This is the stone of my GGGreat-granparents Anna Ulery Harrod and Joseph Harrod. They are buried in the Hoagland Cemetary in Hoagland, Indiana.

Over the past several years I have searched for her family in the counties that her birth county was derived from for some sign of her family. I found a couple of Serrings,or similar names, but no one who looked likely to be related to her.

I spent today at the Allen County Public Library, focusing solely on the Sarah Serring brickwall, how to connect her to William Shady and his family. I made a list of the ways she could have been related, including through his wife, Susannah Grim.

As I was looking over the maps and all of the information that I had on her to this point, it occurred to me that there is a town, Ashville, in Pickaway Co. and that Pickaway County is where William Shady and Susannah Grim were married several years after her birth. Maybe the reports of her being born in Ashland Co. were really confusions about her having been born in Ashville. (Which would explain why my searches in the counties that now make up Ashland have yielded nothing.) In addition, Ashland County didn’t make as much geographic sense.
So I decided to focus on Pickaway County, and began poring through every book that addressed the early 19th century in that county. I searched for over four hours. Finally, in the 5th and final hour of my search, I found what may turn out to be a clue. In a book with inscriptions from three old cemeteries I found a number of  “Zehrung” graves. Several of which are unreadable, including two that seem likely to fall between 1811 and 1850. I made a note of it, because it was easy to see how the pronunciation of Zehrung could end up as Serring. However, when I turned the page I got really excited. I got the “you’re on the right path” chills. In that same very small cemetery was buried Susannah Grim’s mother, Deborah. Also, in that cemetery and the one nearby are  Steeles.

So now I will set back out through the Pickaway County records looking for Zehrung/Zehring (as it was in the nearby cemetery.) I’ll start my search for her family all over again. It may be a blind alley, but it has definitely brought some renewed energy to my search!

I’m working on gathering my documentation for my DAR application, and did find some more specific place names and times yesterday that should help with that process. Of course, I kept heading off on rabbit trails. It’s almost impossible for me not to! I love history, and my favorite part about family history is the way that you can see the larger historical events play out in a family or community.

As I worked on my Harrod history yesterday–my great-grandmother was Alta Jane Harrod Ruhl (in the picture with my great-grandfather)–I kept getting pulled into peripheral lines reading about soldiers and pioneers. It’s so cool when disparate family lines criss-cross and I find that my fifth great-grandfather on my father’s side, Levi Harrod, who fought in the revolution, and his brothers knew my first cousin nine times removed on my mom’s side, Daniel Boone.

I found my husband’s grandmothers maiden name, Garriott, intermingled with some Harrods in southern Indiana and several other names that are significant in my research, giving me more rabbit trails to follow.

Bethany and I are going to Salt Lake City at the end of the month for a convention, but I am hoping to be able to squeeze out a little bit of time to visit the Family History Library, although I don’t have any illusions that I’ll actually have time to get any research done.

I knew when I posted my last post that I might get a response like I got from one friend. I just didn’t think it would be so fast. “What difference does it what their great-great-grandparents were doing? I don’t even know who mine were.”

Maybe you have to be into family history to understand why the reality that someone owned my friends gg grandfather was so significant to me. Maybe not.

I know who my gg grandparents were. I know details about their lives. I’ve spent time searching for facts, details, stories, pictures, and places related to their lives. The decisions they made about where to live, how to live, and how to raise their children made an impact on their families that still goes on.

Louis and Wilhelmina (Pracht) Bracht were both born in Germany, married in Ohio, and moved to Indiana. Louis was a farmer. His last farm sat at what is now the corner of Coliseum & Lima in Fort Wayne. The house where he spent his last days is still standing in a Fort Wayne neighborhood. They had 11 children and were active in the German Reformed Church.

Heinrich and Wilhelmina (Kruetzman) Hildebrand were both second generation Americans, born in Allen & Adams counties. Their parents were among the founding members of the German Evangelical & Reformed Church in Magley, Indiana. Heinrich fathered seven children and also raised an orphan girl. The family still farms the same farm and my grandparents lived on land passed down from Henry. Henry died young-ish and Wilhelmine lived out her life in the home of her newly wed son Otto and his wife Flora, my great-grandparents.

Reuben and Margaret (Steele) Beery both came from families that have been here since before America was a country. On his mother’s side, Reuben was descended from Kings George’s Virginia land agent. Daniel Boone was his sixth cousin. They were active in the Brethren church and Reuben was a prosperous farmer. Reuben was born in Ohio, while Margaret was born in Adams County, Indiana. They had 11 children.

Joshua and Nancy (Mowery) Bright also came from Ohio. Joshua’s family had been in America sine the early 1700′s and he was also a farmer. His will was a beautiful confession of faith and hope that his family would continue in that faith. They had 14 children, with only three dying in childhood.

This is just one side of my family. I “know” my other four great-great grandparents, too. They were all farmers. My gg grandparents, Colonel Ellsworth and Samantha (Hubler) Ruhl were Lutheran and I’m grateful that I have ended up with that heritage.

These aren’t some people from the past who are of no further importance. Their lives impacted mine. When my friend mentioned, so matter of fact-ly, that she had found some information about her gg grandfather’s owner it made the whole reality of slavery seem even more awful than it always has.

For a history buff like me, who is also part of a close family, family history is a natural interest. I have been researching for over 10 years now, but moving to northern Indiana five years ago really reinvigorated my searches. Both of my parents are from the county to the south of Fort Wayne, and the last immigrant ancestors of mine arrived there in the late 1840′s. Our families were among the early settlers of three northern Indiana counties: Adams, Allen, and Wells.

This gives me an enormous feeling of connection to this part of the country. I love finding the homes that family members lived in, seeing the churches the attended–and often helped build–and walking through the cemeteries where they were buried. I love finding newspaper snippets about their comings and goings, reading their letters, and seeing their names on old plat maps.

I love the cemeteries for their serene country settings. I love the signs of the faith that was an important part of their lives. Their are eight of them that I know pretty well, now, but each time I go I seem to make a new connection. There are a few I have yet to find. A beautiful fall day is the perfect time to go search.

My great-great-great grandparents, Joseph and Anna Harrod moved here from WiIlliams County, Ohio.

Their son Enos and his wife Hester have one of my favorite headstones. Enos and Hester’s daughter, Alta Jane Harrod Ruhl was my great-grandmother and I was named after her.

First, because of the clothing and the people present, we are fairly certain that this picture was taken around 1916. We also think it was most likely taken at the home of my great-great grandparents, Louis and Wilhelmine Bracht in Allen County, Indiana, mostly because of who is there and by process of elimination.

The first thing that I knew for certain was the identity of the tallish woman in the middle holding the baby. That is my great grandmother Flora Bracht Hildebrand. The little girl in front of her is, we are fairly certain, her oldest child, Irene, who was born in October 1910. The woman standing just to the left of her is her mother-in-law, Wihelmina Kruetzman Hildebrand, who lived with them. She is holding Walter, who was born in September 1912. The baby Flora is holding is Marie, born in January 1915. My grandmother, Helen, would be born in April 1917, and there is no sign of her.

The second woman from the left is a puzzle. She may be Flora’s mother, Wihelmine Pracht Bracht. If so, Her looks do not change in any picture of her that I have seen, even though see lives until 1953. She could also be an older relative. I have wondered if maybe the woman standing to the right behind her shoulder could be Flora’s mother, especially since I believe the young woman to the right of her is her sister, Frieda, who would have been about 16, and the woman has her hand in the crook of Frieda’s elbow.

I am still working on other identifications. I think that the woman standing behind Frieda to the right is Augusta Bracht Foltz. Flora, Frieda, and Gustie were very close. I think that the second woman from the right is Margaret, the wife of Augustine Bracht, Flora’s older brother. Flora had three other brothers who could have had wives in the picture, as well as an older sister.

I’m going to keep working on this.

Beery, Bright, Steele, Mowery, Huddle/Hottel, Stover, Miller, Brumback, Blosser, Hildebrand, Bracht, Pracht, Schraelike, Peck, Kruetzman, Ruhl, Harrod, Pipes, Ulrey, Hawky, Caston, Felger, Trenary, Brink Sylcox, Casey, Garriott, Souder, Lett, Harris, Boerner, Ballard, Brothers