Different people in my family—my mom’s side, my dad’s side, and my wife’s sides—have for many years held all kinds of wonderful records of family histories. Since they are all relevant to my daughter, I wished to gather up all the information into a single, easy-to-use format, primarily for her, but also for anyone else who has an interest. As to why put in on the web, my answer is that now everyone on all sides of the family can make use of this same information as they wish; no one will need apply to sources in several time zones to get all the information.
Besides, I wanted to be able to get everything together in one definite place, so that I wouldn’t have to ask the same embarrassing questions (“Um, Grandma, what’s your middle name?”). Once I have it here, it won’t get lost.
I hope eventually to have photographs and anecdotes for the individual family members. Until then, the essentials will have to do. (Update, May 19, 2004: thanks to Uncle Marvin Frederick Estes and his trusty scanning machine, I am starting to get some photos in place. I may set up another page as a photo gallery, complete with enlargeable thumbnail images.)
The generation code is simply the number of generations back from the focal point, which is Lydia. (You may have noticed that on each record there is a close relative in bold print; keep clicking on the latter and it will bring you back to Lydia.) Her first cousins are 0’s, her parents, aunts and uncles are 1’s, grandparents are 2’s, and so on—when her cousin Alisha had a child (Dreyden), he became the first of the -1’s. Looking at it another way, if you subtract 2 from the GC, you have the number of ‘greats’ preceding ‘grandparent’—or at least someone of that generation. I considered starting from the earliest point and counting them down instead of up, but wondered what to do if we had a cross-generational link; it’s entirely conceivable that Lydia might be both the 20th and 21st generation of some long-ago ancestor. Besides, I had no idea when I started this just where the “first” generation would be.
Second, the GC helps differentiate people with identical names (“Um, which Norton Baker is this?”).
Third, you can use the GC to approximate what percentage of Lydia’s background is made up of a particular person. The formula for percentage of background is 1/2GC. Ideally there will be 32 direct ancestors with a GC of 5 (2 to the 5th power is 32), so one such person—say, Harvey F. Beery—would be 1/32nd of Lydia’s background. This could come in handy with questions of ethnicity. (Note that the numbers get enormous pretty quickly: a GC of 10 makes a direct ascendant just one out of 1,024 people; a GC of 15 means one is just one out of 32,768, and so it goes.)
And moreover, there are some people here who have no vital dates, and the GC can give a guess as to when such a person lived. Take Lyman Baker, for instance. If you take his code number (6), multiply it by 25-35 (150-210), and subtract that from 2000 (1790-1850), you’ll have an approximation of when he was born. It’s not always accurate, but it’s better than nothing.
There are several examples of generation-jumping in the family, due to age disparity between spouses or between parents and children. My niece Alisha is older than several of my first cousins; my sister-in-law Linda is older than my uncle Joel; my grandma Crabtree had two uncles younger than herself, etc. Note, too, that by this method, such disparate people as Bob Burrell (1924-2007) and Dana Calvert (1967-) end up with the same GC, but what can you do?
| AEC | Anna Estes compilation | In 2004 an event happened that got this page launched, as my cousin Anna sent me a compilation of all the descendants of our grandparents John and Alice Jane Brattin. She had every name, every date, and every place in order. Would be that the rest of this were so thorough! |
| BCDI | Branch County Death Index | |
| BCMI | Branch County Marriage Index | Covers the period 1842-1886 (roughly) |
| BFO | Bowlby Family Organization | Lots of great stuff here, including descriptions of wills, land deeds, etc., all the way back to Richard Bowlby (1506?-1553?). |
| BHL | Bentley Historical Library | This library, on the campus of the University of Michigan, has lots of good stuff on students of old. |
| CFB | Crabtree Family Bible | That classic repository of information, the family background page of a large King James Bible; in this case, the one at my grandparents’ home. |
| CJMR | Cheryl Jewett Mauer research | Mauer is descended from Herbert Edgar Knight, and has provided some good information on that branch of the family. |
| CMM | Charlotte Marion memoirs | Around 1971 Charlotte C. Marion (at that time Charlotte C. Barton) compiled a family history, essentially of all her in-laws’ descendants. This, coupled with direct questioning of my mother and maternal grandparents, are the sources of most things that I know about my mother’s side of the family. |
| FBG | Feller Burial Ground | The Feller family in upstate New York had their own burial ground, and the headstones have been transcribed. |
| FFR | Fulkerson Family research | Lots of great stuff here, too. |
| FS | FamilySearch.org | One of the largest and easiest-to-use genealogy search sites. |
| IP | in person | Do I really need to have a source to prove when and where my daughter was born? I was there, after all. |
| JBD | John Brattin datebook | John Bowlby Brattin was given a datebook in 1950 by his wife Alice Jane Brattin, and he used it to mark down birth dates and other important events. |
| KER | Katherine Estes research | Aunt Katie is the source of the vast majority of information on my father’s side of the family. |
| LCB | Lenawee County Biography | Great details on the family of Lewis Cass Baker, titled “From the Portrait and Biographical Album of Lenawee Co., Michigan by Chapman Bros.; Chicago Ill., 1888.” |
| LCMDN | Lenawee County Michigan Death Notices | “Extracted from the Adrian Times and Expositor; Copied from existing filmed papers covering years 1870-1876” |
| MBI | Margaret Brattin information | These come directly from Margaret Peisner Brattin. |
| Obit | Obituary | In some cases I have managed to glean information from a copy of an obituary; when this is the case, the newspaper and date are given. |
| OGF | OneGreatFamily.com | This is one of those enormous genealogical search sites that teases you with a little information, and promises the moon if you pay up. I have not done the latter, and probably won’t, but I have found some good nuggets among its teasers. |
| SBR | Susan Brattin research | My wife has been an enthusiastic family researcher for many years, and has kept very careful notes on the members of her side of the family. |
| SSDI | Social Security Death Index | I have used this to find and/or confirm birth dates, death dates, states lived in when SSN was issued, state and city last resided in, and occasionally a middle name or initial. My only regrets are that it has no information on anyone who died before 1950, and often misses the exact date of death. Still, for quick and easy searching, it’s the best. |
| VFR | Van Schaick Family research | Some good stuff here related to the Ruesinks. Unfortunately, it appears to have been taken down, so I could only get the cached version. |
| WKW | William Knight’s webpage | William Custer Knight, a distant cousin, has researched the Knight family all the way back to Richard Knight (1603-1683), Lydia’s great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather. WCK and I have corresponded several times since. |
When the genealogy bug bites, it alters your whole conception of the universe. Not only do you look at a Bible on a shelf and wonder what family history is written in it, not only can you no longer drive by a cemetery without giving sidereal glances, but you even find yourself looking at perfect strangers out in public and you wonder not if you’re related, but exactly how.
It’s very humbling to look at a family tree and consider what a small part of it you are. On the other hand, it’s uplifting to think that just 300 years ago that God was working things out in just a certain way between 512 men and 512 women in wildly disparate places and walks of life—He caused these people to meet, fall in love, get married, and have the children of the next generation closer to you.
Lydia’s family tree has a nice assortment of characters. With the exception of a slight strain of Pottawattamie Indian, our background is primarily English, Irish, and German. We’ve had one centenarian, and several who didn’t reach their first birthday. We’ve had farmers, factory workers, office workers, lawyers, and doctors. We’ve had soldiers and pacifists, liberals and conservatives, men of God and men of crime. Many have died at a ripe old age in bed, several in weird accidents, and at least two of AIDS. In terms of religious belief, the overwhelming majority are of some form of Protestantism (primarily Baptist and Lutheran on one side, and Episcopalian on the other), and again with every level of personal commitment and theological soundness represented. It takes all sorts to make a family tree.
Hey, there are some big names among those nuts. Cousin Bill Ruesink assembled the following table in August 2002, with our connections to the famous and infamous. I hope eventually to have all the links from us to them displayed.
| Cousins of Grace Knight Ruesink | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Born | Known For | How Related to Grace |
| William Stoughton | 1631 | Chief Justice at the Salem witchcraft trials | 1C6R thru William Smead to Rev. Thomas Stoughton (b. ca 1557) |
| Ethan Allen | 1738 | Revolutionary War patriot. Leader of “Green Mountain Boys.” | 3C4R thru Esther Wright to Deacon Samuel Wright (b. ca 1606) |
| Benedict Arnold | 1741 | Traitor in Revolutionary War | 5C2R thru Anna Smead and Samuel Smead to Rev. Thomas Stoughton (b. ca 1557) |
| John Chapman | 1774 | “Johnny Appleseed” | 5C3R thru Anna Hawks and Rhoda Childs to Thomas French (b. 1584) |
| Oliver Hazard Perry | 1785 | Defeated British navy on Lake Erie in War of 1812 | 7C1R thru her mother Frances McKenzie and John Hawkins to Thomas (Nicholas) Arnold (b. 1550) |
| Commodore Matthew Perry | 1795 | Opened Japan to American trade in 1840s | same as above, since Matthew & Oliver Perry were brothers |
| Addison Comstock | 1802 | Founder of Adrian, Michigan. His wife Sarah chose its name. | 4C3R thru Samuel Hawkins and John Hawkins to Thomas Arnold (b. 1599) |
| Thomas Alva Edison | 1847 | Inventor | 6C2R thru Anna Smead and Moses Hawks to Joseph Baldwin (b. 1612) |
| William Howard Taft | 1857 | 27th U.S. President | 6C2R thru Anna Smead and Rebecca Severence to William Cheney (b. 1603) |
| Will Keith Kellogg | 1860 | Founder of Kellogg Company, the breakfast cereal company | 5C1R thru her father Wm Knight and Rebecca Severence to Joseph Kellogg (b. ca 1626) |
| Wilbur & Orville Wright | 1867; 1871 | Made & flew the first airplane | 5C1R thru her father Wm Knight and Esther Wright to James Wright (b. ca 1639) |
| Franklin Delano Roosevelt | 1882 | 32nd U.S. President | 6th cousin thru Rebecca Severence to Samuel Hinsdale (b. 1642) |
| Richard Cheney | 1941 | Current U.S. Vice President | Lloyd is his 9th cousin thru Rebecca Severence to William Cheney (b. 1603) |
| Lady Diana Spencer | 1961 | Princess of Wales | Lloyd is 8th cousin of her grandfather thru Rhoda Childs to Elder John Strong (b. ca 1609) |
| 6C2R means 6th cousin twice removed | |||
Kate Inez Knight’s grandmother, Almeda Baker, was originally a Howland. If you trace the Howlands back another seven generations, you get Henry Howland, Sr. of Fenstanton, England. Henry had six children, among them Henry Jr., John, and Arthur. John became the most famous, having been one of the passengers on the Mayflower in 1620 (and was the only passenger to fall off the boat). John sired the families that produced George W. Bush (Lydia’s 13C1R), George H.W. Bush, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Edith (Mrs. Theodore) Roosevelt, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and possibly also Joseph Smith and Humphrey Bogart.
Henry Jr. sired not only us, but also Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.
Arthur, in turn, is a direct ancestor of Winston Churchill.
Every family tree has its shortcomings. There will be the constant need to overcome errors, and the desire to deal with incompleteness. And I realize it seems morbid to list death information for people who are very much alive, as though I were a vulture just waiting for someone’s demise. There are subtler problems, though, which I will summarize with a pair of all-too-often-asked questions.
Every family has regretted marriages (or regretted lack of marriages), embarrassing demises, and other blots. Lydia’s family is far from perfect. For the sake of completeness we try to include everyone who was ever part of the family, whether they were born into, married into, adopted into, or progenitated someone else into it.
Genealogy can be a rather cold-blooded exercise at times. We can read about someone dying young, or living a long life without ever finding a spouse, and it probably won’t move us if it’s just names and dates. The same goes for parenting and other questions of personal character; we must do our best to determine who the parents were, and not judge what kind of parents they were. Hence, the biological father is the one who appears in each case (unless otherwise noted), even if he was subsequently out of the picture. Perhaps it’s not always fair, but it’s consistent.
If anyone out there stumbles upon this site and recognizes one of the above fruits & nuts as belonging to their tree as well, please drop a line, and perhaps we can cultivate a whole family forest. Also, if you’re privy to the family info and you recognize cracks that you can patch or holes that you can fill, please be generous with what you know.
Thanks very much!
Lydia’s Daddy