50th Anniversary!

May, 2026 is the 50th Anniversary of Sherbondy Genealogy research!

It was May 10, 1976 when Jeff Sherbondy sent his letter to the Corman family asking about the genealogy research they did that his grandmother had told him about.  We’re celebrating 50 years of genealogy research by Jeff by showing here some of the early correspondence and publications that he did. 

We are also progressing with our plans for hardback book publications.  We have more information here about the detailed information that will be in the books.    

Jeff’s 1st letter to the Corman family in Oak, NE on May 10, 1976.  He didn’t have an address, so just sent to “Any relative of Corman, Oak, NE” and it was delivered to Helen Ahrens, daughter of Grace Corman.  Attached is a copy of the letter.  Yes, this was before computers.  Also, before he was typing with carbon paper.  He would handwrite a draft letter (for his copy) and then handwrite the final for mailing.

This was the first Sherbondy genealogy (“Sherbondy Outline”) typed by Jeff, in 1976. It was in the same format as the one prepared by Grace Corman in 1972. This one was 10 pages.  Without revealing details of living individuals, attached are a couple pages from that outline.

The next Sherbondy Outline typed by Jeff was in 1977. This one was 16 pages. This trajectory (of adding many additional descendants) continued into 1978 when his next (and last) Sherbondy Outline was comprised of 38 pages.

The Sherbondy “Clan Chart” format started in 1984, designed in word processing after a recent purchase of a computer. This introduced the Clan ID system to simplify descendant identification and reduce ambiguity due to, for example, 5 Johns and 3 Georges in the 1st 3 generations.   This was before Clans E and L were positively connected to John #1.

Sherbondy Book Information

We are also progressing with our plans for hardback book publications. Current work is on Clans A, B, C, D, E, F and G.

The website has only about 15% of the information we have in our archives.  We intend to publish everything in the hardback books.  When available, we capture more than just dates and places.  We also include interests, education, occupations, accomplishments, baptisms, employment, photos, places of residence, hobbies, land ownership, passions and much more!

The sources for our information comes from not only vital records (birth, marriage, death) but also from correspondence, newspaper articles, old church records, biographies, business records, cemetery records, city directories, photos, court cases, deeds, military records, compiled records, obituaries, artifacts, address database, history books, wills and others!

If you are a descendant from Clans A through G and would like to see the information on your family, please send us an email and we’ll prepare a file and a link for you to view. 

Below are examples of a couple individuals (without revealing any personal information on living individuals), one from Clan A and one Clan S, and the type of information we are publishing.   

Homer Sherbondy (1836-1900) was in the Civil War from 1862 to 1865, becoming Second Lieutenant and was a businessman in Keokuk County, Iowa.

Alvin Leroy Sharbondy (1897-1992) was an entrepreneur and writer, particularly about local history, in Oceola County, Iowa from the 1920’s to 1992.