Doing genealogical research can be full of tedium at times and full of joy when you find a little fact that has been eluding you for a long time. The research that has preceded the creation of this website started in the "ancient" times of the 1970s when a person had to physically travel to the county seat or state capitol and sit down for hours to view microfilms.

Or, you had to send a check off to a professional researcher in Washington, D.C. to track down a ship's passenger list. Another option was to send $2.00 to the Church of Latter Day Saints in Salt Lake City, Utah and they would send a microfilm to your local LDS church where you could view it.

Now, I basically sit at a computer and retrieve documents electronically from around the world. Both ways have their pros and cons but the ultimate goal is to find accurate and complete information about our ancestors. The link below will take you to a summary of how this search began and how it continues into today.

One of the keystone document sources for a family search is the once per decade United States census report. These documents help to define who was living where and with whom at the beginning of a new decade. The information in these reports tends to vary from decade to decade and, at times, from locale to locale.

Some of them give only a general description of the location of the home such as a township name and some hand note the road or street name. Later reports generally give the actual house number. The names, ages and relationships of people in the household are given but there is often some misspelling involved so you need to be aware of mistakes.

The Lutheran church was one of the key points for the Heiden Family in Monroe County. Documents such as marriage certificates, baptismal certificates and others have been issued to members of the family over the decades. We have collected a few of them here.

When we began the work on the family history, the area from which they came was then in what we called East Germany. It was a communist country and had very different laws and rules compared to democratic West Germany. Still, we were able to acquire some 19th century information on August Heiden and his family.

For some reason when I was only 24 years old, I had a feeling that I wanted to know more about my heritage. So, my mother, Mildred (Roggerman) Heiden, and I went to visit my great aunt Agnes (1891-1981) who was the wife of John Heiden (1998-1959), the youngest child of August and Rika (Knaack) Heiden.

Agnes was a very nice lady and, after a few minutes of discussion, she recalled a box in her back room. It was a reddish wooden box that was peeling with age. Inside was a treasure trove of original documents. Most of them were documents in German related to the emigration of August and his family. There were letters from German relatives from the 1920s and later documents related to August's naturalization as a United States citizen.

In 1985, a member of the extended Getty Family named Monita Fergus published a 286 page book on the family. Much of the information we have on the Gettys comes from this book and we are deeply indebted to Ms Fergus for her hard work.

Although census reports, military service reports, death certificates are government records, we have also collected several other forms relating to the Heiden Family members. These would include such things as citizenship papers, alien registrations, property titles and other documents required by local and federal government agencies.

One of those "Wow!" moments was the discovery of hand written letters from the great niece of August Heiden which arrived in the 1920s after his death in 1922. One amazing thing is that, like the envelope shown below, they are very simply addressed...AND THEY WERE DELIVERED!

I found some people, including my second cousin, Margie Berns, who could get the letters translated into English from the hard to decipher German script handwriting. The originals and the translations are available on this site.

While working on the 1995 book, I sent a large envelope of information to one of my aunts who had lived at the same address for many years. I accidentally transposed two of the numbers on the street address and the envelope was returned to me. The letter addressed as shown above came from Germany in the 1920s and was successfully delivered. Progress?

Even in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Germany at the end of the 19th century, there was a form of military draft. Both August Heiden and Heinrich Rambow had to register and were eligible for being called into the military of the province for two years. It appears that neither man actually had to serve in the army and we have the document that states that August had fulfilled his obligation.

In the U.S. men of all ages had to sign up for the draft before each of the World Wars. Often, these brief forms gave valuable information about the spelling of people's names since they had to fill them out themselves and the affix their signature to the bottom. Unlike many other forms which were filled out by other people, it seems there would be less chance for mistakes and misspellings.

The man in the picture is a German relative of John Koster (1880-1962) who was married to August Heiden's daughter, Lena (1881-1973).

Perhaps the most famous Heiden to people in the United States is Eric Heiden who set four Olympic records and one world record in speed skating in the 1980 Winter Olympic Games. As far as we know, he is not directly related to the Monroe County Heidens but we do have many relatives who made their way into local newspapers over the decades.

We have had local sports stars, scholastic honorees, spelling bee winners and people noted for reaching milestones on their jobs. A number of these articles made their way into our files and included in this history.

To the left is Richard Carl "Dick" Heiden who starred in football and basketball at Dundee High School in the early 1960s. On the right is Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann who was an award winning business woman in Monroe County.

Another valuable resource for the genealogist are the documents associated with the passing of an individual. Local newspapers print obituaries within a few days of the death and these are available from many sources. We have a large number of them that were clipped from the paper and saved in scrap books.

While such obituaries are usually quite reliable, they must be combined with other documentation to be certain the information is correct. Often, one relative is designated to give the details to the newspaper and that person may not always be the best informed.

We have collected clippings which have been scanned into digital form. Other obituaries have been downloaded from internet sources.

Also included are cards distributed at the funeral home and printed copies of the religious services held for the person. Included are pictures of grave headstones we have gathered over the years.

Certain documents have to do with the financial and business part of the lives of our ancestors. It is always interesting to see what people paid for every day goods and services a century or more ago.

We were fortunate to find many old receipts for purchase made by August and Rika (Knaack) Heiden. Presented here are cash receipts for dry goods, optometrist visit, insurance, etc. Also shown are various loan documents and mortgages for property purchase.

Our photo galleries include listings of photos for individuals, couples, groups, reunions, etc. Each person or event is included in an alphabetical list.

In 1925, Caroline (Weilnau) Rambow, wife of Henry Rambow III (right) wrote some remembrances of the family. Hand written copies of these were passed on to us by her daughter, Ruth (Rambow) Piotter and they are presented here.

There is a commonly repeated myth that people's names were changed as they were processed at the point of arrival such as Ellis Island. If it happened at all, the cases were extremely rare since each person was named on a passenger list that was created at the point of embarkation from their native country.

These lists are still available and we have obtained copies for the August Heiden and Heinrich Rambow families.

After looking at thousands of family images, it was always interesting to see how people developed and changed over the decades. Pictured above is my grandfather, William Carl Heiden who was 74 years old when I was born in 1948. It was amazing to see pictures of him as a young man since I only knew him as the man in the final two shots. We have created "Through the Years" galleries for many individuals and couples in the early generations of the family.

We have copies of many wedding anniversary and a few engagement newspaper articles, invitations and announcements. There are many golden anniversaries and more in the extended family.