Family History

On my mother’s side, Joseph Wagner was the first family member to immigrate to the US. He was born in Wurttenburg, Germany in 1830. In 1849, at age 19 he immigrated to the US with his soon to be wife, Victoria Wilbur. They settled in Detroit, Michigan. They are my ancestors of 6 generations. Together they had four children, including one child when they were 41. Joseph was a member of the 23^rd infantry in the civil war. Joseph died in 1874, and Victoria died in 1919. Since then, my family has stayed mostly on the east coast. Their son, Jacob, moved to Rochester New York and my family stayed there for over 2 generations. My mom was born in Rochester, but grew up in Michigan. I have moved five times myself, and my most recent move was from Illinois to Seattle, Washington.

On my father’s side, the farthest back I was able to find was John Bethards, who was born in Delaware in 1825. I am not sure when, but during his lifetime he moved to Illinois, where he died. They stayed in Illinois for 3 generations, up until my grandfather who moved to Michigan. This is how my parents met, they went to the same college in Michigan. My brother and I were born in Michigan, but grew up mostly in Illinois. I found this very interesting because I had never known that my family had lived in Illinois prior to my parents moving there in 1999. I also think that it is very cool that my direct family seems to be the only people to live on the west coast, in both California and now Washington.