Family History Notes and Photos by Bob Mesenbrink

  In  David Brady's Possible Family  I speculated on siblings and cousins of my 3d great grandfather, David Brady. To summarize I identified two family groups, one, including David Brady, who settled in Marion County, Ohio in the 1820s, and another group who settled in Darke county, Ohio. These families both originated from Sussex county in New Jersey. David moved to Cass county, Michigan a few years after getting the Marion county land. The Marion county group consists of a likely father, William Brady, born ca. 1750 with four known children, all born in Sussex county, New Jersey. The Darke county group, consists of five possible children, with three known to have been born in Sussex county, New Jersey. The oldest of the Darke county group, James, named a son, Robison. The Robison name, I believe, provides a significant link to their ancestry. It seems likely that these two groups were related since b oth Brady groups originated in Sussex county New Jersey at about the same time.

William Turner was an interesting man. He has been featured in another blog post here,  William Turner - Boiler Maker . But my aunt Inie reminded me of a story that Freddy McGee told her. While Freddy was with his grandfather, James Turner, on the porch, a young man stopped by claiming to be James' brother. He said that their dad, William, told him of about James who was a successful farmer in Iowa. The visitor, also named Turner, was from Washington state. This would have been in the 1930s or so. None of James' siblings that I knew of would have been considered young at this time, and I knew that none of them lived in Washington. But Inie asked if William might have married again. So I checked. What I found out was surprising, and a bit shocking, especially for 1882. That was the year that 53 year-old William married 28 year-old Martha Martin. She was a widow, maiden name Bush, having lost her husband a few years earlier. She had two daughters living with her mother-in-law, an

Louis was a brother to my immigrant ancestor. Apparently he was the subject to a bit of controversy, at least among my family. My mother told me the story about how she and my dad and other relatives spent several hours trying to find the location of Louis' grave. And then, to my mom's great surprise, they said "There's that SOB!". They explained to her that he had been married several times and killed his wives. No doubt that was their belief, but I wondered what reason they had for thinking that. After all, he doesn't seem to have been a bad person. In fact, he seemed to have been well liked and prosperous. He was an immigrant and a veteran. Louis and Sophia Mesenbrink ca 1890 Louis was married three times. His first wife was Sophia Harms. They married in Jackson county Iowa in 1867. Louis and his family were the first settlers in Hanover township, Crawford county, Iowa, Louis naming the township for his old homeland in Germany. But Sophia died in

Being from Iowa and living in Colorado, I don't think of my ancestors as being mariners. Most of them were farmers or at least had roots in farming. Those who immigrated to America, came by ship. And my father, Russell Mesenbrink, served aboard the battleship West Virginia in World War 2. But aside from that, I was unaware of any other significant amounts of time ancestors spent on the ocean. Some of my family lines go back to colonial times. Most notable was Captain James Davis, who, had fortunes been reversed, would be as famous as his contemporary, Captain John Smith. Smith wrote of a family of Welsh sailors, most likely Davis, his brother Robert and others. Davis was chosen as captain for an attempt to colonize in the new world by the Virginia Company of Plymouth. His group of colonists landed in what is now Maine just a few months after Smith's competing Virginia Company of London founded Jamestown. Davis' group formed the Popham Colony at Sagahodoc in 1607. But du

On my mother's side, is an ancestor named John Griest. He lived in Pennsylvania from 1694 to 1751. John's daughter, Sarah, married William Squibb. While most of us will leave no evidence of our existence, John Griest did leave a few things to remember him by. Probably most significant is the office building at the Susquehanna Memorial Gardens near York, Pennsylvania. This building was originally larger, and at another location in York. This beautiful picture was taken by Diane Bowders and published on Yorkblog.com. John Griest built this building around 1740 at its original location on what is now the Lincoln Highway in York. In 1962 it was taken down to make way for a shopping mall and rebuilt at the cemetery. At that time the building looked something like this: The sturdy building was known as Ye Olde Valley Inn, Beard's Inn, etc. and was originally built to protect John's family from Indians, with whom he didn't always have the best relationship. Gries

When I got my DNA results back, the biggest surprise I had was in all the people from the southern states who I shared DNA with. I'm pretty sure that a lot of it is from Salucia Sophronia Squibb , but that certainly doesn't explain it all. The only other unknown line, is that of Martha Brennan Davis , mother of Lillian Davis Stephenson, who was mother of my grandfather, Fred Stephenson. I have thought she was Irish, probably an Irish immigrant, and probably related to other Brennans of Galesburg, Illinois, but there is evidence she was from Indiana. Besides the unexplained southern DNA matches, I have little Irish DNA on this line, not enough for Martha Brennan to be full blooded Irish. But more importantly, the Stephensons had dark complexions. I honestly don't know beyond that where the dark hair and eyes came from. Here is a picture of Lillian Davis Stephenson, my great grandmother. Notice the dark hair, deep set, dark eyes. She doesn't look Irish. Her featur