– By Mary Alt After the Civil War, Ottawa County officials found they had veterans who needed a home. In May, a documentary film on The Ottawa County Poor Farm will have its premiere in Holland and Grand Haven. When the Ottawa County Poor Farm received its first resident in 1866, no one could have […]
Browsing Posts tagged Ottawa county
There are times that I just happen across things in my house that have been there for years… originating from a grandparent, distant cousin, or was acquired, stored and forgotten. Sound familiar? This is one of those stories. My grandfather Kenneth Bennett passed away twenty years ago. Since I was the “family historian” items often […]
What do you do when you can’t find an obituary for someone important in your family line? One of my 2nd-great grandmothers lived in small communities all across northern Michigan in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The family worked in the woods, moving from town to town following the lumber companies. I haven’t […]
OTTAWA COUNTY POOR FARM CEMETERY DEDICATION –JULY 10th Thanks to Dan V. from Grand Rapids for passing on this item. He writes: Today, while biking out to Spring Lake on Leonard Road I stopped at the newer Ottawa County Eastmanville Park at the site of the old Poor Farm and talked with the Parks Supervisor, […]
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. […]
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 […]
