March 2012 archive

Tombstone Tuesday–Sophia & George Byer

This is the tombstone of Sophia Byer and her son George, located in row 6 of Zion Lutheran Cemetery, Chattanooga, Mercer County, Ohio. The marker is nearly unreadable now but was transcribed by the Mercer County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society in 1990. Their transcription: Byer, Sophia, wife of Jasper, died 10 March 1872, …

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The First Brewster Reunion, 1913

It is always a pleasant surprise when some family-related information unexpectedly pops up right before your eyes. Last Friday I was doing some newspaper research at the Brumback Library in Van Wert. I was nearly finished and was looking through a book of abstracted articles from the Willshire Herald, waiting for a rain storm to end. …

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Tombstone Tuesday–Sixtus and Magdalene Gugel

This is the tombstone of Sixtus and Magdalene Gugel, located in row 6 of Zion Lutheran Cemetery, Chattanooga, Mercer County, Ohio. The left side of the marker bears the inscription for Sixtus/Father and the right side for Magdalene/Mother. The bases are inscribed: GUGEL, Sixtus Gugel, Born 16 March 1817, Died 2 Jan 1884, age 66 …

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Confirmation Records

One thing you can say about the German Lutherans—they kept very good church records. Although the handwriting can be difficult to read, they usually recorded a good deal of information and left a lot of valuable genealogical data for us today. I refer to the church records of both Zion Lutheran in Chattanooga and Schumm …

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