About

This website is a living record of the Schilz and Lessman families—an effort to preserve names, stories, photographs, and connections across generations. Like many families, our history spans countries, centuries, and countless everyday moments that together shape who we are today.

Genealogy is more than dates and documents. It is about people—their migrations, their work, their relationships, their challenges, and their resilience. This project exists to honor those lives, both remembered and nearly forgotten, and to create a shared space where family history can be explored, understood, and passed forward.

Our Families

The Schilz and Lessman family lines reflect broader patterns of history: immigration, settlement, community building, and change over time. Through census records, vital records, photographs, letters, and oral histories, this site brings together multiple branches of these families into one connected narrative.

As research continues, this site will grow to include:

Interactive timelines showing how generations overlap and intersect Family photographs and documents that bring stories to life Biographical sketches of ancestors and relatives Audio and video interviews preserving living memories Historical context to better understand the times our ancestors lived in

A Living Project

This is not a finished archive—it is an ongoing and evolving project. New discoveries, corrections, and stories will continue to be added as research progresses. Family history is collaborative by nature, and contributions, memories, and insights from relatives are always welcome.

The goal is not perfection, but preservation.

Why This Matters

Every family history is part of a larger human story. By documenting the Schilz and Lessman families, we are preserving a small but meaningful piece of that shared past—for current relatives, future generations, and anyone curious about where they came from.

Thank you for being here and for taking part in keeping these stories alive.