Family History » Genealogy Resources

Visualizing the Peshtigo River and Impact on the Knapp Family

Lorelle VanFossen — Thu, 26 May 2011 06:21:50 +0000

In The Peshtigo River, Marinette County’s Greatest Remaining Natural Resource was put together by Jim Frink on the High Falls Flowage site, a site about the lake and surrounding land and rivers, based upon a report in “The Water Powers of Wisconsin” by Leonard S. Smith, C. E. which was published by the State of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1908. The report was commissioned the state and the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey. Frink excerpted the information about the Peshtigo River for his site, and I’ve highlighted a few bits that describe the river in context to the impact and influence it had on my Knapp family living in Taylor Rapids along the Peshtigo River.

As far as rivers go, the Peshtigo is neither very big or significant. In many places an average person can throw a stone across it. Its drainage area is listed as 1,123 square miles, which includes roughly half of Marinette county. Its total length is listed at 94 miles, or 80 miles the way the crow flies. It does have some unique features, however. One is that its drainage area only has an average width of 14 miles with no tributary streams of any great significance feeding it. Although its water has a rather dark color derived from its swampy sources, it seems to be relatively free of pollutants or contamination. This is probably because for most of its course the shoreline is forested and wild, while the only cities of any consequence are Peshtigo and possibly Crivitz which are located far downstream from the source. Another feature, which is very important is that in its 94 mile total length, there is a drop in elevation of 1,040 feet, or an average of over 11 feet per mile. This is the largest drop per mile of any major river system in Wisconsin, and provides for more and larger rapids than any other river in the state. This compares with an average of 5.1 feet per mile for the Wolf River, 6.7 feet for the Menominee, and 10.8 feet for the Oconto. All of these rivers contain stretches of rapids, but not to the extent of the Peshtigo. The upper two-thirds of the river flows through pre-Cambrian igneous rocks while the lower third basically has a sandstone and limestone base.

This rapid flow, the fact that the river is relatively shallow and meanders considerably in the first few miles must have ruled out the Peshtigo as a viable means of transportation for the early settlers. They undoubtedly considered it as a hindrance and just another natural barrier in the way as civilization moved inland. It is even questionable if the lumbermen truly found it to their liking for moving logs from the forests to the mills due to the many rapids which must have caused considerable jams and danger. Their history and adventures would make for an entirely different story, however.

Having survived the arrival of settlers, the logging industry, the building of dams and bridges and the Peshtigo Fire, the river flowed peacefully into the 20th century, still flowing relatively unchanged and performing the tasks which nature intended.

The report admitted that while it might be possible to consider dam sites along the river, it was recommended to not. In 1905, the Wisconsin government was working hard to electrify their entire state and dams were the number one source for electricity beyond coal plants. This caused them to initiate a survey of the river to test its worthiness for damming it. For the most part, it has remained pretty much as it was, especially in the area where my ancestors grew up.

Brothers Robert F. Knapp and Wayne Knapp have written extensively in published and unpublished stories about the “Old Peshtigo River” in stories such as Lunch On the River on Old Jim With Nonie and Wayne, Trapped On The Island, and poems like Early Memories of Taylor Rapids, Wisconsin, and The 1967 Trip Back to Taylor Rapids, Wisconsin, where my two great uncles revisited their former homestead. And there are more stories of Taylor Rapids and the Peshtigo River on the way as I edit them.

I don’t have many pictures of the river in my files, from the family or from my trip there, but I want to go back and photograph more of the river that served them during their many years there. So I needed some words to help me understand more about the importance of this river for my research. Robert and Wayne talk about how there was a loading ramp/doc for the logging camps that had been abandoned about the time they were entering their early teens, and how logs from there were then loaded up onto the train that took the logs from the camps into the bigger cities, mills, and beyond.

My ancestors lived very close to the land, so it’s important that I understand that land. For many researchers, the buildings, city, and its culture is their focal point for some of their family’s history, but for this group of logging folks, it’s the forest, lakes, rivers, and sand plains of northern Wisconsin. Through their stories and my understanding of the land, I get a better picture of how they lived.

Fulton, New York, Historical Newspapers Online

Lorelle VanFossen — Tue, 10 May 2011 01:54:53 +0000

If you can live with the fact that this was created in Adobe Flash and features unwanted music on the home page, Thomas Tryniski maintains the Fulton New York Historical Newspaper Pages featuring what it claims to be over 15,377,000 of Old New York State Historical Newspaper Pages dating back into the 1800s.

It is fully searchable with a variety of search options. The results are pdf files hosted in frames. You can zoom in and read the old newspapers and uncover all the gossip and newsy tidbits that used to fill local newspapers. You can search for all kinds of reported information about your ancestors in the Fulton, New York, area and further. I found mention of the Primley family from Indiana, though I’m still trying to determine if they are my direct relations or just similar names.

Hereditary Societies: The Benefits of Membership and Research

Lorelle VanFossen — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 20:36:32 +0000

Lineage Societies – the Well-Known, the Obscure, How to Apply Successfully by Carolyn L. Barkley, Ancestry.com’s Ten Reasons to Join an Ethnic Society, and Mary Ames Mitchell’s article on Joining Hereditary Societies are exceptionally helpful starting points for identifying the society that your ancestry is affiliated. The articles will help you understand better how to approach these groups and qualify for membership.

Ms. Mitchell’s article cited stunning information such as:

If you have uncovered a direct ancestor belonging to one or more of the twenty-six families who rode on the Mayflower to America in 1620, there are several clubs which would be happy to hear from you, particularly the Society of Mayflower Descendants. Theoretically, some 30 million people should qualify for membership in this society. There are currently 27,000 members worldwide.

Really? I’m one of 30 million who can qualify as a descendant from the Mayflower? That’s just plain frightening.

Why Join a Hereditary or Ethnic Society?

The article from Ancestry.com and Terry and Jim Willard of the PBS Ancestors series lists the reasons why you should join an ethnic or hereditary society. Key reasons were:

To better understand a group’s unique research conventions and characterizations to further your own research.
Access to invaluable and unique research libraries and collections.
Membership benefits such as training, workshops, classes, and other educational activities.
Networking with those familiar in that aspect of your family’s history.
Access to research guides and instructions to help you dig deeper.
A deeper understanding of your family’s history, culture, geography, political situations, and the events within their time period.
A chance for travel, opening up doors to people and resources in locations where language and cultural barriers might close those doors.
To preserve history for future generations. By keeping these societies and their collections subsidized, and maybe adding your own research to theirs, you help future generations learn more about their own ethnic past.

Hereditary societies are supposed to be in the Hereditary Society Blue Book which is available on sale often for under $25, a small price to pay for access to a variety of communities that can help you connect with your past as well as uncover more about your family’s history with documentation and historical records and research. I’ve found that some of these societies have been more helpful in painting a picture of the life and times of my family than any other records I can dig up. They are invaluable resources, whether you join as a member or not.

The Federation of Genealogical Societies is key organization in the United States designed to support and connect genealogical, historical, and hereditary societies together, providing education, data, research, and access to experts across the industry. Their Society Hall page offers a way to search directly for the society you may need.

Lists of Hereditary Society Lists

I’ve put together a short list of groups offering their own hereditary society lists to help you track down your own, and further on in this article, I’ve listed a few that I might be eligible to join. While the Hereditary Society Blue Book is really your best and most thorough starting point, these may help. Unfortunately, most of these lists have not been updated and you will find many links to dead or inactive sites. Still, these help you track down the specific names of the societies associated with your family lineage, and a quick search through Google often turned up an updated link, so use these as guides.

Some hereditary society lists are organized by the founding year of the organization, not the year(s) associated with the event or reason for their founding. For instance, the General Society of Mayflower Descendants is listed under 1897, not 1620.

Some hereditary societies are fairly open, but others are strict on membership qualifications. As an example, in 2006, The Genealogue featured the world’s most exclusive hereditary society:

The Grand Dames of the American Colonies became the world’s most exclusive hereditary society on Friday when its only two members, Lillian Walthrup and Gladys Drew, amended the organization’s charter to exclude even themselves from membership.

“The amendment passed without objection,” says Mrs. Drew, a retired librarian now living in Fort Myers, Florida. “As soon as we’d voted, we escorted each other from the room. Needless to say, tears were shed.”

It seems that the society founded in 1856 by the wives of Know-Nothing politicians unable to campaign with their political husbands decided to create an organization that welcomed only the “right kind of people.” A review of their original charter in 2006 brought forth a ruling that required members to produce evidence that their immigrant ancestors entered the United States legally. To the same of the two remaining members, neither could. So in keeping with the integrity of their own membership rules, they banished themselves from the group. That’s a serious commitment. Unfortunately, the zero remaining members of the society have not opened membership.

While silly, if you are serious about joining some of these societies, bring substantial proof of supporting bloodline evidence.

Hereditary and Ethnic Societies for My Family

I dug through a ton of sites to find some of the societies that might play a role in my family’s history, and ones that I might consider joining in order to further my own research. I’ve included a few others that looked interesting, like the Order of Descendants of Pirates and Privateers. You never know where your family history research path could take you.

Missouri and Norwegian Lutheran Church Synod in Wisconsin 1845 – 1900s

Lorelle VanFossen — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 12:33:17 +0000

When Hans Anderson (1844-1924) was about seven years old, he and his family immigrated from Fredriksvern, Norway, to Manitowoc, Wisconsin, as part of the Norway Lutheran Church movement to North America. The family became part of the Missouri Lutheran Church Synod.

In researching the Lutheran Church records and historical information for the 1950s, trying to find some records as to the parents of Hans Anderson, including records of his marriage on June 15, 1867, to Sarah Olson in La Crosse. Wisconsin, I found some interesting resources that may help others on similar searches.

There is an excellent History of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod timeline that shows the chronological events and history of the Norwegian Synod (1853) and Evangelical Lutheran Synod (1918) which records much of the Norwegian immigration time periods.

Here are some highlights as pertains to the Anderson Family migration.

1825: Beginning of the Norwegian Migration to America. The sloop Restoration sailed from Stavanger, bringing 52 Norwegian Quakers to America.

1845: The first Norwegian church building was inaugurated March 12 in Muskego [Wisconsin].

1851: Kirkelig Maanedstidende (Church Monthly) was launched two years before the official founding of the Synod.

1853: The Synod for the Norwegian-Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (the Norwegian Synod) was organized at Koshkonong and Luther Valley near Madison Wisconsin. The Synod adopted the ritual of the Church of Norway. Three leaders of the Synod were Herman Amberg Preus, Jakob Aal Ottesen, and Ulrik Vilhelm Koren.

1861: Luther College, founded first near La Crosse, Wisconsin; relocated to Decorah, Iowa, the next year.

1872: The Norwegian Synod participates in the formation of the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America along with the Missouri, Wisconsin, and Ohio Synods.
History of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod

Here are more links and resources on the history and records of the Norwegian and Missouri Lutheran Church.

Everett and Snohomish County, Washington, Research Resources

Lorelle VanFossen — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 06:38:58 +0000

As I dig into the more recent history of my family, Snohomish County and Everett, Washington, and the surrounding areas played a huge part not just in my life, education, and culture, but also to several branches of my family, especially the West and Knapp sides.

The West family came from Michigan to log the Pacific Northwest, surviving in rough logging camps at the turn of the century. A family of adventurers, they arrived on the Mayflower and brought “civilization” across what became the United States. While not leaving a huge impact on Snohomish County, my Grandfather Howard W. West guarded the Pacific Northwest waters at sea and inland his entire life, serving on the new USS Arizona 15 years before Pearl Harbor, raising his children in Marysville and later at the Friday Harbor lighthouse, and dying as security for Chief Joseph Dam.

My mother’s Knapp family was forced by the Depression to leave behind their beloved but poverty and struggles in the logging community of Taylor Rapids, Wisconsin, for the west coast, seeking a better life. Knowing nothing but logging, they joined the logging camps in Oregon until a fire destroyed what little they had left. They moved to the wilderness of Snohomish County to work the Frye Lettuce Farm in Monroe, then the logging teams blazing roads roads through the forested mountain foothills to build what is now Old Highway 2.

Two of the Knapp brothers married into the Elwell family, descendants of Chief Seattle. Robert Knapp stayed with his wife, Evelyn Elwell (of Charles Elwell and Laura Stillman), in Lake Stevens. Lloyd married Irene Elwell and moved to Eastern Washington. Wayne Knapp married into the Odell family of Snohomish, another family of early homesteaders, merging native Americans even further with immigrant whites.

Father-in-law Captain Elwell hired on Robert and Wayne on the tug, Skagit Chief, maneuvering logs through the treacherous waterways of the Snohomish and Skagit Rivers and Puget Sound. As the roads opened up, cargo moved from the waterways, and the two Knapp brothers found jobs as security guards at the Monroe State Prison. Wayne soon moved onto Seattle, working his way up to the head of Boeing security.

Snohomish County has a long history, going back to the Native Americans. Everett, Washington, played a role in both World Wars as a protected port for the Pacific ocean. Just recently, a World War I cannon was found in Clark Park in Everett on Lombard Avenue, though not lost in the sense of lost to history but missing from the park in a mystery over 10 years old. It was found in a maintenance area of the park, forgotten and ignored. The city is now trying to figure out how to restore and/or protect this one playground for myself and children to climb over and pretend we were fighting the enemy below on the bay.

Paine Field Airport was named for a pilot in World War I, and the Boeing plant in Mukilteo, southwest of Everett, continues to be one of the largest buildings on one floor in the world as well as a major driver to the world economy and transportation system. Port Gardner Bay, once filled with logs yanked down the foothills of Mt. Pilchuck and all over Snohomish County, still hosts the paper mill remains, part of what pulled Everett out of the Great Depression when logging ran dry. It’s now dwarfed by the new marina and naval base next door.

Everett was a cross road for transportation in all directions. From the sea to the mountains east across Highway 2, later complemented by the North Cascades Highway connecting the northwestern part of the area with Eastern Washington during the passable times of the year. To the north lie Vancouver, Canada, along Interstate 5, and to the south, along the same highway, lie the industrial city of Seattle and points beyond all the way to Mexico.

From the earliest years, Everett and Snohomish County played a crucial role in the lives of Native Americans as they were gathered together and relocated to the Tulalip Reservation, home not to the Tulalip Indians, but a point of land considered waste land by government officials along the muddy flats of Port Gardner Bay and Puget Sound. Today, it hosts one of the more popular Casinos and hotels in the state, bringing popular names in entertainment and non-stop gambling and bingo to all.

There is so much history to uncover in Everett and Snohomish County, for myself as well as my family. While Everett, Washington, has its own Wikipedia page, I recommend you take time to read Mill Town: A Social History of Everett, Washington, from Its Earliest Beginnings on the Shores of Puget Sound to the Tragic and I (Washington Papers) by Norman H. Clark to learn more about this amazing region and its history.

Google has a fascinating search history timeline of Everett, Washington. It’s a bit misleading at there is an Everett, Massachusetts, and many people named Everett as a first and last name, and many references to George Washington, for whom the state was named, and an Edward Everett of Washington DC and George Washington history, so results going back to 1760 relate to published articles about those unrelated topics. However, there are some historical gems in the references published on the web covering the Bellingham riots of 1907 which later migrated to the Everett Jail, the Everett Massacre (a labor dispute that turned deadly in 1916), the courthouse fire of 1909, company announcements and news, property sales and development, many obituaries, biographies, government documents, and more.

One treasure I uncovered through the Google timeline search was an announcement in the Great Lakes & Seaway Shipping News Archive for September 2007:

On Saturday, 19 September 1891, at 11:00 a.m., the whaleback steamer CHARLES W WETMORE left Philadelphia, Pennsylvania loaded with the materials to build a nail mill, iron smelter and shipyard for the new city of Everett, Washington. Her skipper was Captain Joseph B. Hastings and she had a crew of 22.

One of the main streets in Everett, along which my great, great grandfather, Perry West, lived, is Wetmore. I didn’t know that a steamer ship had been named for the man, and how that name made it way into the history of Everett.

Here is a reference list of some of the historical sites I’ve found online that help tell the story and history of the area.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast

Don McAlvey — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 11:31:37 +0000

According to their blog, The Genealogy Guys are George G. Morgan and Drew Smith and they run the longest-running continuous genealogy podcast in the world. They started in 2005 and have been rocking at least once a week ever since.

Their site is frustrating to read as the text is crammed together and links are in text not links, but the information offered in their podcasts are jammed-filled with treasures and information you need to know about genealogy and family history research.

If you love podcasts, and want to learn more about genealogy, download and listen while you drive, walk, bike, ride, or just sit, and enjoy.

Do you have a favorite genealogy and family history podcast that you follow faithfully and enjoy? Share it, please.

Web 2.5: DNA Social Networking

Lorelle VanFossen — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 13:23:33 +0000

According to The Globe and Mail Technology, the hottest trend in online social networking is genealogy, but not genealogy as you might imagine. This is a far cry from your family history blog.

Rather than exchanging photos, music and cellphone numbers, as many of the 100 million members of MySpace.com do, participants in Ms. Wong’s online community share Y-DNA markers and mtDNA Haplogroups.

The neuroscientist is president and chief executive officer of Genetrack Biolabs Inc., one of the country’s largest DNA testing labs. Recently the Vancouver company broadened its focus beyond paternity suits and other legal testing to capitalize on the emerging field of genetic genealogy.

With a swab of the mouth and access to Genetrack’s site DNAancestryproject.com, clients can trace their lineage for possible connections to famous figures of the past, such as Marie Antoinette, whose DNA has been preserved in a locket of her hair.

The farther back in time, the wider the family connections. For example, researchers have found that one in five men in the northwest of Ireland carry the DNA of the great Irish king Niall Noigiallach, who ruled in the early 5th century. And they estimate that 2 per cent of New York’s European males today also share the royal chromosome.

Turning back the clock to prehistoric times, the website lets participants track the migratory paths their distant ancestors took out of Africa and even connect with people of related groups today.

Amazing. We spend time researching our family history through our blogs and genealogy discussion groups, but imagine a social networking group whose sole purpose to to connect you with your DNA relatives.

The idea behind Genetrack and DNAancestryproject.com is to help those researching their family history through their DNA find common ground and make connections beyond the gene pool. According to the company president, Ms. Wong: “Everybody in the project is connected to everyone else.” Which makes this social networking project even more amazing and wide spread.

Genetrack’s DNA testing kit has been sold online, but just recently started appearing in a few retail sale in stores in Canada, the US, and other places in the world. According to Genetrack, it is most popular for the 47-54 year old age group, but many young people are starting to get into digging into their past. I’d love to walk into a store and buy a DNA testing kit, wouldn’t you?

What makes this new social networking trend fascinating is the new relationships that could form because of this. The concept of “family” has been changing for a long time in the United States and elsewhere as we move farther apart from our blood relatives and turn friends into “family members”.

DNA social networking groups could reverse that trend, turning strangers into blood relatives, allowing us to meet up with family members long separated by time and distance.

In my own family history research, I’ve been able to make connections with long lost family members through genealogy research and resources online, meeting in person family descendants from the 17th and 18th century. I’ve only recently started exploring my own DNA history and expect to make contact with family members separated even farther back.

Each person I connect with brings with them some history and information about their family’s lives as well as their own that helps me fill in the missing puzzle pieces of my own. Answers from the past often help answer questions in the present.

DNA social networking is destined to become a powerful Web 2.0 type force on the web. Would you participate? How would you use such a social networking service? How would it benefit you?

Library and Archives of Canada offers Oral Histories of the First World War

Lorelle VanFossen — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 11:56:50 +0000

The Library and Archives of Canada have Oral Histories of the First World War: Veterans 1914-1918 online exhibition and resources.

Library and Archives Canada (LAC), in partnership with Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), presents Oral Histories of the First World War: Veterans 1914-1918.

The Web exhibition is based on the CBC‘s radio broadcast In Flanders Fields, a series of one-on-one interviews with veterans of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, which aired from November 11, 1964 to March 7, 1965. The website is organized into seven themes: Second Ypres, Vimy Ridge, War in the Air, The Somme, Trench Warfare, Passchendaele and Perspectives on War.

These first-hand accounts, which can be listened to or read via the retyped transcripts, provide the personal insights on the experience of war by one of the greatest generations that Canada has ever produced.

US Archives Resources on the War of 1812

Lorelle VanFossen — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 11:51:17 +0000

The US National Archives – War of 1812 features extensive information, resources, records, and online exhibitions about the US War of 1812, including:

The page also lists other off-site resources that may help you learn more about the War of 1912.

Oregon Historical and Genealogical Information Resources

Lorelle VanFossen — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 11:43:06 +0000

The Oregon American History and Genealogy Project shares historical and genealogical information about the US state of Oregon, helping you to learn more about the history of the area and your family’s history within the area.

Highlights include:

They are also looking for volunteers to help develop the many counties and resources available for those researching their family history in Oregon.