I am a native of Louisville, KY and currently reside in East Texas. I have been doing family research since about 1985. My maternal great grandfather anglicized his german surname Haubrich to Hambrick. I've always known that I had a great uncle 'Charlie' who changed his last name from Hambrick to Charles M. Hamburg and played professional baseball. I first found him on the Deadball Era web site by Frank Russo. I then found him on Find A Grave, also submitted by Mr. Russo. I seem to have a connection to baseball, as I am a distant relation to the Hillerich's of the Louisville Slugger fame. My ggrandmother, Mary (Hillerich) Vogel, was a first double cousin to J.F. "Fred" Hillerich, father of John A. "Bud" Hillerich, who made the first bat fashioned for an individual player, Pete "The Old Gladiator" Browning (as legend tells us), thus the birth of the "Louisville Slugger".
Other family surnames I'm researching are Jansen, Bönte, Mathies/Mathias/Mathews, Wenzel, Heß/Hess and Vogel. Many more too numerous to mention.

I also manage and research family trees for extended family through marriage. Surnames: Hardin, Harp, Pounds, McKinney and too many others to mention.

I'm enjoying working with this site and have added all of my family members that I've found so far. Most of my Ancestors are buried in St. Louis Cemetery, Calvary Cemetery, Resthaven Memorial Park and Cave Hill Cemetery, all in Louisville.

If anyone finds an error on any of my contributions, please don't hesitate to inform me and I will be happy to correct it. Families are for sharing, so feel free to use any photo I post in your own family genealogy, just please provide photo credit when uploading to genealogy websites. Please use the Suggest a Correction feature to make requests for modifications or transfers. Transfer requests should typically meet the Find A Grave guidelines, but I do make exceptions. I would rather a memorial be with 'family' than not. I do not do this for the 'numbers'. I do not transfer my own ancestors.

A genealogy tip for those posting obituaries. When listing an obituary and sourced to a particular newspaper, the obit should always be written exactly as printed. Any errors should be sited as a 'correction' in a side note.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here is a little something that another fellow Find-a-Grave member, Jeff Gonyea, put on his profile:

"We don't "own" the memorials we manage - they are not ours. We may create them, we may update them, we may transfer them to others - we are but stewards. They are Find A Grave memorials of human beings, departed. They are not "friends" on a social media network website to be collected like baseball trading cards. And there's no prize for the one who dies with the most.

The reward (for me) comes from maintaining the most accurate and dignified memorials I can. What we record becomes history, and a record in someone else's family tree. We have a responsibility to do a good job of it. It's a privilege and an honor.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A very special thank you to my very special Olin E. Hartley for sponsoring my parents memorials.

Thanks also to a special findagrave friend Diane Miller for sponsoring my maternal grandparents.

I appreciate all who leave tributes for my family members and please forgive me if I don't get a personal thank you out to all individuals. I am retired, but stay busy with family research and try to keep up with the chores that beckon me daily. I leave tributes when I can, but find it a task to keep up with my own family sometimes. Not enough hours in the day, but so thankful to have each day and the friends I have made on this site.

Claudia (Jansen) Hartley

I am a native of Louisville, KY and currently reside in East Texas. I have been doing family research since about 1985. My maternal great grandfather anglicized his german surname Haubrich to Hambrick. I've always known that I had a great uncle 'Charlie' who changed his last name from Hambrick to Charles M. Hamburg and played professional baseball. I first found him on the Deadball Era web site by Frank Russo. I then found him on Find A Grave, also submitted by Mr. Russo. I seem to have a connection to baseball, as I am a distant relation to the Hillerich's of the Louisville Slugger fame. My ggrandmother, Mary (Hillerich) Vogel, was a first double cousin to J.F. "Fred" Hillerich, father of John A. "Bud" Hillerich, who made the first bat fashioned for an individual player, Pete "The Old Gladiator" Browning (as legend tells us), thus the birth of the "Louisville Slugger".
Other family surnames I'm researching are Jansen, Bönte, Mathies/Mathias/Mathews, Wenzel, Heß/Hess and Vogel. Many more too numerous to mention.

I also manage and research family trees for extended family through marriage. Surnames: Hardin, Harp, Pounds, McKinney and too many others to mention.

I'm enjoying working with this site and have added all of my family members that I've found so far. Most of my Ancestors are buried in St. Louis Cemetery, Calvary Cemetery, Resthaven Memorial Park and Cave Hill Cemetery, all in Louisville.

If anyone finds an error on any of my contributions, please don't hesitate to inform me and I will be happy to correct it. Families are for sharing, so feel free to use any photo I post in your own family genealogy, just please provide photo credit when uploading to genealogy websites. Please use the Suggest a Correction feature to make requests for modifications or transfers. Transfer requests should typically meet the Find A Grave guidelines, but I do make exceptions. I would rather a memorial be with 'family' than not. I do not do this for the 'numbers'. I do not transfer my own ancestors.

A genealogy tip for those posting obituaries. When listing an obituary and sourced to a particular newspaper, the obit should always be written exactly as printed. Any errors should be sited as a 'correction' in a side note.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here is a little something that another fellow Find-a-Grave member, Jeff Gonyea, put on his profile:

"We don't "own" the memorials we manage - they are not ours. We may create them, we may update them, we may transfer them to others - we are but stewards. They are Find A Grave memorials of human beings, departed. They are not "friends" on a social media network website to be collected like baseball trading cards. And there's no prize for the one who dies with the most.

The reward (for me) comes from maintaining the most accurate and dignified memorials I can. What we record becomes history, and a record in someone else's family tree. We have a responsibility to do a good job of it. It's a privilege and an honor.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A very special thank you to my very special Olin E. Hartley for sponsoring my parents memorials.

Thanks also to a special findagrave friend Diane Miller for sponsoring my maternal grandparents.

I appreciate all who leave tributes for my family members and please forgive me if I don't get a personal thank you out to all individuals. I am retired, but stay busy with family research and try to keep up with the chores that beckon me daily. I leave tributes when I can, but find it a task to keep up with my own family sometimes. Not enough hours in the day, but so thankful to have each day and the friends I have made on this site.

Claudia (Jansen) Hartley