Last updated October, 2023
Welcome to Kaye's Quest! Whether you are just curious, a serious family historian or have just accidentally landed here, I hope you can find some piece of information to interest you. If you are interested in a particular family line, go the family buttons in the left column to begin your search. Click on the family of interest. OR check the Surname Index to find the family lines you are looking for.
The initial build of this site contained only my paternal line: Feuerbacher, Hernsdorf, Sternberg, and Duesterhoeft ancestors, along with their descendants and affiliated surnames. I have recently included my maternal family - the Pruitt and Alexander lines. The Pruitt/Alexander families include family surnames such as Trenary, Sharp, Simpson, Middleton, Martin, Sylvester and others.
While my father's German family is entirely made up of immigrants to America, my mother's Pruitt/Alexander families all (with a single exception so far) seem to go back to the earliest settlers in the Colonial America. These families came from Scotland, Ireland and England. Among these families are early settlers of Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. You'll also find Revolutionary soldiers, War of 1812 veterans and Civil War Confederate combatants. Through these lines many of their descendants are eligible for membership in Daughters of the American Revolution, Daughters of the Republic of Texas, Colonial Dames and United Daughters of the Confederacy. I cannot claim any ancestors who settled colonies in New England or anywhere north of Maryland. They all seem to have landed in Virginia and spread south and west from there.
The Feuerbacher/Sternberg German roots run deep in the German Empire and Prussia. They come from the state of Mecklenburg and The Kingdom of Saxony, as well as areas now known as Poland and The Czech Republic. Some of those allied surnames are Hernsdorf, Schmidt, Duesterhoeft, Kotte, Plotze, Borgwardt and more. My Grandfather Feuerbacher was the first child in his family to be born in America. Grandmother Feuerbacher was first generation American on her paternal side and 2nd generation on her maternal side.
The Pruitt/Alexander information is not as complete as my paternal side on this site, yet. But keep coming back! I am working to add more information from my database as soon as I get the data ready to transfer.
I've included a small number of living people, attempting to exclude all living descendants born after approximately 1960. Although I don't believe that identity thieves prowl family history sites for their next target, some people do. Therefore, the information on the few living people in my site will be severely limited to only name and marriage. When there are multiple marriages for a living person, I have tried to include only marriages which have produced children, and, current marriages. It is entirely possible, if not probable, that there have been births, deaths, divorces and remarriages which I know nothing about.
Family research is an ongoing process and I have done my best to present accurate information. When errors are found by family or fellow researchers, I would greatly appreciate a note with corrections and/or additions. I also welcome short biographies of ancestors with whom you have intimate knowledge. These will be subject to editing in order to fit my format and space available.
Since I try to keep my site and database current, I am always excited to receive current information to add to my project. Just because descendants are not mentioned on this website, doesn't mean they aren't in my database. Contact me! I'll share what I have. The site will continue to be updated as more information is discovered and entered.
My priority, right now, is to complete the upload of my maternal families. Also, I want to include more images, copies of interesting source documents AND to get narrative syntax cleaned up so that everything reads correctly.