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. The Milligan Painting — 22 comments
  5. Metal Cemetery Monuments — 21 comments

Author's posts

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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Tombstone Tuesday–Amalia Justine Schumm

This is the tombstone of Amalia Justine Schumm located in row 7 of Zion Lutheran Cemetery, Schumm, Van Wert County, Ohio. The marker is inscribed: Amalia Justine, Ehefrau [wife of] Georg M Schumm, gest [died] 13 Oct 1874, aged 26 years, 1 month, 19 days. According to the Schumm church records Amalia Justine Schumm, born …

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