On October 3, 1862, my great-great-grandfather, Francis Gaume, enlisted under the name Frank Gaume, at the age of 17, as a Private at Mansfield, Ohio, in Company “I” of the 19th Regiment of the Ohio Volunteer Infantry (OVI). During this time, the state of Ohio was in a panic over the possibility that Confederate forces would soon invade. The Governor of Ohio had offered a … Continue reading The Nineteenth Ohio Speaks

Here is an excerpt from Gathering Leaves, A Brief History of Montécheroux, France: My French-speaking ancestors, who lived in eastern France and western Switzerland, were neither citizens of France nor of Switzerland until after the French Revolution. They came from the region that today is within the French department of Doubs and the modern Swiss Canton of Jura. The area is approximately midway between the … Continue reading A Brief History of Montécheroux

Recherches historiques sur la ville de Renaix, published in 1856, is a book I found at Google Books (see here). The book, written in French, provides the history of the city of Renaix (Ronse), where my father’s Belgian ancestors lived for several centuries before coming to America. Although I studied French for five years and occasionally take lessons at Rosetta Stone through access provided by … Continue reading History of the City of Renaix (Ronse)

Yesterday, I wrote about rediscovering a website called “molenechos.org” and how I located two watermills owned by one or more of my ancestors. The search engine on the website is a little tricky, but I think I figured out how to successfully search for surnames. I searched for the surname “De Backer.” (Note the space; this is how it is spelled in Belgium.) The search … Continue reading More Mills

The obituary for my great-great-grandfather Vital Eugene Louis DeBacker (1835-1918) states that he was employed as a miller by his father prior to leaving for America in 1883. Based on records I was provided years ago by fellow researchers in Belgium, the DeBacker and collateral families owned and operated wind and water mills in the region of East Flanders going back centuries. In fact, it … Continue reading The Watermills of My Mind

In a previous post, I mentioned that I had found several newspaper items regarding my great-grandfather, Dr. August DeBacker from the 1880s until he died in 1921. Most of what I found was of a mundane nature – things such as birth announcements and death notices. Tragically there were obituaries for two of August’s sons. Both died in 1906. In January of that year, their … Continue reading Animal Accidents

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 More My Ancestor, The Insurrectionist

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