It all started with a Prince

My 2x great grandmother Margaret Matter came from Ottwiller, Bas-Rhin, Alsace-Lorraine, France/Germany. Margaret was born 5 Aug 1833 and when she was age 22 and her sister Sophia was age 19, they immigrated to America on the ship Hemisphere into New York via LeHavre, France arriving the 7th of June 1856.  They met up with their parents George and Margueritte (Burr) Matter and brothers Henry and Louis, who had immigrated in 1852 via New York, in Muscatine, Iowa.  Muscatine was settled by a large number of German speaking immigrants. Muscatine was once the pearl button capitol of the world supplying hand-made buttons from the mussels from the shoals of the Mississippi River. Margaret married John J Porter 30 Dec 1858 in Tipton, Iowa. She was age 24 and he was age 40. They were the parents of six children:  John Lewis, William Henry*, George Washington, Mary Ellen, Margaret Ida and Harry Edward.  John L married Mary Karner and they migrated to and died in Houston, Texa...

Back in 1974 when we married, we were lucky enough to be able to 'rent' my husband's mother's extra house that she had on Barnes Lake in Columbiaville, Michigan. Dan was working for North Central Airlines at the time in Flint and after having done a stint of nine months at Chicago O'Hare, he was pretty happy to be back on familiar turf. Living next door to his grandmother Margaret (Smith) (Daly) Chapman, I learned to accept any help from her regarding laundry, cooking, recipes, cleaning, burning leaves in the driveway, folding fitted sheets. You get the picture. She was a wealth of knowledge for this fledging new bride. I loved our small three-bedroom, one bath house.  Even the pink ceramic tile in the bathroom - from the floor to half-way up the walls, tile. In 1976, we spent a short time in Traverse City, Michigan on a summer bid. We rented a house trailer in Interlochen and Dan worked the 5pm - 1am shift. It was a simple home, but it was ours for the moment. Then...

When I first saw this prompt, my mind went to the Civil War, WWII, and the like. After all - we do research our families - and most of that research is in the past.  But this time, I decided that this story needs to be told and be there for our younger generations to be able to read about a more recent historical event. September 11th. If you use the year 1999, it was the year our daughter was married. So, a wonderful, fabulous memory.  But if you use the year 2001, it becomes a totally different memory.   Where were you...??? I was at work. In a small office working at the local fairgrounds. When I was called by my younger daughter that a plane had hit the World Trade Center and I shared it with my boss, he sent me out to his camping trailer (that was stored there) and had me get his small television. Plugging it in on the counter, just in time to see the second plane hit the tower. We watched in awe, horror and grief as it all played out. But the person in our fami...

There are numerous brick walls in my family research, but the hardest one to find information for is Aaron Porter. Aaron (Arron) was my 3x great grandfather. Many would say, why do you want to know more? You are already into the late 1700's. But he was an explorer, a man who had a bit of wanderlust. I connect with that. Always wanting to see what is on the other side. Is it better? Or worse? Not contented until the answer is found. A typed missive from his daughter Minerva's husbands' side (Barrick) states the following information: Our efforts to trace the Porter line have been unsuccessful, through various sources, principally through Uncle Amos, we learned that Arron Porter was a native of Vermont, and his wife was a native of New York, Lovina Chapman, born near Lake George, they settled in Indiana, do not know the location where their children were born and where Mr. Porter died. We have names of five of their children – James (a bachelor) John Jay (I remember him and...

Eseck Harris and Prudence Pratt would have eight children and three of them would migrate to Michigan.... Pardon Yaw and Sylvia Bliss would have 18 children (!) and nine of them would migrate to Michigan....sisters Lydia Yaw and Lois Yaw were part of the nine. Eseck Harris and Prudence Pratt married 3 February 1820 in Stamford, Bennington, Vermont. From their eight children: Oliver, Seymour, Anderson, Jane, Daniel, Ebenezer, David and Eseck, Jr, it was  Jane, Daniel and Ebenezer who would make the long trek to Galien, Berrien County, Michigan while the other children all stayed and lived their lives in Vermont and Massachusetts.  Jane Harris married Simeon Stoddard 5 Sept 1846 in Pownal, Bennington, Vermont and they traveled to Michigan to settle.  They had one daughter Mary Stoddard. Simeon died in 1870 and in 1873 Jane remarried to Edmond Fairfield. Jane died in 1921 in Wayland, Allegan County, Michigan. Daniel Harris was born 16 July 1833 in Stamford, Vermont and he ma...