My Surnames

Since this is a brand new blog, I feel I must give a not so quick overview of the names I am searching along my journey.

On my father's side, I have researched Hall, Fuhrman(n), Shellenberger and Neuschwanger. I have some fairly extensive information on Shellenberger and Fuhrman(n) and was fortunate enough to have met a new cousin who passed on her Neuschwanger Family Book to me. Carole, I can't say thank you enough for all the help on both the Neuschwanger and Shellenberger families.

My Hall family is where four of my brick walls reside. Jonathan J Hall (1816-1884) and his wife Rachel VanZant (1815-1897). I have traced these two through census records from New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and finally to Western Iowa.

My next brick wall here is Abner Trimble (1795-1819) and Polly Hawthrone (1800-1819). That is pretty much all the information I have on these two except for one really weird fact that keeps repeating in all the trees I search. While they both appear to have been born in England there seems to be a general consensus that they died in John, Saint Laurent du Maroni, French Guiana. I found this very curious so I did some research on John, Saint Laurent du Maroni, French Guiana and found that this is the location of the infamous Devil's Island prison as well as a leprosy colony. Not sure what this means but there it is. Their son, John A Trimble, was born in Franklin County, Ohio and his parents died when he was an infant (according to his obituary and a History of Monona County Iowa). Since John A was born in Franklin County, Ohio, it would make sense that his parents died there.

On my mother's side, I have researched Willhite, Rauschke, Kuester, and Kaltrider. My brick walls here are Wilhelmine (Minnie) (Berg) Rauschke (10 Feb 1854-28 Dec 1895) and Wilhelmine Karolina Frederika Keske (Kuske) Kuester (14 Jun 1854-31 May 1936). They were both born in Prussia and died in Brown County, Minnesota.

There is some pretty extensive information on Willhite in my tree here thanks to Grand Aunt Berniece (Willhite) Apitz, and Grand Aunt she was. I was lucky enough to be able to get a copy of her handwritten family tree which has proved to be invaluable in my research of my Grandpa Willhite's family.

This is a good start to this blog and I will stop here for now.

Happy Hunting to Everyone!

Grandma Hannah (Shellenberger) Hall who for some unknown reason inspires me to keep searching.