To begin with our oldest-known Nolte ancestor, you can click here.

To begin with the web site administrator's entry, you can click here.

(The latest upload of new entries was made Jan. 21, 2006.  This process has 
a slight "bug," so that NOTES attached to an entry will occasionally have two 
words run together in the text.  This will be slowly corrected as I make time 
to update various entries, but I will probably NOT have the time to do them 
all... so bear with us and know that those mistakes were not in the original
GEDCOM file that was uploaded.)



This photo was taken (probably) in Harriman Park in Hampton, Iowa.  Recognize 
any of these people?  So far, only about six people in this old photo have been 
identified.  One Nolte descendant stated that the father of a fairly famous 
actor my actually be one of the boys in the front row, toward the left side, 
sitting down.  Anyone know for sure?  Help us find out, if you can!


To understand who we are, it sometimes helps to know from whence we came...

Winston Churchill is quoted as saying, "The farther back you can look, the
farther forward you are likely to see."  Perhaps this gives good 
justification to those of us who pursue our family genealogy.

We each carry a legacy of our forefathers and pass along a heritage to our 
offspring.  We remember growing up, going to school and visiting relatives.  
At Christmas, sometimes there were people there we didn't always know too 
well.  "She's a distant cousin," we might be told.  Or, "That's your great-
great-uncle."  And then they would proceed to tell some funny story about 
them and everyone would have a good laugh...  And a small piece of our 
history was passed on.  It can be a sobering realization that tracing back 
just eight generations means you could have as many as 256 ancestors!

Who were all those people?  Where did they come from?  How did they meet 
their spouse(s)?  How did they get to where they called "home"?  And what 
about those fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh cousins out there... Somewhere... 
Who are we related to?

Fortunately, we have a tool, the computer, to help us find out... and keep 
track!

But beware of the surprises you find, since you just never know how fate is 
going to pop up and add some new family to your world.  Like finding a 
previously-unknown seventh cousin at an Alumni Marching Band practice... Or 
your best friend from high school shows up in your data because he married 
an almost-cousin, and his wife's sister and husband were each in your  
wedding...  Then, after being out of high school for 34 years, you discover
some of your classmates are fourth cousins, once removed! Then you might even 
discover one of those 256 ancestors is a descendant of the King of Scotland, 
which makes the Queen of England your 21st cousin and Robert "The Bruce" 
(remember the movie "Braveheart"?) your 22nd great grandfather!  Also, your 
spouse turns out to be your 26th cousin, 7 times removed... and a first cousin, 
seven times removed to Daniel Boone!  And, oh yes, a third cousin is a Golden 
Globe Award winning actor and a sixth cousin once removed is a Pulitzer Prize 
winning playwright.

So we collect some photos, take some video, tell some stories and pass along 
our traditions.  And perhaps, maybe 150 years from now, our gr-gr-gr-great 
grandchildren will have some small appreciation for their own heritage.  And 
they will tell the old stories and add to them with stories of their own.

And the family will go on...

NOTE: This database is a subset of my complete file.  The "big" version has 
about 86,425 entries, so I trimmed down some distant lines of relatives to
stay within the limits of this site.  Email me for more information if you
find errors or have updated information.  If you are family, then this site 
is just as much YOUR site as mine!  Help keep track of your/our distant 
cousins and let me know if you have material to contribute.  Thanks!