There's a story in my mother's family that we're related to Tex Beneke the famous American saxophonist. The story goes that one brother emigrated from Germany to Australia, and the other to America, the ancestor of Tex (born Gorden Lee) Beneke.

I've traced my Beneke ancestors back to Germany: my great great grandmother Karl Heinrich Nicholaus (later anglicised to Charles Henry Nicholaus) Beneke was born on 6 June 1835 in Neumuenster, Holstein, Germany, the son of Hans Nicholaus Beneke and Wiebke Christina Henrietta Fels. If the story is true (and I have my doubts), his brother would probably be the great grandfather of Tex Beneke who was born in 1914.

The problem I'm having is that I have no idea of how to trace the ancestry of Tex Beneke, just in case the story does turn out to be true. I have never done any family history research using American records (all my ancestry comes from Australia and, earlier, England, France, and Germany), and nowhere have I found a single mention of any of the members of Tex Beneke's famiy.

I would appreciate any help or advice.