I recently got temporary access to the archives of a number of Louisville Kentucky newspapers going back as far as the 1860s and earlier, and the first thing I did was to search for my Bannon and Kollros ancestors. One of the things that I learned was that my great-grandfather was working as a professional musician earlier than I had thought. In searching for, “Kollros” … Continue reading Louisville Silver Band
Last September, I published a blog post regarding an event in Louisville, Kentucky, in the mid-1850s – an event known as “Bloody Monday.” My interest in this event is due to my having ancestors on two sides of my mother’s family living in that city on August 6, 1855. One family was German, and the other Irish. Both had recently immigrated in the past decade; … Continue reading Bloody Monday Rhetoric Revisited
In the month of July, I celebrate three national holidays: American Independence Day which falls, of course, on July 4; Bastille Day, July 14, which commemorates the storming of a hated symbol of feudal oppression; and July 21, a national holiday in Belgium which commemorates an important event that occurred during the Belgian Revolution of the early 1830s. After the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, … Continue reading It’s Complicated
On my father’s side of the family, there is an ancestor named Marie Therese Pequignot . She was my fourth great-grandmother and she lived for 90 years between 1782 and 1872 (link to her death certificate). She was born in Chamesol, France, and died in Montecheroux, a tiny village in Eastern France on the Swiss border. Marie married Luc François Jeanin-Gaume in 1802 after the … Continue reading Le Cerneux-Pequignot
Here is some more information that I found regarding my ancestor, the insurrectionist. On Google Books, I found about five books published in the late 19th century/early 20th century whose subject matter was the history of Belgium (Flanders). Each book described in some part, the events of late 15th century Flanders where the Flemish towns were in revolt for a second time. Yet, I only … Continue reading My Ancestor, the Insurrectionist – pt 2
Just in time for the Fourth of July, I have discovered a new ancestor who was a soldier during the American Revolution. He is a fifth great-grandfather on my father’s side, and his name is Richard Denny III (28 July 1745 – 28 July 1825). According to military records, he served in the Dutchess County (New York) Militia Regiment between 1777 to 1779 and may … Continue reading Just in time for the Fourth of July
I recently discovered that one of my ancestors was a late medieval insurrectionist who at one point took over the town of Ghent in the Duchy of Burgundy and while in control, minted his own coins. About a year ago, I wrote an article in which one of the items described how I had found a branch on my father’s side that extended back a … Continue reading My Ancestor, the Insurrectionist – pt 1
News stories about politicians being denied communion, high school coaches praying on the football field, and taxpayers being forced to support religious education remind me of why my ancestors came to this great country of ours. To be blunt, it was to get away from s*** like that. My father loved to tell the story of how his DeBacker ancestors came over from Belgium after … Continue reading The Belgian School War
Sunday, July 3rd, will mark the 158th anniversary of the fall of Marietta, Georgia, to Union Forces under the command of General William Tecumseh Sherman. The importance of Marietta and nearby Kennesaw Mountain was that they were the key to control of the Chattahoochee River and to the vital railway leading into Atlanta from the Shenandoah Valley. Thus allowing the union forces to lay siege … Continue reading What Miss Mattie Said to the General
A simple reason so many of my posts relate to my mother’s side of the family is that many of her ancestors came over during colonial times. All arrived before the Civil War. On my father’s side of the family, the DeBackers did not come over from Belgium until 1883. So it pleases me to say that, for once, I have found something regarding my … Continue reading The Accidental Doctor
