2012 Goals: Research

Instead of just rattling off my goals for 2012 in one post, I'm going to do individual posts on each and then a summary post which includes how I did with my 2011 goals.  My goals fall into four categories: Research, Writing, Organization and Wild Card.  The inspiration for this, as was the case in 2011, was the We Tree blog.

My Research Goal:
I know very little about my great-great-grandmother's family.  I do know the names of her parents (Niels Christian Nielsen and Engeline Christine Petersen), where they were married (Ottawa Co., Ohio - likely in Benton Twp.), and where they spent most of their lives and died (Alameda Co., California).  I even have death certificates and obituaries for various family members (including Engeline)

I don't, however, know the names of Niels and Engeline's parents, or where Niels and Engeline were born, or when they arrived in the US (every record gives a different year).  My goal is to find out this information.

There are several avenues I can take, the most obvious being: 1) Niels' naturalization record.  I know he naturalized on 15 July 1881 at the Alameda Co. Superior Court; 2) Niels and Engeline's marriage record.  They were married in Ottawa Co., Ohio on 30 May 1874 and there are films I can order which cover this timeframe; 3)  Engeline had two sisters, one of whom has a death certificate out there I can order and the other an obituary.  I'm hopeful that one of these gives me at least some of the information I'm looking for.