About this Website

  • Purpose and Goals 

    The purpose of the website is to improve the ties of family by providing a place to share family history.

    Since learning about my family history in early 2000, I have found the idea of finding my roots through genealogy very fascinating. As a child, I had heard that my father's family came from Germany a long time ago and that my mother's side of the family came from England or Ireland but no one seemed to have any details. The details of my family and genealogy have opened a whole new world of discovery.

    In today's day and age it is so easy to lose contact with our family beyond one or two generations and few of us manage to keep track of our cousins beyond the first or second level.

    However, our relatives provide such a rich sense of history and connection to our past. My hope is that by establishing a website dedicated to our families, I can extend this sense of wonder and excitement to other members of my family.

    If you have any ideas or contributions that will help to better realize this goal then please call me, or drop me an email. 

    Thanks for visiting the site!

    Mark Stickels - Aug, 2005

  • History

    The Mark Stickels website was started in 1999 but I did not start adding genealogy data until 2000. My interest in genealogy began with my introduction to Richard Stickels (MD) and David R. Stickels (CA) and their extensive genealogical research database. Richard and David have been doing genealogical research into the Stickel(s) of Winchester, Virginia, USA Line for many years.

    Early in 2000 I started to post their research using simple HTML templates. As the search engines begin to pickup my data I began to get emails from people all over the world. I also began to expand the research and started calling on Stickel(s) descendents all over the US in an attempt to add more living relatives to the list.

    Encouraged by this foreign interest I began to explore the idea of a new website for everyone who shared the "Stickel, Stickels, Stickle, or Stickles" surname.

    So in May 2001 I launched the website "www.Stickels.org". This website continues to get regular interest and I am having difficulty keeping up with all the entries. For this reason I have been working on a database engine to automate the data entry process

    During the year 2001, I located information on my maternal grandfather's genealogy and expanded the website to include the Castree and Finger families.

    In December 2003, I completed the first phase of a database engine for my family website.  I have now expanded the family genealogy to include Lisa's Moseley family and her links to the Mayflower colonists. 

    Now, with an easy to use database engine I hope to expand the contents of the site to include many more related families.

    Mark Stickels - Dec, 2003
  • Website Technology

    This website was originally developed using HTML and HTML templates. Then in the summer of 2003 I began incorporating  cascading style sheets .

    In December 2003 I completed a genealogy database using Lotus Notes .  This database is not actually a live implementation of Lotus Notes/Domino since the cost of a Lotus Notes Server is prohibitive.  Using Lotus Notes R5, I built a local database that exports static HTML files. 

    The database allows me to enter the basic genealogy information and then with the press of a button I can export an HTML file that has all the proper links and formatting code.

    The database simplifies the data entry process and provides much greater flexibility in formatting documents. 

    In addition, the database can generate a "Descendents Report" that lists all the direct descendents beginning with any particular individual.  The report tracks the family expansion from one generation to the next.

    I hope to build additional report functions into this database and eventually I may even post the database on a Lotus Notes server. 

    Mark Stickels - Dec, 2003
  • Mark's Family

    My introduction to genealogy began with my exposure to the genealogy research of David R. Stickels (CA) and Richard Stickels (MD).  David has spent many years searching the family line into the mountains of Virginia near and around Winchester, Virginia, USA. The trail has stopped 7 generations back with the Three Stickle brothers (or cousins).  David and others continue to search for the Stickel(s) connection to Europe

    Since, posting the Stickel(s) of Winchester, Virginia I began searching for information on my mother's side of the family. I located a relative by the name of Alec Southerland who has done research on the Castree line. Alex has found Richard Castree, my Great (x3) grandfather who comes to the US from Ireland in the early 1800's.

    While searching the internet one day for other Castree's I located a Castree on the Finger Family website.  It turns out that my great (x2) grandmother Eliza Finger (Castree) is a descendent of Johannas Vinger (1700-1779).

    Then in August of 2003, I began to follow the ancestry of several of my grandmothers on the Stickel(s) side of the family and discovered a link to (link) President George Washington. The genealogy of the Washington line goes back to the late 900's AD. Recent research also includes the Ashby and Wright families who were also early Virginia colonists.

    As you will see on the home page I have several reports that detail the family trees starting with various individuals.

    Mark Stickels - Aug, 2005

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Last Modified on: August 23, 2005
Record Created:   November 12, 2003

URL: http://www.Mark.Stickels.org/about.html