindly detailing the later life of the Johann Zengerle who did work on the cathedral, and it failed to match up with my Johann Zengerly. So, there were two such fellows in the area. I'm leaving the Cathedral information, because the pictures are nice and the master builder may very well be a cousin...