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

Estray Book of Liberty Township, Mercer County, Ohio

Back in the 1800s wandering livestock was a problem that was caused primarily from the lack of fencing. This was such a problem that rules and regulations were made to deal with the stray livestock. In Ohio the first act regulating estrays was created 7 February 1804. [1] What is an estray? The definition, according …

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Tombstone Tuesday–Bertha M. Allmandinger

This is the tombstone of Bertha M. Allmandinger, located in row 11 of Zion Lutheran Cemetery, Schumm, Van Wert County, Ohio. The marker is inscribed: Bertha M. Allmandinger 1903-1930 It is interesting that the vital details of Bertha’s life were documented in the church records of both Zion Lutheran Chattanooga and Zion Lutheran Schumm. According to the …

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Conferences and Research

The 2013 FGS Conference is less than three months away now. This is one of two national genealogy conferences that I try to attend if relatively close. This year’s FGS conference is in Fort Wayne, close enough for me to drive every day. The May/June blog post prompt for conference ambassadors is “How will you …

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Tombstone Tuesday–Franklin H. & Sarah S. Beach

This is the tombstone of Franklin H. & Sarah S. Beach, located in Woodlawn Cemetery, Ohio City, Ohio. The marker is inscribed: BEACH Franklin H. 1857-1922 Sarah S. 1869-1926 I enjoy looking for and photographing unusual insignia on tombstones. The two images on the Beach tombstone are ones that  I show in my “Rocks of Ages,” …

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Johann Christian Pflueger

All in all, I was fairly successful in researching the Pflueger branch of my family, thanks in part to the records of Zion Lutheran Schumm. Those records told me the most important thing I needed to know in order to research an ancestor back in Germany—his town of origin. Those church records told me that …

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