Introduction to Hanne B. Stegemüller's genealogy and Family History

Family history and genealogical research is my main hobby. It might be because I have had an unusual family life with many changes. But no matter why - I like the detective work, opening the old parish registers, the smell of old leather and learning about the lives of my ancestors. My goal is not a huge database with an overwhelming number of individuals in it. I'm working on having correct and checked data that can be documented and to communicate the history of the past. In order to publish my results I'm still learning how to build websites, which is an ongoing proces. The Internet is a great way to communicate, to distribute the results of the research and to establish contact to other genealogists all over the world.

It's people who create world history - not vice versa! Enough has been written about kings and queens, aristocracy and clergy, robbers and bandits. Who will tell the story about my maternal grandmother and grandfather and their grandparents, their completely ordinary lives and doings, if I don't contribute? Hardly anybody!

History at ground level

It's the daily life in the past that fascinates me (what I call "history at ground level") and of course the detective work, the challenge of logical thinking, learning Denmark's history anew, acquiring new interdisciplinary fellowships and friends, etc. A significant trait in genealogical research is just this: helping each other and sharing knowledge. Lots of help is available and no zealous guarding of one's own ideas and results. I have written an article about this aspect, [Not translated]. Genealogical research is not just dates. It is also the recollection of the past of those who are alive, which will be preserved and passed on to our descendants. Research brings about knowledge of many details hidden in the sources - even the sources of the beginner (church registers and censuses) can, if the data are put together correctly, display dramas - big as well as small.

I first went to the Provincial archives of Sealand, Lolland-Falster & Bornholm on February 16, 2003. I "just" wanted to find out something about my great-grandfather, of whom it had been said that he was a master hatter and maybe came from Baden-Baden in Germany. Nobody knew anything about anything; it was exciting to start off. There was something to that business about the hats!

Wilhelm Rudolf Stegemüller

Wilhelm Rudolf Stegemüller turned out to be a master hatter who immigrated to Denmark from Frankfurt an der Oder in Germany in 1890. He first came to the cloth mill in Brede, where both my paternal grandfather and my father were born. He married the neighbour's daughter, and they had nine children, of which eight survived to adult age. That's how I began, and then it has just continued. You can read more on your own, if follow this link to my ancestry in "The Next Generation". If you are a Stegemüller, then - of course - I would like very much to hear from you.

Enjoy yourself at my site and come back soon.
Hanne B. Stegemüller, Copenhagen, Denmark