On Saturday, November 7th, the Genealogy Guys spent the day with us at our Annual Seminar. Were you there?
If you weren’t able to be with us, you don’t have to miss out completely. The last session in the afternoon was recorded and is published as this week’s podcast at the Genealogy Guys website. 
Check it out ?.
Be a part of genealogical history on November 7, 2009.
See and talk to “The Genealogy Guys!”
You can if you are in the crowd on that day. You will be a participant in the recording of a live “Genealogy Guys” podcast, which will later be placed online and available worldwide. You can even ask the “Guys” questions.
George G. Morgan & Drew Smith (the real names of the real “Guys”) are the oldest continual genealogical podcast, with over 184 archived podcasts you can download and listen too–or just listen without downloading. continue reading…
Our Continued Struggle
We’ve rounded the first bend – but there’s still a long way to go…..
Senate Concurrent Resolution 18 and Senate Bills 503-527 all passed the Senate committee and also passed on the Senate Floor. Now it’s time to enlighten the House.
There are two avenues of thought about SCR18 making it through the House.
1) The House is Democratic by makeup. Our chances aren’t as good if legislators vote in favor of their party leader – in this case the governor.
2) There are many first term representatives this year. These new members seem to be more likely to vote in favor of what’s best for their constituents. The old rule of following party lines is generally thought of as old school. Common sense and informative decision making are the trend. continue reading…
I originally found Henry GRIFFIN in May or June of 2000. I’ve long made it a research practice to study the families and descendants of siblings of those ancestors in my direct lines. I can’t tell you how often that has paid off in discoveries of new clues to research and interesting connections in general. Henry was the nephew of my 5th Great-Grandmother, Miriam (GRIFFIN) MEREDITH. (See Henry Griffin / Don Bryant Relationship Chart)
Portrait of Henry Griffin
Sometime in 2008, I ran across a small item on the internet that a Henry GRIFFIN was once a mayor of Grand Haven. Then last weekend I had some time to delve into him as a subject.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to enter a family member’s name in Google and have results returned that give practically a life story in only a few hours time? I don’t mean finding another person’s research work. I’m referring to discovering the documents, books, portraits, vital records, letters, newspaper articles, land patents, pictures of houses and buildings related to the subject and family – all in a matter of hours. Not many of us will be as fortunate as we slug along, prudently tracking down scattered bits and pieces of evidence. Finding Henry GRIFFIN was a case study in Providence – or at least Fortune. During just a few hours I learned more about the early history of Ottawa county at one sitting than I have ever learned about any specific region, just by Googling “Henry GRIFFIN – Grand Haven.” – D. Bryant
Here’s a summary of his life ordered chronologically: continue reading…
Relationship Chart
Richard GRIFFIN
b. 22 Jun 1732
at Nine Partners,
d. 8 Oct 1795
at Grimsby, Lincoln
m. 1757
at Nine Partners, NY
+Mary SMITH
b. circa 1734
at probably, CT
d. after 1780
at Ontario
Smith GRIFFIN Siblings Miriam GRIFFIN
b. 9 Aug 1772 b. 15 Apr 1765
at Nine Partners, NY at Coeymans Township, NY
d. 28 Sep 1849 d. 17 Mar 1856
at Brantford, Brant Co, ONT at Grimsby, Lincoln Co, ONT
m. 1799 m. 17 May 1793
at Grimsby, Lincoln Co, ONT at Smithville, Lincoln Co, ONT
+Eleanor CULVER +Charles MEREDITH
b. 15 Jul 1780 b. circa 1761
at Louth, Lincoln Co, ONT at probably, PA
d. 1812 d. 1816
at Smithville, Lincoln Co, ONT at Grimsby, Lincoln Co, ONT
continue reading...
William BRYANT was undoubtedly devastated after the death of Nellie, his first wife. He was introduced to Evalena TINDALL. A family member states that William’s sister Gertrude thought Eva, a “society girl,” would be good for William dealing with his loss and so encouraged the marriage.
Eva TINDALL was born 15 Aug 1871 in Algansee, Branch County, Michigan, the daughter of Jonathan S. TINDALL and Mary Elizabeth CLINE. She became the second Mrs. William C. BRYANT in Newaygo, Michigan on the one-year anniversary of the death of the first Mrs. William C. BRYANT, 8 Sep 1888. William and Eva had a son Donald J. born 3 June 1892 in Fremont, Michigan. By 1894, the family had moved to Thompsonville, Benzie County, Michigan. The marriage was apparently a bad match and relatively short-lived, ending in divorce by about 1898. Eva moved with their son Donald to Detroit. There she was married 23 Apr 1904 to Frank LAMOREAUX. In 1920, Donald lived with his mother and stepfather and worked in Frank’s saw manufacturing company in Detroit. In the 1930 census, Eva and Frank were still living in Detroit. Donald had married in Wayne County to Hilda A. DAHNKE on 11 Mar 1921. With his wife and two children were also in Detroit at the time of the 1930 census.
Eva’s father, Jonathan born about 1836 in New York State, moved to Algansee, Michigan about 1859 and was enumerated in 1860 living in Algansee with his brother, Peter B. TINDALL. Jonathan enlisted in Co. B, 11th Michigan Infantry 24 Aug 1861 at Algansee, Branch County, Michigan, for three years, age 25. He was mustered out at Sturgis, Michigan 30 Sep 1864. He was a son of Andrew TINDALL of Wayne County, New York. continue reading…
Neal Ball, Cleveland Naps
I look for the unknown family stories. They’re rewarding. How do I find them? Persistent research on those collateral lines – and luck.
The Williams family of Jamestown Township, Ottawa County & Gaines Township, Kent County was one of my wife’s major family branches in Michigan. Adams Williams was the patriarch and his wife Betsey Bouck the daughter of a Michigan pioneer, Adam Bouck (1830 – Washtenaw County). Adam and Betsey Williams are both buried in Pine Hill Cemetery, Paris Township, Kent County. Both the Williams and Bouck families were of Palatinate German descent and came from Schoharie County, New York.
Adams Williams’ son Daniel married Mary Jane Leman in Niagara County, New York about 1850 and moved to Michigan about 1855, apparently the first of his extended family to go west. Daniel granted land in Gaines Township, Kent county to his father in 1856 and lived in Jamestown, Ottawa county with his wife and two children. Tragically, Daniel died of disease in the “War of 1861,” but by then had four children, the last two born in Michigan. Daughter Emma, born about October 1858 married Albert Smith of Grattan Township, Kent County on 29 July 1875. Albert and Emma begat Maud Smith in July 1882. Maud in 1903 married Cornelius Ball of Grand Haven.
Family tradition – truth or fiction?
rear: Ada Belle (MEREDITH) BRYANT & Sarah (HARRISON) MEREDITH; front: Harry, Bertha and Gladys BRYANT ca. 1904
My father’s Aunt Marjorie wrote two lengthy letters in 1995 to my uncle answering his questions about the Bryant family history. The second letter focused on her father, William, and her only brother, my grandfather, Harry Bryant. She described hardships that Harry endured which shaped his personality.
One story was about when he Harry, his mother Ada Belle and three younger sisters (Aunt Marjorie was the baby) lived in Michelson near Houghton Lake about 1911 – getting by as best they could even though their husband/father had left them.
“Your father was a wonderful little boy – after dad left, I remember him helping mother pick over a bushel of navy beans for the grocer to pay for groceries. He also used to take his wagon to the train station – at least a mile away, – and help mother bring home a 5 gallon tub of ice cream, which she sold in the little shop she set up to try to make a living. She also took in sewing.”
Another story reflected that Harry helped to bury two of his sisters. In December of 1911, Ada Belle married her second husband George Coon and in 1913 they all moved “across the Straits to Naubinway” where George’s father had a small house and a job for George at a mill.
What does genealogy have to do with a door?
Some internet research years past led me to a page published by Evelyn Sawyer in 2003 on the Kent County Genweb site. “22 James street” is mentioned in a transcribed article from a scrapbook among the collections in the Grand Rapids library’s local history department. There is no date on the article. From clues in the content, it’s likely to date from about 1905.*
The full transcription is online at: http://kent.migenweb.net/schools/stonesch.html
Since you can read the article yourself, I’ll summarize by providing just the key statement that piqued my interest:
“Hon. At S. White will be there and will bring with him the key to the great lock of the big front door of the old school house. The front door itself of the old school now forms the chief entrance to the residence of Mr. White at 22 James street, and other doors and timbers of the old building were used in the building of his residence”
So here is this locally significant architectural element from the early stone schoolhouse built in the village of Grand Rapids (pre 1850) – the actual door – almost literally in my back yard. continue reading…
