About the Project
Preserving the Goodman, Ellsworth, Hofstätter, and Platt family history.
The Origins
This digital archive was born from a desire to preserve the rich, interwoven history of the Goodman, Ellsworth, Hofstätter, and Platt families. For decades, these narratives lived in disparate forms: fading photographs, handwritten journals, self-published memoirs, and the oral traditions passed down at family gatherings.
The foundation of this archive rests heavily on the personal journals and memoirs of Dr. Clifford J. Goodman Jr. and Herta Ingeborg Nadina Hofstätter. Their writings provide not just dates and names, but the emotional texture of their eras—from the pioneer grit of early Arizona to the post-war realities of divided Germany, and the eventual collision of those two worlds.
The Archive Structure
The site is organized into four main pillars to support different modes of exploration:
- The Narrative (Home): A curated, high-level overview of the family's journey, told chronologically across five chapters.
- Family Stories: First-hand accounts extracted directly from personal journals and memoirs, preserving the original voice of the authors.
- Family Index: Deep biographical profiles of key ancestors, complete with timelines and source citations.
- Timeline: A unified, chronological view of significant births, marriages, migrations, and milestones.
Technical Foundation
This archive is built with Next.js (App Router) and React, allowing for a fast, resilient, and long-lasting digital footprint. The underlying content is stored in plain-text Markdown (MDX), ensuring that the historical data remains accessible and readable regardless of future technological shifts.
The design system, dubbed STRATA, relies on Tailwind CSS to evoke the colors and textures of the Arizona desert—earth tones, bone whites, and the varied hues of the landscape that shaped so much of this family's history.
Contributions
History is an ongoing project. Family members who wish to contribute corrections, additional photographs, or their own written accounts are encouraged to reach out.
The archive is currently maintained by Matthias Goodman.