My 2022 Resolution – Prove and Extend My Meitzler Lines

With the start of a new year, I’ve decided that for the first time in years I am setting in place a resolution or two for the new year.

I started research on my family about 1976 – that’s 45 years ago. My personal research has usually had to take a back seat to our business. Once we started Heritage Quest in 1985 my time didn’t seem to be my own anymore. It’s been that way ever since. I have to do something to change that. Statistically, I am running out of time. So I have to set some goals.

I’ve decided that I will make my Meitzler family lines my project this year.

There are Meitzler families scattered all over the Earth. They all descend from folks who lived in what is today Germany. Most seem to be initially from the Pfalz in the Palatinate area. In the USA, there are descendants of several major lines.

• The Lehigh Co., Pennsylvania Meitzlers
• The Indiana Meitzlers
• The New Orleans, Louisiana Meitzlers
• The Rochester New York Meitzlers
• And others I am sure…

My great-grandfather, Karl (Charles) Meitzler (b 1820 in Kriegsfeld, Bavaria) arrived in Rochester, New York in the early 1850s. He died in West Brighton, Monroe, Co., NY in 1899. The family story is that he got together with some of the Pennsylvania Meitzlers at some point, and they couldn’t find a relationship. However, I’ve found evidence that the Pennsylvania Meitzlers are from the same area of Germany as my Karl Meitzler. They just came to America much earlier.

First – I plan to make full use of the many records I’ve photocopied or digitized, going back and analyzing what I already have, but haven’t looked at in years.

Second – I will make better use of my MyHeritage subscription, which has a number of Meitzler family pedigrees, going back to the same ancestors as mine – and most are posted by people who live in Germany! So it’s past time that I contact these folks and see what information we can share. I have corresponded with one gentleman that I am sure is a cousin, but we’ve not been able to nail down the exact relationship. He doesn’t have an online tree that I am aware of.

Third – Post public Meitzler trees at both MyHeritage and Ancestry.com – hoping to make connections with cousins – and add and/or update Meitzler information on the FamilySearch tree.

Fourth – Use the message boards, this blog, FamilySearch.org, and other internet resources and databases to correspond with more folks working on Meitzler lines.

Fifth – Use the digitized Protestant databases found at Archion.de to again search the records of Kriegsfeld, and nearby communities – looking for details I may have missed when searching the microfilm years ago. AND search later records for Kriegsfeld that are not available through FamilySearch. Attempt to fill in missing birth, marriage and death dates and places if missing.

Sixth – Use the DNA information and relationships that I have from MyHeritage, Ancestry, 23andMe, and Living DNA to extend lines and contact cousins.

That said, if you’re researching Meitzlers, I’d be happy to correspond. Note – Although from the same root of Metz (butcher), I’ve never been able to make a connection to any Metzler – a relatively common German surname.