Living or stranded in Costa Rica since more than 24  years and interested in History, soon one of my major interests culminated in the question of whether family members have emigrated to America. So I started, what many people call a Genealogical Research, and soon I encountered various Ancestors, who immigrated to various parts of the world: To New England, now called the „United States of America“, to the Netherlands and to Brazil.

I further realized that there are two ways of doing Genealogical work: To find or to investigate. Whilst  summarized references in many cases leads to a presumed result,which can be true or false, is research a different matter. It is scientific historical elaboration and has to consider many derrerals:

1. the family name: Which ethnic root has my name? A very complicated question, since especially West-Germanic Names, very often are leading to confusions, especially between English and German Family Names.
2. the forename: In the 18th century Parents have christened their children by a small selection of first names. So maybe there have been a lot of John Doe, an Englishman, Dutchman, Swiss or German
3. and last most important: Not everybody is related to the Queen of England or Charlemagne. Many genealogical History researcher start their work with a predefined outcome that must be achieved in all circumstances.

So, what I want to say: Genealogical work seems easy, fast results can be achieved, but caution. It is like playing chess: easy to learn the rules, but difficult and hard work to play it well. I work now 17 years on our story, and I feel I never can finish it according to the standards which are satisfying an independent researcher

If anybody is interested in the Hirschmann Genealogy, in the version Dieter Hirschman is invited to contact me.