Rabbit Trails...

I do this every once in awhile, I find a thread that is interesting and have to follow it to the end and further if it stays interesting.  My most recent trip down a rabbit trail though has been quite some time in the making.  I'm not sure I can even explain the whole thing, but I am going to try!

My maternal grandfather's sister Nina married Ross Guffey.  They married later than most and the kids were younger than my mom and her generation (the one they belonged to), in fact Nina's youngest daughter was my age and we were fast friends, just like we were first cousins really, we had the same name (Kathy) and spent much time giggling together!  So I knew that I had cousins named Guffey and Uncle Ross was not my relative, but he married into the family.  Several years ago, when I first started seriously looking for relatives, I found a Rebecca Guffey in the family tree of my maternal grandfather, his ggggrandmother was a Guffey, and I wondered if they could be related.  I was very busy trying to trace the main branches and the kids were still at home and you know how it goes!  Every now and then I would be walking in one of the cemeteries in Putnam County MO and wonder if this or that Guffey was a relative.  Recently I finally got around to asking one of the cousins for the information they had on their branch and decided to take the trail and see where it led me.  I just was convinced that all these Guffeys had to be related - and I was right!  Woohoo!  I found the common ancestor for the two families and it really is an inter-tangled mess!

Much of the research was made easier by Mr. A Joseph Guffey who was a prolific writer on all things Guffey and answered a lot of questions on genealogy forums like Genealogy.com.  Mr. Guffey passed away a few years ago, but his body of work lives on on the message boards and he gave enough information to do a lot of narrowing of searches.  As soon as I get this information collated and in a readable form (not just notes on lined paper!) I will post the whole tree - probably on the website with a link to here.

Sigh....I am a happy camper!

Some Surnames

I am just going to post this paragraph of names that I compiled for another project.  These are the names on the Pleve chart for the Kiehn side of the family.  Doctor Igor Pleve, his wife and daughter do the research on the records that are to be found in Russia.  Dr. Pleve is a historian and Director of Education in Saratov Russia (University of Saraov).  These archives from the villages along the Volga River are now kept in the kind of condition that museums in America would use, at least it sounds like that to me from my reading.  If any of these are yours and you would like for me to see if I can find them in our family and tell you who they married etc. I would be more than happy to do so, leave a message in the comments .

Amend, Bastron, Bauer, Baum, Behr, Bischoff, Borgens, Burkhardt, Eckhardt, Eisenach, Finder, Frank, Freitag, Frickle, Frick, Fox, Fuchs, Gettmann, Guenther, Goetz, Grosskopf, Guggenheim, Harding, Hartung, Hein, Herbst, Hirsch, Hofferber, Hoff, Hoffman, Hock, Hope, Hundzinger, Jordan, Kammerzell, Kasiska, Kaufmann, Kindsvater, Kissler, Kister, Klein, Klippert, Kroening, Lebsack, Lesser, Lichtenwold, Lobe, Loebsack, Meier, Manwellwe, Meininger, Mueller, Nordloh, Pemuiprjevauck, Rothe, Ruppel, Schaefer, Schaug, Schlager, Schmidt, Schneider, Schneidermiller, Schoessler, Schumacher, Sell, Slagle, Sloner, Soder, Stoerckel, Strassheim, Stroh, Thiel, Trupp, Thue, Uhrich, Vollweiler, Vorhees, Wacker, Wagner, Walter, Weber, Weidmann, Weiss, Winter, Wolfe, Wolsborn, Zeiler, Zitzmann, 

Of course these are the families that the Kiehns married into or they married into the Kiehns.  The list may not be complete but it is close!  

My immediate Kiehns came into the country in 1906 and moved to Ritzville, WA.  This is a picture of Ritzville from that time.

 

 Look closely at all those bags.  Ritzville was the largest wheat producer in the nation, still is up there in the top places.  When I went there to see the place my grandfather was born I was just blown away by the miles and miles of wheat fields.  It was almost eerie, we stopped the car and in all 4 directions you could see nothing but wheat fields!  Ritzville is home to a lot of Volga Germans and nearby Odessa is the same way.  We drove to Odessa and they have signs welcoming you in German.  That paragraph of names could have been pulled off the gravestones in the Ritzville Cemetery.  Someday maybe I'll find out why my grandfathers family moved to Colorado, when the rest of the Kiehns stayed in WA for awhile, and we never went to visit them or talked about them.  Not particularly strange - these Volga Germans didn't talk much about anything like that.  I may never know but it is fun to speculate!

Second Information Dump

(January 16, 2014 original date posted to website)

Today I am adding something for the Kiehn side.  It is not very often I find a paper trail on this side of the family and I get real excited when it happens!  This is a Naturalization declaration of intent to become a citizen for George F Kiehn.  This is from the state of Washington and he was living in Ritzville where his son Fred Kiehn (who will become Grandad Kiehn to me) is born. 

Some interesting things about this document - it lists the ship he says he came to this country on and where he came in at and the date he got here.  I have looked and not been able to find this ship but - hope springs eternal!  Another interesting thing to me is that he 'made his mark' which tends to indicate an inability to write ones own name due to either Illiteracy or physical infirmity.  He is also required to describe himself - he is 5'6" tall, weighs 140 pounds and has light hair and gray eyes.  This document was signed in 1909.  These documents are step one in becoming a naturalized citizen.








This is the last transfer of information I think - like I mentioned it became obvious fairly soon that the web page wasn't going to satisfy my need to add stuff and 'talk' - no surprise there!  :) The other thing I realized that I would be missing is the chance to have a real conversation with anyone who came along as a relative 'as yet unmet', which is of course a real hope.  So if you stumble across or are a relative that I have known all my life let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions or requests. 

Lets See How This Works

This is going to be my attempt to share online the information, pictures and documents that I and others in the family have put together.  The website Kiehn Edges, Rusty Gates is working out well for the storage and listing of the forms and data in my collection but after just a few additions of stories and photos and notes I realized that the home page of the website needs to stay simple and a little more static to keep it fast and that a blog format is probably better for what I have in mind as far as adding the interesting history type stuff.

The first few posts will be transferring info from the web page and then I will get back to the work of adding the stuff to both sites. 

(January 11, 2014 date posted to website)

This headstone belongs to Samuel Meals Sr and Margaret Catherine Reichersin in the North Washington Cemetery in Butler County PA
 

These two Bios were from the book "A History of Butler County"  from  Butler County PA 
The drawing was done by Samuel (the Father)
SAMUEL MEALS was a native of York county, Pennsylvania, whither his parents immigrated from Germany prior to the Revolution. He grew to manhood in his native county, whence he removed to Adams county, there married and reared the following children: George, who married Elizabeth STUDEBAKER; Peggy, who married George DAUBENSPECK; William, who finally settled in Clarion county; Samuel, who married Miss HOOVER; Jacob, who married a Miss VARNUM, and Daniel, who married Catherine STUDEBAKER. In the spring of 1796 the eldest son, George, came to what is now Butler county, took up several hundred acres of land on the line of Washington and Concord townships, and made some improvements. The following year the father and balance of the family came and settled on this land. Mr. MEALS was a blacksmith, as were also his sons George and Samuel, and built the first shop in the township, which he carried on in connection with farming. He was quite a prominent man in his neighborhood and filled many of the township offices at different periods. He and all his children attained a ripe old age, and their descendants are numerous in Butler County.

GEORGE MEALS, eldest son of Samuel MEALS, Sr., was born in Adams county, Pennsylvania, and there grew to maturity. In 1796 he came to this part of the State and took up the large tract of land referred to in his father's sketch, upon which the family settled the following year. George afterwards went to Westmoreland county and there married Elizabeth STUDEBAKER. About 1811 he returned to Butler county and settled at Mechanicsburg, in Worth township, where he carried on a blacksmith shop. In 1817 he removed to Concord township, and later to Washington township, where he continued to follow his trade in connection with agriculture. To George and Elizabeth MEALS were born seven children, as follows: Samuel G., who was born in Westmoreland county, July 4, 1809 and died on his farm in Washington township, September 21, 1877; Lydia, who married John MAHOOD; Mollie; Joseph G.; Peggy, who mar- [p.1293] ried Joseph PISOR; Elizabeth, who married Jacob PISOR, and Susanna, who married Daniel PISOR. The parents and all of the children are deceased.

This George is the brother of our Samuel Jr who married Elizabeth Hoover.