Karen Bennett

Greetings from the Chattanooga, Ohio, area. Yes, Ohio has its very own Chattanooga, aka Chatt, a small village in west-central Ohio, near the Indiana border. I have been doing family history research for over 20 years and am a Board-Certified genealogist, certified by the Board for Certification of Genealogists®. My main genealogical interests are family research, cemetery research, and historical and genealogical research of the Chatt area, with a focus on two area Lutheran Churches, both named Zion Lutheran, one in Chatt and the other in Schumm, Ohio. Family names I am researching include Miller, Schumm, Brewster, Rueck, Reid, Headington, Huey, Bryan, Whiteman, Schinnerer, Scaer, Breuninger, Bennett, and a few others. I belong to several lineage societies, including the Daughters of the American Revolution, U.S. Daughters of 1812, First Families of Ohio, and First Families of Mercer and Van Wert Counties. I am also a retired dental hygienist and our church organist. I hope you enjoy Karen's Chatt.

Most commented posts

  1. Golden Wedding Anniversary — 37 comments
  2. Haunted Mercer County? — 34 comments
  3. The Old Willshire Hotel — 30 comments
  4. Metal Cemetery Monuments — 25 comments
  5. The Milligan Painting — 24 comments

Author's posts

Becker or Baker?

This year marks the 160th anniversary of Zion Lutheran Church in Chatt. The other day I came across this nice photo of the Henry and Mary (Manche) Baker family. Their families were some of the earliest members of Zion Chatt and Zion’s old records contain quite a bit of information about both the Becker and …

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Tombstone Tuesday–Mary (Tester) Heffner

This is the tombstone of Mary (Tester) Heffner, located in row 6 of Zion Lutheran Cemetery, Chattanooga, Mercer County, Ohio. The marker is inscribed: Mary Wife of John Haeffner Born Aug. 20 1860 Died Mar. 21 1895 Aged 34 Y, 7 M, 1 D Maria “Mary” Catharina Tester was born 20 August 1860 in Ohio, …

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My Mitochondrial DNA

A while back I wrote about the Y-DNA test one of my male Brewster cousins took to determine if we were descended from the Mayflower Brewsters. Unfortunately that test indicated that we do not descend from Elder William Brewster. The test results were rather interesting, though, so last year I decided to have my DNA …

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Tombstone Tuesday–Clarence S. Brandt

This is the tombstone of Clarence Samuel Brandt, located in row 1 of Zion Lutheran Cemetery, Mercer County, Ohio. The marker is inscribed: BRANDT Clarence. S. 1883-1920 Text: Ps. 16.6 Clarence Samuel Brandt was born 11 Jun 1883 in Mercer County, Ohio, the son of Lewis and Margaretha (Heffner) Brandt. His father was born in …

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A Double Wedding

I have fairly large photo scanning project in the works but unfortunately I am not making a whole lot of progress on it. It is a box of old photos that belonged to Viola and Edna Germann, “The Germann Collection.” Their parents were Stephen E. and Rosina (Schumm) Germann. Rosina’s parents were J. Frederick and …

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