Christine (Wetzold) Durant

Ancestors

Daughter of [private father (1940s - unknown)] and [private mother (1940s - unknown)]

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Christine Durant [send private message]

This profile is part of the Wetzold Name Study.

Introduction

Writing autobiographies has never been my forte. It's difficult for me to think about what people would even want to know about me. So, I'm approaching this particular autobiography like I'm writing about an ancestor. The only difference is, I'm still composing my story.

When I was twelve years old (back in 1992, I believe!) I had never really given a thought to my family history. Two things happened that changed my mind, however. The first thing was a simple fiction book - "Sweet Valley High" - that went into details of the family trees of it's main characters. I think there were at least five books in this particular series of books. I was sucked right in to the histories of the families that I had grown to love. The books followed the immigrant ancestors to present day characters. The second thing that pulled me into genealogy was a Girl Scout badge called "Heritage Hunt." The badge required you to make a small "family tree" and tell about your immigrant ancestor(s) and I went above and BEYOND on that project. I'd always been into history (thanks, Dad!) but genealogy brought history to LIFE for me. It was my personal history.

To this day, I use genealogy and personal history to learn even more about historic events. Genealogy plays a big role in the homeschool curriculum of my kids too.

Surnames

I have a "main" list of surnames that I pay particular attention to. This list includes Wetzold, Pelton, Mann and Fleischhauer. Those are the last names of my immediate Grandparents. Plus, I seem to always be the only person in the universe researching the Wetzold surname.

In fact - I'm running the Wetzold One-Name Study here on WikiTree. It's pretty bare right now though.

The other surname lists I have are bigger and are never-ending. Every time I reach a new generation, I add a new surname to the list. I could list hundreds, but I don't have the room - so here's a truncated list.

Paternal Line:

Wetzold, Stahl, Scherer, Mann, Blauvelt, Babcock, Conklin, Hogencamp

Maternal Line:

Fleischhauer, Pelton, Hamm, Way(e), Pratt, Champion, Danforth, Corley

I am also researching my ex-husband, Alan's family tree, so his surnames are listed below.

Brandt, Sonnenschien (+ variants), Lipkin, Bernstein

Immigrant Ancestors

• John Pelton: circa 1630 from England
• Henry Way: 1630 from England
• Gerrit Hendrickszen (aka Blauvelt): 1638 from the Netherlands
• Otto Wetzold: 1891 from Germany
• Richard Fleischhauer: from Germany
• Henry Mann

Famous "Cousins" & Ancestors

• Samuel Colt is my 6th cousin 7 times removed. We both supposedly descend from William Oldham Sr..

• William I the Conqueror is my 27th great grandfather. That said, Rollo (Normandie) of Normandy is my 31st (?) great grandfather. AND, Charlemagne is my 36th (?) great grandfather.

Sources

• Paternal relationship is confirmed by a 3,582.3 cM match between Christine Brandt GEDmatch A377063 and father, Fred Wetzold GEDmatch M926190.