We have compiled this family history with stories about our ancestors so that our children can know from whence they have come. When we were first married, we did a lot of family research to find our “roots.” Then as our children started coming, we focused on posterity instead of ancestry. Now that our children are grown and gone, we have begun again to do family history research.

Within the past 30 years a lot has changed in the world of genealogy with the computer and Internet available. We have found much information that was previously hidden. With just the push of a button we can instantly access information that took us hours and hours of scrolling through microfilm rolls years ago.

As we have examined census records, land records, military records, death certificates and obituaries, cemetery records, www.familysearch.org information, church records, county histories and biographies, birth and marriage records, and maps, many discoveries have been made on our Gollnick family line. One of the most rewarding resources has been the census records. When finding a family on a census record, it is like opening their door and walking into their home to meet them, and we found our family in many census records.

We have found the name “Gollnick” spelled many different ways: Golnik, Gollnik, Golnick, Goldnick, Gollneck, Golnieck, Gulnik, Galnick, etc. We have chosen to spell a person’s name the way it was spelled in their birth record. So, Michael Golnik is spelled without the double “L” and without the “c,” and August Herrman Golnick is spelled with one “L” in Golnick and a double “R” in Herrman.