Genealogy Serendipity Moment - Neppl Family Treasure

Back on 2 September 2011, I wrote a blog post about the Neppl Family. At the time I was working on a power point presentation about German Research. In the process I spent some time working on this line of my family, which has been put off for a long time. About three weeks ago I was contacted by Lee, who is a distant cousin of ours. This has been a connection creating many serendipity moments. It is directly the result of sharing my story on this blog.



First of all he shared with me a picture of his first U.S. generation gr. grandfather John Weszeslaus Nepple's family. Then I shared with him that there are three family pictures posted on the Carroll County, Iowa genweb page. The first picture is of the brother of this John, Jacob Neppl Sr.'s family. This is a curious picture as Jacob Sr. is deceased and they are holding a portrait of him. Then from my first U.S. generation gr. gr. grandfather Franz Neppl, there are pictures of two of his sons' families, Frank and Henry. So, I asked Lee if we could share his picture on the genweb page. He was very happy to do so. Here is the picture:

The genweb group has already posted the picture on their website.

The next thing he sent me was the scan of the funeral card for Franz Neppl. It is in old German script, so I will need to do some translating work. I can make out a few details. He offered to send it to me, and I asked that he please scan both sides before doing so, just in case it gets lost in the mail. The back side is a beautiful picture of the event of Christ's death. The card confirms the information that I already had for him and further defines his place of birth.

This was a very happy moment for me. You see, we have very little family history or pictures for this family and every little bit shared through Lee's generosity is very appreciated. He also informed me of another contact in the family who might be able to help with this research. I am encouraging him to scan all the documents and pictures that are in his collection, so he can share and preserve them for future generations of the Neppl family.

The Carroll County, Iowa genweb site has very little about this family, yet seven siblings settled here in the 1870s to 1900s, and some descendants still live there today. The genweb is one of the finest research Internet sites. Each state and county have their own pages and content varies greatly. The Carroll County site is one of the best that I have seen.

Check out the genweb sites that apply to your place research locations. You never know what treasures and serendipity moments might be waiting there for you.